March 10, 2026 Committee Of The Whole Meeting

001I'd like to call the meeting to order. This is the committee of the whole meeting for the Chambersburg Area School District. The board did not meet in executive session tonight and Mr. Norcross is unable to attend the meeting and so I will be um chairing the meeting tonight. Please join me for the pledge of allegiance and a moment of silence. >> I pledge allegiance 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. Okay. Um, moving to number three, board announcements and recognition. Uh, superintendent report. Mr. Bigger, >> I have no report at this time. I'm going to save my minutes for the three-year budget presentation with Mrs. Stafford. I'll have plenty to jump in and stay

002there. As far as the president's report's concerned, I'd like to welcome each of you to the meeting whether you're in person or virtually. And as vice president, I'm going to take the same opportunity as all the other board members to express my thoughts as the agenda items occur. Uh moving to number four, the presentation of the financial audit with Smith, Elliot, and Karns. Good evening. >> I can't tell if it's on. >> All right, now we should be good. Thank you. Good evening. My name is Kevin Staler, member of the firm with SCK or Smith Ellie Karns & Company. Just to clarify, like we always do, I am not related to Mrs. Staler. Um, but just needed to point that out. So, I'm going to go through the results of our June 30, 2025 audit

003presentation here with you this evening. So, I'm going to take the other 120 plus pages and hopefully condense it down into a 5 to 7 minute presentation for you here this evening. And that's a summary of the audited financial statements, our management letter, and our required communications with those charged with governance. The second bullet point alludes to the unmodified audit opinion. That is the best opinion that we can issue on the financial statements. And essentially what that means is that we feel the financial statements are materially correct and can be relied upon. It is not an opinion or results on internal controls, nor is an opinion or results of a fraud investigation. Sometimes people hear the word audit, they think that we look at every transaction, although it may feel like it at times. Uh

004we do not look at every transaction. We perform sampling to ultimately issue our opinion. As far as the single audit is concerned, uh that's where we look at certain federal programs. This year we did have to look at three federal programs as part of that single audit. Title One, Title 4, and IDA. We did have a couple of items pop up uh that were considering material weaknesses and internal control and non-compliance. I know that sounds really bad overall. Again, we had to report on them, but not too big of an issue. In regards to IDA, uh which that's the special education cluster, you utilize the services of the LIU to spend those funds. Technically, under the procurement requirements, there's what's called sole source documentation over that. That form just got missed uh being filled out.

005So, the IDA still performed the services. We didn't have any question cost. There was just a form to document that there's a sole source for those services. Similarly, under title one, uh anytime you have a removal of students in the elementary schools, uh you have to fill out what's called a withdrawal form. And there was just a couple of forms that were missing for students uh in the title one program. So, because of that, again, we had to report on it. No question costs, no other issues. Uh management on both of these items has already taken procedures and put them in place for next year. So, hopefully these are not repeated. So overall, we did have to report on those. Um, but overall, not overly significant. Financially for the year, uh, the general fund did

006have a decrease in fund balance of about $2.6 million, but that is after there were transfers made of about $30 million to other funds. So those transfers included to the newly established debt service fund, capital reserve fund, as well as the medical insurance fund. So you're able to fund those transfers and left with an overall slight decrease in the fund balance. Total revenues for the year in the general fund just under $200 million. Did want to highlight one fluctuation there. The total federal expenditures were about $7 million. That's about half of what it was in previous years due to the ESRE funding. Again, as you spend those down, the ESRE funding again hasn't continued. And because of that, less federal funding during the current year. As far as the expenditures are concerned, about $171 million

007for the year. Not surprising, but the largest expenditures are the salaries and benefits uh which make up almost twothirds of the expenditures. And then here again, it just highlights the total transfers and again how they increased in comparison to the previous year with the largest being to the debt service fund. Food service fund had a slight decrease in that position but still self- sustaining, meaning there were no transfers to the food service fund this year, which I think is a very positive note. and the medical insurance fund also had an increase in that position, but again did require a transfer over from the general fund of about $6 million. The other two letters related to the audit are required communications letter. Had there been any significant issues in completing the audit or disagreements with management

008on accounting principles, we'd have to report on that letter. Happy to report there were no such issues or disagreements. So that's why we just considered our standard communications letter. And then finally, we have our management letter. Uh the purpose of that we have a lot of new standards that'll be coming into effect over future years. Those details are included in that letter and will assist with the implementation of those. Overall not a significant impact. Um but those details are included there in the management letter. And then we have some graphical analysis which is the rest of the presentation here this evening. Those are included in the management letter and not the financial statements. So the first graph that we have is under the governmental activities and it shows the assets liabilities and that position. This

009is under the full acrual basis of accounting. a little bit different than what you're used to seeing primarily with the general fund. It combines everything for the governmental funds and reports under the full acrruel. So, records capital assets and long-term debt. And the reason you're seeing the negative net position there is because of your portion of the piece liability. Obviously, that's a significant liability of almost $170 million. So, that's why you're seeing that there as a negative net position. Turning your attention to the general fund here, you can see the revenue breakdown. You can see the slight increase in taxes and again that is all taxes real estate earned income taxes as well as transfer taxes and in total they increased about 6% compared to the previous year. The other fluctuations being in the state

010sources uh increase due to the adequacy supplement ready tolearn grant and again you can see the decrease in the federal sources because of the SSR funds being spent this year. On the next page are just some comparison graphs. So on the top is Chambersburg Area School District and the middle are LIU schools and the bottom are school districts of a similar size. This is one year behind just to offer the comparison analysis but overall when you look at these three graphs they're all obviously very comparable uh as far as the revenue sources are concerned with obviously the largest source being taxes just under 60% and state sources right around 1/3 for each of the graphs that are shown. On the next page it turns your attention now to the expenditure side of things. So by

011function on the top graph so you can see a slight increase there in the instruction and the support services and then on the right hand side again it looks a little bit odd because of the debt service fund being established. There's not debt service expenditures recorded there within the general fund. Instead that's a transfer. The bottom graph just shows those same expenditures breaking it down by object instead of by function. And again here you can see the overall increases in the salaries and benefits about 3 to 4% for each of those respectfully. and the purchased property services. Again, that was a spending of the ESSER funds back in 2023. Any other fluctuation being right in the middle of the other purchase services, primarily the expenses for the charter schools. And then finally, again, the reduction

012in the debt service fund because of the establishment of the debt service fund. On the next page, an expenditure side of things, similar graph, similar breakdown for Chambersburg, LIU schools, and school districts of a similar size. Yet again, not surprising, but the largest expenses are your salaries and benefits. The blue and the orange categories, anywhere between 62 and 63% for all three categories there. And again, just wanted to highlight that dark gray category at the top does include debt principal and transfers. Uh last year, you did make about $8 million in transfers to other funds. So that's other entities. Other school districts may not have those transfers. They may have more debt service. So I just wanted to highlight that there when you're making that comparison. Two more graphs here. Uh the first one's just

013a status of fund balance in the general fund. Here you can see the overall slight reduction in the fund balance in the general fund of about $2.5 million. But again, you can see considerably higher than what it was in the previous 2021 and 2022. And the final graph that we have is just a capital reserve fund balance. So this just shows the buildup in the capital reserve fund primarily due to transfers. Uh that was only $2.5 million back in 2021 and has increased to about $16.7 million at the end of 2025. So in summary, again, I think a positive note to have the unmodified opinion. Uh we did have the two items to report under the single audit, although relatively minor and overall a pretty positive year financially by being able to fund the transfers

014to the other funds. I know that was a lot of information. I hope somewhat fairly quickly for you. Uh but I am happy to answer any questions either from the presentation or from the audit documents themselves. >> Board, is there any questions, comments? >> Thank you. >> I have I have I I think this is less a question for you and more a question just for maybe the administration. when uh when we look at the expenditures per average daily membership, we're spending $2,600 less per student than the other 24 districts in our LIU. So, if you do some quick math on that, multiply that by our students, that's about $25 million on the year. My question is, my assumption is that that's a mix of good and bad. Um the good is that we have

015a really talented team that's doing a lot with less. We're more efficient is my assumption in some respects. We're more resourceful in some ways. What do you think the most beneficial way to think about that um would be from your perspective? Are there are there drawbacks to that big gap or do you feel like we're on track? My assumption too is that the um the building projects we're about to undertake will get us much more in line with where everything else. But you want to go first. >> Is that is that a good way to think about that or is that $25 million is there are there other ways that you would frame that $25 million gap? I >> I guess I would look at it this way, Mr. Rabber. Um, when you compare us

016to the Lincoln Intermediate Units, there's a lot of variances between the school districts. I think the the better view is to look at us in terms of the comparable school districts. You know, for example, I would say not to throw any district under the bus, but Fanet metal because of their size and the number of kids that they have probably spend more per student just because of they don't have the capacity to do >> there are inefficiencies there. >> Correct. So I think unless you really dig down just looking at that number in isolation might be a little misleading. That's my opinion. >> Even the page before you if you look at the where the money is being spent, we're usually within like one or 2% on just about everything. So >> I think there's

017a premise here. I'm going to jump to the adequacy gap funding. And I I've failed to mention, you know, the premise of that. When the the basic education commission formed, >> they determined a successful school's performance in how much they're spending per kid. >> And the reason we're getting our adequacy gap funds is because they've set a threshold of I think it's $13,700 per kid was the original. >> So the state is allocating more money to schools that are spending less, which is us, to get us to that number. So the point of adequacy gap is to do exactly that >> without your local tax dollars being the driving force to close that gap. Make sense? >> Yeah, that's great. >> Yep. >> Well, there's also what's referred to as economy of scale and >>

018you know the bigger you are >> most of the districts in the LU, >> how uh where we within the 25 where do we fit? Are we the third largest, the first, the second? Uh, I think we're near the largest in the IU. >> Uhhuh. >> York City and Red Line would be the closest second one, I believe. >> Okay, good. That's helpful. >> The other comment I'd like to make about that is uh despite the fact that other districts may be spending more, I'd like to know what that gets them, >> right? If it's not used strategically, it's money down the drain, >> right? >> I don't know. Yeah. >> Yeah. >> Good. Thank you. >> Any other questions or comments? If not, thank you very much. >> Well, thank you very much for

019your time this evening. We appreciate doing a service for the district. If you have any questions after tonight, uh please feel free to contact me or filter those for management. We'd be happy to help. Thank you again. >> Thank you. >> Okay, moving on to 4.02, the three-year budget plan. Miss Staler, >> have a seat at the table. It's a little helpful. We didn't put our papers out. PowerPoint. While while Tammy's get the PowerPoint up, just want to remind the board this is part of our goals, superintendent and board goals to do a three-year budget to really get thinking beyond yearbyear. Uh when you do master facilities planning and you start looking in the out years, uh this is a better approach. I've always struggled with the one-year budget to budget. So, I'm happy we're

020talking three years. That doesn't mean we're committed to each year as presented today. These are scenarios only. Each year you can make differences and changes based on circumstances changing but it's nice to start planning forward to understand our goals long term. So >> okay thank you with for that Mr. Bigger. So good evening. Um before I get started on the actual PowerPoint I do want to recognize Danette Nol who is my sometimes my left and my right hand and and we was we were very active in doing this budget together. Um I like to say we had a lot of fun because we got to play in our software and do it a lot of different scenarios. So this evening as Mr. bigger reference. We're going to talk about a three-year budget protection. You know,

021our goal in creating this is to hopefully have a sustainable and stable educational program. And I think I'm doing the slides, right, Dave? >> Okay, thank you. Um I don't where where do I point? >> Oh, there we go. >> Oh, you got it. Okay. Um so for this evening, we're going to really talk about four different things. We're going to take a historical look at our revenues, our expenditures, and just kind of feel get a feel for where those things have gone over the last 5 years. We're going to talk about what we put into the assumptions in building these two forecasts. And we do have two. One is what we're calling the status quo, which basically means um it's kind of what we've been dealing with for the last few years. The second

022one is what we call the worst case scenario or the economic downturn, and as Chris likes to call it, doom and gloom. um I just couldn't put that on there, but uh it is a little bit more pessimistic than the first forecast. I will say that. And then the final thing that we're going to speak about tonight is uh just looking at what those potential financing scenarios that Mr. Fry presented, I believe it was two weeks ago, what that impact does to the fund balance and how we can use that in our future considerations for debt service. Okay, Dave, next slide. Thank you. So, oh, and I do have to reference I did use LM or notebook LM for a few of these slides. So, it did it a little bit nicer than what we

023uh humans could do. So, to give reference to that. Uh, looking at our revenue, you can see uh from fiscal 2020 through fiscal 2024, in terms of the local revenue, we increased almost $19 million over that 5-year period. Um, as Mr. Staler referenced in his audit review those this is representative of not only real estate tax increases but also earned income tax increase and the majority of this I would say is earned income tax. We had $5.5 million of additional earned income tax over that period of time. Just want to make sure that we understand though we don't get to keep all $5.5 million. About 58% of that goes out to the taxpayers in terms of taxpayer relief or the homestead farmstead. So just about $3.2 million was pushed out in terms of homestead relief.

0242.3 was able to be retained for operational expenditures. When we look at the state revenue, this is the the thing that we just want to sit back and go, "Wow." Because if you've been in school business for a long time like I have and Danette has, we saw very few fluctuations with our state funding. Once in a while we might get an additional grant opportunity or something like that, but over this period of time we had an increase of $12.2 million. And the majority of that is from our adequacy funding. And as was referenced in the audit review, we did see a lot of fluctuations with our federal dollars. Um, and this primarily was due to ESERS. We normally see between four and $5 million coming in in the federal revenue. Okay, Dave. Next slide.

025In terms of expenditures, these were the three big ones. Um, salaries, benefits, and special education. So, again, we're talking about the period of 2020 through 2024. You can see in salaries, we increased about 7.8 million. Benefits about 8.2. And of that 8.2, over $5.5 million was directly related to health care costs. These were claims that were coming in that we needed to pay. And you may recall the last couple of years we've had to do fund balance transfers out of the general fund to cover the health care cost. And then special education has taken a a steep rise over this period of time just under $7.2 million. Okay, next slide. So what does this all mean? Whenever we sit down and we look at this holistically, we like to take a look at what our

026operating revenues are compared to our operating expenditures and did we have an income or did we have a def deficit? And as you can see, they're highlighted in the yellow. These five years, we were able to operate at an operating income. No deficits were were posted. Don't think about the um the inner fund transfers because that's when things get a little bit confusing, but operating wise, we operated with an income level, not a deficit level. >> This is the AFR right at the end. >> This is right right off of the AFR. So, what did that do? What did it do in terms of our fund balances? You can see there at the bottom of this slide that the assigned fund balance at the end of 2425 was just around $36 million. That's important. Um

027that is the money that we can earmark for other expenditures that we may not know about at the time we're doing the budget. So additional special ed cost, additional um health care cost, uh we fund the roof uh at the FCCTC that change order came out of the assigned fund balance. So those things that we don't know are going to happen and it's very important to have a healthy fund balance to kind of carry us through when the state doesn't pass a budget as an example. The funds that are sitting in non-spendable restricted and committed they're just that the committed fund balance is really earmarked 100% for future taxpayer relief and it is generated from the fact that we exceed our budget number in terms of earned income tax. Okay, next slide Dave. This slide

028shows a history of our tax increases in the district over the 18-year period that act one has been in place. Um, if you weren't around in 2006, that's when act one was passed and the voters of Chambersburg school district decided they wanted to take a portion of the real estate tax and transfer it to earned income tax. And we were are what is affectionately called one of the crazy eight districts that that did that. Um so as a result of that in act one we also had a limitation on what you could raise taxes to every year. So over the course of 18 years the district's average was about 3.25 whereas the act one average was 3.68. So we were under the average of what we could have raised taxes during that eight period 18

029period of time. And you'll see there there's a lot of variances. There were a few years we did zero we did ones we did two. There were some years that after we did that, then we were raising them higher. So, you get that sawtooth going on across uh the tax increases. Do want to point out though, the homestead trend. Um if you look at the very beginning in ' 0809, the homestead amount to our um homeowners was $613. We've been fortunate to be able to raise that over the last few years. During the 2620 or excuse me, 2526 year, it was $1,04. This is representative of a couple different pieces. One, the state finally about two years gave us some additional gaming money. Uh for many many years it was almost exactly the same number

030and it I mean literally we used to joke we can throw a dart and we're going to hit it with a blindfold on um >> because the same number of people >> correct >> do that every year. >> Yeah. But in the last two I think two or three years they've g given us a little bit more. Not a not a lot. Um but earned income tax as you if you reference back has gone up. So when that goes up, that portion of what we contribute to the homestead goes up and then also we utilize some of the committed fund balance for that. Okay, Dave, next slide. So moving into the forecast, if you recall, we did two forecasts. One is the status quo. I'm not going to hit all of these because I I

031don't want to you all can read uh just hit the highlights here. In each of the forecasts, we assumed a 2.5% real estate tax increase each year. doesn't mean that's what we're going to do, but as we're working through the forecast, that's what we assumed. We assumed that the assessment base was going to grow about 1%. That's our historical average that we've seen. It actually grows a little bit more than that, but because of tax appeals, it it averages out to about 1%. We assumed EIT is going to grow at about a million dollars each year over the three years. And we assumed that we were going to get adequacy funding in 2627, 2728, and 2829. Our adequacy goal that was set um by the funding commission is around $52 million. So if we get

032the money next year in 2627, we'll be sitting at 15 of that 52 million. So we assume that that's the good thing and we're going to get it. In terms of expenditures, um just want to point out a couple of things. One, we took a very conservative approach to health care. As Mr. bigger will talk about in a little bit l later. We have made some significant changes to our health care plans in terms of spousal carveout and some of these other things. We just don't know what we don't know and so uh we didn't want to build that in there and we took a conservative approach and did about a 9.5 in increase each year. These forecasts also include $2 million each year. So 2 mill 2 million in 2627 another 2 million in

0332728 and another 2 million in 2829 to build that debt service up to a level that it would need to be in order to fund the capital projects. And the budget also include um the the resolution that the board passed I believe in 23 or 24 to fund the cap reserve at about 1%. We just we do a round number of a million dollars. It'll be a little bit more than that but that's what we do for budgeting purposes. Okay, Dave, as we move into uh the worst case scenario or the doom and gloom or the economic downturn, we only change two variables. One, we assume no EIT growth. Um if the economy starts to recess, which it will at some point, we don't know when, but it's cyclical. Uh you will see EIT fall

034off first. That's what we saw during the great recession back in '09, 10, 11, was EIT dropped really dramatically. And so that impacts an act one school district like us before it does another school district because they don't rely so much on earn income tax. And we also assumed that the state was going to be able to meet that goal of getting us to 52 million in the next I think it was nine years or something like that and that we would get adequacy only in the first year of the forecast. Next slide Dave. Okay. So, as we're building the forecast, you know, Danette and I often talk about, well, what are the pressures? You know, what are the expenditure pressures? And for the three-year forecast, we really had three. We have the salaries and

035benefits, which you can see on there are going to go up just around 7.5 million a year. And we have debt service. Now, you heard me say we added another two million each year. We actually actualize these numbers because we did issue some debt here uh just this past year. So each year before we get anything else on the table, we're adding anywhere from 8.5 million to about $10.5 million of expenditures. That's each year of the forecast. Okay, next slide, Dave. So again, this is status quo. This is the more positive outlook. Uh we are showing just slight deficits each one of those fiscal years anywhere from 770,000 to about 200 or 2.6 million. The area that I want to focus you in on though is the fund balance. So with the optimistic forecast, the

036status quo, we would end fiscal 28.29 with just under $22 million in the assigned fund balance. That's about 9% of our expenditures and is estimated to last us a little over one month. If you want to look at our our total expend, next slide, Dave. Okay, so this is economic downturn, worst case scenario, doom and gloom. And you'll see in the first fiscal year 2627, we're showing the exact same deficit. But then as it goes into those outer years, because we're not getting additional EIT, we're not getting additional adequacy and we've kept the tax rate at 2.5%, those deficits start to get pretty large to the point at the end of the 2829 fiscal year, the assigned fund balance would be about 6.3 million, which is about 3% of our expenditures and will last us

037a third of a month or about 10 days. Not a long time, but 10 days is 10 days. Next slide, Dave. So, how does this impact the borrowing and what does it do to the fund balance? So, again, last meeting, Mr. Fry presented three different financing scenarios just for the board to consider. Not any of those were going to be ones that might come to fruition, but these were potentials. So, when Mr. Big and I talked, we looked at the middle option, which was to finance up to 256 million $256.5 million towards the project. And what you'll see through this this chart is that the impact by the forecast again is really to the general fund assigned fund balance. We would still be building up debt service because we're putting that additional $2 million in

038there and we are still building up the capital reserve because we're putting the 1% uh resolution that had been passed. Want to point out though that this budget goes through financing up to 256.5 million. We would need to continue the 2 million out through 3031. So this is 2829. We'd have to do 2930 3031. You'd have to do another 2 million and another 2 million. The good news is that that 26 million uh could be used for the projects uh to offset debt in a year and then move that over to one of the three buildings, but we would still need about $13 million to fund either through cash or maybe some alternative financing method. Next slide. This may look familiar. Um I think it was maybe a year maybe longer than that. Uh did

039a presentation just talked about future debt. So we have some uh really positive indicators for moving in the direction that we've been moving. You know, one is absolutely the state revenue. Can't emphasize enough what the adequacy money has done for Chambersburg Area School District. It's it's been huge. It's been um a great support. We also have had strong uh fund balances which has helped us when we go out for borrowings. It helps with our credit ratings and we've seen positive EIT and you can see the rest of those there. I'm not going to go through all of them. On the flip side, I don't want to say negative, it's more potential drawbacks that we have to be aware of is the increasing health care costs that we've seen over the last several years. Now again,

040we've taken some measures through the new contracts as in terms of of some carveouts that we've done and some changes. We're hoping to see the healthc care costs kind of flat flate if not go down. Uh but we have not seen that yet. Increasing salary and benefit uh trends. Um the numbers large. You know, we're at about $77 million in terms of salary. So when you do a three or 4% increase on that, it's a big number. uh and it doesn't sound much when you say three or 4% but when you do the the simple math it's pretty pretty large and then the other concern uh or drawback is that we are heavily dependent on EIT and EIT is heavily dependent on the economy which we we have no control over that whatsoever and with

041that next slide I'm going to turn it over to Mr. bigger and then we'll take any questions. >> So, one of the areas we haven't talked about is what we are doing to mitigate um cost increases. And I try not to say the word savings, you're really avoiding cost increases. So, that's usually a more accurate term. So, when someone says we're going to save a million dollars, they expect the budget to go down a million dollars. Well, it just slows the chart line going up. Uh, but I wanted to highlight for you um a bunch of examples and I'm not going to go into each one um but some of them are very specific. The largest one and I do want to thank our employee workg groupoups for working with us through the negotiations and

042contracts employee agreements to really look at healthcare. When we switched to USI as our broker we really analyzed our healthcare and when healthcare costs started going up more than salaries we knew we had to do something fairly aggressive. We don't want to do it. And again, I say this the state of healthcare. It's not a Chambersburg problem. Everyone is seeing these cost increases. So, they all worked with us through those contracts. And so, we did uh carve out spouses. So, the estimated dollar figure for just carving out spouses is between 1.4 million and 2.1 million. That's the estimated range. It's all dependent on the number of spouses that do not have health insurance at their current employment will determine that, but that's a really good range. And so that's less employees on our healthcare plan.

043That's less claims. That's reduced cost. Um again, I don't I don't like it from the human side. U because we don't have employees that have healthcare. They have to go somewhere else. But from the business side, it was needed to do something related to um healthcare. The second one is related to a pharmacy carveout. That's estimated at a $1.4 million savings. And these are the optimistic if they happen. This really helps our budget overall. but we don't want to count them now. They're more of if they happen, this is can really help our budget. And most of this is for next year. We've also had some significant reductions in our legal fees. You know, we were running three or $400,000 annually. We're under $100,000 because we're solving problems. Um, I also want to highlight doing

044some basic research on the consolidation efforts and it's really hard to put a number on when you consolidate schools and build larger ones what the actual savings are. Um, but we do have a range um from 1.2 million on the low end to 4.7 on the high end. And so I'm giving you a range because it's dependent upon the decisions we make. So, if we make a decision to increase staffing for another special or class size, it's going to be on the lower number. Um, if we make decisions on existing staffing position, it will be more in the higher number. And so, we're not ready to finalize all of those uh decisions on the staffing and consolidation. Research will show you it's about a 10% reduction in operation costs by having higher energy efficient buildings.

045uh larger buildings. Back to the economy of scale conversation, less roofs overall because we're doing threetory. So, there are definitely long-term implications around square foot and the the efficiencies of our buildings. The the biggest driver though is when you combine small buildings into large buildings, you need less staff in general. The one variable that could go up is transportation. We don't know the answer to that. So when you do the research, there was a wonderful study out of New York that was a land landmark study around consolidating schools and that's the one variable could offset some of your costs when you consolidate is transportation. So we don't know the impact of transportation yet. I want to end with this does not include any selling of property, leasing of property and the numerous properties we are

046studying and hope to have that report uh April May >> probably April or May >> which is going to be a full analysis of the buildings we're considering vacating. does not include any sale or lease of those buildings. But we're around right now a $4.2 million to $8.5 million potential net savings by all the work. That's if healthc care were to come through. Pharmacy uh reductions are uh realized, the efficiencies are gained. Um and we see all of that on the low end is 4.2. I don't want us to budget for that. I'd rather us budget not including it, but it's one number you should really consider as a a relief valve. If we were not to get adequacy two years from now, we can rely on the analysis of this to really help us.

047We'll have our healthcare trends in another year. The spouse will carve out and the pharmacy doesn't start till next year. So, if we realize those one, two, and $3 million savings and we can show you that, then we are more confident going into those out years forward. But I I wanted to really make the point that we're just not sitting back waiting for more adequacy money, waiting for more real estate taxes. We are doing our efforts inside the district as much as we can. We've already uh eliminated, you know, this three full-time equivalent administrator positions, you know. So, we're working hard internally where we need to and where we can to reduce costs. And so, I wanted that message. There is a press release going out from this presentation and our efforts to reduce cost

048uh at the end of tonight's uh board meeting. Um, but I wanted to stop there and just go I haven't done any numbers for you, but I am putting some numbers on it of a range and and the range is there because we still have decisions to make. We're not even done designing the buildings yet. So, we have a lot of decisions to make moving forward, but I want to give you a range to really wrap your head around it. Um, so you can understand, but from my experience, my research, and also the practicality of what we're doing, there will be cost savings. It's just a matter of how much. That ends our presentation. Okay, board members, questions, comments, things that you want to bring forward. >> I have a minor, very minor question. Um,

049maybe I just misunderstand, but there was a slide on the act one adjusted index. >> And uh, when I read it, I understood that that was a limitation on what we could tax. >> Correct. >> But I see in some years we exceeded it. So, I was kind of confused on that. You're correct, Mr. Hayda. Uh, the act one, so there's an act one index and then there's an adjusted act one index. >> As long as I can remember, we always had an adjusted and that's based on the economic variables that's in the community. Um, wealth, just different poverty, the different factors that they take into consideration. However, there are exceptions that you can apply for if you should find that you can't live within that act one index. And there were a few years

050I recall coming out of the great recession where we had to exceed the act one index. Um, you also can go to a voter referendum. We've never done that, but that is an option to go above the act one index as well. >> Thank you very much. >> You're welcome. other thoughts, questions, >> clarifications as well. We threw a lot at you all at once. >> I'll just point out the three big categories. Salary benefits and special ed where we're seeing big increases in dollars. It's they're kind of similar increases, but as a percentage, I just did some quick math for us. So salaries are up 3.3, benefits are up 5.3% and special ed is up 8.4% over a 5year. That's every year 8.4. Every year 5.3. So >> it is has been significant. Yes.

051>> Yeah. Yeah. Wanted to ask on Okay. the uh just for my clarification the key expenditure slide increase the >> the second year was less of an expenditure than the the first and the third year. >> Yeah, good question. So uh you know Mr. Bigger spoke a little bit about what we did with uh the benefits with our um work groups. We've also taken some strides to kind of rightsize those salaries. So the 26 27 year you kind of see a bigger increase because we're writing that and then it it kind of flattens itself out is why there's a decrease in the salaries. >> Okay. And then the third year goes up about the same amount because that's the typical increase. >> Yes. Okay. >> Yeah. Good question though. And also I wanted to ask

052in being a former health guy uh theoretically speaking is there any thought that since we're all getting in shape and uh taking the GOP ones and that kind of thing is there is there any thought that that could potentially reduce some of the other health care costs? >> One would hope maybe uh we did within the the two work groups that we worked with just recently carve out weight loss drugs for the GLP1s. Now, if you have to have a GLP-1 for diabetics or some other health condition, they're still covered. Uh, but we did see a significant rise in the usage of GLP-1s in the last couple of years. >> There is a little hope. Talk about claims this year compared to last year just from the You're asking for a little hope. >> Yeah,

053we'll give you some hope. Yeah, I I do give hope every once in a while. Contrary to what >> I want people to be healthy, be healthy. >> Absolutely. Um, so the last few years about this time, uh, you know, we would be looking at the bills coming in for the health. We pay our claims weekly and and the bills were quite large. I'm like, what's going on? You know, we can't sustain this. This year, uh, how we fund the health fund is we um charge the general fund the actuarial premium rates and we move that over to the healthcare fund and then when the claims come in, we pay it out of the healthcare fund. In the last few years, the claims were out exceeding the premium. So far this year, we're good. Uh

054I'm hopeful that we will not have to come to the board at the end of the spring and say, "Hey, we need some more money because something hit." Although Danette, who can be a little bit more doom and gloom than I because she's the accountant and well, you know, we are at the end towards the end of the year, people probably hit their deductible. I'm like, "Oh, see, you have to bust my bubble." >> But we are hopeful. We're hopeful. And I want to add if it if it didn't go up 9.5% in a single year, which we've projected, that's a $2 million line item that you can then apply elsewhere for the projects in other areas. So that that's a big number. When you see 9.5, that's a $2 million line item, which is

055equal to the bonds we're doing. So if we do have a healthier year, that's wonderful for us. >> Yeah. >> Thank you. I just noticed on the cyber residency verifications through Clear, we had gotten some information this past Friday that I think there were three cyber students that were six. >> I look at Bobby, she's all proud of the number, but yeah. >> Well, I I I mean, I was really taken back by that. It must when I looked at it, it must have been a six, and I was excited about that. What is the cost per student that we saved with with finding that through this software? >> Go ahead. >> Yeah, go ahead, Bobby. >> Yep, she's back there. >> And just so I She won't say this, but she gets a lot

056of credit in the IU and across the state because they use her to ask a lot of questions, too, because we're using this software. So, she's on a lot of meetings sharing our success and efforts. So, she gets a lot of credit for that. So, the six students that we recently found through our mailing out to all of our cyber students, we are still working with the cybers, so I can't put a dollar on that yet, but um I'm hoping we're in the $100,000, you know, but we'll confirm that later in a board report once we have have that confirmed. >> What is the cost at this point for a cyber student? Um it's so it went down um 11,000 for uh regular ed and 21,500 for special ed. >> And and just to clarify,

057you know, the process that we are going through, it was a result of what the state did this past year with the budget. So we took on the clear software before that occurred, but now we have to do a verification and so do the cyber charters twice a year. So Bobby and Suzanne in my office sent out what was it Bobby? 613 letters I believe verification letters um and through the round that we had gotten through the time period I think we had 80 returned. There were six that we could tell came back undeliverable and then Bobby ran them through the clear software and two were then found to be homeless. So that's another situation but we don't have to talk about that right now. So >> you appreciate you you know doing this software

058because it 100,000 that's great. Thank you. and we're using it for other things as well. Um, so we're getting our money's worth. Anyone else have anything to say? Well, I would just like to comment on two articles that I have read recently. First of all, I keep some of my PSBA articles, and there was one from back in 2023 on school budgets, and one of the quotes from that article said that good communities build good schools because good schools build good communities. >> And I think that is a very telling statement and I just wanted to share that. And then my other statement comes from my good old 1934 uh article that I talk about. Um and it says, "Free schools cost money, and good free schools cost a great deal of money." And this

059was a quote from the state superintendent of public instruction back in the late 1800s and early 1900s. And I think that both of those statements are worth commenting on because as I interact in the community and just today at lunch, I had some classmates from my high school class comment about how glad they are that we are doing what we're doing here in Chambersburg because they said that it really is needed. And I had a physician friend who commented about the same thing recently to me that there are physicians that don't live in the Chambersburg school district and travel here to Chambersburg because of the issues of graduation rate and some of those kinds of things that we're working on and I hopeful that we're going to see improvement on. And so I think it's

060very important that we are making the moves that we're doing as far as our um updating and maintaining. >> Yep. >> Go ahead. >> Yes. >> I was just going to say um in my family, you know, sometimes these these numbers are really big, right? So like it's hard for many of us to like comprehend what we're really talking about. Uh but in my family when you know if we know we have a large expenditure coming our way um let's say uh we need a new vehicle because the you know whatever one we have is on its last legs um we start looking for ways to like save up and and uh put money aside and could we pick up some overtime hours that type of thing. Here we are. We're about to do almost

061$300 million worth of projects. And you're coming in. saying you think there's a way to make 2.5% work. That to me is amazing. Uh is is there any part of you that thinks maybe we should be above that or I mean I think if if we can pull this off, great. But it just feels the timing is interesting given that we have this >> Yeah. I I think that was my ending message is you're you're going to pass a budget at some point this year. >> Yep. and our projects are going to come due for bids uh in the fall and winter of 2627. >> Y >> um we're we're not super happy about the order of the projects that are coming into bids. It doesn't suit the plan, but we're going to have them.

062And you're not going to have much more information than you have today >> in order to make those decisions. You're not going to know the governor's proposals next year. >> You're not going to know. We might know who the governor is. We won't know what the proposal is by the time we're making decisions on awarding bids. So the importance and value of this three-year budget is the best time to ask the questions that you're asking. What can we afford? Can we do the projects? What are the implications if worst case scenario or status quo happens? And so that's where we are at time and place. But yes, our our goal would be to look at the history of act one, look at the 3.25 and say, can we do this for less than we've taxed

063in our history? >> Uhhuh. >> Um and move forward with the projects. And that's the answer is yes. if >> and all the ifs have been proposed. >> Yeah. And there's some fail safes. There's a couple other ones, you know, that we've hopefully shared with you to give you confidence. >> Yeah. But I mean, >> I think that's amazing in many respects, at least from a taxpayer standpoint. >> So, but also >> just odd compared to what I would anticipate heading into large projects. >> And and I would agree with Mr. bigger. You know, again, we are in a unique situation in the last few years, you know, without the adequacy, without the growth of EIT >> and some of those other things. These are things that we hadn't seen in the past. And so,

064you would you would not have had those to rely on. You would be looking at large tax increases. But because of those factors, we've been fortunate that we don't have to >> we don't have to look at changes to the operating and the programming, which in the past that's happened uh because of uh financial constraints, but because of these other variables, we've been fortunate enough to build up fund balances, build up the cap reserve, build up the debt service fund to kind of cushion things along the way, if you will. Mhm. >> And I think historically the board's made really good decisions on not overextending ESR's funds into salary and benefits. >> When you make those good decisions, you've really helped set us up for this. So, it's been a continuous good decision after good

065decision after good decision to put us in a situation like this. >> Yeah. >> Good work. And good work Yeah. Good work here, but also good work in Harrisburg. Mhm. >> The the thing that I was thinking about as I I saw the 2.5 is that we will vote on this budget each year. >> Correct. So, you know, in my mind, I was thinking it probably would be more than 2.5 is is what I was I was thinking, but that doesn't mean that it has to stay at 2.5. I mean, we're going to see where we are and if we have to go a tad bit higher or or whatever. But that because I'm I'm used to a budget year by year. this three-year, you know, it's not in it's not in cement. Uh we

066can we can go higher if we if we need to or we see some some different circumstances. So, it just is uh something that helped me un come to the realization that I with the 2.5 in that budget. >> When is it that we know the index for the next year? >> Oh, usually it comes out sometime in the fall. I want to say it's due the end of like September. Um the index will probably I >> What's our current year index? >> I think it's 5.3. I don't really commit those numbers to memory. I think it's 5.3. Look here. >> If we hit a worst case scenario, you're saying >> it might be. Now, do you know off the top of your head 5.3 was last year? >> Yeah, that was what I thought.

067>> 4.6. So, it started to come down a little bit, but >> yeah, >> but the administration's feeling confident even with three build. I mean, I know we have some deliberation to do, but you're >> you're feeling like we're well positioned. Yeah, that's great. >> You're confident as much as your comfort level of variables let you be confident with your oracle. >> I mean, I think it's worth pointing out you have a doom and gloom, but you don't have the opposite. >> We do not have an optimistic one. No. >> Well, I mean, I don't know. I think steady is as optimistic as I can get. >> There you go. Steady growth is healthy. very optimistic. Yeah. If everything were to come true and all things were pointing in the positive, yeah, we're we're doing

068really well. And you're not spending seven years to put 2 million aside, 2 million aside. You're going to jump up four or five in a year and maybe two years and you're funded. >> So, I think that's a potential, but again, you don't want to sell a project on a potential, you know? So, you want to be as confident as you can. >> Good. >> Yeah. And I think again, you know, building in the state additional state money that that's an optimistic uh forecast. That's that's us being optimistic that they're going to be able to pull that off again and get to that get to that number. Yeah. >> I don't think they want to go back to court. >> I don't think so either. Mrs. >> I want to circle back to the question

069you asked earlier about the spend per dollar per student. And the adequacy gap, you know, was given to us to close the gap on what successful schools, I put that in quotes, they've determined are achieving and is succeeding per student. So, we were under that. And I think this is another really good decision the board makes is that we're going to invest in a fixed cost of debt over just running it into salary and benefits and adding a whole bunch of programs. Again, that's another long-term decision you're making that will prove benefits down the road. As debt comes back down, you have more decisions to make. But if you lock yourself in escalating costs all the time, you can never get out from underneath those escalating debts. So a fixed debt cost is a good

070decision. It's stopping you from having to raise local real estate taxes a lot to build the buildings by using the state revenue. So, it's a good decision on a conservative standpoint, too. And you can make the counter argument it's going to put pressure on our budget on the staffing side. And I think Sher at the last meeting you mentioned that like we don't want to do this and not be able to add staff if we need staff for X, Y, and Z. And I think that's the reality of the pressure that you might not feel, but that I will feel for sure. So, if if we were to to go down the road, we do the three buildings, things aren't as great. Well, guess what? We're we're we're going to back off on staff. So,

071that's always the pressure. And you can't you can't look at them separately. They're always together. And you don't want to fund buildings on the backs of the employees either. You want a nice balance of we can afford the new buildings. We have some savings and we can continue with our staffing needs. Special ed goes up. There's no choice. Like, you can't we can't change that number if if more students show up that have those needs. I'm curious to know the 25. If if we're at 25, let let's say we were at 15 or 35. Is is there any scenario where that changes the amount that the state is giving us inadequacy funding? >> No. That's already just that's been determined. It's a very comp well it's been determined based on our need >> and there's

072a really really really complicated formula that determines based on ELLL special education local tax effort there's a whole bunch of >> and those things do fluctuate >> they do >> and but this helps us to keep our local tax effort >> yes >> right >> I'm I'm intrigued it doesn't change but >> it could change >> if there were to be another round at some point >> well it could change if our demographics change >> and if are um we have less special needs kids or we have less disadvantaged students. That number could be adjusted down, but I don't think it would be majorly dusted adjusted down. It could be minorly adjusted down. When you look at the formula, again, it's a small percentage of those two descriptions I gave you. The biggest is we're

073at this per cost per kid and we need to be here. So, until they get us to the closer of the $13,700, I think is the number per kid, we're going to keep getting it until we get there. And they also look at the in terms of what the local effort is contributing towards that cost of student versus what the state dollars are doing. So we were ours is more we do more local than state was how it was. >> And just for a point of reference, I did some research on this and I talked to some representatives regarding the state budget because I have concerns looking at independent results. They're saying that during fiscal year 2728 um they're going to tap out the rainy day fund for the state. Um, and that in and

074of itself is like, okay, where's the money coming from? Um, at that point, basically what I'm understanding is, uh, depending on leadership, um, if the current leadership stays in there and the governorship, most likely what I'm being told you will see, uh, is that the funding won't be rolled back. That's very unusual that they would be rolling things back, but they might go to like a flat funding, so there wouldn't be any more adjustments at that point. Um but as far as what it would do maybe the adequacy gap um if the current leadership stays in there they would most likely do a massive tax increase across the state to help fund what they've already promised to do is the way that it's being explained to me from people that are dealing with those questions

075in Harrisburg. Um, so I'm not super uh concerned as I was initially about not having that adequacy gap because um I believe the current administration is most likely going to stay in there and they will fund education because that's a priority for them. And at that point, while I may or may not agree with that at a state level, if they're going to give us the money, um, we certainly are going to utilize that in the best way possible. And I really think that that's going to help offset and allow us to do the 2.5%. So whether that makes you feel better or worse or indifferent, um I did a little bit of research on that because I had talked to Tammy uh privately about my concerns with the state budget doing what it does.

076Uh because that does potentially affect us. But after doing some research and having some conversations, I feel relatively confident that over this three-year budget that adequacy gap provide provided something catastrophic doesn't happen uh shouldn't have an impact. So I think we're more on good scenario, not doomsday scenario. So if that provides a little context just from the research that I did and some conversations I had. >> Well, and that kind of um validates the importance of the 2.5 versus a higher tax increase because if the big state increase happens, >> people are going to be happy that we aren't u asking for a 5% tax increase locally. And I like the three-year like in our business we do 135. We look at budgets like that and the consistency of that like when we decided we

077were going to be consolidating the schools when we did the calendar people had time to prepare for that. You have you know a year and a half to prepare for this new calendar next year. So if people can see okay minimum 2.5 I can budget for that. I know that's the minimum that's coming. it makes it a little easier to adjust if it does have to go to three or something like that as opposed to thinking there's a chance there wouldn't be anything or thinking, you know, it's going to be seven, you know, and and that's the thing that I think the consistency of that and knowing ahead of time makes it a little more manageable. Um, kind of like what the LIU did with the schedule now. So, you know, ahead of time, okay,

078if we have 15 kids that are getting this, this is what it's going to be, not up, not down. There's no, you know, bouncing around. So there's a little more consistency which I think give I think gives people a little more calm about it because it you might not like what's coming but at least you see it coming you know and you're not going to get hit with something that you weren't expecting. So I do like the idea of that threeyear and I appreciate all the time and effort that everybody's put into it because uh it's it's really surprising the two and a half%. You're not wrong Ben. I saw that I was like oh okay. So, you know, I think that if that's what it ends up being, I think that's a number people

079can live with. People aren't going to like it and we know that, but you take your lumps and you go for it. Um, but hopefully we're turning the tide here as far as what they see getting their return on investment because maybe they felt they weren't getting that before. And so now they're seeing all of these things change and they're seeing these benefits and they're seeing these kids and the graduation rates and all that coming up. And so I think that that's really going to help get this community more invested in public education because there was definitely a little bit of uh back and forth there for a long time. But I think the administration currently um and the staff is really really doing a good job to help bridge the gap that was there

080before, you know, and that started with the board before me and some of the like Chris said, some of the really good decisions that were made about how to spend that esester money because we know some districts that chose to spend it on staff and they're they're very much paying for that now, unfortunately. Well, and it goes back to that uh commission that chose to be among the crazy eights because with the Farmstead Homestead amount that we get in this district and you compare it to any of the other Franklin County districts, it's minimal compared to what we get here as property owners. So, I'm appreciative of what they did back in 2005 or whenever it was. I I will tell you from my view I don't like the EKG look of the taxes zeros

081f like that that gives me heart palpitations. So moving forward if we can avoid those ups and downs I think from a steady Eddie uh uh again that's usually a better approach and you live within those ranges and I think that's what we're trying to do is just set what what we can live within most of those ups and downs are for political gains or or short-term wins not long term because you see it always goes back up. I you can go to any school district that has that type of volatility. It always goes back up above the index or somewhere. So, um that's been a good good approach for us. Uh moving forward, >> any other questions or comments before we move on to number five? >> I think this is great. I mean,

082I think uh to Stephanie's point, I've had a number of people in the community, well, I hear you're building all these buildings. Can't wait to see this tax bill. No. No. I you're you're not gonna we've been planning for this for years, right? This is something that we're working on and we we can afford what we're doing. >> So, >> and I think the press release is going to help to >> minimize some of those comments. >> Yep. Yep. >> So, >> okay, moving to the consent agenda. The administration will provide needed information for the agenda items that are included in the consent agenda. Board members are encouraged to discuss the individual items after the administration has provided their input. Um number 5.01, the Croll fixed asset reporting comments. There's an attachment that you should

083have looked at. Are there any comments, Tammy or Dette or Chris? >> Nope. Just from a reminder, we ask the board and admin if they want to pull any out >> versus line item. >> Uh actually, I was intending to go because I I really feel that that pulling out >> Okay. >> does not allow >> Thanks for the clarity you were going down that. Y >> uh 5.02 the use of assigned fund balance for security related items. anything beyond what's on the attachment or more importantly questions from the board about any of the items on the agenda need to be asked at the time 3.03 03 pupil transportation contracts. Craig is here with us. Any comment about transportation? I would just like to say thank you uh to Craig and Bobby. Uh this is

084the first time that we've done an RFP for transportation in well as many years as I can remember. Uh was quite a bit of work. Um, I do believe that this is, you know, doing RFPs can be in the best interest of the district. We actually had one contractor, uh, you know, come up and shake our hand and thank us. It seemed to go much smoother than it has in the past. Maybe not upfront because it's a lot of work to do, but in the long run, it seemed to go a lot smoother. So, I just want to thank them. >> Good. 504. um budget transfer for schools of distinction planning, the math resource review and new teacher induction program. >> Go ahead. >> Uh I just want to thank the the directors. We sat

085down with Crystal, you know, and CNI and we looked at our budgeting for the rest of the year. Um basically our our directors and our principles need to get together with their folks for the schools of distinction planning and we didn't have time. So, they're having to do it outside the school day uh to get their full teams together. And we hope to bring you the plans in August. Um because of lack of of time, we had to move it back. Our first goal was to do it in May, but um we're going to be doing it in in August with the the board there. >> Do I understand that the teacher induction is changing this year? >> So, we're it is we're we're piloting. Um, we had I'd have to ask uh Tina, I

086think we had 45 folks that were uh not certified or emergency certified and I worked with the LIU for about five different meetings on what do our uh emergency certified folks need and I met uh we have a pilot group of six individuals right now that are emergency certified and um they're working with with us in the LIU taking some classes on things that they really need support in. And it's it's going well. Uh actually, it's going so well that it was brought to all the superintendent um that we're looking to have at least one day with the LIU as uh we used to do many years ago uh like county induction. So, one one is going to go back to that. Um, and our folks still will have two years, but we're being systematic

087with the things that they need. You know, there's five big areas. You know, I'll give you a couple of the areas. One is, you know, working with students with special needs and our ESL students, uh, lesson planning, um, classroom management, uh, communicating with parents. So, you know, our folks that haven't been formerly trained in college previously are that are emergency certified, we're giving them some of that background for them to be successful in the classroom. So, um thanks to the six who stepped up to be our pilot group and it's going well. Actually, their next live sessions in the boardroom here uh Thursday, I think at 4:00. >> Thank you. Any questions or concerns about that item? Okay, moving on to the curriculum maps 5.05. Nothing. >> I Yeah, I shared that information that it

088was information. They're they're out on the uh out out in the uh uh lobby here for folks to look at. >> Okay. I'd encourage you to look at those curriculum maps. They're interesting to look at. Uh 5.06, the comprehensive plan. It's also posted out there as well as on the um agenda that was sent to you. Questions, comments about that? >> I have a question. Um the last comprehensive plan we did. Um is it fair to assume that there was somewhere where there was some debriefing on like, hey, how did that go? We did this plan for three years. Is I mean, I think this is a requirement from the state, right? >> Mhm. But like on the back end of that, what happens? Do you know I I mean I remember some of the

089goals. We want to be more data driven instructional leadership. We want to improve the school climate. We want to recruit and retain our staff. And I think we made progress on all four of them. But do do we take the time to do a bit of an analysis or is that not really a thing that's done? Is that happening elsewhere or is that something that could happen in the boardroom or I don't I don't even know. We we do that internally. But yeah, we did make progress in all four of those. Uh you know, I have Tina right to my right. You know, she worked on a hiring guide um that was presented to all of our our um you know, administration and we now utilize that. Um we are more data driven. So each

090one of those components, yeah, we we definitely uh feel that we achieved different with this new one. We really, as I explained last time, we had the CASD blueprint and our schools of distinction and one church and community really drive uh what we're doing and and that's you seeing it in our presentations and you know, we're presenting what we're doing through that plan really live to the board. U you know, Mrs. Luffy will be the the next one up here in in April with uh you know, the academy presentation. >> Good. The last thing I want is for it to just be a document because the state requires it. You know, let's let's let this help us make decisions and head in a better direction. So, great. >> Cool. >> Well, I appreciate that question

091because it gave us the opportunity to hear what you do behind the scenes that we wouldn't have otherwise. >> No. Okay, moving on to >> Hey, can I say something? Sorry. Um, I did want to say I was reading it and um, the reading by end of third grade is one of your goals for the comprehensive plan and I love that it says that by June 30th, 2029, 90% of third graders will be reading. >> That is I love that lofty goal. I absolutely support that. I think that is phenomenal. Um, I'm excited. Mr. Rabber said he got to do a walk to read. I'm trying to set one of those up. And, uh, just a little shout out to Dr. Diller, because I know this has been your passion project for years, ma'am. So,

092it looks like it's coming to fruition and I hope that you're feeling encouraged about that. >> Still is my passion. >> That's great. >> Any other comments, questions? >> Yeah, I wanted to comment on that, too. See, that is quite a bit higher than currently, but I think with Mr. Nelson getting us pumped up there last month with the uh presentation, is that what led to that 90% And he has all of his principles like they each year they have goals set out just like our budget is three years they have goals set out 2930 it going up incrementally. So >> okay any other comments? >> Okay 5.07 memorandum of understanding for independent electrical contractors and Lac Lawana College. That's the first I've heard Lacawana College on our agenda. Tell us about that. >> Uh

093well, we're going to be seeing more of these. You know, Mr. Aer is working with uh Lacawana College actually is now local. They I believe they're taking over the welding place out at Letter Kenny. >> And um this is a chance for some of our students to get internships. Um, we have when we get down to it, and it'll be another presentation, we have a lot of our our local businesses are really uh pumped up with what we're moving towards. Uh, we probably have in the past 3 months about 200 um commitments from local businesses for 200 of our students to uh do internships. So, you're going to see more of these coming forward. >> Good. >> So, >> questions, comments? Okay. 5.08. 08 field trips for the children's aid society students. Any further information

094about that? >> Okay. >> Uh it's just funded through our title one neglected funds for the children's that are at uh Cass the Children's Aid Society. >> Any board comments or questions? >> Okay, moving to early graduation 5.09. Um >> I have a question. Um, I'm just wondering about the process. Are we just how does it how does a student approach someone and say, "Oh, I met all the requirements. I want to graduate early." Um, I would think that would be seeing all the good things that we're offering, what's happening, taking care, taking more classes. tell tell me about it because I did notice that some of the last group there was a lot of absenteeism. Um some of the grades don't look stellar but still this student is graduating a semester early or a

095year early. Um are we just >> Mrs. Luffy, do you want to answer that a little bit? >> Just disappointing. Good question. So the students to um graduate early have to fill out an application. Um they work with their counselors to ensure and the counselors work with them to ensure that they have completed all of their graduation requirements per our policy and that would include all of the credits and then that would also include their um career pathway identified by the state requirements. So that would not in necessarily include attendance as part of our graduation policy. Um and due to the number of credits that students earn each year and the number of credits they can can earn each year, uh a lot of students if they earn eight credits each year would be able

096to be, you know, qualify for early graduation by the end of their 11th grade year. >> Okay. >> So part of that just is you're following the policy. Does the administration at this seems to be a repeated concern? Do do you all feel like at some point we ought to just review that policy and perhaps make some tweaks to it? >> Surprise. >> So, we currently are and I believe in my April presentation when I come to you, I will be also asking for some support in modifying the graduation requirements. Thank you. >> Good. Cool. I love the idea early grad, but I share your concern. Well, and for some students, um, having a diploma, even though they are not stellar students, just having a diploma makes a difference, >> right? Um, and so there's

097such a wide range of students from those high academic students who probably should be taking some um, courses at a cheaper rate instead of, you know, but it's an individual choice that they and their family make. But we have opportunities for the dual enrollment and that type of thing that some of these students that are uh, taking early graduation to go to college. I question whether it's a wise thing, but it's again it's parent choice and student choice and what we offer. >> And I think you're noticing a lot more this particular year because cases is also experiencing the opportunity for early graduation. So whereas before career magnet school was on a much smaller scale, now that Cashes has joined that schedule, the opportunities are just much more significant. >> Thank you. Any other comments?

098Okay. 5.10, two student addendums for Hoffman Homes. Everything's adequate there. Um, comments, questions. 5.11 Commencement Services. Sluffy, you want to share with us when we need to be here? And the commencement is always a enjoyable time for schoolboard members. and you have the information, so get it on your calendars. Any comments? >> No, we're just looking forward to the commencement this spring and you'll be getting your formal invitations later. So, these are just kind of calendar holders right now and for your approval. >> Questions, comments? Okay, that ends the consent agenda. Number six, education and services. Nothing. Number seven, finance and facilities. Um, you have the listing of the gifts, grants, and donations. And I personally would like to, as always, say thank you to the community for all that they do. Are there any

099administration comments about the gifts, uh, grants, and donations? >> Uh, we have two individuals here this evening that donated something. So, thank you to the Jordans. They're they're on the list. Uh and the list generally grows throughout the uh the month. I know the the Rotary has a big donation and uh we may be looking for some help on March 25th. Uh they our community has been very generous. About a thousand student meals have been donated through chicken and stuff and we're going to be feeding all the children at Ben Chambers and Stevens at the end of the day for a meal to take home. So it's going to take a lot of help to do that. But thank you to the Rotary for doing that. Yeah, the community does so much and I know

100that there's an attempt being made, I think, to get a summary of what all different uh areas of the community do because sometimes some people seem to get recognized and maybe by choice, others don't. Um 7.02, 2 the lease term extension for the um Chambersburg Education Center um share about the open house like or the >> it's next Wednesday I believe at 4 about right >> yeah 4 to 6 >> 4 to 6 um the downtown engagement center will be open for its one-y year anniversary of full operation so feel free um I believe the leadership reckoning county organized this as a project of one of the students or staff members who's participating in that program and they chose to do that and so we'll have open house and go down and ask questions and

101see who's been going and attending and the volume and ask some questions >> and I'd encourage you as board members if you have time to stop down especially if you weren't there last year whenever it actually opened and so on. Can I just uh point I have some thoughts on this. Um as I was I I visited the center and I think the center is just it's a beautiful building. Um windows in the offices it's lovely. But then I looked at it over a threeyear over three years we're going to pay $187,000. And then I I checked to see if that was grant money or is that taxpayer funded, but it's taxpayer funded. It's $187,000. It's a it's wonderful, but yet at the same time that's that's a I think is a as a big

102expense. Um there's lots of social services available to parents, especially downtown. Um, I know I really believe the staff does a phenomenal job there. I know that the secretary is bilingual and that's great for the Spanish-sp speakaking students. I think that was a a real plus when when the district hired someone that was bilingual. Um, for years enrollment was done in this building and uh there's actually a desk out there for for enrollment. So I say to myself, okay, that's a teacher and a half, that $187,000. Should we have that teacher be teaching kids or should we have a an engagement center? Is there a better place for an engagement center? For example, in in the next couple years when we consolidate, we're going to have a building. >> Can we limp along for three

103years without paying the 187,000 and restructure it? It's not about the staff. I like I said, I think they do they do a wonderful job, but I've also noticed too that when you have more space, sometimes people spread out more. Um, and and also I was thinking about the armory. When we renovated this building, there was tons of space over at the armory. It's not fancy like downtown. It's not uh, you know, the offices are, you know, just not as nice. But would it ser would it serve the same purpose? uh to be able to get those families. And I even thought about you, Ben. You have a wonderful facility downtown and you know, we wouldn't be paying $180,000 for it. Is there a better way? >> Better asking. Yeah, maybe I should be asking

104you if you want to rent out down there, but anyway, from your nonprofit, but you know, I just I just thought and I know that we're you know, you're you're having this open house and and I know that we have have and does Keystone have any space or, you know, Keystone now has what was, you know, back down there at uh Southgate, don't they have a really nice facility now? So, you know, kids can get their immunizations. I mean, I think we'll have the we will have the space for something like this. Uh, you know, like Andrew Buchanan when that when that would close, but you know, paying over $5,200 or $5,300 a month, you know. Oh, I'm I'm I'm having a hard time with it. Um, so that's just that's just my thoughts for

105when we go to voting. I'm I'm struggling. Any other comments about this item? >> Are you still seeing the same amount of people getting services? They may be different services that you were when we first opened it, or has there been a decrease or the utilization of it? I mean, return on investment is is kind of what I'm looking at. I don't know you can quantify that, but maybe >> actually they keep track of every visit and uh I can put that in a Friday board folder. I don't I'd have to find it in my Google Drive, but they keep track of every visit. Uh >> why they're there for >> why they're there and Yep. >> Yeah, I think that would be very helpful. Um the the situation is though, you know, enrollment was

106done here and it was done fine uh using using this building. So when they're there for enrollment, that is not something that has been added on to. I mean, it's nice that it's down there perhaps, but it it does work out here as well. So I be careful that we're not having enrollment numbers touched. And then why are they coming down there? I I know that they they have clothing in there now, but there's other places that people can get clothing. I I just it's like the school system is supposed to be everything for everybody all the time sometimes and I'm just like 187,000. But I think Stephanie that was that that's good to get the numbers because I don't know how much we've really analyzed it since we've opened it. Again, it has nothing

107to do with staff. It just has to do with the facility and is there a cheaper place or or can we or can we make it can we limp along for three years and then move them into say Andrew Buchanan a school that's closing is just some thoughts I had. >> Okay. >> I'm curious to know um are there specific questions that the administration could answer in two weeks time that could help bring clarity to this issue? I don't know how many other people are struggling with. >> I would I would go next Wednesday. Go ask the people who do it every day. That's the best information you're going to get is from the people that live there every day. >> Would it help to have even a report back on that >> at our

108next meeting? >> Actually, I have uh >> to understand the value of >> Yeah, we have Andrea Mills is actually going to be coming to the board. We She's on Mr. Bigger's list to uh present to the board about you know the data. I did I did pull it up so far this year there's 631 uh visitors since um August and uh 322 of them were walk-ins 309 were by appointment and they have it broken down you know what languages they speak you know 201 speak English 261 Spanish 156 Haitian um but they they have broken down by month and and total >> were they there for enrollment though >> uh they they they I'd have to look. They have a tab that shows uh each individual student and what they were there for. >>

109Yeah, I think it's helpful to know because I mean you can set up an enrollment center and and and have an interpreter there too, you know. I mean it's just >> Yeah, I I agree that when we have Andrew Buchanan, that's the perfect place for some of these services and so on. But until then, >> 187,000 if you're willing to spend it. >> I mean, yeah. What would it what would it cost for comparable office space elsewhere? Is there, you know, you you've you said, well, we used to have it here, but is there actually space to do what they're doing there? Here, I don't think so. Um, so are there other questions that we want the administration to bring in two weeks time >> for your sake? When do you have to know by

110when's the lease up with FCADC? >> That is still who holds that, correct? >> Yeah, it is. It's uh through June 30th. So, we could delay this a month. We don't on urgent crisis on time frame, but yeah, we could go another month or so, but if we're if we're going to make a different decision, then I we need some lead time. >> Oh, for sure. >> Do you suggest going as a board member and visiting there? I mean, I >> Yeah, go in the open house if you can on Wednesday at >> 4. The open house is >> food and you know, different people. I think it's good to see the how how it operates >> like on a non-openhouse day. Yeah. >> Are are you suggesting that the lease be less than 3

111years possibly? Is that >> Well, I don't know. Uh are there other possibilities? >> Well, it would take time to explore other possibilities. It would seem to me. So, I don't know what the, you know, possibility of a shorter lease so that other possibilities. Do you think Mike would do that? >> I'm sorry. Do you think FCADC would do that? >> Like a one year >> just so we have the opportunity? >> Yep. >> Cuz I don't know that's a decision you want to make without all the information in 2 months. >> What space is at the armory? I mean, what is there? There were offices over there cuz I was in them. They're they're they're not as nice as down there, but they're not 5,000 a month either. >> We already own those. Yep.

112There'll be space at the armory >> and and it would still be a non school building which was one of the >> reasons why they promoted the idea of that building was that some u parents and people prefer not to have to come to a school. >> Sure. Well, and I think the armory is more non-intimidating than finding the parking and figuring out and going into this fancy building which is very nice. It's very nice. >> Okay. >> I prefer the downtown location, but I I agree that getting in there initially. >> It's rough. >> Oh, we got you can't enter through the street side. So, >> well, you got the armory which would be free and you got six. If we do it for a year, it's $62,000. >> So, we'll bring the data.

113We'll have the open house and then we'll collect information and you guys can make a decision at the next meeting or we could table it and wait till April. That's an option as well. Yeah. And as far as downtown is concerned, there's people who downtown's not as convenient as somewhere else is. >> You got to find parking. >> What is the outreach? What is the outreach center that um Keystone Health has down there? What do they do there? I mean, don't they have >> the navigator? That's >> Yeah, the navigator. What What do they do there? >> So, they mostly do Go ahead. uh the Keystone Navigator, they they provide a navigator there that helps us get our students into our schools quicker. We were having delays um with our students because they would do

114register and then they wouldn't call or they wouldn't go to get their physicals or their vaccinations. And this has really helped us quite a bit getting our kids in right away within a day or two uh to our schools where it may have been a week or two or even longer prior. >> But won't they continue even if we weren't downtown, won't they continue having their navigator place? I think it's working so well for for us and for them that wherever we would have the uh CEC that they would I would hope that they would uh >> join up. >> Yeah. >> Okay. Gotcha. >> Okay. Thank you. Moving to eight policy and legislation. The policies with no changes are listed there for you. Um any discussion from administration on the student recruitment policy change

115and then >> the next one we do get to discuss. >> Okay. Good. >> So we have uh a new policy for staff members regarding electronic communications and then we have the student one that we wanted to bring up. I think Mike Haydock brought a a topic up early in the fall and we had just changed it. We said, "Hey, let's let's bring this up later in the spring." We get close to our annual review. And so we have we have two two policies. Um but the the paramount one is to talk about the student one. And I know Mr. Bren Eyes magically walked out now. No, hopefully it wasn't for for that reason. I don't think it is. Um and I'm not going to speak for Deb um Luffy or Mr. Brent eyes, but

116I do believe that there is an appetite to um be more restrictive with the cell phones uh in the high school. >> And so the language is reflected in the change for the student electronic device, which essentially follows what the middle school currently does, which means it's in your backpack, in your locker, and that's it. That's the significant change that you will see in the policy that there is administrative support for if the board wants to go down that path. So that is what you would see in that policy as a change. Right now there's the green and red zone which you can hallway cafeteria you can have your phone in in the classroom and not use it in the classroom but in the hallway and cafeteria you can use it. We want to take

117that step back and put them in the lockers. >> I believe that's the solution lockers. >> Yeah. Yeah. So basically bellto bell beginning of the day to end of day is our uh recommendation at the policy level right now. Do you feel there'll be enforcement of that? >> That's a Luda question. >> Well, >> no, it's good. It's good >> having having any policy that is not enforced negates all other policies in my opinion because if you have a policy and you don't enforce that policy, well, the next policy, >> it's just the policy. Yeah, >> the administration is ready for a stronger stance. >> Good. >> So, Mr. Breny, I actually said I was like, "You're going to miss the cell phone, you know, and he's like, I'll catch up tomorrow." Um, but um,

118no, he actually feels very strongly that like he's ready for this. >> Okay. Any further discussion either from administration or from the board? Well, it seems to me like you're just getting ahead of what's being proposed and going through the Senate now because it's going to enact in 2728. So, you're already instead of getting your hand forced then, right, you're getting ahead of the curve. Correct. And >> and also I I think I said this uh on the radio other places. It took us 18 years to get to this problem. You spend a little time talking about it, getting there. You communicate, you know, it's not as abrupt. So, we started talking about this last year. You've brought it up. There's now more of a a movement of other people talking about it. It's more

119of an appropriate time. I think you called it draconian measures I believe Mike Kadock last time. >> If I remember correctly, do you remember that meeting? I >> remember that far back. >> Okay. Uh so I do have a comment about policy 223 and I have several comments on the the electronic devices uh policy. So on 223 the only thing I would ask is and I don't know if it's makes any sense but I see a lot of these e scooters out that are not ebikes and you know but they're around and I don't know if kids in the middle school or elementary schools are using but I thought maybe that's you could add ecooters as well but it's no big deal. >> It's a good one. Uh but 22 237 um I've been doing

120a lot of thinking about this policy and um I like the revisions that are made but any policy like that's just been discussed that doesn't >> um isn't enforcable. It's it's dead on arrival, you know. So um but I'd like to see the following happen. Um, one is there's a policy 235. It's student rights and responsibility. Currently, the policy addresses dress code, which is another policy that is it's just there. Um, >> absolutely. >> Warns against obscene language. Okay, I like that. Shouldn't be saying that stuff in school. but it doesn't mention anything about cell phone usage. So, I think that's an or oper opportunity to fix that. Number two, the student handbook. Any discussion about electronic devices is buried behind issues such as, and these are all important issues, asbests, homeless assistant, pest management.

121They're important, but they are really exceptions. And I would say that cell phone usage is the rule rather than the exception. These what I see and the handbook policy the handbook references policy 237 kind but it the the wording is really really confusing and kind of just needs to be fixed. Okay. Number three. I I like the um however you decide to secure the devices is great. Um logistics you your operation is going to work that out. But what I want to know is how it's to be enforced. Um coincidentally I subbed in the classroom just yesterday at the high school. I attempted to enforce the policy and uh it was a challenge. Okay. I had to tell the same student three times to put the phone away. >> Did Did you pull out the

122policy and read it to them? >> No, but I I could have said it by memory. But anyways, >> but after I got to the third time, I sensed it was becoming confrontational. Mhm. >> And uh I made it this far in life knowing how to deescalate situations and and it didn't need to be about me, my ego against the students, you know, and all that stuff. So, but I'll tell you what, after that confrontation, the energy in the classroom was totally negative. >> I felt it and I'm sure it resonated with every student. Then I'm thinking if a teacher has to go through that with every class, >> this is how we're going to start our class. Okay, now put your phone away and then all of a sudden now let's get back to

123teaching. Uh that just really doesn't work. And u so I'd like to know how it's going to be enforced. And I'd like to know what all the teachers are thinking about how it's enforced. One other thing I mention I want to mention about the change there's a paragraph uh yeah in the policy it says uh under the purpose you read it says uh the board has determined that the presence of mobile device blah blah blah has the potential to distract students I would say and teachers from their educational mission. Students have a mission to learn. The teachers have a a mission to teach. So, they should be on equal ground there. >> You're gonna send an email with some of this, right? >> I I I I'll give Tammy this paper. >> You're supposed to

124be taking copious notes. >> No, like I said, I've been doing a lot of thinking and uh here I am. So the last thing I would say is um it' be a wonderful opportunity that when the ninth grade cohort from the middle school comes here to the high school that over four years we track their academic performance to determine does this really work? Is there a an increase in academic performance? Is there a reduction in behavioral issues, emotional issues? All that stuff. So, I think it's a it's a great laboratory to be able to look at that kind of data. So, and I'm done. Thank you very much. There you go. >> Other comments? If not, moving on to nine safety. Oh, yes. Go ahead. >> I have one about the employee. >> Oh, okay.

125>> One. I'm curious to know um the policy says that >> basically says employees >> form >> can't use employees can't use their phones to take photos unless it's approved by the principal, >> right? >> How is that actually working in the buildings? Because I I know teachers are taking photos at times because I received them on class dojo. They're getting approval for every photo or like >> this brand new policy. Brand new. This is brand new policy. This is not >> Okay. So, how will that work in the future? Have have we had principles and teachers review this policy yet? So we we actually when we were writing this policy a little bit later in the policy it does talk about approved apps that uh we know our teachers have on their phones uh

126you know class dojo and even their own their email and uh we do address it later in the policy that um use of the uh device for example Dojo is acceptable because it's an approved td resource. >> Mhm. >> Um, and you know, our our teachers communicate, I believe, more now with with parents than ever before because of that that app. So, um, that was a great question, but that's the example and and we actually, uh, spent a good bit of time reviewing that because of of that very, uh, question that you just asked. Have have at least a few of the principles and teachers given some feedback on this or >> we we have not we're this this policy is more of a position of protection >> and also prevention. We do not want

127text messaging, Snapchat, which is where we have seen in the past communications where basically saying you're done with that >> and if you violate the policy there are consequences to that. But the encouragement to use the software that's approved or the as Kurt's saying the application is where we want to channel you to. We didn't have a policy to that effect before which puts us at a pretty high risk. There are some states saying absolutely no communication on any personal device across the board. >> Sure. >> So we don't want to go that far just yet. But um >> I think the dojo stuff is positive overall. >> Yes. So >> yes. Yeah. Okay. >> Again, any other questions or comments? Thanks. >> Okay. Moving to uh 10. There's nothing under nine. Safety and security.

12810. Privilege of the floor. And um I don't have the list. >> Nobody went to get the lists. It's a very packed house. So >> you can probably ask who's here today. >> Okay. Who who signed up? >> Okay. >> I got an alibi though on you said. Yeah. I I'm interested also on uh how the students feel about the uh cell phone policy being changed. Um I was hoping Amir would be here today or >> could you pull them okay before we vote? >> I know how they >> I'm just kidding. >> Exactly. >> I don't even ask. >> Okay, Miss Jordan. >> In in regards to the engagement center, maybe to help Dr. Diller a little bit. I've been in it. It is beautiful. Um, I think we should keep it and I

129understand the cost. If you find something for 2500, I'm going to say for my tax bill or somebody else's tax bill, what does that come out to when it comes to assessment? >> Sure. So, let me let you think about that and I can go into email. Uh, I'm going to present some numbers to you and they're your numbers. And it is the worst case scenario, but it really isn't. Um, my husband said, "Why are you going to do this? uh when we build the buildings, okay, the schools, uh we're going to have land to sell and we're we may have state monies. My numbers tonight don't reflect that. So, let me go. The existing annual debt service is $1.6 million. The proposed annual debt service involving the new school could be 32 million. That's

130according to your amateurization chart. If you take the assessment of a homeowner who is obligated to pay 2,000 annually to the school district based on 32 million in the annual debt service, this homeowner will pay 90 cents a day towards the encumbered debt service. If you take the assessment of a homeowner who's obligated to pay $4,000 annually to the school district based on 32 million in annual debt service, which is me, this homeowner will pay $1.80 a day towards the encumbered debt service. If you take the assessment of a homeowner who is obligated to pay $6,000 annually to the school district based on 32 million in the annual debt service, the homeowner will pay $360 a day towards the encumbered debt service and so on down the line. The largest rateayers, which are our businesses,

131will shoulder the biggest part of this debt. If these businesses don't complain, none of us should complain investing in a child's future. A180 a day over 7 days time comes to $1260 a week. As of right now, and this is for everyone here, our daily expenses far outpace such a debt. Look at the price of gasoline right now. Debt is a fixed cost unless one finances it in order to lower it, which you could do because I did it personally in my own life. Vendor costs go up. Um to this is to you superintendent bigger. Safety packs are paid by the taxpayer. PTO's fund raise for teachers and students. And you know what I'm talking about. >> Thank you, Mrs. Jordan. >> And I just want to shout out to the students who in closing,

132kudos to the cash students who took a stand against ICE. These students realize that ICE these students realize the ICE isn't needed in our quiet neighborhood streets. Thank you. >> Okay. Um information is next on the Oh. Oh, okay. Sorry. >> So, I didn't plan on speaking tonight, but I heard Mr. Haydock make a great point earlier about um students perspective on this new phone policy. Um oh, I'm Parker Christopher, by the way, for who doesn't know. Um and so I'm going to represent the students tonight. I'm going to speak my own personal views and also um other students as an overall student body. The students probably won't receive this policy well. Um and I feel like students do have a knowledge especially with our health classes and um education from the school district about

133how phones aren't so great for a lot of students mental health. Um they aren't great for their distractions in the classroom. students believe they realize that but they put it aside compared to pulling out their phone and scrolling on TikTok and getting that amusement. Um they don't see it as that big of an impact. I see the impact. Um I think this policy is going to be for the greater benefit of the students. Will it suck for me personally? Um in the beginning, yes, I I do pull out my phone and I scroll. Um I'm not the best with it and I feel like this will help students as well. um benefit benefit from that. Um it'll help our education, but I feel like definitely the total student body's perspective on it, it's definitely not

134going to be great at first, 100%. Um and it probably won't be for a long time, if not at all. Um, but I feel like it's it's a good idea and students will just have to grow to understand why you guys are making this decision or possibly making this decision. Um, and how it will for and I feel like once we get older, we will definitely realize how this is definitely going to benefit us and our education and the building as a whole. Thank you. >> Thank you. >> Is there anyone else? Wonderful. >> Thank you. Okay, moving to information. The district enrollment summary and the AP texts that are in review are listed there. Uh, lastly, the new business discussion only. Are there any topics that any board members want to bring up for

135discussion for future action? >> Well, this would Oh, sorry, Sher. Please go ahead. >> No, go ahead. You go ahead. Do you want to do rock paper scissors or >> you got you go? >> I was just wondering if it would be possible for us and it doesn't have to be a presentation. Um I'm just curious how attendance is doing, how truency rates are doing, how we're looking at and what things we're enacting if there are issues. Um, I I I only asked that because I've been seeing presentations in some of the other organizations that I'm involved with and I have friends on other school boards and that seems to be uh a relatively huge problem in a lot of other school districts and I know it was here and I know we were trying

136to do things to to work towards changing that and not that it needs to be something that is done in the next couple of weeks but I just would like to get it on the radar like even in a Friday folder with some information instead of a presentation. It's just something that I was curious about and maybe some of the other board members would be too because I know we had talked about it previously. >> On the uh website of each of the elementary schools, attendance is listed with a percentage. As a matter of fact, the percentage is 93 to 94% except for Scotland which is 87% if my memory serves me correctly. Um but it is on the website if you go to the individual schools >> for high school and middle school. >>

137No, it is not consistently. There are there are some >> I think maybe middle school is >> but high school I know is I'm almost positive is not I just looked at that recently. >> So I know the middle school is included on their site and I added some in the Friday folder prior to when we talked about habitually truent students. But we can definitely give you some updated um for example like student attendance improvement conferences. Those are required after several very few um unexcused absences. So we all jotted that down to give you an update on Friday folder at least to start. >> Um for example, I checked on the attendance of one middle school today um uh versus yesterday just to see if there was a difference. We were at 92.7% yesterday and

13892.4% today. So we can capture daily attendance every day. >> That's great. >> Thank you so much. >> And and high school, we can get that same. Good. I just wanted to I just wanted to clarify for the board in the audience that when we're talking about this education center, I would prefer that we find a cheaper place or use the armory. I'm I am not saying we close it down. I am saying let's look at the alternatives and then if we save the 187,000 I'm not saying we're saving that money and putting it somewhere. I'd like to see it go for kids and instruction for kids. That is all I'm saying in terms of maybe I'd be getting some emails about that. And so I'm just saying I needed to clarify. Thank you. >>

139There is one other thing it just occurred to me. I had the opportunity to work the CASD minithon that they did the bingo um over the weekend. Um and they had a lot of people there and there were a lot of students there and they had their shirts on and it was a really good experience. I was working for the community center part of it. Uh but I did want to say I was very impressed because every game was sponsored by CMS government, Chambersburg uh high school government, this club, that club, everybody. So the student organizations within the school district were making sure that they bu or um supported these games. So the payouts so everything they made that day was pretty much profit and the donations that they had in raffles. So it's really

140it's really encouraging to see that uh kind of volunteering and that kind of community base to actually see it in action. uh we don't get to do that a lot as far as the students, at least I don't with my work schedule to get to some of the stuff they do during the day, but it was really cool to see that and I they made a good bit of money for that. So, I was really glad to that I got to see that in action. So, kudos to all of the different organizations that donated to that bingo so they could uh give those prizes out to the people that were there. >> I want to add one more thing. I was at the basketball tournament at the auxiliary gym for two days and there are

141new bleachers in there and it just looks like a brand new gymnasium. I mean, it's awesome. And those bleachers made such a difference. And so, we just need to have a date on when the holes in the walls are going to be taken care of. And when I know that date, I can just keep plugging away on how wonderful that gymnasium is because it took us a while to get those bleachers. It really did as this board. So, it was wonderful. Everybody had a seat. >> Any any other uh discussion items? >> This isn't discussion, but I just wanted to congratulate Mr. Bigger or whoever's responsible for that Monday morning motivator. I looked at the video and that's a nice way to start the week. >> Yeah, we had an award for that. So, thank

142you for pointing that out. Yeah, Bev does most of the heavy lifting on that. I lay out the agenda for those. >> Wonderful. >> Well, and I think your podcasts are also very inspirational. Okay. Um, unless anyone has anything else to say, Journ meetings adjourn before 9:00. >> You know, I was really planning that we would be doing that that