001of directors. Tuesday, April 22nd. Please rise and join me for the pledge of allegiance and the moment of silence. Pledge 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. Thank you. [Music] Um in a little bit of reverse the order. I know I mentioned it before we adjourned but uh at the conclusion of last two weeks ago our previous board meeting the the board met in executive session uh to discuss uh negotiations and personnel matters. And then this evening before tonight's board meeting, we met in executive session again for personnel and real estate matters. Uh item 2.03. A motion and second to adopt this evening's agenda, please. Second. Motion by Mrs. Scal. Second by Mr. McKe.
002Questions, discussions, comments, revisions? Hearing none. All those in favor signify by saying I. I. I. Opposed. Eyes have it. So move. Superintendence report. Mr. Bigger. Yep. Thank you, Mr. Norcross. Um, just reminder that staff appreciation's coming up May 5th to 9th. So that's right around the corner. So if you see staff members, just thank them. If you remember last year, I just wish we could all have one week and we just thank all the staff. I swear there's a new appreciation for somebody uh and something every week and I can't keep up. So, just thank a staff member. May 5th through 9th uh on the horizon. Isn't principal the week after? I can't keep track, Ed. I know it's per um administrative assistant date tomorrow. So, um I do want to update you on the
003federal department of education. Um if you remember last time, we received communications. Um the Pennsylvania um Secretary of Education has certified that the schools in Pennsylvania have met the requirements set forth federally requiring us to certify we're following laws. So as of now, uh each school did not have to certify. The state did that for us. There is a pending lawsuit regarding some of the federal changes. So we will all stay tuned to see what happens with the federal lawsuit. Um I had the privilege of a student who listens to board meetings, every one of them. He's a ninth grader. His name is Parker. and hopefully he's probably listening tonight. Um, I got to know him. I met him in the library and he started questioning me about decisions we were making as a school
004district and he's in ninth grade and I was like intrigued by this and uh so he asked to shadow me for a morning. So uh last week Parker came in and followed me around all morning and it was a wonderful experience. He came to every meeting. He was in an architect meeting. He was with me at breakfast. He was with me at lunch. We talked about cyber school. We talked about technology because he wanted the Chromebook, not the iPad. We talked about curriculum department. We went down and he was engaged and offering information at every meeting. So, great job, Parker. Uh he made my my year by reaching out wanting so he's going to be a future public servant. He's going to probably be a future board me board uh member. And he is going
005to ask us, can a student have a seat at the table but not vote in the future? And I think in the past boards used to have a student sit here. He would love to be that student. So, I said you have to go through your school and and the principal to get back to that. But, um certainly, uh we had a great conversation. So, I want to thank Parker for making my day, but also reaching out and just wanting to be an involved student and had lots of opinions. Um uh challenges. If you haven't seen this schoolboard member, it's a really great document annually the state board of education puts out. I want to highlight a few things in there because it just basically says we're not alone. But the same three challenges every
006school district has faced every year for the last three years have been staffing shortages, uh budget pressures, specifically cyber school and facilities and then mental health and lack of resources in counties for such mental health. When you dive into the report a little bit further, and I didn't know this one, PA is the seventh largest state that has enrollment of students. So, there are only six states that have more students than Pennsylvania. 90% of the students in Pennsylvania do attend a public school. Special ed has increased to 20%. And if you remember, I think Mrs. Sullivan presented that, we're around the 17. Uh, so we're lagging a little behind. Good there. ELLL is at 5.9% in the state. we're at 15%. And then the Pennsylvania, and this was a new one for me, is the
007fifth um highest district that requires local property taxes. If you rank the states on where dollars come to fund schools, local property taxes were fifth. There's only four states that require local dollars more than Pennsylvania. Other states have more revenues from state and federal. So, I was surprised by that when I didn't realize we were so heavily reliant on local taxes. Uh, and the last item related to that is, uh, it highlighted how schools have been very judicious. If you look at a 10-year look at cost drivers in school districts in Pennsylvania, guess what? They are pensions, cyber charter reform, and special ed. And special ed has never been funded fully by the federal government. It's always been about half. Cyber charter is not a decision we made. That was a state decision. And certainly
008pensions are not a decision we made either. So when they did a nice analysis, they said local schools are doing a great job of controlling costs. These are the three biggest drivers where we have no control. So great report if you hadn't had a chance. So I do thank the SBA for providing that. End of report. All right. Thank you, Mr. Bigger. Um I did a Google search. So principal's day is on May 1st. So staff appreciate your principal on May 1st. and in principles appreciate your staff the following week. I know you do it all day long every week, every year, all year, but uh that's the sequence. So, um um my official board report tonight, and I'm not going to use the terminology, my old term, but uh schools of distinction by 2030.
009Uh, I'm going to sound like a broken record for the next couple months, maybe a couple years, but you've seen a lot of presentations, very in very good presentations from our professionals, architects, from our staff, from our administration. Uh, lots of options, lots of scenarios, a lot of deep thought and discussions, and there's many more to come. Um, you know, executive session topics for the board when it comes to real estate and contracts. uh and there's going to be a lot more public content. Uh my point being with schools of distinction by 2030 is the presentations we've seen for about the past two months have totaled up to about 200 million. However, those presentations have been focused primarily around the the larger components which is the 456 facility and the 78 facility. When I say
010facility, that's building location and everything with it. However, there's also one elementary school to add on to that. So, this schools of distinction by 2030 is uh hopefully I'll be a conservative estimate. It's a $240 million uh investment in schools of distinction by 2030. So hopefully sometime we get a presentation on what this logo is going to look like so we can so we can really start advertising this $240 million investment that the taxpayers are going to have to kick in for. Um and with that PSSA start tomorrow. Today today. Oh I thought we gave them a day off after Easter break. Went right at it. Goodness. Okay. Well uh good luck to students and staff and everyone else. and PSSAs are over. And I don't know how it is now, but you know, when
011Woodman and I were in school, by the time it got to May, we were we were focused on summer vacation. But with that, that concludes my report. U item 4.01, safety and security update. Chief Carter, and I think we have a special guest. So with us tonight we have our new chamber burgers district K9 officer Will Conford and our K9 Gunner. So Gunner came to us um oh about month and a half ago, two months ago. Uh Will's been been working with Gunner. So this is the project and and the idea that uh Mr. Bigger and I came up with more so him than me. Um, so what we did was we looked at this through uh the eyes of an SRO from Northeastern uh high school. He had a K9 from K uh Sector
012K9 in Texas uh which most of them are rescues. Uh we looked at grants and we actually uh received some grant funding to hire an officer and then hire uh Gunner as a K9. Uh the K9 was a rescue. They had him for about a year. Uh at that point in time, uh we sent officer Confer down there for two weeks to marry up with with Gunner and actually do training and and be certified uh as a narcotics handler. Uh so what I'm going to do is I'm going to let Officer Conford talk if if uh Gunner will allow him just tell you a little bit about our our K9 program and where we're going to go from here. Hey, sit. He wants he wants the mic. He's thinking it's all He knows he knows
013the ball's in my pocket. So, um, so, uh, Chief Carter came to us here at the beginning of the school year and presented this this opportunity for one of us to volunteer and apparently I was the only one crazy enough to do it. Um, I really like the idea that this foundation uses rescue dogs and Gunner is Gunner is a surrender. He's from a family in Colorado, so he's been he's been around the block a little bit. He is three, almost four years old. He'll be four in May. He is trained in narcotics detection and he can detect heroin, cocaine, methamphetamine, and marijuana. Um, he was not certified in marijuana until the day before we left Texas and it took all of about 10 minutes to do it. It's a pretty impressive process to watch.
014Um he's got a pretty good nose on him. Um he's been he's been getting a little bit of work here in the in the middle schools and a lot more training than than actual searches at this point, but but uh we have to do um 16 hours of training a month. So we try and get that in a little bit at a time. Just makes it a little bit easier. Um we've had a lot of help from the community. Um, Franklin Hardware was able to secure a uh donation for uh food for him through Diamond Diamond Dog Food Company. So, they're they're supplying all of his dog food. Um, uh, Creatures Great and Small, uh, of course, volunteered the veterinary the normal veterinary services. Uh, so they're they've got that taken care of. and Protection
015for Pause, which was actually a uh it's actually a local nonprofit that we were not aware or I was not aware about until till we till we started this. Uh they donated a lot of the uh the heat sensing equipment that goes into the cage that we have in the in the uh police vehicle. So um we also uh acquired some uh training aids that will be extremely helpful in the program aspect of it. Um there's it's basically a ball launcher in some boxes that really kind of sets sets the mood for the younger for the younger crowd when it when it comes to showing off his abilities. So, um, we have that all ready to go and we're hoping to we're hoping to next year get a good a good elementary and even even
016secondary program uh together and and go out and do some programs for for the younger kids and even some of the older kids. So, any questions? So, you say Gunner was rescued? Yes. How old was he when he was unrescued? And was he completely untrained? And he looks incredibly trained now and well behaved. So I'm impressed. He Well, it's because he knows again he knows his ball is in my pocket. So um no, he was uh he went to Sector K9 in July of last year and he was training from July until u well until till I got him in February or end of January. But uh he was he was officially fully trained other than in the marijuana by what was it was somewhere in October I think is when they called us. But
017he was a year old when you when he was he was rescued. He was he he had just turned three when he was rescued. So he'll be he'll be four in May. So he's got a little bit later start than an average canine. But uh but he's he's pretty eager and uh it's it's just all fun to him. So, so he just he just has a blast doing it. I'm sure the elementary kids and even the old Walder will love having that dog around. Oh, yeah. Yeah. Everybody's constantly asking to pet him, which unfortunately not really allowed to do that, but at least not in the in the large crowd sense. Um he gets he gets a little nervous in in large crowds, but we're getting him used to that now. He's been to a
018couple of basketball games and he did pretty well and and uh and he's starting to get more and more used to the kids in the halls uh now that we've been at the middle schools since we got back. So, but we'll be moving to the high school here shortly uh for our main office. And uh we hope to do at least a couple of searches, if not several searches every week. Um we've I've already put it out to all of the all the principles that he's certified. I'm certified. We're ready to go. And all they have to do is give us a call and we'll show up. Thank you. Welcome aboard both of you. Yeah. Other questions, chief. Anything else? I have two for you. Just um how do people respond to to Gunner? Like
019since you've been out now and then what are his cues for you to know something's up near a locker? Okay. Um all the kids love him. They're just they're they're just, "Oh, look at the puppy. Oh, he's so cute." And all that. Oh, can I pet him? And unfortunately, I have to say no to that one. Um, but uh we we actually were doing a doing a search in the in the high school. Uh just decided to do a random one just to just to get him started. And um his alert, he has he has multiple alerts, but the main thing is what you're looking for is not necessarily an alert. It's called a change in behavior. And what he what he normally will do if it's a if it's low down in his general
020air, general vicinity as far as height from the floor, he will he will lay down and just stare at wherever he can smell it coming from. So, but he does not do that until he's been given his command. So, and we've we've had that uh we've we've we've been able to kind of prove that to ourselves when when I'm getting things ready to be planted and he's sitting right there. He can smell them. He's he is smelling them, but he's not doing his actual alert. So, his normal alert, he'll lay down and he'll stare at the area where he believes the scent is coming from or where he's smelling it from. And depending on other areas, if it's up high, sometimes he'll sit and and stare at it. Sometimes if it's kind of a tight
021space, he'll just stand, but he stands almost completely motionless except for the fact that he's got a little bit of a tremble because he knows his ball's coming. So, as soon as soon as he knows the ball's coming, he's he's he's getting excited for it. Oh, yeah. So, yeah, we can do that. Thank you. Yeah. And just a couple other things like it's it's very distinct when he actually alerts it. It's very hard to miss. I mean, he he literally tremors when he actually gets ready or, you know, he's very excitable, such as that change of behavior there. Good boy. Just a couple things we've also done. We've done some bus training where we've done inside and outside finds on buses. Uh we've done auditoriums, we've done classrooms, um you know, locker searches. So, and
022again, the whole thing about the the student thing is is, you know, whenever we are able to do presentations in classrooms, that's going to be part of it. It's just a matter of the last thing we would want is him to be scared and actually bite somebody or or us have an issue. So, we're easing them into it. The hallway, uh, the cafeterias, the basketball games. Um, and I got to be honest, most of the staff is just as eager as the kids are, and we do get in trouble. Uh, I get in trouble all the time because he's not around enough. So, we're working on that. But I I do think, you know, as you guys can see, this is going to be an extremely beneficial program for us. And it's, don't get me
023wrong, you know, we want to keep drugs out of schools, but I do think it's about the positive nature and the positiveness of of what we're creating here with the kids and the police officers and, you know, having that benefit, you know, in in our schools. Um, you know, you can definitely see the change of behavior when the kids are around. even he when he's doing search is just the kids watching it and and the for lack of better terms a little bit of a dog and pony show when they see it they realize it they avoid it but they stop and they watch and then you can hear other kids people in kids in classrooms come out because they want to see the dog so it's extremely I think it's going to be an
024extremely positive program uh for our district and and I will tell you there's not very many canines in the state of Pennsylvania um and where we got him from sector K9 they've been phenomenal he's going to get reertified in June uh this year. The other thing we may look at doing eventually is cross trainining him in firearms detection, too. So, that's something we may look at, but we want to ease him into it, make sure him and Will are comfortable with that. Uh the principles have been extremely open and and uh you know, uh wanting us to come into the school. So, as we go through this this process, it's going to it's going to open a lot of doors for us for sure, even in the community alike. So, any any questions at all?
025All right. Thank you. Wonderful. Thank you. Wonderful. Thank you. Welcome aboard, Gunnar. [Applause] All right. 4.02 Student Government Reports. CMS first. No cashes. Cash is first. All right. So, hello. My name is Omar. I'm an 11th grade student at Cashes and I'm the student government vice president this year. Can we confirm your mic real quick? Yeah. There you go. You have to hold it close. There you go. Thank you. All right. Yeah. Okay, so a few things to talk about today. Um, talk about the field trip that we did to DC, upcoming academic happenings at Cashes, and a few extracurricular events that are going on. So, first I think it was last month on March 18th, we took a trip to the national to the National Mall in Washington DC and we looked at the
026Lincoln Memorial, the Vietnam War Memorial, the Washington Monument, ju like just a few cool places and a lot of museums like the National African-American History Museum and it was a good experience. We learned a lot and we had a lot of fun. There were about 40 of us and three teachers. And um a few upcoming events on the academic calendar in in April, May, we're super busy with testing. APIB testing that should be starting on May 5th. That's in two weeks, I believe. And then Keystone should also be on May 12th and 13th. And then color day, um it's next Friday. That's always something that excites the student body. And then also Special Olympics, that's on May 9th. We've had to change the date for that multiple times due to multiple conflicts, but that should
027be happening very soon. And I think that's all. Yeah. Thank you. CMS CMS. Okay. NJOTC, please. Going back all the way to March, the first thing we did was the AMI. It's a chance for cadetses to showcase everything they have learned from the beginning of the year. This year we had 130 cadetses and about 300 people in the audience, the most we've ever had so far. We had we hosted academic team brain ball. Four cadetses were carefully chosen from the academic team that got to compete against six other schools and they won. Now they're going to get to go to the national championship on April 26th at the Naval Academy. The cash's drone competition was the same day as the brain brawl. It was our very first competition. We competed against the six other schools.
028Not everybody got to compete because there wasn't enough time. We placed fourth and we did PT at camp south to increase our numbers for next year and we participate in all many other events that will increase our numbers for next year. Right now we have over 200 cadets enrolled in our program. We might need to get a third instructor. Hello, I'm Cadet Jacka. First thing I'm going to talk about is orientering nationals. So, this is a trip that our orienteering team took down to Alabama um down in Pelim. And this was a big step up for our orienteering team compared to last year since last year we did not qualify to go to nationals. We didn't place high enough in our area championship. However, this year hard work paid off. We had a really good
029team captain who organized a lot of stuff and planning. Um, and once we actually placed to go down to nationals, he organized a lot of fundraising, which I'll talk about some of that more later. Um, but this was just a great opportunity for us to get a new experience. Like I said, a big step up for the uh orienteering team. As you can see, we had two teams enter junior varsity. We placed 17th in the nation out of 42 teams. And then varsity placed 21st out of 44. All right. Next thing I want to talk about, another competition we had was the Seafford drill meet. This is on March 22nd. So drill meets, if you don't know what that is, um we go down and there's various events such as drill and also incorporates academics
030and physical fitness. Um for this we had to pivot a little bit. We went down under the anticipation that this was going to incorporate our first year cadet teams as well as um exhibition teams. So that's more of our tricks with like rifles and it's less strict drill. It's more of the fancy stuff um that we heard last minute was actually not going to be involved. But one thing RTC has taught us is how to pivot. So what we did was we pivoted, incorporated um what we needed to do, put in our teams that actually needed to compete and we did pull out first place in that drill meet which was the area championship. So we won first in that. Um, there's also the MS4s, the fourth year cadets, last drone meet with us, the
031last traveling one. So, it's kind of sad to say bye to them, but they've had a good time. So, they've taught us a lot, so we should be ready to tackle next year. All right, second drill meet. This one's a little bit bigger. We had the Nationals drill meet, which is usually held down in Pensacola, Florida. However, because of budget cuts and stuff like that, we were not able to go. They canceled that. We had to pivot again and do a virtual one. So, we had two Navy um active duty enlisted people come help us and they were our monitors and um yeah, they helped us record and whatnot. We entered um all of our normal teams except NS1's. They don't compete at this level, but the exhibition teams were able to compete here. And
032we've been to nationals one other time. That was our first time. So, that was kind of a a guinea pig round, a little warm-up. So, this year when we went back, we did a whole lot better. We placed 15th overall in the nation. Just incorporating drill, we placed 11th. So if you take out PT and academics, we actually placed 11th in the nation. Armed regulation is a good thing to note because we got fifth place, which top five in this event bring home a trophy. So that's our first trophy from a national event we've ever earned. So that was a big accomplishment for us. Um and then also notably all of our regulation drill, which is the normal stuff, not any of the fancy flipping rifles and stuff like that. Um they all place in
033the top 10 in the nation. So we had a good instructor taught us how to drill really well. As you can see by the results, we placed really high. A trip that me and Cadet Institute recently took was to the Naval Academy visit where we went and we had two active duty Navy enzens, which is the first officer rank in the Navy. They just graduated from the Naval Academy and were waiting for a job assignment. Um, they took us around on a tour. It's a very nice campus. It's definitely very expensive. Um, but the good thing is you learned that if you go there, Navy pays for all of it, so you don't got to worry about any of that. Um, afterwards too, we got to go um take a nice little just kind of
034stroll around the surrounding area in Annapolis. Got to eat food. It's really good food down there, so that was definitely worth it. All right. One of our most recent events was the military ball. So, this is something we hold each year and um it's a good way for cadetses to be publicly recognized for all their accomplishments. Our company, we learn things like if we got distinguished unit or stuff like that. It's just a good time for cadetses and the whole unit to be recognized. This was actually um one of the biggest balls we've had. I believe it's the biggest. We had most get most guests in attendance. Sorry. Um as you can see, we had 15 cadets receive civic awards. So, these are award awards from civilian organizations. Um, I think this is the most
035civic awards we've had go out to, which these were the ones that carried over if we didn't give them out already at the AMI. We gave the rest out here. And then six guests were also awarded scholarships. We had two um Navy RTC scholarships. Um almost half a million dollars was given out, so that was a lot. Um those recipients were our commanding officer Addison Hollandet and then also the director of transportation son Liam Kurpatre received um the NOTC scholarship and then we had four more Elk scholarships of $1,000 as you can see there. Some other awards that our unit always gives out these are the ones from our book such as honor cadet which is for the top GPA. Distinguished cadet is the top overall well-rounded cadet. Then attitude is top 10% in addition
036to that outstanding cadet which is top 25% for the classes. Um those awards were all given out and those cadetses were all recognized for their um accomplishments. Our guest of honor was Captain Mike Mjuski. Um and he is one of the instructors at Penn State. So speaking about awards, continuing down that path, this is some more of the awards that were given out. The top seven on this list were the ones given out the AMI. The rest of these were all the cadetses who are recognized at the military ball. These are all our community supporters. So, um, all a lot of the people on the left have contributed money not only to our program, but also for like not only to our program during the school year, but also during the summer. A lot of
037these people donate scholarships to allow cadets to go to summer camps and leadership development camps. Um, that's a good opportunity. We have like our leadership academy and state police youth week and um Keystone Boy State, things like that. So, they help us out a lot there. They also donate money for things like BLT, which is our basic leadership training course that we offer here at the high school in the summer, and they'll offer meals, uh money to pay for all that because we provide lunch. Some of the other ones on the right, they provided not only money, but also some food. some of those like Jersey Mike, Texas Roadhouse, Red Robin. We did fundraisers, too, to um earn money so we can go to the orienteering nationals and we were supposed to use it for
038the drill nationals a little bit. So, we might have a little extra money now, but that's okay. Save it for next year. All right. So, I want to thank you for your time. Thank you for um all that you do, approving us to go on our many trips and are giving us many opportunities. Is there any questions me or Satute can answer? I I've got one or comment. I do have a question. Number one, congratulations uh on the uh uh y'all's accomplishments. That's that's pretty good. Number two, um the the academic team brain brawl. Was that done um was that done like remotely? You guys, I'm looking at the picture here. Everybody, they're sitting at a desk. Were you who are who all were you were competing against in that? So how that works is
039we are actually at our school and then we take the test at our school and then you brain brawl of the other schools came to caches and you have a buzzer system that's very much like Jeopardy food and feud and jeopardy. Yeah. Yeah. It's like matching those two together. Okay. Yeah. And then top teams get to go to the nationals which our team is actually leaving tomorrow to go to the nationals. So we're hosting it by the way. Great. Great. And and one last uh especially on the um the drill. I would I don't know if it would be possible for you for your accomplishment. I would love to see and I'm sure everybody else would love to see we saw it I guess last year. It was that year before last in the in
040the auditorium. Um I think that would be a great Fieldhouse. Yes. Yes. Yeah. No. Yes. Yeah. In Fieldhouse. Yeah. Perform color day. Okay. Okay. Well, so you got a little mini squad that you want to bring in here. I' I'd be game for it. I don't know what to push too hard, but Yeah. Yeah. But congratulations. Thank you all. Thank you very much. Is there any other questions I can answer? Um, let me just make a comment. I really appreciate you gave us some background information both rather than just read from the slides. It's refreshing to see that um kind of giving us a little more than what the slides said. Thank you very much and congratulations. Thank you. Congratulations. Thank you, cadetses. Item 5.01, uh, privilege of the floor. Uh, didn't have any members
041of the, uh, public sign in for public comment, but that is not a prerequisite. So, if there's any members of the public who would like to, uh, comment on any of the agenda items, uh, now's your chance. Okay. So, uh, consent agenda, new items. Um, these are items that we would have not that we did not discuss two weeks ago at the committee of the whole. Um, so it's items 7.01 through 7.14, uh, is what we will be voting on. Uh, before we have a motion and second for those items, I just ask, are there any board members that would like any of those 14 items u may be pulled out separately for any discussion or separate votes? I would like item 7.11 pulled for question or comment, please. Okay? Any others? Okay. Hearing none,
042then uh a motion and a second, please, for items 7.01 through 7.10 and 7.12 through 7.14. A motion and second, please. So move. Second. Motion by Mr. Haydock, second by Mrs. Goggler. All those in favor signify by saying I. I. Opposed. Eyes have it. So move. Next is a motion for item motion and second for item 7.11 reinstatement to the [Applause] district. Anyone have a motion or second? Move to approve. Second. Motion by Dr. Diller. Second by Mr. Rabber, Mr. Heday. So, I think in the last almost two years now that I've been on the board, we've probably uh voted on reinstating maybe a dozen or half dozen and a half students. And uh I take good bit of time reading, you know, their why they're there at say Red Red Rock. um their academic
043performance, their behavioral performance, and particularly what they write when they're saying they want to come back to the district. And I was interested in this particular one because I noticed that one-third of the absences of the students were unexcused or illegal. And at Red Rock, there were several issues of not following the rules like u hitting another student on a van and vaping in class. Now, the reason as I understand just I don't want to cut you off, so but please continue just we're careful on executive session content when we get into too many details, but I don't but please continue, but just just be careful on specifics, please. And um well this gets a little tricky. We could go to executive session if you would like. That's certain that's certainly an option. And yeah,
044I'll do that. Okay. But I get in general though, my question is this. If one were to read all the information that's presented and feel that the student is still somewhat at risk and maybe they haven't really learned um what they did wrong or you know and and any some sort of remorse over their bad behavior to get there in the first place at the end. What does the district do to help them transition back to general population, if you will, with support or some additional super supervision or monitoring their behavior so that they don't fall back into that kind of behavior? I think the proposals they'd be in the cabs class initially. Correct. Let's let's uh have a if we want to go to executive session, just have a motion in second and we
045can adjourn to executive session. We'll take Dr. Long and Mr. Woodman with us maybe if there's any details required. Yeah, it's just to protect the student. We don't want anyone to connect start connecting dots or making assumptions. So, I'm I'm happy to go to executive session and discuss. Okay. Just need a motion and second, please. I'll make a motion. Okay, second motion and second. We don't need a vote for that. Okay, we are going to go to executive session uh across the hall and we will return Okay. Okay. Go ahead and uh call our meeting back to order. Um board is back in public session. So um we have item 7.11 that is on the table. We have a motion and a second. Any other comments hearing? None. Uh, all those in favor signify by
046saying I. I. I. Opposed. Eyes have it and so moved. Uh, consent agenda part two. Previously discussed at committee of the whole meeting. Uh, items 8.01 through 8.10. Uh, Mr. bigger or your team. Do you have any of those items you'd like to comment on before we have a motion or second? Not at this time for me. Okay. Any board members anyone like would like uh item any of the items from 8.01 through 8.10 to be pulled out and discussed separately. Okay. Hearing none. Need a motion and second to approve uh all 10 items in the consent agenda for section 8. Move to approve. Second. Motion by Mr. McKe, second by Mr. Hayd. All those in favor signify by saying I. I. I. Opposed. Eyes have it. And so moved. I can pause there. U.
047We do have a couple people here that were approved tonight. Um, first I want to thank Mr. Nelson for coming to all the board meetings even before his new job started. So, thank you. Uh, Dr. Herbert's here. She was on the agenda. I don't know if you want to say anything tonight. And so is Brad Oer. Uh, Mr. Oer. So, I don't know if you want to say hello and or you're just here to watch the meeting. Sure. I'd love to say something. Yeah, go ahead. So, first I would like to thank everyone who's here, guests and board members for providing me this opportunity. Uh, back in 2007, I had the honor to come here to Chamber as a assistant principal of Chamber Senior High School. I've spent my all my entire time there since
048then. Um it's exciting to take on this new role. Uh having had opportunities in kindergarten all the way up through 12th grade now as either an educator in the classroom or as an administrator. I truly believe that what uh Mr. Bigger is bringing to the district is something that we've needed not just here in Chanford, but also in Franklin County. So I'm excited to take on this new role. I'm hopeful in the next uh many years definitely have a school of distinction that provides students not only a diploma but also a plan once they graduate for their career. So thank you again and I appreciate I'd like to comment uh I want to thank Mr. Aer. Um I had the pleasure to uh observe uh a special education class a couple Mondays ago and Mr.
049rocker graciously took some of his time and invited me into his office and we had an opportunity to chat. I got to see a lot of the turkey feathers all around the the joint. Very interesting. But um he was a gracious host and uh I really really valued the opportunity to see what was going on in the classroom and to appreciate the challenges that uh not only special ed teachers but all teachers have to deal with on a day-to-day basis. And uh I think this district is doing a great job and uh thank you very much for the job you have done and I'm looking forward to your new role as well. I would just like to say thank you for the opportunity to move into the middle school role. Um a little bit of
050coming back home. That's actually where I started in the district. Um so I just am very excited to work with a brand new team. Um very excited about uh my daughter's principal. I'm not sure if she's very excited about that. Um but I do welcome the new challenge. Um very bittersweet though. Um leaving my two wonderful buildings. Um few tears were shed when I announced it to the staff last week. So um I am looking very much forward to the new challenge ahead. Okay. Thank you. Congratulations. Item 10.01, proposed final 202526 general fund budget for advertisement. So, this is I don't know. I can't keep track of how many times we vote on a budget, but we're just voting to advertise the final budget. Mrs. Staler, that's correct, Mr. Norcro. Thank you for that. Uh
051so yes, I'm representing a budget uh this evening. Uh total expenditures of $213 million, total revenue of $210,000 does represent a budgetary reserve of 5 million. Uh we are seeing still with a 3% tax increase projecting a slight deficit of 2.7 million. This will take our military to 136.4677. And um as Mr. Norcross alluded to, this is for advertisement. The budget is not final until we vote in June. Motion and second, please. Move to approve. Second. Motion by Mrs. Goggler. Second by Dr. Diller. Questions, discussions, comments. Board members, I have a question. Uh, and maybe this isn't for tonight since you're just doing it to put it out there, but um, when do we discuss the 2% that was proposed versus the 3% that's now on that screen? Is is that is that today? Is
052that whenever we do the final? Uh, that to answer your question, it could be today or it could be when you you do the final. Um, again, just doing today, this sets our expectation for the community. we're going to go ahead and we're going to advertise it. You do have the ability to go up or down until that final vote in June. Okay. Um well, since that's the case, um my understanding and Tammy, these will kind of be directed at you. So Oh, okay. I'll keep my mic in front of me. Yeah. And they're just questions for clarification for my understanding. Um when I was looking at your proposed thing from last time, as you all know, we were here for an extended period of time last meeting. And so when the 3% was brought
053up, I was under the impression that it was going to be we're looking at 3% to see what it would be and then decide whether we're going to do two or three. As I see it there, this would be what we're putting out to the public. And so I have a little bit of a question about that. Um because I see on here the capital reserve resolution and I understand that that we're doing four and a half to cap reserve 5.5 to future debt service as it was presented to us which gives us about 11 million that we're putting into future situations and projects. Correct. That was the at the 2% budget. That is at the 2%. Okay. And so when we do that that left us with like oh where's your little screen? I
054think it was around 2.9 million. 2.9 and so the other 1% is going strictly to future debt service. Is that what was decided? because I see that it didn't change the deficit at all with the 1%. Well, there were a couple changes uh that we made and you know, if you recall um last two weeks, like there will be things that'll be moving in and out of this budget until we get to the final. Uh so we going from 2% to 3% did net us a little over $1 million in tax revenue. Um we made some changes to the salaries just based on where we are with negotiations that weren't represented in the 2%. Um I did decrease the cap reserve transfer by 2.5 million but we increased the healthcare transfer by 2 million. So
055there were a lot of things going in and out and we did add another million going to debt service. Okay. And so you had stated and please correct me if I'm wrong that with 2% increase that you would be able to I think you used a term find that before the end of the fiscal year of 2026. More than likely I would say that's accurate. um to at least be pref like negligible to whatever you would have to trade. Correct. I mean the one thing that is different about the 2526 budget I should just move my mic over here so I'm not leaning. Um thank you is we are including the governor's proposed budget and that's another 5.5 million. Um what we find throughout the years and this is just over the last probably four
056years due to attrition the number of open positions we normally are not hitting our salary and benefit budget even though we budget for full-time you know from day one we know that there will be open positions how many we don't know who is it going to be we don't know u but we will find that we'll probably have some extra money in that area um I was going to dig at Kurt but I won't do that I'll be nice and so then that would in addition to the 1 million that would be added from the 3%. The findings that you were going to have on that 2.9 deficit that we started with 2%. I'm not sure I understand the question. So like the the 2.9 was the deficit at 2%. Right. And you were comfortable
057with that when you proposed the 2% that we would get negligible. I feel that you can close that gap. The same with this again we made some changes in the assumptions just based on the discussion from the last two weeks. Um there are a lot of one-time transfers in there and again this budget is building for that future the future debt service that we know we're going to need to have. And then you also had a presentation from Mr. Barner last week um that showed that we are going to have some additional capital projects. So we do need to build the cap reserve up as well. And so knowing all that we were presented with the 2% and Mr. Fry was based on that 2% increase. Correct. Um no I wouldn't say that's correct. Um
058Mr. Fry's presentation was purely showing us what we would need to do in terms of uh tax increases if that was the only way to generate the payments for debt service. And in the past, that's been the only way we could do it because we were not getting additional state money. Um to be honest with you, if we had to rely solely on tax increases to get to that $200 million number, it would be very, very, very difficult to do. I mean, we basically have been a little bit more flush with cash because of the adequacy uh funding that we've been getting. And so then to you, Mr. Bigger, the adequacy gap funding in part is to help offset burden on the taxpayers. Correct. That's part of the plan that we put together when we
059laid the four buckets out that we would spread them across programming and um budget. And so is there a reason that the proposed that came to us wasn't 3% to start? I last time I just said I wouldn't bring one that's above two or three. And so, okay, I think the only difference from last budget to this one is a little more confidence that the adequacy gap money is going to continue. Last time we were unsure and we got $8 million. This time we're being more reassured early in the process. So, I felt more comfortable, but it could change. We could not have a state budget come July one and you never know. So, I I think it's always good when we get additional state money and we get more confidence with that. And so
060just so I'm clear about where I'm coming from, um the 2% is covering what we need and we're already putting this money into debt service and future things. And I know coming down the line, I saw Mr. Fry's proposal that at some point that percentage is going to have to be 2% 3% whatever the case might be. Um, but for this year, I'm having a hard time in the current circumstances asking people, hey, we're just going to take this extra 1% and put it to the future when we don't necessarily need it right now at this moment. Um, I I've had people reach out to me regarding the the tax. And I believe in incremental tax increases. I believe 2% minimum, 100%. I believe in that, but I also struggle with getting $13 million over
061the period of two years and then raising 4% and then raising 3%. And it's just a struggle that I'm having if we don't absolutely need to do it because we're already putting 11 or I think you did change the numbers there, so maybe a little less than that into those. Why we need to go after the other percent right now at this time when two was proposed and seems sufficient. So that's just where I'm at for myself at this point. Other board members. Um I just I guess a question for clarifications. I recall in the last meeting we discussed this that um President Mr. Warcro Norcross said um in his experience 2% never gets us out of debt. Um you know it's always like 3% is kind of like the benchmark really to keep us
062from going too deep into the hole. Maybe I misunderstood. Yeah. Yeah. I I guess yes. That's that's what I said. I I'm trying to think of the best analogy would be like the equivalent of a cost of living, right? The the increase the cost of doing business for the school district. year over year seems to go up between two and 3%. I don't that's Yes. Yeah. And I don't certainly not going down and you know and it's only seems to be accelerating as we go in the last you know just this year alone for a number of reasons which are beyond our control. So, I appreciate uh Miss Harbaugh's um concern and especially if community members are reaching out to her, but that was my understanding as to why we're trying to get a little
063more this, you know, this next budget. Other board members, thoughts, questions, comments? I just wanted to say that um at this point I won't be voting for anything that's above 2%. And that's fine if that how however it comes down, but I will support whatever the board decides to do and I will champion that and say that whatever if it is the 3% that I know the money will be utilized correctly. But that's where I'm at at this point. But I won't actively rail against it. Um because I'll do you know I will vote no anything over 2% but I will also support it then and knowing that you guys are being good stewards of that money. I personally would rather see 3% this year rather than have to go to 5% next year because
064we didn't move it up enough in one year. I think that a steady um amount is better than low and then jump a lot. I'm I'm comfortable with that as well. I think knowing that we have some big expenses on the horizon and that we're trying to plan for that. I certainly feel a lot more comfortable at three um than lower than three. And you don't know what homestead exclusion is yet? No, we will not get that data from uh the state until May 1st and then the county will actually release also uh the number of homestead farmsteads for us on May 1st. So we'll be able to do that calculation after that. We will have that available for the June the June vote. So we will know that before we have the final vote.
065Yes. Um I do feel confident that last year it was over $900. it'll be close to a thousand or maybe over a thousand. I'm not hearing anything that we're not going to get less state gaming money. Um, and we do have money in the committed fund balance that we need to to push out that we've been trying to do that over the last couple of years. I do recognize that everybody doesn't get homestead exclusion as far as businesses and so forth. That's correct. About 18,000 of the 30,000 taxable properties get a homestead farmstead exclusion. It's the folks that own the property and live at the property, right? That's correct. That's that's who it's isolated to. So, I know we um few years back when from the COVID stuff, I think we we what did we
066do? Uh we kept we kept it at zero. We said we're going to decision. That's where I was going. Yeah, that's where I was going. We we said uh uh and I was part of that and I was I was I was a yes vote on that and and it came back to bite us. I think um uh we realized it's never not going up and we need to do something to keep it and if I'm correct I think uh my colleague was a Yeah. But anyway, history lesson got you dad history. Uh yeah and that that's a that's a good example and there's been other examples for whatever reasons and and but that COVID example is you know okay there was estrus funding so we have estr and that's that's fine for that year
067but what happens the cost of everything's going up. So yeah, that covers your this year's expense, but then next year in the case of Esters, it was two to three years down the road, right? Everything had that incremental increase. You know, we have contracts that are incrementally increase. you know the contract increases didn't stop with COVID in essence they continued. So when you don't keep pace with that two to 3% then when when you come off that one-time funding or something now you have to make it up somehow. Um yeah, my my thoughts and comments. Um I have a lot of them, but I think maybe one thing that might help and uh I think Mrs. Har Miss Harbo has a great point there. The 14 million in this adequacy funding or whatever the number
068is. I know it's a moving target. Uh I think it might be helpful. I know it would be helpful to me and maybe other board members, but even certainly the public exactly if we detail out how we're spending this 14 million. I know I had a question two weeks ago, you know, about where where, you know, part of the like 5.5 of that was going into the debt service fund, but maybe we maybe we provide some some more detail into the the proposed expenditures of this adequacy funding. Uh I think that might provide some clarity even to myself uh because I'm not as Chris and I had a conversation uh late today and I was still still asking him questions about it myself. So I think that would be helpful. I know it'd be helpful
069for me. Okay. U reluctantly. I'm I'm still going to support the the 3% tax increase. Um you know and I my basis for it as I explained two weeks ago was you know it was proposed the administration had proposed it at 2%. And many many months ago when it was presented at 2% I questioned it then as well. But all right when I when I suggested go to 3% it was going to then be 2% operation and 1% into an additional 1% into debt service. I don't think if I if I understood you correct I don't know if we did that 1% into debt service. We did a million. We did, but that's not 1%. It's It's close to it. Okay. 1.1. The The other thing that I did, you know, and we said about
070I suggested that instead of 4 million going to cap reserve that we, you know, it was 5 a.5 million to debt service, 4 million to capital reserve that we go 2 million to capital reserve and 7.5 million to debt service. I am very very concerned with the debt service and we don't know what we don't know and I hate when people tell me that and I can't believe I just said it but anyway but we just don't know where we're going to be. This thing is so fluid with the final scope that you know the board gives the administration direction on and then the budget on that final scope is still a guess. You don't know what the hard dollars are until you actually have bids in hand. And again, it's $240 million. The chart
071that we had with Mr. Fry took us to 200 million. Okay. Now, there's other ways, and maybe that'll be part of this adequacy gap funding detail, too, how we can build up for that other 40 million. But again, you know, I'm disappointed that it's not 7 and a half million plus 1% going into debt service cuz that's what I was hoping suggested when I was willing to go up another 1%. And going up another 1% meant there would be 2% gone to operations versus 1%. And this is Miss Miss Harbaugh's point. Then the deficit should have gone down by more than 200,000. So I don't want to get into a tax and spend mentality where we're just raising taxes. Although now we're have to spend it here. I've been an advocate for this plus X%
072and and Mr. Leonards was very instrumental in it too. I have to give him credit. But the goal, the focus was on debt service, not everything else. And when it goes to capital reserve, I know last time I said about, okay, I'm okay with 2 million. I'm not so sure, especially if I'm now still seeing a 2.7 million operation deficit, that capital reserve should not be a budget line item. I think at least in these next couple years until we get a better feel of what our total debt service annual payment is going to be, capital reserve should be the oldfashioned way. And the oldfashioned way, it's truly a reserve. It's whatever money you have left, then you put it in capital reserve. You don't budget for capital reserve. You know, if if you want
073$2 million in capital reserve, then go out and find a way to save $2 million or hopefully revenues come in, which makes it easier. Then you have to save it. You just have more, but don't spend more if you have more revenues coming in. And then for the board, you know, the other thing, if you don't want to do two and 3% tax increases, then all these decisions we make leading up to these meetings, uh, public conversations, executive sessions conversations, you got to look at the spend on it because we say yes, we vote yes, we tell the administration, we like that idea and we say yes. Once we say yes, now we have to fund it. So if you don't like the 2%, you don't like the 3%. Then we need to start having
074that discussion every time we're talking about adding X, adding Y, adding anything. We can't we can't say yes to everything and say no to tax increases. It just it's it doesn't work that way. So I I don't know. I, like I said, I'm I'm surprised that we have a 1% tax increase and the deficit only went down 200,000 and we're not getting as much into debt service. That's Well, Mr. Norcross, if I can answer that, um, we did add an additional $2 million going into healthcare because of the revised numbers that we got from our um, consultants. So, there was a $2 million increase to the expenditure lines, which offset the savings that we would have had from that that million. So, like I said, there were other things that went in and out of
075this revision with the 3%. Um, as far as the debt serve or capital reserve, you know, we could take that line item out of there. Uh, to your point, it could be done at the end of the year, which is what we do a lot. Um, we do have spend limitations. Um, you know, whenever you submit the budget to the state, our spend authority is 213,000 or excuse me, 213 million. So, when I do an interfund transfer, it looks like an expenditure on the general fund. So, you know, it's it's better for us to have them as a line item and then not do them to not have them as a line item and have to do them and try to go over the expend um limit. So, that's just, you know, a little bit
076more information. Well, would a strategy then be the 2 million that was going to go to capital reserve now goes to the health insurance? It is, but I also added another million to the uh debt service fund. Okay. Any other questions or comments? Again, we are voting to advertise this budget. We are not going to we're not voting to enact the final budget. Uh Miss Harbaugh asked a great question when she started her comments and I made this statement two weeks ago. We do have time, but uh another history lesson. Love you, Dad. Uh, one of these time, one of the 12 years ago, I was sitting here and the board decided at the final budget vote to change the tax increase. And, uh, I think the business manager, Mr. Dart, at the time, probably
077needed oxygen to to recover from that uh, that curved ball that was tracking Rake for his uh, left eye or something. I don't know. But, okay, motion second. Uh, let's do a roll call vote, please. Um, Dr. Dillard, yes. Miss Goggler, yes. Miss Gals, yes. Miss Harbaugh, yes. Mr. Haydock, yes. Mr. McKe, yes. Mr. Norcross, yes. Mr. Raber, yes. Mr. Walker, yes. Motion passes nine to zero. Hey, item 10.02, um, capital reserve resolution. Mrs. Staler, we did discuss this last meeting, but um correct. Uh basically the the the major change to this is it uh gives the board the flexibility uh to put the money either into the cap reserve or to future debt service. Motion and second, please move to approve. Second. Motion by Dr. Diller, second by Mr. Hayd. Questions, comments, discussions? I'll
078just add one comment. I know it says I sound like a broken record here. It says andor capital reserve debt service. I like to focus on debt service. That's my comment. All those in favor signify by saying I. I. I. Opposed. Eyes have it. So moved. Item 11.01 second reading of policy 815.2 website. Motion and second, please. Move to approve. Second. Motion by Dr. Diller. Second by Miss Scouse. Questions, comments, discussion. All those in favor signify by saying I. I. I. Opposed. Eyes have it and so moved. Item 12, uh, new business. board members, any new business you'd like to bring up for maybe future board meeting discussions? Nothing for future board meeting, but I wanted to ask since I'm on the LIU board and there are some significant changes that are upcoming in the
079way that they are going to be moving um forward and services they're going to be offering and etc, etc. Um, would you guys like me to put together a little synopsis of what we're doing out there and send it to you each month that way because I kind of tell you what we're doing, just the broad strokes sometimes when we have the meetings. But if you'd like, I can keep you a little more up to date because it's kind of it's moving relatively quickly. And Chris, you know, if you want to speak on that because I know that you've had some superintendent meetings with um Dr. Marquesy, but they're looking at revamping a lot of different things. Tammy, I think you'll be excited because he's looking at uh no more what is it called? Reconciliation.
080No more reconciliation, just flat fees. So, you're going to know what you're getting and that kind of stuff. So, there are some changes coming with that. Um so, if that's something that you guys would all like, I can just email that out after we have our meetings the first Tuesday of the month just to keep you guys in the loop. Um, maybe not the minutes, but I think that I could get a little bit of something together so you're not in all the minutia because sometimes they get a little long-winded, but if that's something you guys would like, I can certainly start doing that as we move forward with all the different changes that I think are going to be coming with Dr. Markees at the helm. Now, uh, that's agreeable to me. I'd rather
081get in an email than have a full-blown meeting. I think most boards handle that by having an opportunity if you serve on another board that represents the school. There's just a window on the agenda to say board reports from attending other whether it's the Franklin Learning Center, the Career Tech Center or the Liu. So if we did it that way, would that work for anybody who attends? We used to do I think it was an agenda item at some point? We do. Yes, we used to do it that way. I kind of like both. Oh, I like I have no problem doing that. And then if you're willing to do the written put agenda item then we have time to think about questions about it then you can bring it up whenever it's in the
082board report part. Yeah. Can we do both? We can do that on a committee the whole and that's I hope that's not pressure on you. You know if there's a month where you can't get a report out to us. Oh no. It's I mean it should be too full because sometimes Amy their board secretary sends stuff and so I can just and we and we can add those agendas u informationational items to the board agenda to prompt you because we get all those so you don't have to do the heavy lift. Did she send the early light or whatever it's called? Dawn's early lights. Yeah. Mhm. Now we're talking about heavy lifts again. Well, it's a prompt. It's a prompt. We can put in theformational sections. We can do a section. Okay. Any other new
083business items? Board members. I I have one. You have something? Oh, okay. Sorry. Um, so I know that the um the policies 100 policies that deal with the board operations, we're in the process of getting ready to present that for review and the vote, but I know there are probably a lot of other policies that are woefully outdated and many of them probably just require review and probably no update. But some of them are driven by concern from the community or other things that u make them a kind of a higher priority. I'd like to know maybe over the summer months there might be kind of a schedule that we could see that yes they're going to be addressed and you know every meeting we have there'll be one or two thrown out there to
084make us you know know that we're making some progress on reviewing and changing those policies if necessary. Yep. Our plan is to get and uh make sure all policies are not more than 10 years old and we'll start that July 1. Uh Bev and I did that in Littletown. We'll do the same thing and it's a pretty nice process she'll put together with with me and then we'll we'll move forward. We've had a few out from from Mrs. Lang already because the policy um came into the superintendent's office. It used to be Tina was that you used to be in the HR office. So we moved out of the superintendent's office. So we'll get started on that. Yeah. Uh July 1. Did we vote address 11:01? Yes, we did. Yeah, we were. Okay. I think,
085didn't I? That's what we just That's what we just voted. Had me second guessing myself. Not too hard to do. Wait a minute. 8:30. Any other new business? Mrs. Goggler. Yeah. Um, I know we passed a policy relative to artificial intelligence. However, I'd like to know at what grade level and what plan there is to assure that we are getting our children prepared for artificial intelligence and that we are not going to end up being 10 years behind like we were with STEM um, a few years ago. I know that um it's something that I'm not going to have to deal with, but my future people are going to be dealing with it on a regular basis. And we need to have a clear not just district policy, but a plan as to how the
086education and the implementation is happening. For those of you that uh stalk our agenda prior to final approval, there was a uh technology AI and data presentation. We did a practice run um um this morning and we decided to delay it because we had some changes to it. And I do want to thank Christine and the team for a great presentation, but we had to make some tweaks and adjustments. So, we will get that uh slated for June right now because May is a very stacked month for presentations. So, she got bumped till June, but you'll be pleasantly surprised with the AI information um coming on that presentation. Well, I I participated in a webinar recently that they were talking about this and um made me so aware of the importance of getting ahead, not
087behind. Yeah, I'd like to add um when FA brought up the STEM at one point the board had had uh decided that uh we want STEM clubs at the elementary and I know some of the elementary schools I believe have them and some don't. And I would hope that with uh new director that we could get them happening at all buildings at elementary buildings even if we have to have a substitute teacher or someone else teaching it. uh some way of covering all the buildings instead of some having it some don't. Okay, hearing no other takers for new business. Meetings adjourned. Thank you.