001We had to buy dog food, so I said I need 50 lbs of dog food from the butcher shop. Get it home and I was opening it and she's like, "This isn't dog food. It's 50 lbs of flour." I'm like, "You just opened it. We're going on vacation." So, since coming back from vacation, we've been making a ton of things. I'm like, "50 lbs of flour." My son just told me he bought 50 lbs of flour. Sometimes he can be a little awah. And there he's here a little bit of an awah. >> Mhm. >> I'd like to welcome everybody to the April 20th meeting of the Conestoga Valley School Board of School Directors and greeting to anyone watching online. Would you please join me in the pledge pledge to the flag. I pledge allegiance
002to 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. This is our second meeting of the month where most official votes are taken, many of which are listed on the consent agenda, which is quite large tonight, which includes routine items or items discussed at our last or previous work session. Our meetings observe all legal requirements and our district policies to the best of our ability and understanding. Our detailed agendas and related public documents are posted on the district website for public access. Can I please have attendance, Mrs. Martin? We have eight school directors present tonight. Dr. Martin is absent. We do have a quorum in place. >> Excellent. Could I have a motion to approve tonight's agenda?
003So moved. Second. All those in favor say aye. Aye. Any nays? Good. All right. Up first, we have board commendations. Give me 1 second. Congratulations to Leola reading specialist Mr. David Paul on his recent certification as an AIM local integrated literacy coach. AIM, a non-profit organization, boasts a center for educational excellence and professional development to disseminate best practices to educators by providing access to the latest research-based curriculum, technology, and training. There's a nice picture of him. I remember when he used to have long hair. CB recently received a check from Giant Food Stores from their Roundup program, and we're going to receive $3,800, but the final total is still pending. Nice giant check. Girl Scouts in the Heart of Pennsylvania announced CBHS junior Madeline Tally earned the highest award in Girl Scouting, the Girl Scout
004Gold Award for the 2026 Gold Award class. For her project, Tally coordinated and completed a pre-kindergarten book drive for her school district. She collected close to 300 books. Several CB educators and students participated in filming for the second annual Excellence in Education Awards banquet, an event intended to celebrate the amazing educators in our region and highlight the impact teachers have on the lives of their students. Make Films will professionally produce a 5-minute video that will open the November 2026 event. Dray uh Grisafi at the Camper Screenery, Will Dance, who's in Internships, Laura Odell, CBVA elementary teacher, Dory Shedder, CBVA CBVA elementary coordinator, Mary Barbara Bland, CBVA elementary paraeducator, and Mel Upton, administrator for non-traditional learning and career readiness, were all interviewed regarding the innovative programming and community partnerships that make learning relevant and authentic for
005students. Um also interviewed were some students, Michaela Lapp, Jude McCabe, Evan Harner, Luke Glacken, and Estefan Gonzalez, and Jessani Ramos. Um and then a nice picture there of Evan being interviewed. Really, really cool uh thing to be a part of. So, we're very proud of that. Up next, superintendent comments, Dr. Hartman. All right, good evening. Yes, I'll piggyback on what uh what was just shared in the board commendation. Super excited about the uh that we were I believe one of four districts that was asked to be a part of that that video production. So, anytime we get to highlight our our faculty and our programs, we're super excited about that. Uh so, just want to point out one thing that's on my superintendent's report for this evening for approval. Uh you'll notice under the following
006under appointments, uh four individuals being recommended for uh seasonal IT tech internships. Uh I just wanted to thank the board for supporting that program. It's been a huge help to our IT department for the past few years uh where we're allowed to uh where you've allowed us to hire some seasonal help, typically students, high school, college students in uh to help out with all the unbelievable amount of work that our tech department needs to do during the summer to get ready for the school year, including refurbishing devices and distri- distribution of devices and everything like that. So, have a having that extra help is a is a huge asset to us. So, wanted to thank the board for their support of that program that's been going on for a few years. Uh also want to
007mention this week is administrator uh admin assistant appreciation week. So, thanks to all of our administrative assistants uh throughout the district who definitely uh make us look good on a on a daily basis. So, thanks to them. And finally, just a reminder that we are uh here again for a third time this month, uh at least the school board is. We have our board retreat next Monday at 6:00. 5:30 dinner, 6:00 the meeting will start right here. So, uh on April 27th. So, that concludes my report. Awesome. Any board comments this evening on district activities. All right. Nobody did anything. No. Um and actually I did skip over one uh thing, Ms. Martin. There was a change to tonight's agenda. I forgot to ask you about that. There was the consent consent item N, which
008is a Thaddeus Stevens agreement. I updated that today to reflect the accurate board president name for signature on the agreement. I tried to get them to leave your name on there, but they wouldn't do it. Excuse me? Your name was on it. They changed it to me. I was trying to get them to leave your name on it, so I didn't have to take responsibility. So, thanks for nothing. Other than that, any correspondence tonight, Ms. Martin? No, there is none. Awesome. All right. So, our first uh presentation is home and school visitor social worker update. Good evening and thank you for having us again. Every year it's nice to be able to have some face time with all of you and share what we're doing in our little neck of the neck of the district.
009Um I'm Katie Rife. I am the elementary school social worker and this is my 12th year here. Um I'm Jenna Mabel. I'm the middle school social worker. This is my fourth year with Conestoga Valley. Carla De Clemente, uh school social worker for the high school and I've been here 8 years now. Um to start, we if you would go back, we do have an Instagram page where we um encourage you to take a look at that. We post different videos sharing information for parents, students. Sometimes it's motivational, sometimes it's educational, and sometimes it's just fun. Um so, we create different videos of what our team is up to and um also, like I said, educational. I think one of the last one was about the high school and where to turn in attendance notes. So
010we try to be creative. Um, so if you wanted to check that out, there's a QR code that's there. All right, so our roles as school social workers, um, it's very broad. We just do what we need to do on the daily, um, and that can look very different each day. Um, so we've just listed some of our major roles or major functions as school social workers. Um, so one of our biggest roles here is, um, being homeless foster care liaisons. Um, so we do want to, um, share that we've had an increase of foster care, um, youth that are in foster care coming into our district, because of different resource homes, um, that are available here. So that population has grown. Um, we'll highlight the homeless population as we go through our, continue to
011go through our, um, presentation. Um, another major role that we have in the district is assisting with attendance district-wide. So of course, I'm at the high school taking care of that, doing a lot of SAPs, which are the student attendance improvement plans for our students. Um, attendance looks a little different for each one of us at our different levels. Um, so for me, I'll do the SAPs, meet with the students, the parents, and then go to truancy court uh, weekly. I feel like sometimes, um, picking students up with parent consent, of course, with our school vans. We can motivate them, they're doing their part, we want to meet them halfway. Don't do that all the time, obviously, because of van limitations and time and things like that, but if it's something that encourages the student
012to come in, we want to, again, work alongside our families, our students, and, um, get them in as much as possible. So, um additionally, we are part of our threat assessment team, um restorative practices district team, um trying to move into just sort of restorative practices in a district-wide level. Um very early on in those stages right now, but we have each taken courses in that uh framework of restorative practices. Um we're also part of our rapid response team and um MTSS mostly at the tier one and two tier two levels of that. Um occasionally tier three also with our students with greatest needs. Um so, moving on, I'm going to talk a little bit about Oh, no, not the not not yet. All right, there's more. There's more. Sorry, I didn't mean moving on
013slides. Just moving on and talking a little bit about um some of the other roles that we have. And each of our roles look, I think, very differently in um the buildings each of at each different level. Um but, I think when we talk about like family case management um and referrals, um we've seen an uptick in the number of referrals that we we've made this year. Um I'll say specifically to mental health needs, um as well as community um behavior and mental health supports. Um I think the coordination of these services has become um needed at a much higher level um just based on the number of participants that we're seeing um in the community that are actually involved with our families and students. So, I think um spending a lot of time in
014that area as well as in some of the buildings, I think, more specifically. I don't do a lot of the behavior um interventions and support at the middle school level, but I know my um colleagues spend a lot of time in that particular arena. Um we've seen and again, going back to referrals for school-based programming, um our therapists, I can say at the middle school level, we are at least they are maxed out. They can't take any more referrals because they've reached the the capacity of students that they can see throughout the the the school day. And making referrals for case management services, partial hospitalization programs has increased as well as referrals for best practices um for levels of care that students require in order to meet their social, emotional, and behavioral needs. So moving
015on, we also want to highlight that we help families completing forms and applications. This could be Department of Welfare for medical assistance to be able to access behavioral health services outside of the the school building. We do a lot of we'll highlight it at the end the meal program helping families apply for free and reduced lunch status. Just today I was meeting with a parent doing an intake for a partial day program cuz our mental health needs are so great. And the provider was like, "Oh, we need you to complete the biopsychosocial. It's 81 questions." And I could just see the look on her face of like, "I have a broken cell phone with a broken screen. How am I going to do that?" I said, "Let me run out to my car." I got
016my laptop. We connected to the Wi-Fi and we got the biopsychosocial done right there in her in her kitchen. So just being able to help families navigate the systems that are more complex than just I want to sign up and here you go. So just navigating those systems, being able to support families where they're at. Um And just navigating that alongside of them so that we are providing them the necessary guidance to make sure their students are coming to school with the resources that are best utilized for them. We support special education special populations like our ELs, our students with special education, um just being able to Sometimes it's just access. Sometimes our text messaging system, well, we have access to our cell phones, allows them to respond to a meeting invite that has been
017sent to them multiple times. When it's given to them in a different form, sometimes the response is more and we're able to make that connection between the home and the school. Um meeting individually with kids um to help learn or enhance skills that are needed. Um I'm doing that regularly at the elementary level with several students across the district to be able to help give them the um extra tools in their toolbox to be able to help make growth behaviorally, which also then helps them academically. Moving on, um we wanted to highlight some of our CV community partners. Um CVCCS, standard one for our food and clothing. Um Modern Eyes, I have a really cool story. Um we we had a family who was Spanish-speaking and they needed access to um to a pair of
018glasses. And when I called Modern Eyes, they're like, "Oh, we don't have any bilingual interpreters." So then I contacted Union and they're like, "Well, we do, um but we need to go through this whole process." And I was like, "This kid can't wait." So I actually took our ILA devices that are at the school sites and I met the family at Modern Eyes and we all worked together at using the ILA devices to be able to to translate what the doctor was asking to the student. And she was speaking in both English and Spanish and the parents were responding in Spanish. So it was really neat um just visual of using the ILA devices to get access to um in this case glasses for this young little student. Um SEEDS is a has been a
019great support of all of the work that we're doing. We rely on them heavily. Um we'll touch on their advocate position. I know that they they just shared about that about um last month or the month before, but it's been a critical addition to our our program to be able to utilize them to really attack the the root causes of what's causing homelessness or those needs. CV Ministerium this year alone has provided over $2,500 worth of support to our families, whether that be Ubers to appointments, school supplies and fees, diapers or other household items. They really allow us the opportunity to um be able to immediately provide our families whatever might be a barrier to their child's education. It is quite a blessing to us to be able to just go get what we need,
020provide it to the family immediately, and not have to navigate a purchase order or permission. They just automatically reimburse us, so. Um other than that, the other programs are all part of our daily work. PowerPack Project is actually being utilized more now that we've moved the location over to Good Sam Church, so more families were able to access that rather than coming into a school building, so. Next. Okay, so talking a little bit about McKinney-Vento and our homeless population that we've identified this school year. We're at 160 students, which is actually less than where we were last year at this time. Um and as you can see from the statistics, the majority of our homeless youth are now in the high school or at the high school level. Um some things for our new board
021members that they may not be aware of with regard to McKinney-Vento and the benefits that it extends to our identified families and students. Students that are identified as being McKinney-Vento in the event that the family establishes permanent housing during the course of the school year, yet it's not within our district, they are entitled to remain in our district until the end of the school year if they choose to do so with transportation services being provided. The other benefits include free and reduced lunch as well as I wouldn't say They receive probably more contact from the three of us than some of our other students just because those families tend to be more transient, a little bit more needy, and require a little bit more assistance in terms of accessing those community resources and maintaining that
022contact with them because of them being more transient than not. In addition to that, we provide referrals to you know the food and clothing banks, to seeds, as well as whatever services they're able to support our families with. So So, what are the facts on our homeless population? Next slide, please. So, this is a breakdown of when we identified our families and students, 61 of them were facing eviction, six of them was due to financial hardship or job loss, parental separation or divorce, sale of rental property I think is something that isn't on an increase this year, at least I've noticed that. We've had 16 students that have been identified due to environmental things that were beyond their control, and other student four students were identified and I'm not really sure what makes up that
023other. It's a combination of all. It's a combination of all the above. Could be multiple events that happened. Multiple things, so we just lumped them into other. Um so, where are students staying? Um so, we have 101 students that are doubled up, meaning that those students and families are currently residing with another resident in our district in a place that obviously is not either leased to them or owned by them. Um we have 41 students that are currently residing in hotels. We have 16 that are residing in shelters and or transitional programs, and we have two that are currently unsheltered, meaning they aren't identifying a place where they're depending um their nighttime res- They can't identify nighttime residence. Um just exciting things that are coming. I'm sure Seeds touched base on the Seeds the uh
024Bridgeport housing project, but since their um presentation, I believe it was since their presentation, East Lampeter Township has approved for the maximum occupancy for that project. So, we're really excited. We were kind of on hold waiting to see what they would um approve, and it has been approved at the most amount. So, we are looking at 15 apartments to be built there, which is super exciting. We're really grateful for um what that will bring to our district and what that means for our families who will be looking for um housing. So, that's really exciting. And I already touched on the advocate position. Megan, um I just made a referral yesterday, and she she's booked out until May. So, she is at full capacity. It's great to see that she is taking on our families as
025we we send the referrals. So, um she because of her her abilities and her capabilities of the time that she's at Seeds is is is um on a backlog until May. So, we're really excited that that position will hopefully continue to grow. Um and continue to to meet the needs of our families and being able to be more intentional and deep rooted with them than we're able to do in our capacity. So, Next slide, please. All right. Some highlights or some celebrations that we wanted to share with you is that we have been able to help our students and our families with applying for free and reduced lunch. We still are seeing We are still seeing that some families are missing that they do need to continue applying each year. And some of that has
026shifted because of insurance requirements where they used to be automatically free and then now they're not. So, we've made lots of connections with our families with working collaborating with our food services department and trying to get the debt paid down and assist families with applying. And if they do apply or when they do apply, that's where we have a tiered approach to be able to figure out how much we're able to at least help to pay that down. Additionally, we were able to present during one of our PDs alongside Bridges out of poverty with the Factory Ministries and we were um able to get some Well, we did get positive feedback from the staff that attended. So, that was great to hear. It was time well spent and being educated on different components of poverty
027and then integrating that with CV and our information and what we do the work the work that we do in working with our families in need. So, that was positive. So, I'm going to talk a little bit about really what we do every day. And I know that the three of us were kind of laughing saying we wish we had like somebody following us every day because sometimes we don't even know. But everything from crisis response, attendance. Um, can tell you that last week I spent every morning at a student's house from 6:30 until 7:15 in the morning um to get him to come to school. And I can report that he successfully made it four out of the five days and was here today. So, that was that was definitely a score. Um providing
028a lot of mental health support to families in terms of ensuring that they're connected to the right people in the community that can help them access services um and or um have someone assigned to them that can help coordinate services because our families I can definitely their needs are far more greater and I feel like we say that every year, but it is the reality um of what our families and students are facing. Um we do have many students who have a lot of different connections in the communities, but um actually getting us all to the table um so that we can work harder and smarter um is really the challenge right now that I think um we face sometimes cuz we're not all talking to each other and having the right conversations so that
029we're making direct impacts to their um supports and services. Um also in again just in continuing to support our families like intentionally um maintaining as much of a consistent contact with them um I'll say 100% through text messaging. It's been a blessing um in terms of being able to have families I I've had teachers administrators that will come and ask just to reach out to the families and I'll get a response pretty pretty quickly, which has been amazing. Um and working with the community resources that we have children youth services um behavioral health developmental services um community services group Justice Justice Works, the Academy um Attend at uh the attend program. That's ours, right? That's our program. Um the drug and alcohol um support and services. Just ensuring that we're all coming together um to
030try and help each and every student and family that we're serving here in our district. So, moving on to our holiday assistance program. Um we were again, we took a year of intentionality um with our partnership with Seeds and the the community um as well as National Honor Society, but specifically our Seeds um program, we we narrowed it down to just serving foster care, homeless youth, and any of the families accessing food resources in our community, whether it be through power packs or through CBCCS. Um by doing this, we served less children, so we served 307 children in 143 families. However, every single family was then provided a grocery gift card this year. So, we were able to actually deepen the resources we were providing the families that we were identifying as our neediest families.
031So, um it was really nice to be able to surprise them this year when they came to pick up their gift cards and give them a um a a grocery gift card to be able to offset the cost of groceries this year. Um and then just pointing out that we serve on several committees both on the micro level, macro level um within the community, we we take part in the ECYA, um which is our regional coordination of homeless um services. We are on their committees um and get receive their training quarterly. Um we're connected with the homeless coalition, the drug and alcohol stakeholder committee. We um are also part of the children and youth subcommittee for education the educational barriers project. Um they're looking at um what service what it looks like from multiple lenses
032whether it's the resource family from the school standpoint and how can we improve the system as a whole. So, it's really exciting to be part of those conversations um as to how foster care services and children youth involvement is related to school. Um and then also we're part of the social work um county the county social work committee as well. So, that just kind of gives you an overall view of all the things that we are a part of. We thank you for your support. We've always felt supported by our our district and we um welcome any questions that you may have. I have a couple questions. First of all, do you know of or do you suspect that there are families that simply aren't sending their children to school? Do you come across that
033very often? Like if they're caring for younger children. >> I'm sorry, I can't hear you. Do you mean if they're caring for other children like a high schooler would be caring for a younger >> any district that are just not or that are just choosing not to send their kids? But do not sending their children to school for various reasons. >> enrolled, I guess. I I To my knowledge I don't I haven't come across I mean there's been a few times that we've been notified by other agencies of of families and we've gone out and done home visits and gotten more information on why their children might not be at our school. >> Okay. I think it's a it's a lot more complex now because if you go to a hotel on um it's called
034the Leola Point. There are five school districts that pick up children at that hotel. So, it's hard to determine whether they're already in a if there are any McKinney-Vento homeless situation and being educated by another school district, but it's something that we are coordinating. Um, you know, if we find out of a family, we do do home visits to ensure that they're being educated somewhere and or help them with the enrollment process, especially if they more than likely if they're at a hotel and we get a cold call, it's they might need connected to to school, but >> My my other question has to do with uh You You have a chart that says where are our students staying. Mhm. Two are listed as unsheltered. So, those I can speak to those two specifically. They're
035in a a a luxury camper. So, they have running water, they have access to Okay. plumbing, electricity. However, because it is technically in a campground, we consider that to be unsheltered because it doesn't really fit into the other categories of hotel, they're not living with someone else, and it's not in a transitional or shelter program. But, I can assure you that those two individual those two children have running water and have plumbing and they are they are fine. It's just by the standards of what IKIA requests that we report on, technically they are considered unsheltered. >> Okay. I saw that number and Yeah. I was just aghast. Yeah. Thank you for clarifying that. >> Do you know do we sometimes have children who are truly unsheltered? So, I think this is something we try to
036address every year. We have had We have come across children and our parents who are unsheltered. Um, in those cases, we will immediately use the ministerium funds to get them into a hotel for that night until we can get them identified with services. There are other situations where the children and allowed to be doubled up with family members, and for whatever family dynamics are going on, the parents are not. So, I personally have had several situations where the parents are spending their evenings or nights in the car, but the children are in a doubled-up situation inside the house. So, those are conditions that we can navigate and work through. Our priority is making sure that children are not sleeping in cars. Yeah. So, we have the resources available to immediately take care of that need,
037whether it's through Seeds funding, CV Ministerium funding, to ensure that no child is ever unsheltered when we immediately find out about them. Thank you. I saw that number, and I just, you know, I would suggest, and I couldn't help but think, well, tell me who they are, I'll take them in. >> Yeah, no, no, no. Okay, thank you Sure. for all that you do. Thank you. Any other questions? No other questions? Yeah, on behalf of the board, thank you for what you guys do. Sure. Thank you for your support. Yeah, of course. All right, this is the first part in the agenda for public comments. If anybody has anything they wish to bring to the board for tonight's agenda. Are there any comments from CBEA tonight? Or any other employee groups? Okay. So, the consent
038agenda is in front of you. It is items A through double G. Um it is a big one. So, let's start with just uh any general questions about any specific items that we want to bring up. No? All right. I love it when it's straightforward. So, can I please have a motion to approve consent agenda items A through double G? I move we accept the consent agenda as presented. Second. All those in favor say I. You want me to do roll Oh, roll call. Hang on, never mind. Take back your eyes. Can I have a roll call vote, please? Dr. Eby. I. Mrs. Groth. I. Mr. Benigno. I. Mrs. Fisher. I. Mrs. Kapka. I. Miss Trowbridge. I. Miss Gibler. I. Mr. Genzel. I. All right. Two pages are gone from that one item. That's crazy.
039Uh so next is our budget discussion for '26-'27. Mrs. Hunsinger, welcome back. Thank you. Just seems like a few days ago that I was talking to you about budget. And I know it's such a very exciting topic that you wanted me to come back. Always. Always, yes. So All right. So, wanted to start off first highlighting the '24 '20 I'm sorry, '25-'26 fiscal year uh with um our budget that was approved last June. Uh we budgeted uh a planned $1.2 million deficit. And looking at our projections right now, it does appear we're going to be in that ballpark, maybe about $1.5 million deficit. I believe that deficit will decrease. I just need some more time, some more days to go and turn to another month and get some more solid data. So, I am hoping
040that that um decreases. So, in '25-'26, similar to some of the highlights that I shared with you last week, what I saw as challenges coming up for '26-'27 are almost a repeat of our '25-'26 highlights. Uh ready to learn adequacy supplement. Uh we did receive the full amount of $1.4 million uh from the governor's proposed budget. We had only budgeted intentionally 50% because it seemed very uncertain at that time. Um jumping ahead a little bit for 2026-2027, it's looking very um positive that we will receive the full amount that's being proposed, and that's what we've included in 2026-2027 budget. Uh transportation subsidy, unfortunately, um that part that's allocated by PDE gets allocated throughout the other districts, so uh there is a very detailed complex formula for calculating the subsidy. Unfortunately, um there was just not
041enough uh money in the coffers to go around for all the school districts based on the increasing costs. Uh our salaries uh for admin and support staff were also tied and received the same percentage that the teachers get through their contract, and that's an average of 4%. We're seeing increasing health care costs claims, so that's going to continue to increase. Uh special education, so important to support that program, but we're also seeing uh more needs being identified. Uh cyber tuition is still another challenge for us, and we're continuing to address that. And then uh we have an ongoing um annual payment for debt service. For 2025-2026, that was the amount was just under $8 million. So, looking at the 2026-2027 budget, um usually when I pull the whole budget puzzle together, um I usually get
042this result that is very big deficit, and it kind of gets the heart um pumping a little bit, uh but in this case it came up with about an 82 8.2 million dollar uh deficit. That has no adjustments in it. That's just the first number right out of the gate. No millage rate increase, uh includes uh money that Ken Johnson has budgeted for some capital expenditures. I'll talk about those in a second. Uh as I just mentioned a second ago, too, um the what the budget number for revenues does include 100% of what the governor is proposing for our basic head subsidy, special education subsidy, and especially our ready to learn adequacy supplement. Uh, federal subsidies are pretty much level going for going forward. A lot of uncertainty there with um, the US Department of
043Education and how that is going to pan out. But just like last week, Dr. Kozer, uh, received notification that for our current year, our allocations are pretty much the same. Just maybe about $14,000 decrease than what, uh, they had been estimates had been provided to us last year. 26-27 budget again, same, uh, with salaries and health care. Those are going to continue to increase. Uh, special education, we have needs that we intensive needs that we need want to support. And then capital projects, um, that 3.8 million includes some work to the high school roof restoration and repair replacement, as well as two high school chillers, which are much need of getting um, getting replaced. Now, our debt service payment now is going up from level amount of about $8 million up to $8.5 million. So,
044we have to account for that in the 26-27 year. The Act 1 index for 26-27 is 3.5%. Um, that is the maximum that we can increase our real estate taxes by. And again, I know I mentioned it last week because we receive that ready to learn adequacy monies, we cannot apply for any, um, um, exceptions where we could increase our millage rate above, uh, the Act 1 index. And the other concern I have to just, uh, putting it on your radar going forward, the Act 1 index is going to continue to decrease based on these projections. Again, here's the concern. If we've got costs that are going up and we've got an index that's going down, there's an intersection there and the math just doesn't work. So, on this slide, what I'm depicting for you
045is um the the pale yellow uh piece of that pie is showing you the money the amount of revenue that we receive if we were to increase our real estate tax rate by the full 3.5% and just for graphics, I'm showing you um all other of those slices are the increase in expenses for salaries and benefits alone. It does not account for any other increase in utility cost, um tuition, cyber ed education, anything like that. So, uh there's a the Act 1 index growth rate does not keep up and support our um ongoing expenses. So, just kind of wrapping things up a little bit here for you. These are some of the adjustments that we started making. Uh I continue I have a spreadsheet that I continue to update as I get more data. Um
046but anyway, if we were to take the original um budgeted revenue, add in the 3.5% millage rate increase, um we come up with about $98 million in revenue. There are there is some growth in the district that would generate more real estate tax revenue for us. I'm hesitant to put any numbers in at this time because I do not know when those properties will come onto our assessment rolls. Um reading the articles, Todd, from Valley P about all of the uh growth that's happening with whether it be the data set or uh a small strip mall out on Route 30 that's going to be completed soon. Um anyway, I keep up with those construction costs, but that doesn't always necessarily mean that that's what the assessed value is supposed to be. So, I just want
047to get some more information before we start trying to factor that in. As far as expenditures go, again, the high school roof repairs and restoration and the high school chillers, we can I think we can make the justification to pay for those out of our construction fund. When we get to the high school renovation project, those would definitely need to be um replaced. So, I think that's the justification we could take it out of that fund. The high school real gym floor, we had talked about it. I think it was last year's budget that we were going to take it out of capital reserve. We did not um work on that project this year because we could not get a or a vendor would not provide us with a warranty unless we had air conditioning
048in the gym for the floor. So, we have the air conditioning in place and now we're going to move forward with the real gym floor replacement. And just to back up a little bit on the high school roof and the high school chillers, we are applying for the Pennsylvania school facility improvement grant. We applied for it. I haven't heard anything yet, so fingers crossed that we'll be able to receive some state grant money to help offset those costs. So, we still have a lot of work to do, obviously. And this is April and it's our sleeves are rolled up and we're honing into it and I told Dr. Hartman this morning, I said, I'm scrubbing numbers again and again and again and trying to work with, you know, anybody possible to get input from them
049as far as what we can do to try to get us down closer to a balanced budget. So. Just a couple when you talk about the real estate The real estate, you're talking about the project off of back off of Hollow to put the apartments in. They put the apartments in. Um Hollow Road. There's a couple >> those that big Yeah, Willow Road. >> Willow, I mean I'm sorry. Willow, I said Hollow. I'm sorry. That's okay. Willow, yeah. Yeah, that there are two phases to that. It's Greenfield North phase one and phase two. Uh phase one was originally um uh planned to be um finished, completed for people moving in for occupancy in April of this year. Obviously, that's not happening. I They're way behind. >> there almost every every day to check it out
050and stalk their properties. Um but that is I think that's probably going to go on maybe in July. I'm not I don't know. In what amount, I really don't know. >> the other one is where Rockville is, right? Those apartments that Correct. So I stalked that property. I went home that way on Friday night and they really raised everything, but there's nothing going up. So. >> I'll just confirm it. Yeah, some of the other properties Eurofinesse has broken ground on a very big project. Um from the article on LNP said that they're going to create like 250 jobs over the next 3 years. That kind of makes me think that it's going to be a 3-year phased-in project for that. I I don't know. I don't know. That's I just I'm trying to be conservative
051in my approach to um what we might anticipate with real estate tax revenue. Again, I mentioned the one small strip mall Gish's Furniture's going to go in there. It used to be Tony Wang's uh restaurant. And then there are just a few other um properties, but I'm watching. Thank you, Mr. Olson. So you're prepping us that we need to go to the max of that one that 3.5% mileage. If we don't, we are going to have a structural deficit. Okay. Yeah, because we've got you know, our fund balance which it's you don't want to run it down because then it you're never going to make it up. Right. So, we'll probably be at the max act one for a couple years. >> Yes. Yes. >> And then we'll see when all these projects are done
052when we can back it off. >> Correct. Yes. >> Okay. Yes. Are you budget Are you budgeting the full amount of ready to learn or are you Full amount, yes. Thank you. Yes. I think it's going to go through. I don't think that they're going to touch public education. I didn't think so last year, either. >> I was I'm not sure that some of the vibes I was getting from webinars that I was on through PASBO or just like be conservative, be you know Yeah, so. You mentioned two phases to the Greenfield Willow project. Is the second phase single family home family homes back there or >> No, that's just the it's the same thing. Just two different units The phase two is uh condos apartments. Um It it's it got started. I don't remember
053how much longer after phase one was started. It's really not too far behind. Yeah. So. Okay. We'll see. Anything else? Any other questions? No? No. Are there any other grants? I know you talked about grants for some of the construct or some of the capital projects, but are there grants for anything else that we're doing? There is a um PC E grant and I'm not going to be able to tell you what that stands for. I never remember crime and Crime and delinquency. Yes, thank you. Uh we have applied for that. Well, actually the state granted $170,000 for us. We're using that for some safety and mental health uh cost that um um uh CareSolace is a company that we've used to help with the uh need for any mental health uh safety and security.
054Uh Mr. Warner's been uh working through that um and also working with uh Adam McGraw. Um there's ooh there's some cameras Excuse me, there are some cameras that we're going to install that are included in that grant over at the cur- the current or the former Smoketown Elementary over on 340. When we're finished using that building, then those cameras will all go to uh over to Fritz that and can be installed there. So, it's just a way of using up those monies now for a need that we do have, but we've ensured that we can transfer those security lights and cameras over it to Fritz when it's open. I I think I think our I don't want to say we're banking on it or keeping our fingers crossed, but I think we're optimistic about the
055potential with the the RACP grant >> Yes. >> capital projects. That would be a huge benefit to our district, and I think the projects we have meet those criteria, and that's >> Yes. So, I think that was a huge step by the board to approve that process to allow us to work with with the group to to work on that. Um if we get that, that'll be a huge help. The The outside of like that, you know, grants we get we get small grants, state and federal grants for different things, but it's it's hard when your your biggest costs are ongoing costs in a district, salaries and benefits, cyber special education, and so on, you know, grants are raised to cover those one-time costs for things, but when your your biggest ex- expenditures are ongoing
056sort of fixed costs, it makes it a challenge. So, I think I think the the RCAP would be bene- hugely beneficial. >> be big. That would be huge. And the requirements for the RCAP um funding is very strict. We had to include and incorporate into the bid documents for all the contractors that were interested that they are they understand that they must comply with these terms within the grant and they must do this, they must do that. So it is a very strict grant but um Marotta Main has worked with other schools that have incorporated those requirements into their bidding process and worked out quite well. Did you mention what that total would be for that grant for the RCAP? No, I did the window has not opened up yet to apply. It'll open up
057we believe this summer probably September and that's okay for us to apply for that grant then even though the construction work has already started but it'll be prime and RCAP will actually be the ones that will go through and look at what are the qualifying expenditures. It would be primarily anything that is related to mechanical mechanical electrical HVAC asbestos removal a lot of those expenditures. So we don't have an idea actually when you approved us moving forward with that program we hadn't even gotten the bids yet for for the Fritz Elementary. So no it long way to answer your question is I don't have a total yet for that. And again same with the public school facility improvement grant even though we have $3 million that of qualifying expenses we don't um um how much
058of that would be awarded to us. Yeah. Hopefully the whole $3 million. Any other questions for Adele for this? All right. Thank you Mrs. Hunsinger. >> I'll be back next month. >> We look forward to it. I'm sure you are. All right, up next we have the root review and approval of the resolution calling for increased state funding. It's attached there. Um I guess I I would make a motion that we approve this resolution. >> Second. All those in favor say I. I. Any nays? I can't imagine we wouldn't want more state funding. So, I looks like that's for me and Ms. Martin to sign and we'll get that sent out. Anything So, then we have fine ports, finance and operations report. I have a question. >> Sure. Um for some time now, our these
059reports have been the goal-oriented reports. Uh I should have missed the other finance reports and the curriculum reports that we used to get. Just my opinion. When did we switch to the goal-oriented? It's been a while. >> Yeah. It's been a several months at least. Mhm. I got to point where I started going back trying to find the last regular finance I couldn't find couldn't find it. Okay. Can definitely look into that. Um I'm always impressed with the facilities report. I don't know how Ken does all that in one month. He doesn't sleep, apparently. Very good. Um curriculum instruction report is there as well if there's any questions about that. Anything new from the federal funds area? I know Jill had to take off early tonight, but um that we're aware of anything new there.
060Nothing new. We did Adele alluded to this. We did kind of catch wind that we think everything will be funding title one, funding title one, title two, title three. Looks like it'll be level funded for at least through this upcoming school year and there's some uncertainty after that, but regardless of all the things you hear about dismantling of the Department of US Department of Education and things like that. The The money is still flowing to the states from what we at the same level this year. From what we've heard. All right, then on to board reports. We have the IU 13 report attached there. There's two sections. Any comments about that, Ida? Okay. Uh Your IU reports are are marked. There are a few, you know, new things in there to take a look at.
061Um Let me see where all my additions are. Um Things that they've been talking about. Uh A report on superintendent tenure. I don't know if I gave this report is up to 5.4 years. It was down to 3 years just a year or so ago. Jeez. So it's it's up. Pre-pandemic was six. So we're getting close to what it was before, I think. That uh that area. They continue to send continue to send me information about the four-day work week uh to save money, to increase recruiting, and to alleviate burnout, but I don't know of anyone in Pennsylvania specifically that's terribly interested in that. It's difficult to make changes like that. It's a cultural change. It's a change for families and difficult nowadays for working families. Um but nonetheless it it's still out there. Uh
062there's a legislative survey that's been sent to you. Uh basically, that decides uh what PSBA will uh focus on. Uh it doesn't take long. They just ask you what your priorities are. So, you know, I I would ask you to take that. Um and of course, we still have resolutions or requests out there to advocate uh for um for charter schools. Uh and if you need those details and you want to write your own letter, I'll be glad to give that to you. Uh if you want if we want to present at conference uh for with any of our programs, that has to be in by May 8th. If you uh have a student or know of students that would like to be in the uh the student showcase uh or uh play and entertain
063in the in the exhibit hall, that has to be in by June 1st. Uh the fun stuff is I it's about um the federal Department of Education that I did get some information on uh last Friday. Uh half of it was redacted. I don't know why. But you may know that Department of Ed has been uh requested to vacate their building. And uh they have um the Department has about 50% as many employees as it as it had before. Uh but they're uh having someone else's moving into a Department of Energy is moving into their department. And they're moving to a smaller office, but it's a private office space. I don't know why it's not in the government building, but it's in uh a smaller private office building. Uh the only other information I have
064is uh civil rights and federal student aid uh just isn't there. It doesn't exist. English language acquisition has been dissolved. Uh let me go back. That civil rights and federal student aid supposedly are reorganizing. But English language acquisition, I'm not sure which of our departments deals with that most, but that's gone completely. Student loan management has been moved to the Treasury Department. And elementary and secondary education is moving to the Department of Labor. And that's And that's all I know, but it's it's all cut up. But do you can find out where any one program is if you have to access it. Uh the only other thing I wanted to do is I wanted to uh emphasize once more uh the social media part of program and Dr. uh Hartman had mentioned uh in the
065article that was in the last bulletin. It's really good. It's And those of you that are getting more into social media, it doesn't hurt to review that regularly. And finally, and this is outside of PSBA, but I wanted to bring to your attention. I don't know how many of you're familiar with the Hourglass Foundation of Lancaster. They have regular programs about issues that uh affect Lancaster County. And uh they've come back around to education. I Back when they had education wins, I attended them. Their programs are excellent. Uh they will have the uh Pennsylvania uh Department of Ed Dr. Carey Roe and four or five others. I think they're having the business manager for Pekin Valley. Their topic is um how artificial intelligence is shaping the future of education. Uh These programs are excellent. That's
066all I can tell you. You have to register for them and there is a charge. You should have gotten an email from them. If you didn't, I can forward mine. The cost is $40. It's on May 7th. So if anyone's interested that's up to you. And that's it. Got you. That's enough. Uh And if there's no questions about that, the PSBA report is also in there. Anything PSBA report, anything to add about that specific >> I think everything that, you know, I would tell you to say. You're either going to read it or you're not. >> Yeah. Well, and yeah. Um Lancaster County Academy uh there's an April report there. That's Yeah, that's already posted. Mhm. There's an April >> I I would, you know, possibly mention, you know, graduation is coming up for the
067academy. Um And we have right now potentially six CV graduates. That's awesome. But I'll get you that information closer to that time. Anything out of the CTC, Chester County? Yes, uh some things from March from the CTC. We approved the five-year CBA, the collective bargaining agreement. Uh we approved that at the March meeting and even had a little signing ceremony with the board president and the uh rep signing it was a really positive uh process. Uh also large capital a couple large capital items uh boilers that started leaking are needing replaced a roof and so those were yeah some pretty big items and they're applying for grants uh to help cover some of those costs as well. Also was really exciting we approved a new program uh it's for building and property maintenance and so
068it's it's really combines a lot of different um disciplines like welding plumbing uh construction are all you know part of this program uh for building and and property maintenance uh so through the different committees and things identified a need uh for those skills um so it's really on a fast track it's going to be offered uh this fall is is the goal so as uh another approval that we that we did there at the meeting was to approve hiring an instructor uh for that program so things are moving uh very quickly uh with that so it's really exciting. Also as of the 13th of April last week the programs are almost at capacity right now uh so 93% of the 1,721 seats are filled so um good things are happening there at the seat. That's
069it. Very cool. Can I can I ask you are are they really seeing at the uh the percentages on that contract? It's a five-year contract. >> Yeah. >> I just wondered what the increase for uh uh salary is over those 5 years. >> I don't remember the top of my head. >> We usually like to see where we sit. I have a question. Um with a lot of students looking away from colleges and more into the trades, is the CTC looking at possibly growing even more so because I know they're at capacity? Is that something that they're possibly looking at? Yes. Yeah, looking at at yeah, what we need to do. Um there's yeah, there's you know, certain programs are filled. There's wait lists. I know welding is is one of the the one of
070the big ones. Um and yeah, so short answer is yes. I'll add to that. I'm I serve on a big program expansion committee for the CTC and that's something they're constantly looking at. There's a couple challenges. One's physical space. Um and so they're looking even at options of maybe offering CTC programs, but if they could maybe go out into the districts for certain programs. They don't take certain types of labs or so on. And I think the the new program that that Phil spoke to, one of the Correct me if I'm wrong. You probably know about but they feel one of the the benefits of that program is it might they might be able to pull from some of those wait list Yeah. students who are on those wait list to participate in that program
071if they didn't get into welding as their first choice or so. It's sort of I don't want to say a hybrid of of multiple ones, but it's it it it would still give students who are interested in either construction or welding or HVAC or so. They they get a little taste of that in the in the in this management uh uh I forget the name of it. >> Building and property management program kind of would be a little bit of all of that. So, I think to start they have the numbers to to support that program, but they're looking at they're looking at a lot of different programs right now. They're looking at early child expanding early childhood, they're looking at uh quite a few. So, they have a I feel like they they do
072a nice job of looking at the you know, part of their requirement as an approved CTC is they have to look at they have to look at the community demand for certain it can't just be we we like this, we want this, uh but there's a whole kind of workforce development component for when they want to develop programs though. >> soon be having Old Smoketown to sell and the HVAC program, plumbing, and all that they can do the upgrades and teach the kids as they're doing that. On the building just as well. Joint project. >> I know that nationwide the number of students left out of the program these programs that went in is huge and I keep reading articles. I I put one of them under my federal thing in my account. I have
073no idea what it means, but I put it there. They talked about the national occupational competency testing instrument. Well, I'm glad you two are shaking your heads that you know what. They talked about moving it to make it easier for kids to get into programs, but my question since we have loads of kids that want it that have this and can't get in and I understand we have limited space. Is it difficult to find qualified instructors? Cuz I know this is a whole different world than classroom education. Yeah, it A lot of a lot of instructors come from the industry um and then they can get their you know, teaching certificate or whatever um as they work. >> But I would guess that it's hard to match their income. Yeah, that's the challenge. >> they're
074already skilled workers. They're the best of the skilled workers. >> Generally, they can do better working in industry than they do teaching. Yep. I wonder how the uh I I had I don't know if this is related, but uh to the IU, I don't know if you saw this in the Penny Saver. That's a CV student in that transition program. Oh, nice. And uh related to the uh the uh social workers, our local seeds has been in every paper I pick up. They're We are so fortunate to have the community organizations we have. Mhm. Absolutely. We really are. You know, we at some point we need to stop and have some sort of ceremony to thank them. It's a good idea. Yeah, when I think about the guys that could teach at the CTC, I
075think of like the retired guys in the industry that end up working at Lowe's or Home Depot and and tell you where to go find all your plumbing hardware. But I don't personality-wise, a lot of them I don't think would want to work with teenagers. So, as the skills are there, but maybe not the people skills sometimes. >> It's come on. Skills and motivation. Yeah, they are. For sure. I'll tell you some of the most dedicated and and uh instructors who focus really on relationships with kids that I've seen in my career are CTC teachers. They when you if you go to the awards and letters ceremony at for the CTCs at the end of the year, they're uh whatever they like you see how close the the instructors cuz they're tied you know, it's
076a small group of kids in those programs. And to your point, Mark, it is a lot of student a lot of a lot of individuals from industry who get into teaching CTC. Might be more on that back end of their career and maybe like they're looking for to kind of slow down a little bit. Uh so, you got to find it's always about fit, but yeah, they struggle just like we it's a whole one of the reasons I tried to get more involved in this uh pro- program expansion committee is cuz I don't know a lot about CTCs and I want to learn more. And I just I don't know a lot about the certification process and I'm learning. It's a little bit different than us in traditional K-12 education, but I've I've the teachers
077they have are good. I'll put it that way. Is there a a simpler certification than it is than it is for It's different. I don't I don't know it's easier I think to get started, but then they they keep up with the requirements and so when you cuz it it is primarily those who went like a non-traditional route in the teaching. It's it's those who worked were were masters in their craft and industry who get into into it. So Mhm. One I guess one other thing that I found really neat as I've started going to these JOC meetings is before the main board meeting starts they do a student of the month ceremonies. Two They pick two students from each of the main three campuses and the principal is there honors each of the students
078and their families are there and everything. It's just a neat money neat ceremony you know honoring the work of those students and it's it's evident there seeing that relationship between the student and the the teacher. They're teacher nominated. And there was yeah earlier some CV students that were honored through that. So it was pretty neat. All right. There's also a construction team update attached as well that kind of walks through some of the things that there were three of us that attended the tour earlier for Loyola. As a former parents students it's really nice to see I remember what it looked like before all the changes. It really looks fantastic. And I I think one of the cool things is they've kept some of the original character. We're talking about the oldest building, one of
079the oldest buildings in the district that has served as every building in the district. High school, middle school, district office, all of it. So, the fact that they kept, um, even like the wood paneling in the gym is is just really cool. So, I I'm really I walked through that and I feel proud. I know uh uh Principal Aloisa said that the teachers are really excited to move into that space. Um, I think particularly the fifth grade teachers who no longer will have classrooms that feel like the catacombs. So, uh I keep saying that. I need to stop saying that. Um, Julie, I was told, right Julie? So, anyway, um, any questions about anything with that? Those that didn't go on the tour or anything if you had any questions about Leola? All right. Any
080No other reports, I believe. Uh, this is the second part in the meeting for anybody to address the board publicly for any anything in general? We have We have the dates, uh Dr. Harmon mentioned earlier we have our school board retreat next Monday, 5:30 if you want to eat, 6:00, um, to go through some stuff there. Uh, it's going to be a very informative night, so please make every effort to come. And then the meet the meeting dates for May for the 11th and the 18th are also in there as well. Um, other than that, we have, uh, some student discipline and staffing, uh, proposals to go over for executive content. So, I would take a motion to move to executive content for those reasons. I move that we go to executive session. Second. All
081those in favor say aye. Aye. Any nays? All right, meeting's adjourned.