001It's beautiful down there. >> My my uh father-in-law owned his business here in Lancaster. There was some big farm down in near Lexington, Kentucky that he did business with. Welcome everyone to the February 17th meeting of the Knosoga Valley Board of School Directors and uh also welcome to those that are joining online. I'm not Mr. Gensel, so filling in for him uh here tonight. Uh would you please stand um for the pledge of allegiance? >> I pledge algiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for which it stands one nation under God indivisible with liberty and justice for all. This is our second meeting of the month where most official votes are taken, many of which are listed on the consent agenda, including items that are routine or have
002been discussed at our work session meeting. Our meeting meetings observe all the legal requirements and our district policies to the best of our understanding and ability. All agendas and related public documents and details are posted on the district website. Mrs. Martin, could we have the attendance report, please? >> We have five school directors present tonight. Mr. Gensel, Mr. Benigno, Miss Gibler, and Dr. Martin are absent. We do have a quorum in place. >> Thank you. And are there any additions or changes to the agenda? Yes, the budget PowerPoint was updated today due to a clerical typo. >> Thank you. >> Can we get a motion to approve tonight's agenda? >> Motion to approve tonight's agenda. >> Second. >> So, we have a motion to approve the agenda. All those in favor say I. >> I.
003>> Looks like we have an agenda. Next, uh, we have board commendations. Bravo to the CV High School senior Hannah Gensel for being nominated for a Hershey Theater Apollo Award. Hannah was nominated as an outstanding featured performer in a play for her role as Miss Will Helmina in the Courage in the C um in the Curious Savage, the high school's fall play. The awards ceremony will be held in May at the Hershey Theater. Congratulations to senior boys soccer player Andrew Jones who was named to the 2025 boys all state team at the Pennsylvania soccer coaches association honors and awards banquet was held in January and Jones a forward scored 25 goals and added five assists this past season. Congratulations to the participants of this year's TSA Region 2 competition held in January at the CV
004High School. The middle school and high school teams combined for 13 first place finishes at the event which welcomed approximately 450 students in grades 6 through 12 from Lancaster, Lebanon, and Burks counties who competed in over 50 events. And I know from being at that in the past, it's a really cool event. Uh, congratulations to Coach Oxendine and CV's rifle team for a great season. Among the many accomplishments were Dominic Santa Maria and Caleb Refe, winning the Langster Lebanon League Pairs Tournament Invitational. Dominic also won the LL League individual marksman champion and a first place finish by the entire team at the LL League championship. And second graders across the district recently comp completed an ELA unit entitled Kids Can Make a Difference. The buildings ended their unit with different projects. For example, Smoketown second
005graders decided to make birthday bags to deliver to CVCCS. The bags were decorated by students and filled with all the necessary items to make birthday cakes. The bags were then given to CVCCS clients when they came when they came to visit uh near their birthday. and Fritz Elementary second graders collected care box items and assembled 55 care boxes to be handed out to girls and boys in the pediatric wings of local hospitals. The boxes included such items as crayons, fuzzy socks, books, card games, and more. And that concludes the board accommodations. Dr. Dr. Hartman, I'll turn it to you for superintendent's comments. >> Okay. Good evening. I don't have any new staff to introduce this evening, although you'll notice on my superintendence report, there are several new uh coaching positions being approved this evening. Uh
006but I just just want to take a moment to mention uh last week I I was fortunate enough to have the opportunity along with Dr. Koser to travel to Tennessee to attend the AASA National Conference on Education. Uh so uh as far as the professional development opportunity, uh everything I went to pretty much I'd say 90% of what I went to and what the sessions were geared towards down there. Everything was AI and and uh college ready, college and career readiness. Those seem to be the two big themes, which as everybody's aware, those are two topics that we talk a lot about here at CV as well. So, uh, I think we're we're kind of right on the mark with our initiatives and and some of our goals as a district that seems to be,
007uh, the hot topic out in education right now. But really good opportunity. I did want to mention Dr. Koser and I had the opportunity to, uh, present along with the third gentleman, uh, Dr. David Jacobson, who's the director of the education development center, who is that's the organization we've done a lot of work with with first 10 and a lot of our our early childhood initiatives. Uh so we we were able to present on starting early to improve achievement uh and talk in a in a roundt format with other administrators from throughout the country on a lot of our prek initiatives, our early childhood initiatives and our first 10 initiatives uh that that are unique here at CV. Uh and really uh you know we were asked uh Dr. Koser and I were asked to
008present uh with Dr. Jacobson uh who who works with school districts from all over the country because he really views our district as a model uh for what we're doing with early childhood and how we're bridging that gap between uh early childhood and K12 education and building those community partnerships. So, I can take absolutely zero credit for anything we were we were presenting on. I was just there kind of to say, "Hi, I support this program." And I shared a little background information about our district, but it was really Dr. Koser, Dr. Dr. Jacobson who really were able to to share the great things we're doing with early childhood. Uh and they credited, you know, a lot of our our uh school team here at CV who who really makes it happen, whether it's uh
009Karen Sullivan, Michelle Trazborg, uh Kitty Odell with her component with with helping with the communications and and PR aspect of our our preK and early childhood initiative. So, it was great. We had we had a lot of positive feedback and it was definitely a a worthwhile opportunity. So, I wanted to thank the board for uh providing those opportunities for our leadership team to to go and get training and do different professional development. Uh we're fortunate here at CB. So, thanks for the opportunity. That concludes my report. >> Good. Thank you. Board comments. Are there any board comments on district activities? If not, Mrs. Martin, any secretary correspondents? None this evening. And so we will move on to our presentations. Uh Mr. Hawkins with the athletic update. All right. Uh good evening. Thank you for the
010opportunity to present. So we're just going to go over the athletic uh department presentation. We're going to highlight several areas and we'll open it up for any questions you may have. So, next slide, please. So, our agenda this evening. Oh, you're good. Our agenda this evening is going to go over an overview of a athletic department, some fall sports recap and review, winter recap and review, budget overview, and then a look ahead within the department itself. Next slide. All right. Our program goals. We've highlighted three program goals uh since I came on board. First is the high academic standards to go uh in in correlation with all of our district standards. So our our idea and our goal is to prepare our student athletes for the academic rigor uh not only the demands here and
011between in these four walls but also at the collegiate level. Uh the implementation implementation of strategies to better support their study habits, time management skills and overall academic success. We've identified that leadership development is a key component of our group. Um you'll hear a little bit more about the student athlete leadership program, but what we're looking to do is prepare our student athletes uh with structured intentional programs to kind of give them um the the things they need to be community leaders, team leaders, peer leaders, and leaders within these four walls and also beyond graduation. And then maintain our competitiveness. Our goal is to ensure that our teams are competitive by putting them against like components and also teams within the area that are going to be uh giving them a high performance and a
012high performance of of execution and pursuing opportunities and matchups that will propel them for postseason play and beyond. So, some of the highlights over our fall season, uh obviously we offer 10 high school sports. Uh you can see those listed there. eight junior high programs. Among those, we had 458 total participants, 277 from the high school and 181 from the junior high. Along with that, we talked about maintaining a a high level of academic rigor. So, you can see our overall GPA for our fall sports teams, 3.595. Those were led by all of our uh girls programs. actually was girls cross country, girls soccer, and girls volleyball all with 3.8. Our cumulative records for this for the fall season, you can see there are 78 41-2 for our varsity program. So, our league program was
01343 and 21. We did have four section champions. So, football went back to back undefeated. Uh field hockey also had an undefeated section championship. golf and boys soccer as well. We had seven teams who actually qualified for districts. Uh among those we had uh several individuals who actually qualified for states as well in golf and um and also it was golf which won the other one. We had some cross country runners as well. I'm sorry. uh individual awards. You can see there a total of I think it was 52 52 student athletes who received some type of accommodation between all league all state honorable mention first or second team and or participated in the senior all-star game. So quite a few individuals who had accolades who were seniors who uh rounded out our successful fall
014programs. Obviously, winter is ongoing. OB and looking at the the screen there, we have eight senior high programs for all of our teams and with four junior high programs. Total participants was 202. 106 for the senior high participants and 96 for junior high. And looking at their academic rigor as well, we're 3.3. Uh again, led by a few girls teams, girls basketball and girls swimming uh with 3.7 and 3.6. Year to date, our uh overall GPA is 3.476. So our goal is to be at 3.5 uh by by the time the year ends and concludes. We highlighted a few uh achievements, but our communive record for senior high programs were 89 and 82. Uh senior high league program was 54 and 68. A little lower than what we wanted, but all of our teams were
015in competitive uh sections this year. And we actually had one section championship with boys and we already highlighted the rifle team with the league championship as well. Currently we have all five programs that have a representation except for the girls basketball program in playoffs. Uh actually 15 minutes ago our boys tipped off at Wilson. So hopefully they come home with a first round uh victory as well. We also have some wrestlers competing this weekend at Spring Grove uh in districts. So they hopefully they can punch their ticket to states uh at Hershey. Our bowling team was very successful. They actually have a few bowlers bowling in districts as well this weekend. And our swimmers will be competing on the 27th and 28th uh to potentially punch their ticket to states to Bucknell as well. So,
016I wanted to go over the budget uh budget uh for 2526. So, I would just overview the the overall budget was $22,339 and the actual to date is 122 that we've already uh uh used out of that budget. Now, there's a few line items that we need to to look at, which is officials fees. We have not transferred over all of the winter fees and the spring dues or fees for the the officials. The reason why I highlighting the officials is you'll see the increase in budget for the 2627 school year. Um the officials fees was about 29.7% of that. So I'm going to go into depth a little bit on that. Uh I was a part of the officials uh committee as far as the league goes. So we put together a panel of
017seven ads and our executive director. We saw a disparity between Midpan York Adams uh and uh Burks League as far as the official fees. We were losing officials going to those other leagues just because of the competitive nature of the pay. Um we've outlined some some things that uh we could do as a league. Not only did we increase the dues or fees for those individuals, but we also put into place some u uh what do you call it? Lost my train of thought. Some uh um programs to help them establish um retention within those. One was we identified there wasn't a evaluation process for officials for selection into postseason games and beyond within the LL LL league. So, we've actually started to establish that our coaches will do evaluations of officials. The chapter will
018then review them and then assign those officials some of those spots based on their based on their rating. So, with all those things put into play, the increase in salary was was another way of we can retain some of those officials moving forward plus makes us competitive similar to the Lang or the York Adams uh Burks and Midpen League. So that's the 29.7%. That is what uh is affected for us. Overall the the increase um for the LL it was about the average was 10.7%. Some sports received a 66% increase others received probably about a 2% increase. Uh I've outlined exactly what uh each sport for us uh entails. we've actually decreased the amount of salaries and fees for football, but we then increased for wrestling. So, just kind of give you an idea there.
019The other thing for the increase in in the uh overall budget line for uh 26 27 where three teams got uniforms this year. Uh we've identified their need. Uh there was a a high need to make sure we get those and that's that's a that's one thing that we want to make sure we do for those teams. It would it's been over seven years for each of those teams. Uh and those teams are successful teams, one of them playing tonight. So hopefully we can we can establish a new set of uniforms for them to be competitive. Uh I would I would outline that bullet point there. All of our other costs uh associated with the 2526 going into 27 or 2627 budget have all ma remained relatively the same uh and have not increased. So
020overall, you're looking at 52 of the $62,000 um that we've increased out of those two line items there, officials fees and uniforms. So looking ahead, what does the athletic department look like? So a few things I wanted to highlight, which was the student athlete leadership program, which is uh something I would I would love to begin and start 26 27th school year. Um this initiative will uh ensure that we establish uh a program for our student athletes to be able to learn various uh character building traits that will give them uh success beyond these four walls. It will give them an opportunity to equip themselves with critical thinking skills, insight and confidence uh needed to lead and be an example on and off the field. Additionally, uh I would love to bridge the gap. We've
021identified some gaps uh between our youth program, our middle school program, and our high school program. In speaking with our youth program and our coaches, uh we've identified these gaps and we're looking to bridge those by establishing parallel expectations, consistent consistent terminology, and regular touch points. Uh under guided leadership, ensuring a seamless experience for athletes and families from entry to graduation. And then finally, things to know. We've identified that a lot of our families here um uh don't have the information they need for uh for students to be able to compete at the collegiate level. So, what we want to do is be able to give them an information seminar uh with bringing back previous CV uh athletes who have been at the collegiic level to to actually outline things to know and some experiences
022what to do and what not to do. uh have some college coaches uh come and speak to our student athletes and families and identify this. These are the things that uh the colleges are looking for and preparedness uh along the way for them to be recruited and play at the collegiic level. That concludes my report. >> Can I ask a couple questions? >> Absolutely. >> What happened to boys playing tennis? >> I'm sorry. What happened to boys who wanted to play tennis? >> What happened to boys who wanted to play tennis? >> Yeah, I saw girls tennis. I didn't see anything listed as boys tennis. >> Boys tennis is in the spring. We start that March second. >> Oh, okay. I didn't realize that. Thank you. Y >> um Could you explain me something about
023your budget? >> Yes. Uh this year it's 122,000 in round numbers and next year it's 262,000 and 52,000 of that is because of uh the cost of officials and giving new um uniforms to some of our teams. That leaves 88,000 odd that I don't know where it goes. >> Correct. So right now we have not expensed the rest of this year's budget. We still have >> Sorry, you have to speak up for me. >> We have not expensed the rest of this year's budget. So, we we are finalizing the winter season, which we need to transfer over all of our officials fees and then we need to actually purchase some more items for our spring season. Plus, the officials fees have not been dispersed for that season yet. >> Okay. So, this season will actually
024be higher than 122. >> Oh, yes. That is just actual current till right now. >> As of now. As of now. Okay. I get >> the budget is 202. >> They've spent 122 and next year >> that's not all we're going to spend this year. >> No, we will we will spend >> I didn't see it. I wonder where's the other 188,000. My my other question, and I don't want to dig real deep into this tonight, except that when I mentioned last week about IDing all of our teams is co-ed or boys or girls, I was sure someone said we've done that, but I don't see that. Is that coming up? >> Frank, Frank, you can speak to our our teams are all identified like through PIAA, boys, girls. >> Absolutely. Yes. >> Yeah. For
025example, football. Nobody calls football boys football, but it is coded as a for title nine reasons. It's a it's a male sport that >> it's considered co-ed. >> No, it is. >> No, football is not co-ed. It's a boy sport. >> Right. But just cuz like in our handbooks, we don't list it as boys football. It doesn't mean it's not boys football. >> I expected everything to be more uniform. Everything would be listed girls, boys, or co-ed. >> And evidently, that's not quite how it is. everywhere it's listed. I'd like to see it that way so everybody knows exactly what what what which teams are permitted for which students. >> Okay, >> that's all. But thank you very much for this. >> You're welcome. >> I just have a general question um for more for
026a middle school. How does how do the how does word get out that hey soccer triyouts are this day and this day because if we're just putting a flyer up on the wall this they have tunnel vision they're not seeing it so how do we do we put on a website or something like that so the parents can be like okay you're trying out for soccer kind of that kind of stuff like I know like middle school like a lot of athletes drop out in middle school and if we want to keep that tunnel of pushing gets through in sports. >> That's a great question. So, that's part of that bridge the gap. So, we've have some initiatives put in place that we're going to be um expecting to do. So, we're going to be
027going down to the middle school, going down to the elementary schools and introducing these sports at an earlier age and plus putting up signups and so on and so forth. So, there's going to be a lot that our coaches are going to be doing that we're not doing now. There's a lot our department's going to be doing that we haven't done in the past. So again, a part of that bridge the gap campaign is to make sure we get the information out to our students and families so they know how to sign up. They know how when and when tryyouts are and so on and so forth, open gyms, open fields and everything. >> Okay. Yeah. Because um speaking to people in charge, they've been having issues in the past couple years of being able
028to get out the flyers. Like they'll spend all the money, give out the flyers, but the school won't let them pass it out. So, I know that's an obstacle that you have to get over to get the kids in because a lot of the stuff's covered. It's a lot of it's free, but they just don't know about it. So, >> that's our goal is to make sure everyone knows. So, >> yep. Thank you. >> Yeah, I like seeing those initiatives like the student athletic development. I mean, I think that's that's really cool. really um yeah a good opportunity for for the athletes not just on the field to develop their skills but to develop their their leadership uh as well and also the seminar for college future college college athletes I think will be uh
029would really go over well something I'm interested in >> all right so >> don't we do that at the college night too or is that strictly for academics >> primarily academics >> I will say the clinics where like there's minky camp with field hockey for the elementary girls and the high schoolers help and I think the the high schoolers have such a smile on their face of like you're having fun with these little kids and so I'm like that's a good building and keep the kids in and so I I enjoy that we do some of those programs. >> Absolutely. >> All right. >> Thank you. >> I don't know if you have any years of eligibility left if you All right. Uh, next is the seeds presentation with Mrs. Hershey and Mrs. Kim. >>
030Yep. No problem. Yeah, before we start, we'll just say thank you guys so much. We know this is volunteer time for you and so um we are incredibly grateful for the school board and for all that you do. >> Y thank you very much. We can do one more. Perfect. So for those of you who don't know, we are Kanesoga Valley Seeds. We are a nonprofit that partners um with the school district as well as with quite a few other partners and we um yeah are excited to let you know just some of the main areas. We have a lot of different programs and areas that we're working on tonight. We are just focusing on the ones that mostly partner with the school district. So our vision statement as far as why we are here
031is we are cultivating a healthy thriving Kosoga Valley community. And then our mission statement is enriching lives by connecting our community to housing resources, educational supports, and health services. You'll also see then on the next slide, our core values. And you can read these more um you. Thank you. You can read those more in depth also in the postcard that we handed out to you. It's on the back of that. But um our core values are actually an acronym spelling the word seeds. So that kind of went handinhand with our name choice. But our first S is for selfless love. Next is for empowerment. Then equity, deliberate partnership and stewardship. And as the as it says, we are here to serve. And so we are just really grateful to have the opportunity to share updates
032with you all. Um a really exciting update since we would have met with you all last winter, we got our own office space, which is a huge win. Um, we were really grateful to Faith Church for letting us use their space for several years, but we were a bit limited with evenings that we could run programming. So, we started to hunt and look for space. Um, and we found one along the Lincoln Highway. We wanted to be along a main road near a bus stop. Um, have a large area for meals together and to host programs, have classrooms, and also rooms for children. Um, we found that in this space, it actually is above and beyond what we were looking for, which was amazing. Uh, we also recently began to rent the upstairs, which you
033can see at the very top of that picture. Um, starting to dream a little bit about a teen space, a space for teenagers to hang out and had some programming. So, look for more on that. And then we also recently converted a storage um space in our basement. And I'll explain more about what we're doing down there in a little bit, but we wanted really to create a really welcoming and um cared for type of feeling when you walked into the space. And we're we're thinking we achieved that, but um it continues to be our ongoing goal. These are just a couple fun photos. This is where we have some of the child care. in classrooms for adults. So, our programs, we have three main areas um that we have all of our programs under.
034Housing resources, educational supports, and health services. So, the first one we're going to talk about is housing resources. So, this is Megan. Um Megan is an adult advocate. um kind of like a case worker and she is hired by the factory ministries. So we have a collaborative partnership with the factory ministries. She works part-time for seeds and part-time for the factory. So she is with seeds for 2 days a week and then we pay her for those two days. She is walking much more in depth alongside families with housing insecurities. um participants will come in, they will set goals and then she walks alongside them helping them to meet the goals that they are setting. It could be looking for an additional job. It could be trying to get out of a hotel. It could
035be looking for a cheaper hotel. It could be a multitude of different things in housing areas. So far, we have started this partnership with the factory ministries just since September. So, since September, our adult advocate has worked with six families in CV that have children. She's also working with other people who maybe don't have children, um, but are just CV community members, but there's been six families she's been intentionally walking alongside that have kids in the district. Um those start out as weekly meetings and then they move on to every other week and then to every other month just as they continue to meet their goals and um don't need to walk quite as closely alongside with the advocate. These are some of our other partners that we have within our housing resources of course
036our CV social workers. Um we are incredibly grateful for them and the partnership we have with them. I am probably talking to one or more of them almost daily >> just in one way or another as we walk alongside our families here. All of the families would sign an ROI, a release of information so that um the social workers and seeds can share and talk and be able to holistically walk alongside them. Well, um one of the highlights that we had a partnership with them was this winter when we provided holiday support for our families. Um, all of the families who took part in this holiday support would have been families who were utilizing either power packs or weekend blessings because of food insecurities. They were in the foster care system or they were homeless.
037Um, together with the social workers, we served 143 different families, CV families, um, totaling 306 kiddos. Um, one of the programs that we did that, we had three different programs in our holiday support. One of them was specifically geared towards our families who are living in hotels. Um that was a pretty unique and fun one where um all of the kids came up with a wish list and then from that we created ornaments that went out to churches, businesses, individuals who purchased this these different items. Um those families all came to our seeds location. We shared a large meal together. A church brought a meal for everyone and then the kids went downstairs and played and the adults went into the other room were able to wrap all of the gifts as well as get
038a bonus gift card just to help them with groceries. We've been amazed by our community, by this district, by people within this district who have gifted um seeds with all kinds of grocery gift cards, Target, Walmart cards that we've been able to give to um families in need as they're working with an adult advocate or as we're walking with them. So, we're incredibly grateful for that. Some of the other part So, sorry, one more back. Yep. I took too long on the social workers, huh? Some of the other partners we have in the um housing resources is Chestnut Housing. Um that is an organization that works in building and so there has been a property purchased just down the road actually from our space by Forest Hills Menanite. And um that is currently a space
039that has two apartments on it, but it's two big buildings. And so the goal is for those buildings to be redone and turned into 10 to 14 affordable housing units which were able to be permanent housing not transitional housing. So between seeds and bridge of hope which is one of the other partners you see there. We will then walk alongside the families who are moving into um this this property here that Chestnut Housing is rehabbing. You'll also see a partnership we have with Eastley and Peter Township. um we are written into their budget and that money basically goes to help pay some of our hours with our adult advocate as she walks alongside our families that are living there in the hotels along Lincoln Highway. So the next um program I'll talk about was the
040one I referred to earlier about earlier about the basement space in our office that we converted um into a little bit of a a shopping experience. So it's our furniture and household good um ministry. We have so far helped out six families transition from a hotel and into a home. And so when families are living in a hotel, they've often gotten rid of most of their belongings. And so they will now be able to come and shop at our space. Um the community has really stepped up and donated so many good um new or gently used items and they can shop it for free. And so that's just something that we feel that we can offer to the community as a way to just take an edge off of those expenses when transitioning into a
041home. So we're just really grateful to community members who have donated items as well as I have many volunteers that are willing to donate their time or their truck and trailer to help me get either donations to me or donations from me to the the home where the family is moving. So that's been a really exciting um thing that we've grown just in the last year. The next program under our housing resources is refreshing recreation. This is targeted specifically to our families in CV who are living in hotels. And so Zion Lutheran Church allows us to use their gym um one Saturday a month. Um we come gather together. We have a made to order breakfast where the kids and the parents can fill out almost like restaurant style what they would like to be
042made. They can come and get it as many times as they'd like to have it. Um, there's a bulletin board in there where kids hang their artwork. There's always a table full of art supplies. The parents can um just resource share, not feel alone. The kids have an open gym where they can just run around and play, which is something when you're living in a hotel that you um don't have the ability to have. We celebrate birthdays together. Um we always come ready with a supply of um we go shopping at Blessings of Hope beforehand and there is a room full of food. Each family usually leaves with three to four bags of just grocery supplies, things that they would need. We were gifted this past Christmas um a Christmas party from SkyOne, which is
043an incredible fun thing for these families. We all just had a pizza party together there at SkyOne and had a great time together. One of the other just kind of final programs that we have under that housing is called Movement Matters and it kind of ties into what we were hearing back here before about the athletic department. that is specifically for families who maybe can't um afford the fees, >> can't afford new shoes, things like that. And so that is a referral to us from either a principal, a social worker, or one of the um guidance counselors or a coach. And so, so far this past year, we've um covered fees for eight um kiddos, as well as some sneakers and some other supplies that have been needed for them. under educational supports. Um we
044have quite a few programs under that, but the main one that I'm going to talk about tonight is um our adult English language development classes. Um you guys know we have 42 different languages within this school district, which we love and we are grateful for. um and English is available to the kids at school, but it's harder for the adults and the families to have those English skills which they would love to grow in. And so we look for ways um to remove barriers that exist for families to be able to get to our programs. And so that is why you'll see their picture of a meal being shared. There's always a meal shared together. Um there is free child care. There is um transportation given if that is a need. And then the class
045itself is free. So this class is offered every fall and spring and it is six weeks long and then we meet two nights a week. So it's 12 classes per session. We are heading into our eighth session of this. We usually cap it at about 40 um adults being able to come with their kids. Um so we love that. We love that it is much more than learning English together. We are a family. These are our friends and community is built. Um and it is a gift. Mhm. >> One of the other things we do under this program is um we have what we call our topical nights. And so that's just in the winter time. It's once a month. So last night we would have had or last month we would have had an
046all about CV night. And so Dr. Koser was there, Mr. Hawkins was there, our lots of um our social workers, our counselors, just a way to answer any questions that any families might have about the resources that are available to them within the district. This month we will have an all about health to be able to help understand some of the health questions and next month will be all about finances and your credit score. So just ways that we can help some of our families um gather together and learn some of these tools. We also started last summer um a pilot program called CV Summer Library and I had the honor of overseeing that. It was really really fun and I thank you for the support from the school district. Um, Brownstown Elementary was opened
047up for nine Wednesday mornings throughout the summer. Approximately 27 different families attended with an average of 20 to 25 parents and children each week and about four to six volunteers each week, some of which were teachers. Um, we had lots of fun connecting activities to the basics and books were checked out by each child each week. And I will report that only one book out of the whole entire summer of dozens and dozens of books checked out did not return and we were happy to cover that and replace it for uh Mrs. Wymer. So that is part of our agreement in this partnership is that seeds covers any of those missed books. So we are thrilled and really excited to offer this program again this summer again at Brownstown Elementary. Then our third pillar are
048our health services. Um, and we have two incredible partners in the area of health services. The first one is a partnership with Elizabeth Town College and with Dr. Diane Martin. She oversees and offers occupational therapy services free to our community and I assist her with that. We have two programs currently running. You'll see the growing seeds program on the lefthand side. That one has been running. This will be our third um year of offering that this spring. And then our seeds leads program is the one on the right hand side. This is our second year running that one. The growing seeds program is a parent and child play group offered on Wednesday mornings. It's for um a caregiver and a child ages birth to four. They come and there's a fun theme throughout the five
049weeks that we meet with skills and learning for both the parents and the child. And also a great opportunity for Dr. Martin to um provide early intervention connections or uh preK counts information, things like that. So, that's been a great tool to give that to families in that program. And then our newer program, Seeds Leads, has been really fun and really cool um in the middle school. This is happening this year during the school day. So, we push in during the school day during 7th period and we have a group of about 12 to 14 students. Um it's students are paired up. So, it's a neurodeiverse student paired up with a typical learner and we work on leadership skills and just learn um just how to be more responsible citizens and then we always have
050a service project that we work on. So, that's really fun and we try to give the kids some of that power to decide what the project's going to be. So, that's been really exciting for us. Our other partnership then is with Union Community Care. They actually have office hours at our seeds location. And so this is important for you all to know for the community. So the first and third Thursday of each month from 1 until 4 in the afternoon, anyone can just walk into our seeds office and there will be a resource coordinator there ready and waiting. And so if someone has questions about insurance or setting up an appointment or getting information about something, Kristen is her name also um like mine and she will just walk with that person to help get
051those answers to their questions. Another program that I oversee specifically in the health um area of our focus are our hygiene kits. So in our partnership with East Lamper Township, we have some funding, but we also have an incredible amount of community donors for this one. Um so you will see a gallonsiz ziplockc bag filled with lots of personal care and hygiene items. And we will deliver these hygiene kits to local hotels as we visit the motel and hotel owners or managers. uh empowering them to give these out if individuals are showing up and and seeming to be unsheltered or in need of some additional resources. Our information is then inside those bags so as they open them up they're empowered to know who to call and what to do. Um and that's been a
052really great way to just get our word out into the community. So churches, school groups, and community groups generously donate these supplies. And then I have also had some school groups come and volunteer their time to help me assemble these kits. So that's been really really a wonderful program. So as it says, we are truly grateful for our partners and that includes you all in that. So thank you for being a partner with us and for um just walking alongside us in this journey as we get started and we're just really excited for what the future holds. So thank you. It's neat seeing how you've grown. Um, yeah. Just over Yes. the last couple years that couple years that I've been here and, you know, now having your own office space and offering >> more
053and more services. There's so many needs in our community. But, uh, it's great to see, you know, different groups coming together, working with you, and and really filling the gap >> uh for the community. So, >> thank you. It really speaks volumes to the Knosa Valley community. I will tell you, I've never seen anything like it. >> Um, almost all of our programming is volunteerrun. That's partly how we are able to do what we do because we don't have a crazy budget. You know, we just rely on the skills of others and it's been skills and resources of others. So, yeah. >> What I like best about your presentations is you can't help but keep a smile on your face when you talk about your programs. I think that says a lot. >> Thank you
054so much. >> Thank you. Thank you. >> And I did see the email today about another family being given the keys to their home. >> Yes. Yep. That was very fun. >> We are grateful for landlords that were walking alongside and willing to walk with us and walk with our participants who maybe don't look great on paper, but they're great great to rent to. >> Thank you. Next is our time for public comment. Uh this is the first time in our meeting um open to public comment about any items specific to the agenda. Is there anyone that wishes to speak? Seeing none, uh any comments from the CVEA or comments from other employee groups? Moving on to the consent agenda. So, there's items uh A through K on the consent agenda tonight. Are there any
055questions, comments, concerns? >> Yeah, I I had a question on um >> Oh, no. I'm sorry. It's on the next section. I got ahead of myself. I'll back off. >> Consent agenda. >> Oh, yes. I do have one quick question and I don't know if it's an ethical problem or best business practices or what, but I noticed that one of the Buckskin Alliance grant uh grants had a had a bid from um from Market Street Sports >> who we do business with. Is there a problem with that that I'm not aware of? Is that considered a best practice? >> I'm not sure. Is that >> it's a softball? >> The three bids they got was from market sports. >> And I I didn't know if we needed to check to make sure >> windbreak for
056the softball. >> Yeah. Yeah. So, because of our our agreement with Market Street Sports, they have the exclusive rights basically to hang any type of banners or signage, >> including like like So, and D, I don't want to put you on the spot. you can probably speak to it better uh or or even Katie maybe more than I I can but I think that was a unique situation where where uh Market Street Sports was in an agreement to do they pay for part of it or through our agreement with them but but then they the BIA offered to put so much towards it as well. >> Oh okay. >> Yeah. >> I just found that a little sort of off balance. Yeah. Thank you. >> Yeah. And don't quote me, what I believe happened with
057that was it had to kind of be Market Street. Another group couldn't have come in and done that banner or done that windshield and put our logo on it without violating our agreement with Market Street Sports >> for for public or for a signage. >> Any other questions on the consent agenda? If not, I would take a motion to approve the consent agenda items A through K. >> Motion to approve the consent agenda items A through K. >> I second it. >> Uh the motion is to approve uh the consent agenda items A through K. Um all in favor say I. >> I. >> Point of order. I think we have to have a roll call vote. >> Oh, roll call. Okay, thank you. >> Miss Trobridge, >> I. >> Mrs. Scoff, >> I. >>
058Miss Cap, Mrs. Capka, >> I. >> Mrs. Fischer, >> I. >> Mr. Eie, >> I consent agenda is approved. Next, we have Mrs. Huniger with the governor's 2627 budget proposal. >> Good evening. Smile. I did. It's your favorite time of the year. The budget season has started. >> It feels like we just >> never help thinking this is not what's going to be. >> Feels like we just got a budget. >> Yeah. Don't get excited then. >> Yeah, we did. And so I'll give you a very brief update. Uh as it turns out, when I watched the webinar um sponsored by PASBO about the governor's budget, a lot of it pertaining specifically to public education is really almost the same as what was presented for 2526. So I think it's going to be a lot
059of a repeat uh as well. A couple highlights though to point out is that this is the first year first time in about 10 plus years that our basic education subsidy uh that was funded u for overall for the entire state was as low as it was. It's only about a 6% and we know that's because they're shifting uh other funding over to the ready tolearn grant. We'll talk about that in a second too. Uh special education was at uh funded at 3.2% increase. the ready tole learn received another $564 million to allocate to the districts that runs through uh a specific formula. Uh there's u $100 million in grants for school safety and then um also uh funding going in for public school facility grants which is what we're going to be um using
060to pay for some of the capital projects that uh Ken has uh spoken about in his budget for 2627. and they're also talking a little bit more about some cyber tuition reform. So, first looking at this basic education funding, we always like to at least I do always like to look at what is what how does CV benefit here? What's going to happen for us? So last year we received about $180,000 in basic ed subsidy and this year you can see it's decreased decreased substantially down to $87,000. So for special education um the funding went up statewide uh up to $50 million. Uh and we saw you know um our allotment increase is $50,000 for 2627. So moving forward to the ready tolearn uh grant. So for 2526 when the budget was final finally finalized
061we received $1.4 million in additional ready tolearn money for a total of 3.1 million. What's being proposed now is that uh we will receive an additional 1.4 million on top of that. So, our total a lotment for ready tole learn is $4.6 million if this all goes through. Now, just a note, um, in case you've really delved into it, there's also a ready tolearn tax equity supplement. Uh, we do not, uh, qualify for that at all. So, I just wanted to let you know that that component uh, does not apply to us. So, going for Yes. So, cyber tuition reform um what they the changes that they made in the formula to calculate the tuition for the current year 2526 is helping us to reduce our cost by about $200,000. So, they're talking about some
062additional uh reform to the uh cyber tuition calculation, but I don't from what I read, it does not appear that CV will qualify that in order to qualify for uh reducing some of our or increasing some of our deductions from that formula, we'd have to hit a certain marker and we're above that. So, I don't think we're going to qualify. So, we'll find out more about that as we move forward. So, here's our budget uh calendar, our budget schedule for the upcoming couple months. I'll be circling back uh in March to uh give you some budget updates is where we are with our uh first round of projections and first round of budget numbers. Uh but one the one takeaway from uh the PASBO webinar that I watched the other week was that um that
063there is a significant amount of funding obviously it's going into public education and to other areas. uh but they're saying without additional revenue streams uh it's going to be very difficult to continue to sustain this funding. So the message to the business managers was this all this ready tolearn money that we're receiving we may continue to get it or it may start decreasing or it'll be shifted back to basic ed subsidy. So we just have to as we enter into the budget season we have to be prepared that that funding source might dwindle. um quickly over time. Um so there when they talked to I'm sure you've heard the doc uh the doctor the governor talk about um using the run rainy day funds. So back in October I kind of went over it briefly
064with you when we were I was giving you an update on our 2425 results that we use a lot of the terms interchangeably. Fund balance, savings, reserve, rainy day fund is the same thing. So, in this proposed budget that the governor's put forward, they're also uh he's proposing to use half of the existing rainy day uh funds or fund balance or reserves. So, that's going to be um an interesting scenario to be watching over the next couple months. >> That's all I know. >> Just just adding to what Adele said um with that, you know, the numbers when you see those big numbers looks uh good. But I I one thing I caution, you know, we and Adele and I talk about this a lot is, you know, I'm one it tends I want to
065see that number in the basic ed funding going up because of hold harmless. Uh hold harmless does not apply to the adequacy funding or the ready tolearn block grant. So when it looks like they're shifting all this money in there, you're not guaranteed to get that same amount the following year, which is what hold harmless means. So there's a little bit of, you know, strategy behind why they're they're not increasing the basic ed funding as much or at least proposing that at this point. Uh so there's uh uh >> and I would also to that point say, you know, the it it looks generous, but remember that the adequacy funding is because of a court case that said this is money that states owe the districts that they were underpaying them for years and years
066and years. So, uh, you know, when you look at it in that that regard, it it it it's it's promising, but but I I fear that if you don't keep that basic ed funding up there, uh, we're going to lose it eventually. >> Yeah. Another area with the ready tolearn, uh, adequacy supplement to look at is a a very long and detailed formula calculation of how what drives out the funding for us. And there are certain factors in there that uh fortunately we um we fall under their threshold. So therefore it's generating that money u through the formula. What we have to be careful of each year is even if they sustain this, we have to make sure that as those factors start to change in the calculation, it doesn't cut us off. There are
067some school districts in Lancaster County um that they don't get the adequacy funding. And you look at their numbers and I compare it to CVS initially, I'm like, why aren't they? Well, when you dig deeper into the formula, they don't qualify for it. So, I'm I've been watching that, too. We're okay for now. So, I have a I have a question. It's not related to the state budget, but um with the Langster County tax uh property tax reassessment that's going on this year. >> Oh, yes. >> When does when does that take effect? >> So, in about a year from now, I'll be kind of pulling my hair out a little bit. uh they're going to they're working on all the um starting all the assess reassessments now and then we're going to start getting
068files and uh updates on there's a certain again certain calculations we have to run through uh that we will have for the 2728 budget and we'll be kind of reviewing that with you as well. And again, the whole thing with reassessment is um this is what our tax revenue is based on current assessed values at this tax rate and what do we have to change the tax rate with the new assessed values to make it revenue neutral. So somebody's properties taxes might go up because their assessment went up, others don't. But for the school district, it's supposed to be revenue neutral. and then we can apply the any the millage rate increase on top of that. >> So, good question. >> Can't wait. >> It's not that it really isn't that bad. It's just um
069when you only do it every seven, eight years, it's and you want to make sure you're doing it right. So, >> of course. >> Anything else? >> All right. >> Good. Thank you. >> Thank you. Next is an action item um review and approval of policy 707 and that's the facilities uh the use of school facilities policy. Is there any questions? >> I have go ahead. like that. >> Uh, is there any reason why we completely eliminated offering our facil facilities for primaries or elections? There was a time when this was a voting location and I know there were various reasons we were in construction and so forth that we we stopped offering it. I don't know if the laws changed or not. It used to be requirement that school districts had to offer it,
070but it sort of hurts me to see us say, you know, we're just not going to do this anymore ever again. >> So So we talked about that as as a policy committee. There is no legal requirement for us to be a polling places and and uh it's I would say uncommon anymore for schools to want to be >> polling places. Uh school safety reasons, any people from the public on camp. Yeah. I we talk, you know, I from my perspective, my my recommendation would be until election day is made a national holiday and and we close schools. U I I >> would prefer not to to have the public on our campus on a polling day, >> but that's that's I'm one person. >> Well, it used to be >> limited to real gym.
071You had to come in the far door. You couldn't go anywhere else and go back out those same doors. So, they really weren't roaming around campus. But it it just seems to me maybe I'm just that maybe that's just a soft spot for me. Civic responsibility and teaching kids civic responsibilities. I'd like to think that whenever we could, we'd be willing as opposed to simply we're just not going to do this anymore. >> Just one person's opinion, that's all. >> Yeah. Diana and I were in agreement with Dan um on that thought process, but if you wanted to bring up a change to add it, we that can be something we can vote on. >> My concern is people coming to vote at school dismissal and they're in the parking lot with the school buses
072and the kids. >> You that that's a safety risk right there. So, like it's just with today's climate >> can't have the outside public in and out all day. I >> I I get that. I just know that we made it all work before >> and I hate to think that we just turn our back on I just think that's such an important civic responsibility that we should be willing to step up to the plate. As I said, one woman's opinion. Any other questions or comments? >> Um, yes, I had a question on page three under application evaluation. Um, number five, individual or community group uses, school facilities in excess of five times during any calendar year. And I think and it says no application shall be used. And I just wondered um we just
073made the contract with the with the before school and after school which would be every school day but also we have um child evangelism fellowship at Fritz um and that's multiple weeks that's more than five weeks uh per semester. So this does not exclude them. >> I'm not familiar with that. What the Fritz program you're talking about? >> Child evangelism fellowship. They >> h good news. >> Yeah, the good news club. >> They they rent the cafeteria or something for after school for an hour and I think is that 18 weeks a year? >> Yeah. If it's release time, it's not it's not on school property. But if >> it is on school property, >> it's after school. >> So I'm I'm just concerned that this would be excluding them plus the contract that we
074just um agreed upon for the preschool and the >> Sure. Well, that that's a contract for a partnership for sort of a school-based program. That one would apply to facilities usage. >> Yeah. >> But but the Fritz program I'm not familiar with without look we'll have to look into our agreement with that. >> Okay. >> But yeah, for something like like a afterare program that's sort of a district third party agreement >> is sort of outside of the facility's usage if we have if we have an individual contract with them. And did we agree this wouldn't affect like servant stage who comes and um uses the facilities practice we talked about that I can't remember >> uh >> what we agreed on. Yeah, I think I don't know what we talked specifically about individual groups,
075but I think we left that on there as I think I think the reason that's a recommend recommendation for the policy is to avoid groups wanting to kind of make us their regular spot for something. So for example being the you know we double as a you know a youth center in the evening every two like for the whole calendar year or so on. Uh I think with any of these, you know, there could be the board could could grant special waiverss, I would imagine, for any, you know, if a church wanted to come in and use like use be they want to use our auditorium for their church service on a Sunday, that obviously would exceed five times. So those are ones that just would need, >> I think, special approval and special agreements
076inus between the board and the and whatever the organization is. >> Do we have to put that wordage in there? If we don't work carefully, >> we've seen where people try to >> Right. >> make the most use of it. >> Right. Right. >> I know it's in there to try and So, it's more school activities or special events and not we're not a community center. I mean we are for our students but that needs to go to like a church or a specific community center and not use our school because our school's for our students and our students activities and our students sports and if we keep doing it for other outside all the time that's we're going to run into problems. So that's where we're thinking that you know we're going to put
077a cap at five. >> So it's not you can't come in here for your AA meeting all every month. So >> things like that. >> I mean, we have to be really careful because wear and tear and availability of of facilities can >> end up getting way too crowded. Yes. If we're not careful. >> I I had one other thing I noticed. I always knew it was in here somewhere if I looked hard enough. And the last line after authority, the board shall establish a schedule of fees. We never seem to have understood for sure who established that. Well, it has to come to the board for our approval. See that last line under authority >> page one. >> At some point, we need to make sure that since we've changed our fee schedule that
078the board approves that to make it official. Adele, do you know when the last time we had the fee schedule? I know we updated it. When was the last time we took it for board approval? Was that when we updated it last year? >> Yes. Yes. I remember going through making some discussing some modifications >> and saying, "Okay, make those modifications and we'll consider it approved." I don't know. I think it got lost this time with with the joke because you were changing the whole format of of the the qualified groups and that seemed more important than than this. But this still has to I remember asking you back then, do we have to approve it? Nobody seemed to know for sure. Well, I finally found it. At some point, >> we can certainly add
079that to agenda going forward. >> And I don't even remember anymore if what you sent us was a definite schedule or >> Yes. >> was it? Yeah. Do we have I think we need to look at it one last time and and make it official. >> Okay. >> No big deal. Especially if you have it all done. >> Yes. >> I know the >> Oh, sorry. Circling back to to Kathy's. Do we want I mean, we can certainly add a line. It might not be a bad idea. That gives the board some leverage to look at individual requests to. So if we wanted to if we wanted to extend the group's availability to use our facilities more than five times, we could add a line that says that would need separate board consideration. >> We
080can add add a line for that. >> And that'll be there for the second reading. >> Yeah, we'll add that for second reading. >> Okay. Okay. >> Do you need a motion to approve this first reading? I I just have one other question. Um on page four at the bottom it says about groups are financially liable for damage to facilities but are they required to have insurance. >> Yes. >> Okay. >> Yeah, that is in here. >> That's earlier on. >> Um >> that's going to be on the application I think. >> Yeah. That's up at the top. Okay. Right. Yeah, it's with the guidelines for >> Yeah, they have to submit their all their documentation for being insured before >> middle of page two. >> Yep. Number three, I think documentation evidence that >>
081Okay. Thanks. >> Yes. I would take a motion for a motion. >> I move we approve the first reading of 700 707. Is it >> second? We have a motion and a second to approve the first reading of policy 707. All those in favor say I. >> I. >> Any opposed? Motion passes. Okay. Next, uh, we move on to the information agenda and we have the finance and operations report. >> I have a question. Why do we call it finance and operations? And I keep looking at the report and going, there's nothing about finance in here. usually. >> So, I guess there's those aren't presented. Those are just for our perusing. Any any other questions or comments on anything on the information agenda? >> Okay. Next is board reports. Do we have anything from the
082IU13? I uh would have loved to have given you a PSBA report. I had it all typed up, but I can't mail anything out of my word account. It just completely frozen. So, to give you just a few highlights, um as as soon as they fix this, which I'm sure will be tomorrow, I will send you a copy of it. Um they wanted to remind you of financial disclosures. There's a a a webinar on cyber security. Uh the Keystone education report this month is on IU. So if you're interested, that one will be good. Uh that is held um let me see if I can find it. It's on it's on PCN uh which I think was yesterday but PSBA's YouTube channel also has that. Um we're reminded of the virtual training for um for
083those of you who have to make do required training for this month. Uh uh that will be on March 13, fe April 11th, May 2nd and 16th. I always advise you do that one if not uh in person uh virtual. Um there is act 35 now has a half credit requirement for personal finance so to graduate. Um I'm still waiting for the winter bulletin to come out to officially announce the new officers but I'm sure that will show up uh on the state level. Uh the legislature will not be in session till the middle of next month. Uh but meanwhile, the appropriation committees are meeting. So that's that's just as important. Um the cell phones in school, I understand, was sitting on the governor's desk and has been signed. >> Um I'm I'm not a
084100% sure when that takes effect. Uh but I just wanted to bring to your attention. I may have mentioned this last month. I know I early on pushed to do more advocacy and two things that they were advocacy advocacy for this time was the uh the change in amending the uh agenda and the cell phones. And I did not bring either of those as a resolution to you for the simple reason is I had the feeling we didn't all agree. Some people like the change in the um the sunshine law, some people didn't. There's a chance the legislature wants to move it back. Uh and before we do anything where we all that we uh I bring you a resolution, I like the feeling that everyone in the board's on the same page. Uh the
085other one was that the bell the bell uh that passed the Senate. uh PSBA opposes it, which I at first found strange, but their reasoning is they think this individual school districts should be passing those rules. Some people have figured, well, if you're going to wait for the individual school districts to do it, it's going to take forever. But there are other people that still feel that way, and I don't want to have that argument at our board table. Um, I think that was most of the the new one. Uh, transgender stuff is still up in the air playing games with everybody. Um, I think that's about it. That's all that's new, unless somebody has a question. Thank you for no questions. Um, as far as uh the uh the IU, I always send that
086as soon as it comes through. There's nothing special happening right now in the Lancaster County Academy, in case you didn't know. Too many of our graduate our winter graduates could not make the graduation so they canled it and it'll all be done in June. Meanwhile, we have uh reorganized uh we have ourselves a new president and we are moving forward. >> I'm done. >> Thank you, Adette. >> I don't have anything for the CTC report at this meeting. Uh as far as construction report, um there is an attachment and you can see progress on the Leola renovation project. Uh it's now 96% complete and um there's some pictures on there that you can look through. Are there any other reports? If not, um this brings us to the second public comment uh opportunity and this
087is for public comment on any topic at all. Um if not uh any board comments or announcements, you have the dates uh for next month's meeting. Um hard to believe will be in March already. Um there is no executive session tonight. So I would take a motion to adjurnn the meeting. >> Move to adjourn. >> Second. >> All those in favor say I. >> I. Meeting adjourned.