001Call the meeting to order. Roll call, please. Mr. Kevin Merritt >> Here. Mr. Ed DeVore Here. Mrs. Monica Hargenrader Here. Mr. Ronnie Irwin Here. Mrs. Tasha Manning >> Here. Mr. Shawn Murphy Mr. Jeffrey Rose Here. Mrs. Tammy Silvas >> Here. Mr. Jerry Bedowal >> Here. Please stand for the pledge. I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America, and to the republic for which it stands, one nation, under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. I have given notice of the executive sessions, which was March 2nd, 2026 for potential litigation from 5:35 p.m. to 6:10 p.m. March 16th, 2026, safety and security. That meeting was from 7:20 p.m. to 7:50 p.m. Now we have public comments regarding the agenda. We have two that have pre-called in. You're entitled to 5 minutes.
002And I also have two that are entitled to 3 minutes, which we'll do after the first two. So, to Ms. Kiskadden Hello. My name is Tamisha Kiskadden. I live in Vernon Township. First, I would like to thank board members and the administrators for all the time you put into this district. But I have said this before and I will keep saying it as I personally find it unacceptable. At a recent school board meeting, the board indicated their priority was to preserve Cochranton schools. This meet The meeting minutes for the three three meeting indicate this is a community priority. It was not a community priority. This was listed as a non-negotiable on a presentation by the board for how to handle the district's projected budget shortfalls in future. The presentation did not say one board member
003feels this way. It was presented as a board non-negotiable. A board member is posting on social media unequivocally that Cochranton will not close. Priority should be to provide for the best of all students, not only Cochranton. How can Meadville residents trust that this board will make decisions with their best interests in mind? The following information was taken from the feasibility study in the 25-26 school year enrollment data. I know some have said this isn't reliable. There are other considerations, but this is a study the board commissioned to have completed and provided to the community and the committees to evaluate for alternatives. Now you are choosing to ignore the study in favor of your personal feelings. For the elementary schools in Crawford Central, Cochranton Elementary has the lowest percentage of capacity at 50%. Every other elementary
004school is over 60%. For the high school, Cochranton Junior-Senior High is at 39.6% capacity. Meadville is at 55%. Meadville, MASH, and MASH needs about $15 million in just construction costs, but that $15 million could also house all of Cochranton junior-senior kids without any additional costs. There is room currently in the school. The opposite is not true. Not all students would fit at Cochranton. Cochranton Junior-Senior High School needs about $9.5 million. This option would save that money, the yearly cost per building, which would be up to $7.8 million accepting transferred staff, and there would be money from the sale and potential tax revenue. Jerry, at a previous meeting you said you don't see any cost savings. These are savings. The district has to spend money in order to save money long-term. And yes, bussing is a
005consideration. You [snorts] would need to add more routes to make sure kids are not on the bus longer than 1 hour. That is a fair non-negotiable. I'm not saying Cochranton High School should be closed. Personally, I think combining the elementary with the high school and spending some money to do so is a good option to keep Cochranton, but these are the types of factors these decisions should be made on. Similar things can be said for Meadville elementary schools. I was the chair of the elementary facilities committee and the committee members could not agree on anything, so no recommendations were made publicly. But we did do a ranking on multiple factors and First District was at the top of the ranking to be closed. West End was the last. It needs $5 million. First District needs
006$5 million in renovations, cannot add any capacity, has safety issues, and limited space. Money has to be spent and spending it on schools like First District doesn't make much sense for the long-term. Not that it's a not a great school, it is, but maybe it's time has passed. All of the time and efforts committee members put into evaluating alternatives seems to be a waste as the board is ignoring all the recommendations made. It's unclear why the community was engaged to ignore the voices in the end. The vote tonight to vote on spending money to invest in Neason. [music] As students will be at Neason next year, yes, absolutely the school must be safe. But the study the figures were based on for the repairs to the roof and the boilers was an energy saving study
007to save around $320,000 over 20 years. Who cares about energy savings if it is unknown if that building will be kept? Was a study done to see what repairs are required for safety to get the school past next year? Because at this point, isn't that what is needed if decisions on what schools will be kept have truly not been made? These projected dollars for repairs to Neason, are they really required for safety or is this another East End situation? If this board would evaluate all the options, not only Meadville closure options, and show with data, financials, and facts that closing West End or another school is the best option for the district for the future, I personally would accept that. But that is not what's happening. You're talking in circles about ditches, water wells that
008we already determined to be a non-issue, and narrow roads rather than facts and figures. The boy board seems like they cannot make these decisions on anything other than what they prefer. Maybe it's time for a third-party study to make determinations. And as for suggestion to close West End, if that is the case, how did you come to that thought? What savings are there and why is that the best possibility as none of the committees have suggested that? As long as people aren't talking about Cochranton, that seems to be the agenda of this board. When the budget is considered and all of the needs, the needs of all Crawford Central must be considered equally and every student must matter the same, and that is your responsibility. Thank you. >> [applause] >> Next is Melissa Novak. Good
009evening. My name is Melissa Novak and I live in Vernon Township. I just want to set some background as I was born and raised over 2 hours away and I did not move to Northwestern Pennsylvania until I graduated college, so I hold no personal connection or bias to this area, and the same goes for my husband. There have been a variety of different options publicly discussed as to what needs to be done about the schools. Some ideas have been discussed and then eliminated, whereas others have just been pushed along, but here we stand. Crunch time to make a decision. And the panic is starting to set in amongst the community and also the school board. There are issues with funding and budgetary restraints all over the Commonwealth. It is unfortunately something that will remain an
010issue for the remainder of all of our lives. We need to see where taxpayer money is coming from, the class sizes that are happening across the district, and the money that goes into every student and athlete's career while at Crawford Central. Shouldn't funds be the same for every student? How do we even out the money for all? The time needs to be taken to look at the numbers, where money is coming from, where money is going, and what financially makes sense, no matter your personal connection to an area. When my husband and I were looking to purchase a home, [laughter] one of our top priorities was the school that our future children would attend. Out of all of our options in a tri-county radius, the reason we chose our current home is due to West
011End and the education that they would receive. It goes to show that schools are what brought my family to this area. On a side note, I could easily take my children to the district I work for, but we made the choice to keep them within this district because we call it home and we are proud to be a bulldog. You proposed an option such as closing the ISC, and this is a decision that would impact the students the least and could be a starting point in changes that need to happen over time. I feel as though there are different steps that need to be taken before making the drastic steps that will impact every student in our district. There are other options that still need to be brainstormed, evaluated, critiqued, and everything else before we
012commit to one. At the end of this whole debate, the end goal should be the education that our students are receiving and their future success. Another option that has been mentioned is restructuring Meadville schools. If you wish for parents to be more involved, how would the restructuring truly help to ease those frustrations? Is it a wise idea to have multiple elementary school stops for them to get to their children? Parents who do not drive would now be expected to walk or take the bus to multiple school stops as well if their children are in multiple buildings. How will parent involvement in PTO organizations be affected? Will PTOs even exist? As an educator myself, I understand what goes into curriculum continuity and alignment along with the structuring of classrooms. I also understand the heart, soul, effort,
013smiles, tears that a teacher puts into every single one of their students. The teachers need to feel the support behind them to do what they need to do in order to give each student the best education. During the March 3rd meeting, you all shared concerns that teachers were voicing about things they are experiencing. As a teacher, I would like to thank you for taking the time to speak with your faculty as often times their voices are muted. But, I ask you to please take their concerns and do what is best with them. If more paraprofessionals are needed, it needs to happen. If a different classroom structure is needed with co-teaching, it needs to happen. Please let your teachers voices be heard so that they are able so that we are able to keep them as
014educators within our district because we all know what's going on around this state in the country when it comes to qualified educators. When I consider the amazing education my son has received at West End so far, one of the things that sticks out in my brain is him speaking about the older students coming into his classroom and not only assisting them in various activities and procedures, but also helping with their education. If we think about our own professions as adults, a strong mentorship program is vital to a healthy and cohesive environment. How can we ensure that the students will have role models beyond just their teachers to look up to? To think about other options that you've mentioned, I'm going to draw from surrounding districts. A concern that was brought up about student involvement, but
015also citing transportation as an issue. Some districts offer an activity bus that helps to get children home after tutoring, clubs, activities, and athletics. This would reduce some of the stress that parents feel when their son or daughter needs to stay after school. And this idea could also help to increase student participation in various activities. You all come from a variety of backgrounds and have your own opinions on what needs to happen within the Crawford Central School District. But, instead of using the me mentality, we need to be using the we. Do I have answers for what's best? No, I do not. But, what I do know is it should not be just about Meadville and it should not be just about Cochranton. In closing, this district needs to consider everybody that calls our I'm almost
016done. Remain open to opinions and discussions between all. We need to make sure that our students stay within our school system and do not get pulled to attend a different educational program. Let us make our students proud to say that they graduated from Crawford Central. Thank you. Thank you. >> [applause] >> Next, we have Kayla Hegyi for 3 minutes. Hello. My name is Kayla Hegyi. I apologize in advance as I recently had an eye procedure and I can't read my notes as well as I would like [clears throat] to, but I am speaking tonight on behalf of the West End Elementary parents and just to express concerns about the remarks to close West End Elementary School. The remarks expressed the expressed the reason for a potential closure were the narrow roads and deep ditches causing
017causing concern with adding more buses and traffic to these roads if one of the in-town schools were closed and more students had to be bused to West End. We would like to know why the ditches in the roads were just an immediate concern and that our school West End has been in existence for many years. Most if all if not all bus accidents occurring in our district has been within the city of Meadville. And based on the number of students a standard size bus can transport, our best estimate is that the district would be potentially adding two more buses to transport to West End Elementary School if in-town closure were to happen. It's it's just difficult to believe that an additional few, you know, one to two buses would make any difference in the amount
018of traffic at West End Elementary School. Therefore, making comments on the roads and the ditches a moot point. And West End Elementary is the newest elementary school in the district with really a lot of land. So, with two in-town schools that are landlocked and Neason Hill Elementary, which is indeed of really desperate repairs, it's hard to fathom that anyone you know, would really think that it's a great financial strategy to close West End Elementary. We have spoken about bus travel times for the students and there's a lot of West End Elementary students that would, you know, incur a lot of additional time on the bus to move to another elementary school. There were a lot of measures made in the past to save money for the school district and um you know, a lot of
019the administrative positions were removed 14 years ago. However, all of these were brought back recently um causing the district a lot of amounts of money and prior and current boards for years have been warned to gradually raise taxes each year to keep up with these costs. However, >> [music] >> it seemed that these warnings were ignored and I'm almost done. Um we know that your job is not easy and you volunteered time to make the district as best as it can be. No closure or consolidation is going to be a popular one, but we urge you based on these decisions and financial facts just, you know, to consider these these facts. Thank you for your time. Thank you. >> [applause] >> JIM, JUST TO CLARIFY, I made the comment about the deep ditches and narrow
020shoulders whenever a mega school was being proposed our at the site of West End. And that was the additional traffic. It was not about current situations. It was about the mega school. Okay. [clears throat] We have um Jeremy Caldwell, 3 minutes. Hi, my name's Jeremy Caldwell. I have two girls at West End and I just wanted to talk tonight a little bit about uh before the board considers a $9.7 million renovation at Neason Hill, I urge you to limit any upgrades to true state related needs uh only until final decisions are made about the school closures. The improvements being discussed, the HVAC, the roof, and the lighting, the other systems came from the energy audit, not a safety audit. And are not described anywhere as urgent safety deficiencies. Moving forward with a major renovation at
021this stage risks predetermining which buildings stay open cuz once a school is freshly renovated, it becomes the default choice to keep all others or close regardless of performance. And performance matters. West End is the top performing elementary school in this district by a wide margin with students consistently rising above the challenges they face in ways not replicated anywhere else in Crawford Central. It should not be the school on the chopping block while millions are invested elsewhere until the board can show clear data based justification for how closing West End would improve academic outcomes, culture, or enrollment, not harm them, major non-safety spending should be paused. Thank you. >> [applause] [clears throat] >> I HAVE ONE MORE AND THAT IS OUR newspaper reporter, Mike Crowley. Uh my name is Mike Crowley. I'm a resident of the
022district with a daughter who goes to school here and uh I'm also a reporter for the Meadville Tribune. Uh I'm here because I do this every year and uh we do have at least one new person on the board since the last time I did it, but uh it's Sunshine Week. Uh Sunshine Week is a uh newspaper thing uh designed to draw attention and raise consciousness about openness in government um among agencies like your own. And uh each year I give a little reminder specifically about executive sessions, which you've actually already covered in a way that set me up really well, I have to say. Uh and uh I also like to say that this is not aimed particularly at you guys. You're no different from any other organization. I uh gave the same spiel
023to uh another agency last week and several of you heard it there. And it's kind of evergreen. It's always relevant because agencies agencies like yours continue to not really live up to the best expectations that the public has for disclosures about executive sessions. Executive sessions are when boards like this one go into private meetings to discuss topics that are often appropriate for private discussion rather than public discussion. But the rules say that when you come out, you have to disclose what you were talking about. You don't have to give us all the details, but you do have to give what the uh what the Pennsylvania case law that is relevant here says is the reasons that you state have to be specific and indicate a real discrete matter. So for instance, if you talked about
024legal matters and you came out and you said we discussed potential litigation, that doesn't cut it. You have to say more than that. If it's existing litigation, you have to say who the parties are, what the case number is, where the what court it's in and so on. If it's existing litigation, or sorry, if it's potential litigation, then you have to say you have to say the nature of the complaint. And simply saying potential litigation doesn't tell anybody anything. For instance, if you're an agency that was convinced it were going to be sued over exposing students to something dangerous, then you'd have to say something along those lines. Um and simply saying real estate or potential litigation or personnel, um that doesn't meet the bar set by the the case law applicable here to the
025best of my understanding. Um So again, this is part of my celebration of Sunshine Week and it feels a little bit like Groundhog Day to me because every year I say the same thing and and usually I get a couple laughs when I do it. But for instance, when I did it last week and I said you guys said legal matters and that doesn't cut it, everybody laughed and they didn't make any move to correct it. Uh Although I have to say when I talked to their lawyer, he provided plenty of detail on what they had talked about. It's just that one nobody should have to ask and two, telling me in private uh after the fact doesn't serve the purpose of guaranteeing openness in the in in governments and you know, it doesn't serve
026the public uh who uh deserve to know what you're up to. Also, it's really easy. It only takes a couple words. Uh there's a benefit, right? The public is better informed. And um it's the law as well. So. THANKS. >> [applause] >> THAT IS ALL THAT I HAVE AS FAR AS SIGNED UP to speak on the public our common part. Moving on to the 2025 student representatives to the board, Cochranton Junior-Senior High School, Tessa and Emily. >> [applause] >> Good evening. It is nice to see you all again. Our spring sports are off to a great start at Cochranton High School. The boys basketball team beat Saegertown 61 to 54 in the semi-finals on February 24th. They advanced to the District 10 to A finals, where they lost 63 to 49 against Mercyhurst Prep and
027became the runners-up. They ended their season 17 and 10 after their game against Clarion on March 7th. The boys volleyball team lost their first game of the season against Northwestern High School. They'll be playing McDowell tonight at 6:00 p.m. and will be playing Cambridge Springs on Thursday. The baseball team played Franklin at 4:00 p.m. today. They were playing Sharpsville on Wednesday and will be at West Middlesex on Friday. The softball team has a game at Reynolds tomorrow, playing home against Mercyhurst Prep on Wednesday, and playing [snorts] home against Grove City on Friday. Girls junior high volleyball played Conneaut Area at 4:00 p.m. today, Titusville on Wednesday, Tidioute on Thursday, and Maplewood on Friday. There's also a tournament at Maplewood on Saturday. Along with sports, our clubs and activities are also going well. The marching band
028had their banquet this past Saturday, where students who have participated for 3 years received their varsity jackets. Other awards were also handed out and the 2026 marching band show was revealed. The Vera Bradley bingo on Sunday had an amazing turnout and the whole gym was packed. Our prom is already in the books and tickets are currently being sold. On Thursday the 19th, Cochranton Elementary School first graders traveled to Cochranton High School for the third annual Yeti Yahoo. Our teacher [snorts] Michelle Kerns had her students draw Yeti's inspired by the story The Trouble with Yeti's. Then Mrs. McFarland's high school art students sewed a stuffed Yeti that looked as close to their drawings as possible. At [snorts] the Yeti Yahoo, the students received their Yeti's and a baby Yeti stuffed animal housed in a hand-drawn house.
029They decorated a Yeti cookie and enjoyed hot chocolate in Ms. Pittner's foods class as well as making Yeti crafts in Mrs. McFarland's classroom. It was a smile-filled morning sharing arts and treats. The event The event was featured on the front page of the Meadville Tribune on Saturday the 21st with a lovely article by Mike Crowley. Mrs. Kazanski and the dedicated staff of the Cardinal yearbook have been honored by the Varsity yearbook representative for the second time this academic year. In February, the team was officially notified that the 2025 Contrast book has earned the publisher's top 10% award. The Varsity top 10% recognition is an elite distinction granted to only the top decasol decasol of yearbooks printed by Varsity nationwide. This award is a testament to the students' mastery of journalistic coverage, photography, design, and creativity.
030As a result of this honor, our staff's work will be featured in the annual portfolio compilation, a national lookbook used to inspire yearbook programs across the country. This marks the second major accolade for the Cardinal yearbook this year, solidifying its reputation for excellence in student media. Six Cochranton High School robotics students in in manufacturing production classes took part in the NTMA's Manufacturing Academy, which is designed for 11th and 12th graders who are seriously interested in manufacturing careers. Seniors Braylon Former, Luke Taylor, Seth Alt, Daniel Weisenstein, and juniors Claudia Lipper and Colton Maddox attended. The businesses they toured were Highpoint Tool Protect Precision Aerospace, Greenleaf Corporation, Kuhn Tool and Die, Starn Tool and Manufacturing Company, Tussey Auto Automation, Peters' Heat Treating, and Prism Plastics. At each business, students focused on soft skills. Robotics engineering students at
031Cochranton High School have been hard at work this year raising sponsorship money from local businesses to brainstorm, design, test, and evaluate their combat robot designs. Three robotics teams, consisting of 25 students total, have raised over $9,000 in local sponsorship and donations. They are They are hard at work during class and after school putting in hours of extra work in hopes of being able to compete at the national level again this year. We hope you all have a good rest of the month. Thank you. Thank you. >> [applause] >> Meadville Area Senior High School, Emma and Natalie. Good evening, everyone. Students have been staying very busy at MASH this past month. Starting off with clubs, clubs within MASH have been very active this month and continue to be. Key Club made Valentine's Day cards for residents
032at Westbury and are starting to plan stuff for Special Olympics, which will take place on May 20th. Link Crew also hosted meetings this month. They put on a hot chocolate bar for the freshmen, where Link Crew leaders were able to check in with their groups and encouraged ninth graders to write letters to their future senior selves. They also hosted another meeting, where they discussed the details of the upcoming Easter egg hunt for the ninth graders. This is a great opportunity This is a great opportunity, once again, to allow the lower and upper classmen to connect and participate in a fun spring activity. Student government officers are getting ready for their trip to Thiel College, where they will participate in Senator for the Day. This is a wonderful opportunity to see how our government functions and
033allows students to practice professionalism amongst the fellow students and adults. Eco People and Book Club both have had successful meetings this month, discussing upcoming events. The PMEA musicians attended their regional competitions for choir, Jonathan Blair and Claire Dill, for orchestra, Grace McMichael and Claire Dill, and for band, Ainslee Obriot, Claire Dill, and Grace McMichael. French horn player Claire Claire Dill advanced to the All-State Orchestra taking place near the end of April. Mock Trial has wrapped up their season with an unfortunate loss at district semi-finals. However, they had an extremely successful year. NHS just had their induction ceremony for the new junior and senior inductees. Moving on from clubs, winter sports have officially wrapped up. We had many athletes who competed in states. Zach Carr and Taylor Tedball for swimming, Jacoby Thompson for wrestling, and Tymeir
034Phillips, Megan Palao, and Brennan Dinsmore for indoor track. Tymeir won first overall in the long jump at the state competition. With that being said, spring sports have officially kicked off. Boys volleyball had their first home scrimmage of the season last Thursday where they played Seneca Valley and won in five sets sets. They also had their annual home tournament where they once again came out on top. Girls softball has their first game of the season against Fort LeBoeuf at Fort LeBoeuf on Thursday. MASH hosted an event called Chart Your Course on March 11th where they discussed scheduling for the next school year. This was a wonderful opportunity for parents to understand opportunities presented with each course and to be exposed to the different clubs and sports offered here at MASH. Thank you and we are looking
035forward to the next meeting. Thank you. >> [applause] >> Meadville Area Middle School is going to be done by Tara Kellyman. Good evening. I'm Tara Kellyman. I am not Sophie Smith nor Piper Button who are our president and vice president respectively. They had other extracurriculars that they needed to attend. I am an eighth grade teacher at Meadville Middle School and also the student council advisor. Um here are our MAMS minutes over the past couple of months. Spring sports have started. Our girls and boys volleyball, track, girls and boys lacrosse, and spring stalker soccer, excuse me, have gotten off to a great start. Our girls volleyball team has a record of two wins and four losses with a game just finishing over at the middle school right now against Titusville. Our boys volleyball team had their
036first tournament over this past weekend. They won the Conneauton tournament against four other teams. Track will have their first meet starting on March 31st pending weather. Our student council has raised over $750 this year holding three different school dances. We just held our final dance this past Friday which was our shamrock shuffle. Uh which all of the themes of the dances are created by our student council members. Because of our fundraising efforts, we feel it's important to give back. The Caring Closet, which is housed at Meadville High School, will receive a $500 donation from our Meadville Area Middle School Student Council to help continue their efforts to provide various items to our students. Necessities such as backpacks, weekly food bags, clothing, shoes, and coats are donated or purchased through donations of the Caring Closet and
037then distributed to those students and families in need. Our web team began Pod Wars in February. This is an opportunity for students to work together to earn bragging rights and be selected as the Pod Wars champion. This is the fifth year the middle school has held Pod Wars and it allows students to really mesh together as a team or pod and root and support for each other towards a common goal. Pod Wars encompasses both creative and athletic abilities. Our first challenge was a five-minute word search. The second challenge was a five-minute drawing. This upcoming week we will be holding our knockout tournament. This is a contest where six winning students from each team or pod will compete against each other for a basketball three free throw contest. Currently the leader in our Pod Wars is
038the Visionaries team, I believe. I don't have definite on that. I do not know the standings of second, third, and fourth place. Lastly, in April MAMS will be holding an incentives reward morning where those students who have achieved good grades, good attendance, and minimal to no disciplinary infractions will be able to select from a morning of bowling at Plaza Lanes or a movie morning at the Meadville Middle School. To our school board and administrators, we thank you for dedicating your time and energy to our school district. Thank you. Thank you. Approval of the minutes result of the Board of School Directors Crawford Central School District hereby approves the following minutes: the regular board meeting of February 23rd, 2026, which is attachment one; special committee of the whole meeting of March 3rd, 2026, attachment two; and
039committee of the whole meeting of March 16th, 2026, which is attachment three. And I hereby need a motion. So moved. Ron. Second. Sean. Any questions to those? Now all in favor, please say aye. Aye. Opposed, same. Motion carried. Extracurriculars, Ed. Um Um resolved that the Board of School Directors of Crawford Central School District hereby approves the following overnight trips. All three of these are from MASH, Meadville Area Senior High School. The boys soft volleyball team, rather, to State College for the varsity boys volleyball tournament, May 1st and 2nd, 2026 at a cost to the district of $1,397 for transportation. You can see attachment four. Um the TRU club to Harrisburg, PA, meeting with legislature legislators, May 5th and 6th, 2026 at a cost to the district of $2,217.40 for lodging, meals, and sub costs, attachment
040five. Uh and the music department to the Poconos, PA, uh PMEA All-State Festival, April 22nd to the 26th, 2026, at a cost to the district of $2,617 for transportation, lodging, meals, registration for students and coaches, and sub costs. Uh you can see attachment six and I so move. Is there a second? Second. Monica. Any questions? Now all in favor, please say aye. Aye. Opposed, same. Motion carried. Technology, Jerry. Approval of new fiber agreement LAN services with Armstrong. Resolved that the Board of School Directors of Crawford Central School District hereby approves new fiber agreement LAN services with Armstrong, attachment seven. And I so move. Is there a second? I'll second. Sean. I'd like to make a comment on that. Go ahead. Just so everybody's aware that this is a 36-month agreement and with all the talk
041about merging schools, closing schools, the contract can be reopened so we don't have to pay if these schools do get closed down. So it is negotiable. It isn't a solid three 36-month contract. So that's it. Okay. All in favor, please say aye. Aye. Opposed, same. Motion carried. Finance, Jeff. Resolved that the Board of School Directors of Crawford Central School District hereby approves the following financial activities: the treasurer's report for February, financial statements, and the payment of bills. And I so move. Second. Any question on the bills? Now all in favor, please say aye. Aye. Opposed, same. Motion carried. This is the Neason Hill project. Resolved that the Board of School Directors of Crawford Central School District hereby approves a performance-based energy savings agreement with McClure Company utilizing the district's membership in the Interlocal Purchasing System
042and McClure's TIPS Energy Savings Performance Contracting contract to implement facility improvements at Neason Hill Elementary School designed to achieve reductions in energy consumption and demand for sum not to exceed $10 million. The contract is subject to final review and approval by the superintendent and district solicitor. And I will not be moving this. I WILL SECOND. >> [applause] >> IS THERE ANYBODY WANTING TO MAKE THE MOTION? NO. IF NOT, the agenda item then will just die at this time. Exoneration of tax collectors for 2025. Resolved that the school tax collectors of the respective municipalities listed below made a full and proper settlement in accordance with the law of the taxes levied by the Crawford Central School District for the fiscal year 2025-26 to be collected by him or her by paying over all taxes collected by
043returning all unpaid taxes upon real property to the Crawford County Tax Claim Bureau or other appropriate authorities. And having received various exonerations and credits, Crawford Central School District does hereby exonerate said tax collectors for all unpaid taxes for the tax year 2025 in his her action in returning appropriate taxes to the appropriate authorities by approval subject to audit. This exoneration is contingent upon final approvals of the auditor, solicitor, and business manager for the Crawford Central School District. And I so move. Second. Ed. All in favor, please say aye. Aye. Opposed, same. Motion carried. Resolved that the Board of School Directors of Crawford Central School District hereby accepts the 2024 independent audit into the minutes and I so move. Second. I just want to say one thing to clarify in the presentation when they gave the
044presentation of the audit last month he noted that there was a sudden decline in substitutes that equated to a large number. That was something that Dr. Gault had removed from the budget where we had because of sub issues, not getting subs in all the buildings and coverage in all the days we added daily subs and that was moved so it wasn't that our teachers just quickly stopped taking sub days. It had no real effect on them. We were just hiring subs on a daily basis to stay there. Most which were used on a daily basis and all we've done is a shift it out. So, that's my clarity. If no other comments, all in favor? Aye. All right. Any opposed? Motion carried. Northwest Tri-County Tri-County Intermediate Unit Budget. Resolved that the Board of School Directors
045of Crawford Central School District hereby approves the 2026-27 Northwest Tri-County Intermediate Unit Budget in the total amount of $78,909,222. The Board further approves the total member districts contributions to the general operating fund budget in the total amount of $481,082 and school improvement services fund budget in the total amount of $1,559,312 of the Intermediate Unit for the 2026-27 fiscal year with individual member district contributions as determined by Pennsylvania Department of Education and I so move. Second, I heard. Jerry. Jerry. Any questions? Say aye. If not, all in favor, please say aye. Aye. Opposed, same. Motion carried. Under personnel and policy, we have several policies up for first reading. First readings of the revisions to the following policies and these are all on our website for tonight's meeting as well as last month's or last committee meeting.
046Policy 102, academic standards, which is attachment 11. Policy 105, which is curriculum, which is attachment 12. Policy 105.2, exemption from instruction, attachment 13. Policy 105.2-AR-1, request for exemption from instruction, attachment 14. Policy 105.2 -AR-3, exemption from dissection activities, attachment 15. Policy 105.2 -AR-4, notice of dissection activities, attachment 16. And policy 122, extracurricular activities, attachment 17. Policy 122-AR-0, extracurricular activities, attachment 18. Policy 122-1, non-curriculum related non-school sponsored student initiated groups, attachment 19. Policy 122-1- or yeah. -AR-0, non-school sponsored student groups, attachment 20. Policy 122-1 or .1-AR- 1, non-school sponsored student group acknowledgement form, attachment 21. Policy 123-Interscholastic Athletics, attachment 22. And policy 140-Charter Schools, attachment 23. Now, most of these policies are just policies that have as it says been updated or revised to bring us up to current standards of law and I think um
047our first solicitor wants to you want to comment on any of those? There's really no need. I mean, you you meant we went over them during our committee but as I said, they're all posted on our website. They'll be posted here for 30 days. If there's any concern, questions you can review those, contact the superintendent's office cuz we can always review and change but most of those are just bring us up to where we should be. Cuz as I said in prior meetings, we will be seeing a lot of policies coming forth because a lot of our policies are back in 2012, [music] 2014, have not been updated. Several changes in laws have happened since then and we're just bringing everything up to speed. Approval of the second and final readings of the revisions to
048the following job descriptions elementary school principal, attachment 24 secondary school principal, attachment 25 dean of students, attachment 26 assistant principal, attachment 27 athletic director, attachment 28 and the assistant athletic director, attachment 29. >> [clears throat] >> And the resolved that the Board of School Directors of Crawford Central School District hereby approves the second and final readings of the above job descriptions and is there a motion? So moved. I got Jeff Second. and Ron for second. Do any board members have any questions on the motion? We went over those during our committee meeting. If not, all in favor, please say aye. Aye. Opposed, same. Motion carried. Next is approval of the transfer of an entity. Resolved that the Crawford uh Board of School Directors of Crawford Central School District intends to provide a certain service and
049program that has previously been provided by contract with the North Northwest Tri-County Intermediate Unit number five. This service and program will include two full-time teachers operating life skills support classes for students of the district. Be it further resolved that the Board of School Directors of the Crawford Central School District authorize the hiring of two professional staff to operate two life skills support classes. Be it further resolved the Crawford Central School District will accept all sick days and current seniority status for the professional employees of the Intermediate Unit who choose to transfer to the Crawford Central School District pursuant to Transfer of Entities Act 24 PS 11-1113. And is there a motion? So moved. Ed. I second. Monica. This is projected to save us anywhere between 40 and 70,000 dollars by doing this. Um it's currently
050happening here. We're just going to take over the program. Um any other questions? If not, all in favor, please say aye. Aye. Opposed, same. Motion carried. Approval of the agency cooperative agreement with Crawford County Mental Health Awareness Program, which is CHAPS. Resolved the Board of School Directors of Crawford Central School District hereby hereby approves the agency cooperative agreement with Crawford County Mental Health Awareness Program, CHAPS, and that that is that is attachment 30. Is there a motion? So moved. Monica. Second. Ed. Any discussion or comments? If not, all in favor, please say aye. Aye. Opposed, same. Motion carried. Approval of the Act 48 program agreement with Bethesda Lutheran Services. Resolved that the Board of School Directors of Crawford Central School District hereby approves the Act 48 program agreement with Bethesda Lutheran Services, which is attachment
05131. Is there a motion? So moved. Letitia. Is there a second? Second. Jeff. Any questions? If not, all in favor, please say aye. Aye. Opposed, same. Motion carried. Approval of the personnel schedules. Resolved the Board of School Directors of Crawford Central School District hereby approves the following personnel schedules which is all part of attachment 32. Approval of schedule A, the resignations. Approval of schedule B, the professional appointments setting of salaries. Approval of schedule C, support staff appointments setting of salaries. Approval of schedule D, extra duty appointments setting of salaries. Approval of schedule E, attendance of professional meetings. Approval of schedule F, leaves of absence. Approval of schedule I, field trip authorizations. And approval of schedule M, transportation subcontracted services. And is there a motion? So moved. Ron. Is there a second? Ed. Any questions on
052any of those? If not, all in favor, please say aye. Aye. Opposed, same. Motion carried. This time I'll turn it over to the administration. I just want to remind parents that next week we have spring break. Students will be off April 1st through the 6th. Our teachers have an in-service day on Wednesday, April 1st, so we're hoping everybody has a great vacation. Hopefully we'll have some nice weather. Everybody can enjoy some time off. Are there any board comments? I just want to speak on the Neason Hill. So, I agree with not going into the whole energy savings. I do not agree with not looking and fixing the roof at all if we're putting students in there next year. So, if we're not in agreeance, then I hope that we have a plan to look at
053at our next meeting of where these students are going. I I want to start off just by saying I I'm embarrassed. On May of 2025, uh this support this board approved a consult agreement and ultimately hired uh Jerry Sperry. In that scope of work it says assist with public meetings, forming and organizing committees, providing guidance to the school board and superintendent throughout the process, reviewing and presenting data to the public and school board, including but not limited to enrollment, financial data, assessment scores, and demographic information. Assist with preparing and completion of required state documents, and finally delivering a final presentation of committee information to the school board. That has never happened. I I'm not sure why we hired him, but we we've met with the committees. We as part of that we took in met
054with teachers and staff and everything. Every person that would meet with us we met with and we listened to them. And now we're trying to combine that information and make a decision because the person we hired to do it did not do that. We we heard nothing from him whatsoever during this process. Um to go on, we we've had the original feasibility study since 2024, beginning of 2024. Um the official start date for Jerry was July 1st of 2025. November of 2025 the board approved for the performance energy audit. Um November uh looks like 12th was the first facilities meeting with the the group. And literally hundreds and hundreds of hours was put into this work. But yet we didn't go back to our consultant and get a final recommendation um on anything. Uh on
055March 2nd we met the school board met with the administration and you know got their input. March 3rd we had the special meeting. And still we'd never heard anything from our consultant. So quite frankly I said I'm embarrassed that we are sitting here tonight with basically our hands tied without the information that we are required to have to make a solid decision. And I know people are upset for me throwing out there about West End. And there is logical reasons that I had given that you know apparently people didn't hear that part. We are looking at transportation cost. Can we save $200,000 a year on transportation? I don't know. Maybe it's only 50,000. Maybe it's not worth it. But what I will say, you keep saying we just hear close Cockrell, close Cockrell. There is
056again, I'm going to repeat this. There are people on the buses currently for Cockrell Elementary School, which means they're going to be going to high school too, that are on the bus for at least an hour and 20 minutes. And when bad weather hits it's longer than that. I believe right now we are into the Hail Mary pass. I've talked to teachers. We heard from our teachers here and I talked to teachers outside district. And there's a a kindergarten teacher that quit teaching kindergarten and I want to tell you why. She said it was pretty bad whenever these 6-year-olds start dropping the F bomb. She said that was tough. And she said it was even tougher when boys were showing up in dresses that their parents put them into. And I and I know I
057was in kindergarten. I can remember that far back. Um it wasn't a one-room schoolhouse, but you know I still can remember it. And um I remember we knew the difference between boys and girls. We knew what they wore their clothing-wise and everything. And the girls had cooties back then, yes. You know, but um sending their boys to uh school in a dress, I I can't imagine mentally what you're doing to that child. But when she decided to finally throw in the towel and say I'm done is when furniture was being thrown at her. Now, I'm sorry. There isn't a teacher around that deserves to have furniture thrown at them. It just should not happen. So at this point this board here is committed to either fixing Crawford Central School District or I'm going to climb
058on board to make Cockrell into a charter school. Because if we can't fix the whole thing we got to save at least something. And I don't care if it's a popular idea or not. We have to do something. We have to protect these teachers and I don't care what. It this has to stop. This has to be fixed. >> [applause] >> I'm going to um celebrate sunshine month with with Mr. Crowley. I I don't say a lot of things at at meetings and and um but I think you all deserve to hear I guess at least the thoughts that are rattling around in my head about all this. Um first I want to make you sure you you all understand. I as some of you stood up here and said the board has said this
059and the board has said that. There are nine members on this board. Some board members have made some statements. They speak for themselves and when I speak right now I'm speaking for myself. I'm only one vote. I can try to persuade, but I'm only one vote. Um and and I I guess I I I think that there is a if there's one thing I think that there's a building consensus on and so now I'll go against that that I just said is the idea of grade level schools for the elementary. And um just want to let you in a little bit. I mean I know it's going to be an inconvenience for parents uh having kids possibly in in three schools. I had a kind of a bit of a hierarchy when I'm deciding when
060I'm thinking through this of of what's important. And number one is the students. I I put taxpayers number two. And and maybe not as close as some people would put them to the students. I put our employees number three. And now you're all wondering where the parents I'm no longer a parent of a student in the school district, but when I was I was part of group one and part of group two. So your convenience is coming in fourth, I'm sad to say. But your students are coming in first with me. And your tax dollars are coming in second. And and I I understand that it's that it could be very inconvenient. But there's going to be some tough decisions made. And as Ron talked about the discipline problems and as we visited with teachers
061and and the parent [music] professionals in the school district and some of the ideas, I'll be honest with you. I think that the the grade level buildings have been talked about for maybe three or four years. And parent convenience is what stopped it from happening already. I don't know that it's going to right now. Uh I think that it's a that right now what's my thought process is is that when we when we talked to teachers and paraprofessionals about and and wanted to have a meeting with them, they didn't talk all about wanting to save this building or save that building. The number one topic was discipline issues. And I think that grade level buildings in the elementary will help address that. It it will give teachers a lot more support and backing and give
062give administration a lot more flexibility in what they can do. And so I just wanted to to take a minute and and also I guess before I give this up uh we want to let you all know that those of you that send emails, those of you that were on committees that that idea was not where I was at before we started the committee process. The idea that the committees didn't have any input or that it was time wasted for me couldn't be any further from the truth. Uh the committee that I was on has some great ideas and and I'm I'm hopeful that some of them will be implemented. But my committee was finance and transportation and they wanted to talk about a mega school. But one of the benefits of a mega school
063would also be incorporated in grade level elementary buildings. You'll get some you'll get some of the same benefits. So that's where that came from for me. Um I just want all the people that participated in committees to know that your time was not wasted. Those of you that are emailing us, we're reading them. I've gotten ideas from that, too. And so uh please keep them coming. Um I I love the the the civil dialogue. I appreciate that a lot. Uh but but just know that, you know, I I guess when people stand up and say the board has said this yeah, you might have heard one or two people say that. I don't I don't talk a lot. So um I haven't said that. So but each of us only has one vote. And so
064just just keep that in mind. We have not made a decision yet. You saw us make some decisions tonight. When those votes were made, that's when the board speaks. >> [applause] >> So, I also wanted to speak real quick on the Neason Hill project. I felt we were putting the cart ahead of the horse on the matter. We don't have a directive or direction that the district is going for sure. They simply couldn't justify spending that much on a building that wasn't secure in itself with the current situation we're in. Um I would also like to add on to Mr. Rose's statement regarding the grade level buildings. Another positive I saw with that is we have some students that are entering seventh grade at different levels than others as they're coming from different or various
065elementary schools. So, the thought that each student within the grades would be given the same exact resources, materials, teaching methods, and everybody would be entering seventh grade at the same level seemed like a major benefit for the students and the teachers. And that's something that I was looking forward to backing and seeing come to life in the district. So, hopefully it could be a benefit for like I said the students and the teachers. >> [applause] >> I I just want to touch on cuz I went back and found the meeting minutes um about what I stated about West End. I when I made the statement I did not say that I thought it should close. I said if there was going to be a transportation issue for parents in town with CAT not being able
066to add a bus stop, that is a concern for me. And it's not because I want West End to close. I don't want West End to close. Like everyone else said, it's the newest school. But I'm thinking about all of our families, all of our students. If a kid is sick and CAT won't add a stop, which >> [snorts] >> I'm all for if people can make a petition, maybe CAT will add a stop. I don't know. But are you okay with us putting a sick kid home with your healthy kid on a bus after school because their parent couldn't get up there to get them? If we don't have a shuttle or a bus, that's where my concern was coming from. Another thing with um the board comments um like Mr. Rose said, everybody
067has their own feelings on topics. Uh there was a post brought to me today. Not everyone feels that way. I'm sure a majority of the board does as many have said. Um I just wanted to bring up some numbers that we did recently get, and this is not in any way me saying that we should close Cochranton, but it's to put into perspective that at Cochranton Junior-Senior High School let me pull it off of here to make sure that it is um for sure. Our cost per student is $22,633.58. Compared to let's say Maunz, okay, because that's what I got. Oh, it's only a $1,000 difference. At Maunz, our cost per student is $21,684.54. In total at Cochranton Junior-Senior High we're spending about 7.7 million, which is close to Meadville Middle School at 7.4. But
068we're spending that on seventh through 12th grade, not just seventh and eighth. And that's at we're spending that money at 39.6%. I understand wanting to fill the building, but imagine how that number's going to go up if we do go up to 50 or 60%. Like it's still going to be it's going to be high. So, when we're if we really came into this looking to save money, we need to look at the numbers and take the feelings out of it. It has to be the numbers. Are you taking into account the amount of parents that would um be putting their children into cyber school if we close Cochranton? Because I expect that number that expense would 100% increase. >> I'm sure. And I know that there's going to be And like I said, I'm
069not saying that, but I'm saying there's going to be risk either way. I mean, your dad basically just said do what I want or I'm going to go for a charter. Like that that's not what I came to join. It's not. >> Right. I can't speak for my dad. I was simply bringing up an additional expense that we would need to consider whenever looking at the possibility of closing Cochranton. I absolutely have. >> And the transportation times, costs, things along that route. Um there's a little bit more that goes into it than just the statement let's close Cochranton and we'll save money because that's not But again, that's not what I said. I said I'm bringing out the numbers. I I love getting misquoted. All right. I I said if we cannot fix the discipline
070problem, then I will favor a charter school. Okay? I didn't say it about money, getting my way. I'm thinking about the teachers out there. Okay? If we can't fix the discipline problem, if teachers are getting If >> that needs to be fixed If a teacher is getting bested at her Okay. So, we need to fix discipline across the board. Are you saying that you don't want to combine for that reason? >> No, I said I would Just clarifying. Any other board comments, Stahler? I I would like to uh You know, I went by there last week and I want to make a statement about that. Just saying hi everyone. Um I'm very sorry for the way I behaved in that in the comments I made about our teachers. I was not pointing out that we
071have those teachers. I do not specifically know a single teacher that is like that. I spent some time at a couple of the schools this week. And it was beautiful. I saw students that came into an office and were seen by principals who were given grace, care, and love. And I I I do not think that there is teachers that specifically not in it to win it. Um My emotions got the best of me. Sometimes when you talk about money, all of a sudden when you talk about money, I don't know about y'all, but I can throw the checkbook in my house. And when my husband comes home with two monsters in the bed and it cost him 12 bucks, I go a little crazy. Um so, you can relate, right? So, when we were
072talking about money I really was just saying that we need to evaluate ourselves for the students. I'm still probably not saying it right, and that's probably why I haven't said much. But so, I do mean the statement. If you want to make our district better, we have to look at the gap between doing a job and doing the work. The work is what so many of you more likely all of you do every single day. You stay late to help a struggling senior. You cover a colleague's class during an emergency. You put the student experience above the fine print. Thank you. Truly, thank you. We've seen, we've heard stories from from everybody from the maintenance guys not that they're on the bottom, but they're at least student um uh interacting to the principals, uh secretaries.
073It It's It's not an easy job that you do every day. It's not one that I would want to do. Um You are the deserves. I was really just asking us to to uh evaluate why we're here. We're here for the students. We're here to give them an education. We are here because we love them. Some of them that are not lovable need the most love. And I know that that's not always an easy task. Um and and I just want to thank you for putting in the time and the effort and for coming to these meetings. I don't know if you're aware, but the third of March was the first time that we had got together to discuss anything that was presented to us. We were looking at me behind closed doors during the
074Sunshine Act. We have to meet and sort of air our dirty laundry for all of you. And uh so, we haven't really had a chance to mull over all of this stuff that's been given to us, which is a lot. It's a lot. It's a lot for you sitting out there. It's so much more for us. It weighs heavily on us [clears throat] every single day. And I know that you guys said to take the emotions out of it, but it's hard. Because we're people, too. And we see the things that are going on in our schools. And we know that the the money it just doesn't come from trees. If we want to keep things going, we have to raise taxes. We have prided ourselves the last few years for not raising taxes, but
075keeping the monetary amount above what it was the year before. We have asked Austin to go back and cut, cut, cut, cut, cut, so that we ain't have to raise money coming out of your pockets. And this week, I've heard people say, "Well, if the board would just raise the taxes, if they just raise a little bit every year, if we do that, where does it come from? Where does it end?" Where does it end? We do appreciate you. And I hope you will accept my apology. >> [applause] >> I got one comment. First, I'd like to thank everybody who was on them committees. Everybody did a great job. But, some of the things you don't understand is, do we have the data? Yep. Do we have all the numbers? No. Can we make a
076sound judgment? Like Jamie said, we met once. Just one time on this. We're not going to rush into a decision to close a school. We're not going to rush into a decision financially for this district. Right? It's Maybrook against Croton. Always has been. 31 years I've been living here. Don't shake your head no, yes it has. This is Croton Central School District. Right? We got to do what's best for this school district and the students. My kids were personally on a bus for an hour and 40 minutes to go 4 miles. 4 miles. So, I took this job to look at finances and the best way to keep this district financially sound. We are burdened with every school needing money put into it across the board. The $10 million we just turned down, do we
077need to put a roof on a school for its kids there? Yeah, but could it we justify burdening this, your district, your taxpayer money, could we burden you for 20 years with a $10 million debt at $700 to $800,000 a year? I couldn't do that. I'm not on the board to saddle this. I'm on the board to try to figure out how to consolidate it and get things to work right. There's tough decisions. Anybody wants to run for this board, be my guest, come up. See how bad. See what it takes to run a school district. I'll be glad to give you my seat. It isn't an easy job. There's nine of us here trying to do it. Nine of us volunteering our time. I spent what, nine, 10 meetings the last couple weeks? Committee
078meetings, all kinds of things, trying to figure out how to do this. I don't have an answer yet. I couldn't sit up here and say is Croton, is that a good idea to close it? I can't say yes or no. First district, I cannot say yes or no. I don't have the numbers. I don't have transportation numbers. What's the impact? I don't have that. All the committees did put together, I mean, we got a lot of work ahead of us. So, please don't think that we're rushing a decision out to you guys, cuz we're not. It's going to take time. That's all I got to say. Any other board comments? >> [applause] >> I guess I'll make a few. Uh you know that uh it was brought up during one of these speakers about looking
079at some of the um recommendations that the committee has made. And I know sitting next to me was one of those committee members. $27.5 million to renovate a building, bringing all the elementary schools together. We can't afford a $10 million project to fix one building at $700 to $800,000 a month or yearly payment. How would we ever afford $27.5 million? And last month or the beginning of this month, down in this front row sat Josh, the chairman of that committee, who agreed that in 3 years, and I told him to stop me if I was wrong, cuz he said it during his presentation, which is recorded, in 3 years, we'll be back to the same place we are now, not enough money, a $27.5 million debt, and trying to figure out how we're going to
080save money. I ask myself each night, what are we trying to fix? If it's not broken, what are we trying to fix? We're trying to close a building, a building, some buildings, but what are we saving? Are we really saving enough to justify cramming kids into into classrooms when we keep hearing from all the committee meetings that we've had with faculty and staff that we need help? Before we start cramming classrooms full, my opinion would be, and just strictly my opinion, is we fix our disciplinary problems, we get the help back, get the reading program back to the middle school that has been lost, get the kids back on track, and then we can consolidate. Once we get everybody on the same step in the same place, which we will never have every kid, I
081guess, actually in the same step, cuz they all learn differently. But, we at least attempt to get most of them there before we start throwing more into the pot and into the mix, because my opinion would be, if you have 30 kids and you increase it to 60, what's the chances of disciplinary action happening? It's going to increase. You got more kids. And throwing more into a building is not, I don't think, the answer. But, honestly, what are we trying to fix? Closing First District, to send the kids where? Closing Second District, send the kids where? Closing Niskayuna, where are we sending them? We always keep hearing about expanding the outlying attendance areas. Show us the data. Is that what we do? And I know the administration does not have a direct narrative from this
082board as to what to start researching, but we've been talking about it for how long? Um Niskayuna, move some of the kids to Croton. West End, move some of the kids to Croton in the lying area. Maybe move some of the the inner city school kids to West End. Maybe move them to Niskayuna. Is there room? Is there not room? We don't know. As Jerry said, we have data, we just don't have the financials to back it. What will it cost to transport? Will it cost any more? Will it not? And how do you inconvenience a parent in town to send your kids to West End and close two inner city schools? We don't have public transportation that runs on a daily basis. And we're trying to ask for public and and parent involvement. We're
083going the other way. We're taking steps backwards. Um these are just some of the things that I struggle with each night and trying to figure out what are we trying to do? I become right back to what are we trying to do? Are we trying to fix something that maybe doesn't really need fixed quite yet? And we just go a little bit longer and try to figure out what that next step's going to be. But, we do have a problem. Niskayuna has never been renovated. Of course, it's going to have the highest cost to renovate now. We have a heating system that is on the verge of failure. We know there's roof leaks. We just toured the building not more than a couple weeks ago. We can see where it's raining down through. Where do
084we say, "Okay, we got to do something." Do we attempt to just temporary patch? Do we invest money in the roof? That's $900,000 for something that's going to potentially close, or do we risk it that we're going to make it? All unknowns, but yet we've got to come up with some kind of a plan and decision. But yet, this board, we've got to sit down and just take a night, a day, whatever it takes, and hash out this is a yes, that is a no, and we start moving forward, because all we're doing is sitting in a mud puddle, spinning our wheels, and we're not going anywhere. And we were in this same boat on March of 20 4 when that feasibility study came out, and we started questioning things in it. A lot of
085things are maintenance that we we as a district could take care of ourselves. Others, no, they're well beyond the priority ones, priority twos. But, here we are, almost 2 years later, and no further than we were when we opened that book on March 24th of 2004. So, my advice to the board is we got to come together, figure out what we're going to do. And we've heard Jamie, we've heard Jerry, we've heard Ron, we've heard all of us. Where do we start? And maybe we just need to start with what we're going to vote on to scratch off, and we go to the next, and move forward. >> [applause] >> Any other board comments? I I have a question. Yes. So, when we move, we we have people that are have roofing experience, dads, moms,
086cousins, brothers. Can we not get a quote for them to to do it? To do the roof? Yeah. You'd have uh you'd have to have assistant advisors, you have to have bidding procedures and so forth, because it's just bonding, whatever else you would need. Um it's just not sending a bunch of people up >> Okay. just to, you know, fix a roof. But, are there options for that? Can we put out bids? Can dads put in their bids? Can whoever gives us Can you get a group of people together and say, "Hey, we can do this roof. We'll put it on for X amount of dollars. We'll just sweat equity." I mean, let's think outside the box. I mean, we are stuck in a financial precipice. We need to think outside the box. I mean,
087anything's possible. We can do anything as long as the district agrees. What's that? >> They would need to have insurance. Yeah, I mean, insurance would be a must. Which most contractors have. Most contractors have pretty much >> Yeah, yeah, most contractors do. I mean, my dad is a contractor, my son-in-law is a contractor, and I'm not saying this because my son-in-law is a contractor. I would tell him he's not allowed on that roof if you if you wanted to. But I'm saying that when you have people that have skills for the cost of materials How how much would it take for 15 men? I've seen it done with beginners. I saw 15 men on a roof today and had that thing on in less than 24 hours. WHY DO WE NOT CHANGE THE STATUS QUO?
088Why can't we? We can do this as many as we want. We just have to have the guts to do it. I I I just want to kind of point out I I I played with numbers a little bit and you hear this 9.3 million dollar number. Um Mr. Crowley reported that after the savings, the guaranteed savings. Um we also know that nothing's been done to our building for 50 years. So, if you really divide it out, it's deferred maintenance, but it actually comes out to $186,000 per year. If you divide that by the 12 months, that's $15,500 per month. Um according to Google, there is 23,319 adults living in the Crawford Central School District currently. So, if you divide the 15,500, it actually came out to just shy of 70 cents per month investment
089or um yeah, per month investment. So, basically 2 cents a day If if way back 50 years ago people dropped 2 cents in a bucket every single day, we'd be able to pay cash for the the building um needs right now. So, I mean, if you think about it's just deferred maintenance is where where we're where we're at. And it was a very very insignificant cost over a long course of time. But to Tammy's point, yeah, and I don't know if we can have people sign a waiver, but I I guarantee liability issues is a big part of having people just come in and volunteer time to do anything. So, and that would be a Rachel question. Any other comments? You're looking at me like I'm going to answer this off the top of my
090head, but I'm happy to look into answering your question and and laying out the the procurement and the liabilities rules. I'm not saying people that aren't skilled. No, I I I got it. I got it. Yeah. I have one more thing. Um this weekend we have a ton on a on a brighter note, um of youth wrestlers from both Millville and Cockeysville that will be competing at states. So, I wanted to not forget um to mention that. So, if you have a flow account, you guys can watch them wrestle there. I have my alarm set. I just didn't want to forget. Okay, no other comments? >> [applause] >> Is there a motion for adjournment? >> I make a motion. Jerry Ed All in favor, please say I. I. Opposed, say Meeting is hereby adjourned.