ESASD Regular Board Meeting (April 20)

001allegiance 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. Thank you. Mrs. Rosado, please do our roll call. George Andrews Present. Rebecca Bear Present. Ann Patrillo Present. Mike Patrillo Present. Jason Goldstrand Present. Keith Carcutt >> Present. Debbie Kulick Present. Rich Leyman Shaneka Story Present. Eight present. Okay, thank you. Uh we welcome all of our guests. If you haven't had the opportunity, please be sure that you sign the attendance paper outside so we have an accurate list of who was present at the meeting. An executive session was held this evening before the meeting for the purpose of discussing personnel, litigation, and negotiations. Need a motion to adopt this agenda for April 20th, 2026 as

002submitted with the Board of Education reserving the right to add to the agenda and take further action on any items raised in executive session where immediate action on such items is considered to be in the best interest of the district. So moved. Second. Any discussion? All in favor? Aye. Opposed? Motion to approve the minutes of the March 16th, 2026 regular school board meeting. So moved. Second. Discussion? All in favor? Aye. Opposed? Okay, I'd like to now turn it over to our uh student board representatives. We will first start off in the North High School, Dylan and Lawrence. Good evening, everyone. Good evening. Good evening. Um it's nice to be back, you know, we're in the April April now, close to the the last stretch. We're almost we're almost there. Um and so we'd like to

003start with academics. Next. The spelling bee, um on March 23rd at JT Lambert Intermediate School High High School North Junior, Jayden Batung, who's sitting right there with us, um has achieved the senior level hat trick by winning his third competitive in three years at the Russell C. Hughes Monroe County Spelling Bee championship. Um you know, super proud, three in a row. We're we're hoping for one more next year. I I'll be waiting to hear for that. Good way to have all right. Congratulations. >> So I want to say congratulations to Jayden, you know, we love to see North excellence. Next. The 250th anniversary of America essay contest, I spoke a little bit about this um last meeting, but we finally decided to turn it in the you know, it was actually was turned in and

004so it was an essay contest just to help commemorate the 250th signing of the Declaration of Independence and basically the students were asked to write what America means to you. The two student winners were Annalisa Cullen and Gabriel Dace. Congratulations to them both, so we're very excited for them. Now on to the arts. Next, please. The North Coral went to Harrisburg on March 30th. Um this was a part of Music in Our School Month. Uh a way to celebrate music around the schools and bring our like most talented people to Harrisburg and display what music is all about in the East Stroudsburg Area School District. I think this is a great experience for the students getting to see Harrisburg and getting to be up close with all that stuff. I think it's just an amazing

005experience for the students and I think it's just again great to spread the arts and spread the talent that we have within our school district. Next, please. Charlie and the Chocolate Factory. How could we not talk about the musical? I don't know how many people here saw it, but oh my goodness, it was amazing. This this might have been my my favorite of the four years that I've watched. For those of you who don't know, I'm a tech crew member, which means I I run the sound and um it's always so much fun to wait and wait until I get to see each year's production and see what talent has come out um of the the students and all the staff members who dedicate their their time to to the musical. Um just like an

006absolutely huge shout-out to all the students. Um this year this year was truly amazing. Um each student really brought it up another level and it was it was such a fun and impressing time um to to to watch. Next, please. Here's some pictures. Um two of the pictures are of the actual show, which I I think it's just good to see how just cool it looks on stage. And the two pictures on the right are from our art set designers cuz I think it's really important to make sure that we acknowledge that there's a lot of talented um musicians on stage singing and acting, but there's also a lot of talented artists who go in in the behind the scenes and spend countless hours making sure the play looks absolutely perfect. I know from the

007tech rehearsals the students were working on on art for the play every hour in between and they were working on it weeks before and weekends before and they were really sinking as many hours as they possibly could the musical and it it just turned out to be such an amazing experience for all the students and really I think displayed the excellence of North students in the arts. Band adjudications. On the 14th, the North bands participated in the annual PMEA District 10 adjudications. Um in easier terms, an adjudication is pretty much we go uh in front of judges and we get judged for how well we can play and how well we can perform. Um every year we also host this event, so it's a great opportunity for us to also help other schools and witness

008other schools' bands and maybe take information from them. Um this year we hosted two bands from South, a band from Moravian Academy, and a band from um Pocono Mountain West. Uh this year we scored a a score of 292 out of 300 points, which usually that that that's a very good score. Uh just in like simple terms, that's that's a very good score. It's been a really long time since we've seen a score this amazing and I'm very proud of all the the students in the band who performed and and tried their very best because we we did outstanding this year and I'm I'm very proud. PMEA All-State Acappella. This year we have one all-state singer and that's Joseph Kennedy. We're very proud of him. Um he auditioned in a group of hundreds of students

009and was selected one of the 16 people who go to this festival out of again hundreds of applicants, so only 16 students got accepted and Joseph Kennedy was one of those 16. 16. On Thursday and Friday he will rehearse at ESU and then the concert will be held in the JTL auditorium uh on April 24th at at 7:30. Um another amazing thing with this is um every other year students who make the all-state ensembles get the opportunity to audition for national ensembles and all Eastern ensembles. And this is one of the years where Joe will get to audition for an all Eastern ensemble, which is a a a very amazing thing and I'm I'm wishing the best of luck to him and I hope he does the greatest. Now there's also a lot of upcoming

010events for for North music events and I I I know a lot of these are going to happen at the May and I'll be talk about them at the May, but I think it's important to to get our eyes set on these. Next week on the 28th, ESASD Jazz Night will be hosted at the High School South. The the North Jazz Band will participate in this. This is always just a fun festival for us to spread our love for jazz and enjoy the musicians of of South and just spread music. Then on April 30th through May 4th, the North bands will be taking a field trip to Tennessee, where we will perform at Dollywood and we will get to see the Great Smoky Mountains. And overall, this is a a a key part of of

011the band experience is getting to travel and getting to play not just in our our hometown, but getting to play all over the country or wherever wherever music may take us. Then on May 14th, the North annual spring concert will happen. At the concert you'll hear from the mixed choir, the coral, and the treble choir. And then there there's there's a senior celebration at the end and we will be bringing back the the North um low voices choir, which I think is a a great thing. On May 17th, the annual Pocono Youth Orchestra Session 3 concert will happen. At this concert we have many students from the the East Stroudsburg School District who who participate. And in previous years we've had we've had several students from both South and North and I think it's overall

012a great experience for North students in music to get involved just that extra little step in an orchestra environment cuz we don't we don't have a an easy way to get to that in in the East Stroudsburg Area School District. And then lastly, on May 19th, the North annual spring band concert will happen where you'll hear from the jazz band, a senior ensemble for the Star-Spangled Banner, and the North concert band. Non-athletic sports. Yes, the the arts have been way more way more busy than the athletics have. So, as of right now, the only, you know, shout-out we're giving is for the East Stroudsburg North Unified Track Team. They beat both South and Bangor in their opening meet on April 14th. And they will be home and celebrating senior night on Wednesday, April 22nd. And

013I know our actual our track our track and field team varsity sport is very excited to go to the Cab invite on this Friday. So, we're very excited for that. Next, extracurriculars. Next. Um the NHS induction ceremony on April 22nd, North will host its annual NHS induction ceremony. Um at the ceremony we will recognize the incoming members and current members along with inducting new officers for the 2026-2027 school year. Um actually earlier today we announced our um four or five, I believe, new officers that will be taking them our places. And so, we're very excited to honor them at this induction ceremony. Next. TSA states, you know, this is a highlight. Um over April 15th and 20th, you know, this this past week that just passed, members of the TSA club participated in the Pennsylvania

014conference. At the conference, Diego Diego Cano and Oria Costa placed second in debating technology issues earning them a spot in the national conference. Want to congrat- congratulations to Diego and Oria. And I know we had a lot of other finalists and placers in the TSA states. And so, we are really excited for them and we're really excited to see what they do at you know, nationals, you know. And we are hoping in a other conversation um the finances of this. So, you know, that would be a other conversation, but we are hoping for, you know, some district help. Just want to put that out there so you can start thinking about it. A nice pitch. Well Like well done. They they would kill me if I did it. And I also am I am hoping

015the best for them. For the nationals. Yeah, okay. >> Yes. Next. Talent show. Um on April 22nd, High School North will present its first annual talent show. The show will run twice during the school day and once in the afternoon. The doors open at 5:30 p.m. Um so, first block, I believe, and last block for the students and then after school for everybody else. We hope to see everybody there. It's our very first one, so, you know, we're getting it started and we'd like to see support so that, you know, in the future it can keep it going. So, we are very excited. Want to say thank you to all of our new administration who brought this to to North. And so, yeah. So, the talent show is Wednesday night. National Honor Society induction is

016Friday night the 24th. Yes. Yes, yes. >> Excellent. Thank you for your time and that'll be all. Hey, thank you guys. As always, enthusiastic and perfect. Thank you. Okay, now let's go South and we have Marynellis and we have someone new from South. Like to introduce Paxton Shermansky who will be also joining as a South rep. Welcome. Everyone, like Mr. Petrello said, this is Paxton Shermansky. He is very involved at South and he will be the next student board rep for you guys next year. Yep. Um this month we decided to do something a little different. We compiled a newsletter since we missed a couple of the last meetings due to weather and everything. So, we have stuff from January up until now. Um Thank you. I was going to ask if Mr. Petrello had

017any jokes, but I think I'll spare everyone [laughter] today. Well, I if you If you really want me to, yeah. All right. So, first up we have feature recognition. You know, it's always good to shout out our staff. In January we had Mrs. Huston and Mr. Rogers. February we had Rob Woods and Miss Byrd. March we had Mr. Cramer and Mrs. Labadie. And for this month of April we have Mr. Fernandez and Mrs. McGee. These passionate teachers have been very committed to their students using innovative teaching styles to motivate their students. We thank these teachers for all that they do. Next up we have the different class departments. Um the science department in February, Mrs. Hughes and Miss Decker took 25 sophomore and junior girls to ESU to celebrate the United Nations Day of Women

018and Girls in Science event. This event focused on the role of new and emerging technologies in shaping the future of STEM. The girls were also provided an opportunity to interact with an ESU speaker panel to help determine the best course pathways to find success in their anticipated field of study. The reading classes took a trip to ESU and students were from the reading classes went on a field trip for the completion of our literacy project with ESU students. They spent the morning exploring what growth mindset is, self-advocacy, and social-emotional learning. Then they had lunch with the college students. So, to the right we talk about our transition students. This group is always looking to try new experiences in our community. This December they traveled to the East Gourmet Buffet in Bartonsville for lunch. They did

019not invite me. >> [laughter] >> That's okay. This was some of our students' first time eating at a buffet and some of them even tried sushi for the first time. In February, Mrs. Belia brought supplies and helped her students make their own tie-dye shirts. At the bottom we talk about our spring pep rally and prom. This year we had our spring pep rally outside on the at the stadium. We recognized our spring sports and our prom court. We look forward to having our prom this Saturday at Penn's Peak. And we look forward to seeing Dr. Vitali on the dance floor. >> Really? Careful what you wish for. >> [laughter] >> Um lastly for this page we'd like to talk about Red Cross. In January we hosted their Vaccinate a Village fundraiser. Donor names displayed were

020Donor names were displayed on snowflakes around the hallway so they can get recognized for their help. Something as little as $2 went a long way helping the global impact against measles and rubella. All right. I'm going to start with FCA. I'm the huddle leader of FCA and this club has been nothing short of amazing and I'm so grateful for it. But it's the Fellowship of Christian Athletes and it continues to be a student-led voluntary club that offers a safe place for all students to build friendships, connections, and community at school. And we're very proud to share that our weekly huddle meetings have consistently hosted a very robust number of participating members, no less than 40 students. And it's just a remarkable response from our school community. And in fact, it says May, but FCA has

021been the most consistently attended club this year at High School South. And I like to refer to it as a family. And this Saturday we have our borough beautification day. So, I'm just super excited for that. And I'm just grateful what this club has already done and where it's going to go. And for NHS, on Friday night 49 students were inducted into the National Honor Society. And I also just want to congratulate all of the senior members that we had for all their hard work as well as the new NHS officers that are going to be stepping up for the 2026-2027 school year. When it comes to art and sports, for the art side, sophomore Emma Ace earned an honorable mention in the 2026 Monroe County Art Show. This was the 180th art show that

022took place on March 27th through the 29th. For sports, for the rifle team, they finished the season with a 9 and 1 record placing second in the Northeastern Pennsylvania League. In PA states competition, Brandon Betz Betzoni placed 10th and Brody Owens placed 18th. For the softball team, they currently are 7 and 6. And over the last week they've had a six-game win streak, which is honestly the best start they've had in a long time. So, that's just super awesome for them. Over to track and field, the boys and girls track and field teams are enjoying another remarkable season. Currently both squads hold a perfect record of 5 and 0 as they prepare for tomorrow's competition against Stroudsburg. This meet will be crucial in deciding whether both teams can secure the EPC North Division title once

023again. And we invite everyone to join us for senior night tomorrow to support the Cavs. Over to wrestling, Joey Cappa and Ariana Pieretti won the district wrestling tournament to become the first district champs for girls wrestling in Cavalier history. So, what a major accomplishment right there. And while Jaden Learned and Fiona Claire took third, all four girls qual- qualified for the regional tournament for a chance to go to state championships. Coach Randy Lutz was named District 11 Girls Coach of the Year. And Joey Cappa was also named EPC champ. On the boy side, Josair Rodriguez took fourth place and Jonathan Agente took fifth place in the District 11 AAA wrestling tournament advancing to the regional tour- tournament. And Josair and Ariana went over to compete at the state tournament. So, what a year it's been

024for the wrestling team. Yeah, it was a little cut off, but Ariana was actually the first girl wrestler in our school's history to make it that far. Excellent. All right. On our last page we have our Future Educator Program. The High School South Future Educator cohort completed their final field experience in March with visits to two district elementary schools graciously hosted by Mr. Kershner and Miss Smoke. During this experience, cohort members spent a full day shadowing elementary teachers, observing the complete school schedule, including classroom instruction, specials, and lunch. Throughout the school year, students in the program had the opportunity to work across multiple grade levels within the district while completing structured observation and reflection activities. The coordinators are extremely proud of the dedication and professionalism demonstrated by the students. We're also deeply grateful for the

025outstanding support from district staff and administrators, the collaboration among schools, the willingness of teachers to host students, and the seamless coordination of transportation and scheduling have made this program a meaningful and successful experience. This year marks the completion of the third year of the High School South Future Co-Educator Cohort, and we are proud of the continued growth and the impact and impact of the program as we support students in exploring education as a potential career pathway. All the teachers that helped out with this, Mr. Crommes, Mr. Brotherton, Mr. Cool, and anyone else that I'm forgetting to mention, they work very hard for this program, and we thank everyone here for allowing this program to grow. Mr. Haley's Multicultural Perspective Program had their fourth annual Women's History Month event. And it was student organized and developed.

026We hosted candidate Mayor and US Congressional Candidate Paige Cognetti in a discussion and question and answer session. This was really fun event that I was able to sit down with. It was really cool to see someone local as a woman who is making movement, who's like making waves and not afraid to step up and out of their comfort zone. Our Allied Health Kickoff event was on March Friday, March 6th, and about 25 students from both high schools participated in the pathway kickoff event hosted here in our library in collaboration with Northampton Community College. Professors and instructors from NCC shared with students all the various career opportunities available in Allied Health. Thank you to the ESASD for the continued support of such vital programs offered to our students, and also to NCC for sharing their professional

027time, talent, and expertise with our students. A special recognition to Miss Polmonter for her words of wisdom shared with our students. All right. I'm going to start with the superior in the amazing Class of 2027. If you guys haven't put two and two together yet, I'm part of the Class of 2027. >> [laughter] >> They're definitely superior. So, we recently held a successful dodgeball tournament. >> [laughter] >> So, we recently held a successful dodgeball tournament. This event had over 10 teams compete, including a team from JTL, and the event raised $431 for the class. And I'm the class president for 2027, and let me tell you, prom is expensive. So, it's great that we're able to raise this money. And over for our spring musical, I just want to congratulate the staff and the cast

028for the spring musical 9 to 5. If you guys didn't get the chance to go, I'm sorry for you guys cuz it was it was awesome. I mean, out of my three years I've been at South, this is probably the best musical I've seen, and the energy was great, and if you were there, I I personally don't know how to describe it. It was It was It was something. It was great. So, shoutout to everyone who, you know, helped and participated with that. And for our spring gala, it was an extraordinary celebration of joy and connection. We unite to share an unforgettable evening of dinner and dancing with exceptional students, both past and present, who enrich our lives and halls with their presence. Our hope is to give them a beautiful moment they will always

029remember, and I think that's exactly what happened. Spring gala was amazing. Now, before you go, you requested a joke. What >> [laughter] >> What do you call an alligator detective? An investigator. Excellent. Do you want to ask? What's that? Thank you, and welcome, Paxton. We appreciate you being >> Keep your day job. Okay, we'll move You're welcome. We'll be moving on to MCTI. I believe Caitlin is online for us. Am I correct? Not not there, I think. Okay, is she maybe coming back? If we Petra will bring her on a little later, then. Okay, thank you. Then we'll move on. Thank you, students, and we'll move on to our superintendent. Oh, I'm sorry. We're back. Okay, and Caitlin with MCTI report. Welcome, Caitlin. Good or good afternoon. Can you guys hear me? Yes, we can

030hear you. Yep. Thank you. Good evening, school board members, administration, staff, and guests. My name is Caitlin Oluwatimilehin, and I am the MCTI ambassador. 27 students attended the SkillsUSA State Conference uh during the dates of April 8th to 10th. And MCTI placed in the following competitions. Third place cake decorating, extemporaneous speaking, and web design. Second place team works in precision machining technology. First place uh and in crime scene investigation and in customer service, and they're going to nationals. Uh the National Technical Honor Society held its eighth annual Trek for Tech, and it was extremely successful. On April 18th, MCTI students volunteered at the Pocono Builders Home Show. MCTI carpentry students built a dog house for the dog house competition that the Builders Association was sponsoring. All proceeds from the raffle was donated to Awesome. On

031April 24th, HOSA will be having their second blood drive for the year. All seniors are working hard to finish their NOCTI's. The MCTI senior recognition will be on Tuesday, June 2nd of 2026. That concludes my report. Thank you. Hey, thank you, Caitlin. I appreciate it. Have a good night. Thank you, you too. We will now move on to our superintendent's report, Dr. Patel. So, as Lawrence and Dylan spoke about, we have two prestigious guests with us tonight, and um gosh, weeks ago at this point, we held the 2026 Russell C. Hughes Monroe County Spelling Bee, and East Stroudsburg Area School District swept it. So, there are two different groups. There's the intermediate school, middle school group, and then the high school group. So, tonight we have with us two of our members. Do we want

032to go around and honor them really quickly? >> Absolutely. So, congratulations, Ariana Nance. And then, the trifecta, I believe it's five years in a row overall. >> [laughter] >> I want to say, as the moderator, Mrs. Mercado and Dr. Catsburg were there as well. It was so awesome to watch the Stroudsburg students dominate. And like, I was just so full of joy. So, congratulations, James Calhoun, for again dominating the spelling bee. Thank you so much. Thank you. And at the spelling bee, I I have to tell you, Ariana got the most challenging words, and then they would ask for a definition. They would read the definition. I'm like, nope, doesn't help me any. >> [laughter] >> So, good work for both of you. Really impressive, and thank you for just being engaged in that process.

033And now I'm going to turn it over to Mr. Mirabelli for a finance presentation. Oh, and a mighty good Grandpa Joe, too. Grandpa Joe. In the play. All right. That was He was Grandpa Joe. I'm sorry. >> [laughter] >> Uh good evening, everyone. Jim Mirabelli from School Business Consultants. If you recall when we last met, we had been talking finance, and we were working off some projections and assumptions where the district was headed uh for 24-25, and then looking at 25-26. Uh tonight, we're in a much better position from an informational standpoint. We've closed that fiscal year. We've completed the audit, and now have actual results to work from. And at a high level, those results came in a little better than expected, as you will see. Uh but I want to be very clear

034about something up front. Uh these those improvements do not mean the underlying financial conditions and challenges have been resolved. Uh what we're seeing is a structural imbalance between revenues and expenditures. Our recurring costs, particularly salaries, benefits, special education, and other categories are growing at a rate that are outpacing our revenues. So, my job tonight is to walk through We're going to review some of the economic factors that brought us here, what we know about the audited fiscal year 24-25, what we project for 25-26 to finish this fiscal year, uh and most importantly, what are some of the next steps moving forward? Uh two slides forward, please. Uh and we we'll get right into that. One more slide, please. Um so, I just want to start with some historical revenue, and these are updates from what

035I had presented at a previous meeting here. Um so, this is just kind of uh your historical budget versus actual um revenue results, right? So, you can see over time, um you see a positive trend of revenue going upward um steadily over this time. But, more importantly, if we look at the difference between budget and actual, your actual is generally coming in just a little bit higher each year. And you really want to have that conservative revenue budget and come in a little bit over. If you come in under, you know, that you're you're trying to fight both sides of the expense and revenue equation, right? So, that's a good indicator there over time. If we look at the expense side of things in in some many years along this trend, you'll see that that

036is also the case along the way, right? So, there were a number of years where both sides of the equation worked out, and you you saw ex- revenues exceed expenses, you had a surplus. We're seeing in recent years the opposite, right? So, we're coming in um with some favorable results, but not enough to balance the budget in the in the last two fiscal years. We'll talk about that in a second. Uh touched on this last time. I want to talk about assessed value trends, and what we're seeing here is actually a a depreciating mill, not a not a growing mill, right? So, on the left, you'll see Monroe County, uh which had a reassessment in 2020, and we understand that there's another reassessment coming in 2028. Right? So, uh I actually have some exper- very

037current experience with that, so I'm happy to help you through some of the circumstances that uh and very specific detailed steps that you need to go through with the data that you're given uh when you're given it, probably in late 2027 or I'm sorry, early 2027. Uh that's probably when you'll start seeing some of that data come through. Um here are your millage rates. Um you can see during this time, even though there's a there's a drop, that's just from reassessment. Uh millage rates have remained uh the same, basically, except for rebalancing over time, uh with the exception of the the current year, where there was a 2% uh tax increase. The revenue trend, you can see some revenue growth there, albeit uh in in current years, we saw a little more stimulus funds over

038the last three prior years. Uh no stimulus funds in the 25-26 year. You can see that little green sliver, uh although it's a little small on the television, um that little green sliver kind of shrink into about a third there, because the stimulus funds have have gone away. But, an upward trend nonetheless. You can see that 2025 year is higher than the current year, and I'll explain what uh what some of those one-time revenues were in just a moment. Uh a word on spending, and this is a measure uh that I would have loved the state to publish the 24-25 data, uh where I could show you what 24-25 looks like relative to the state and your IU20 uh school district peer group. Um but, this is a a measure of spending per student, operational

039spending. This this excludes debt service and and expenses like this. So, this is a true look at what you spend in the buildings on students, that type of thing. Uh and East Stroudsburg, which is the line in blue, it uh spends uh about 2,500 per student more than the average school district in Pennsylvania and in any uh and in CIU20, right? So, higher spending district, higher spending in the state as in terms of spending per pupil. So, those dollars, you know, largely going into the classroom here is this metric will show you. Uh next slide, salaries and benefits. I want to just talk about staffing versus enrollment, and this slide data was available for me to update for you. Uh so, as we look at enrollment over the past uh about eight-year periods, uh you

040can see enrollment ticks down over that time uh by about 4.9%, right? So, enrollment down over that period, although pretty stable in the last couple of years. Meanwhile, we see staffing increasing at a a clip of cumulatively 11.2%. So, there's a bit of a divide there between staffing and enrollment. We see staffing increasing and enrollment decreasing and now remaining pretty steady there. And that goes through 24-25. When 25-26 data becomes available, I'll be happy to share that as well. Salary and benefit trends, and this is a big slide here, because when we last talked, this was a projected slide for 24-25, and 24-25's really a landmark year. Uh we had a new collective bargaining agreement in that year, and that took costs up district-wide pretty significantly. And if you look at the salary and benefit

041totals, the purple line and the blue line kind of stacked on each other in 2025 versus 2024, the increase in just salary and benefits district-wide was $19 million. Okay? So, there's no tax increase of any kind that you could get anywhere close to even a fraction of that $19 million. So, our cost structure uh went up pretty dramatically without the without revenue to support that. Okay? So, that's kind of a central theme there. We'll put a marker at that. The last time I talked about this, we talked about the need to be competitive. So, I wanted to provide some data and a visual representation. There's a lot going on on this graph here. And what this is is we leveraged Forecast5 software, and we sent them every contract in IU20 that we could get our

042hands on that has a 24-25 published salary schedule, right? They took that data, loaded in the software, and now we're able to compare all of the salary schedules that are available uh across, okay? So, East Stroudsburg is in the third column, all right? And you can see in 2024, the red, uh that's your bottom of the scale, and the sort of brownish maroon is your top of scale, right? So, you can see that East [clears throat] Stroudsburg was clearly among the lowest starting sk- salary it was in 2024, right? Uh and you can just you can see And as we collect more contracts and they make those available, we can get those imported into into the software, and then you could see even more comparisons. So, it's a nice tool. Anybody have any questions on

043what this is? Okay. So, each color represents a particular on the salary schedule. So, the the reddish, I guess that would be red or maroon, that would be step one, the lowest one. And as you go up, every little sliver is the next step up until you get to the top step, um which would be step, I believe, 16 steps are on your contract, correct? >> right. I'm sorry. I think we backed it down to 12. >> it's 12, yeah. Okay, so this is 2024. >> Yes, correct. So, at that time, there were 16. And then every bullet So, each bar represents a step a a a a step. A step. >> So, this is showing that most of our uh professional folks are are on the the lower end, so to say. We have

044more 24 in 2024. Prior to the collective bargaining agreement, they're Okay. I'm demonstrating that you were among the lower Okay. lower salary schedules, prior to And now, we'll look at the same graph for the next year. Uh and you can see much more competitive, right? So, your your bottom of scale is is very competitive, top of scale, very competitive. You see, you have your steps, you have a little bit more con- compact scale, right? So, um I just wanted to show that contrast, cuz you know, I was asked last time or you know, about, you know, are we competitive? And this is the best way I can show you um the you know, the effect on what that did in in terms of being competitive in the region. So, anyone have any questions on that?

045Okay. Next slide, please. Uh charter school tuition costs, uh obviously, everybody knows this is a this is a huge uh expense. And when we talked last time, we were speculating about charter reform, charter reimbursement. Um so, I'm happy to report that of all the districts we're working with, it seems the most material impact has been here at East Stroudsburg in terms of cost reduction. Uh and that unfortunately, it's cuz you have a you had a high rate for cyber charter special ed and a population, so you have a lot of volume and rate there. So, you can see where we're projecting in the green bar for 20 the current year is actually lower than what we've been budgeting for the last 2 years. So, seeing some real relief north of a million dollars in relief,

046I believe, from my calculations in you know, cyber charter tuition. So, that's a positive development there, right? And we have our state representative here, so thank you, Representative Probst. >> Thank you, Tara. This is a beautiful graph because of your hard work. So, thank you. >> So, material difference there with the with the cyber charter reform. Um so, now let's talk about the 24-25 audited results and this kind of I just high-level boils down to what did we budget, what did we what did we actually end up with, and what was the variance, right? So, you can see we budgeted a deficit on your left-most column of $17.4 million. We actually ended up with a deficit of $10.3 million. Now, that's certainly not good news that we lost $10.3 million. But, the deficit improved by

047$7.1 million, okay? And let me explain in the next two slides uh advance, please. Just what those what those items First, let's talk about the two one-time revenues that were matched with one-time expenses. So, really no effect on the bottom line, okay? So, we used $5.1 million in ESSER funds in the in the prior year. And we used most of them on, I believe, HVAC projects, right? So, one-time revenue, one-time expense. That's not going to hurt you in the following year, right? The other one um was we bought buses, right? So, we we took out a $5.9 million note or bond, I'm sorry, and we spent $5.7 million in that current year. There was still a little excess to be spent. It was right at the end of the the fiscal year. So, one-time revenue,

048one-time expense. Yes, we're left with a debt service on that, so that's not exactly one-time uh because we do have to pay for that, obviously. But, the the one-time help to the budget that we received and will not receive that again is rental and sinking fund payments. These are plan con uh reimbursements and they were backlogs of a few years and I understand we cleared that backlog, which created $5.2 million um of additional revenue than we were expecting in the prior year. Good news, would have liked to you know, you want that to be smoothed out and you want the revenue to keep coming um but, that was good news for 24-25, but that won't repeat itself again. Uh material expenditure variance. So, we were talking about a positive charter school tuition variance thanks to

049charter reform in the current year, but in the prior year we budgeted $1.57 too little on charter tuition, right? So, there was a million and a half to the bad there. Uh so, that was a negative uh cost variance in special ed and we're seeing these variances at all the schools, $1.2 million over budget there. Votech tuition was $800,000 under budget. We understand that there was a rebates that that come back and those are undetermined at the time. We think that was a good budget estimate uh but that you know, you later found out that you know, there was a there was a break coming your way from the from Votech. Um interest paid on bonds and loans came in $400,000 under budget and your contingency of a million dollars went unspent. So, those are

050the big rocks and the things that changed during the year to help you improve and shrink that deficit a little bit, but we still ended up um with a pretty sizable uh loss in that year. I do want to point out because we you know, the the central to the conversation of variances is accuracy of your budget. Approximately 75% of your budget is salaries and benefits, right? And here's a stat I just like to to give because your team here in the business office is doing a great job budgeting. Your salary budget of $86.1 million came in actually at 86 basically $0.1 million, right? So, budget and actual were right on the money. And why is that? Because your team is going through line by line, position by position, step by step, column by column

051and getting every person where they belong in your software, right? So, when you talk about budget accuracy your team is really doing it well and when you're looking at your salary and benefit amounts in the budget, I would propose that you would should have confidence in what they're doing because it's it really is a meaningful number there because and and the proof's in the pudding here with the financial results. Um onto the 25-26 forecast. So, we're leveraging here your forecast five software to project out. Um this involves looking back at five years of data month by month and projecting forward from February then March, April, May, and June. We're so getting out through June. So, this is where we project you'll end the year. And here are some of the under overs, right? So, green

052is good news, red is bad news. We're projecting that you're going to collect $1.5 million in current real estate taxes more than budget. So, a little over about a percent and a half more than we budgeted, which is which is pretty good, right? Um we'd like to see you come in a little over and that's you know, to be honest, by design or we talked about being conservative on the revenue side. You certainly don't want to come in shy of that number, so that's good news there. $720,000 in delinquent real estate taxes. This one's a little harder to pin down because you don't know what's going to come in until July, basically. But, based on trend and five years of history, it looks like you'll have a very favorable balance or variance there. $400,000 better

053than projected on your interest earnings. Why? It was looking like when we were budgeting the interest rates were going to drop faster than they have, right? So, they have dropped, but not as far as we thought, right? So, it's good news. Um $500,000 on other local revenues. There's there's just a miscellaneous revenue, some St. Luke's stuff in there. So, that came in better than than budgeted. $100,000 in basic ed funding. We know that's a known number. $160,000 extra in special ed funding from the state. That's a known number. And then we're projecting about $420,000 under budget for rental and sinking fund reimbursements. The reason for that is one, the state is very slow at processing plan con applications. We just refinanced a bond to push it out, right? So, that paperwork hasn't been processed yet

054uh or at least we haven't been notified that it's been processed yet. And the other thing is if you pay less for your debt in the current year, you'll pay for it as you go, the reimbursement will drop as well, right? So, we're expecting less reimbursement and that was considered in the analysis that was done, okay? Um now on the expense side, we're going to talk about the $8.8 million in budgetary savings and that's really the biggest piece of what's happening here in your 25-26 budget, right? Took that debt payment and pushed it forward to create cash flow ability in the current year. Uh the $1.2 million in budgetary savings for charter schools, we already talked about that. Um supplies. There's been an active push to really manage supply purchases here internally. So, administration has

055been really monitoring supplies and purchase orders, so we're projecting about a half a million dollar savings there. And the same is true for purchased property services. These are like maintenance, buildings, and grounds type services. So, really they're taking a a hard look at all those different services and managing those as well. So, uh onto the red piece. You know, there's a early retirement set up, so this is a one-time expense uh estimating about $2 million for additional payouts for those early retirement incentives. Now, the idea of an early retirement set up is uh you know, you pay folks out, they retire, and then you begin to generate savings in year year one. And sometimes it takes till year two, but you'll quickly realize those savings and that's that's why this this expense will be a

056one-time one here for this. Um also, we had the health insurance trust reach out. Uh the fund balance in that self-insured fund is very low and they asked for a good faith faith contribution to you know, sort of help boost the balance. So, we're putting in a 5% per month for three months, which adds up to 345,000 additional than we planned to pay in premiums. And then we are also about tracking for about 700,000 more than budgeted for retiree health insurance benefit costs. So, health insurance is is quite problematic for all the schools we're working with as well. This is a real challenge for um for many school districts. So, you're not alone here. That doesn't make it good news, though. Um so, here's what the end of the fiscal year projection looks like. Same

057format here. Uh we budgeted 187 and 1/2 million uh revenue, 214 million in expenses. After all of those changes that we just discussed, uh we were looking at a 26.4 million dollar deficit. We've reduced that down to a 14.6 million dollar deficit. Still a very substantial deficit that we're projecting a loss, right? So, what we'll be doing from here is every time um your team closes the books, we're going to rerun projections to the end of the year. If this materially changes, we'll come back to you and tell tell you why it materially changes. I don't expect it to change in a huge way um because we're we're down to the account level in some circumstances here. So, we're just we're we think this is a pretty solid forecast at this point. Uh having conversations

058about the the moving parts. Uh but, you know, if anything significant or material comes, we'll come back and report to you and why it changed. So, uh we like to be transparent about said 14, now it's 16, now it's it's like we like to be transparent about, you know, why something changed. So, if if we do, you'll you'll hear you'll get a report back from us. Okay? Next slide. So, we talk about these deficits and we talk about losses and I just want to sort of show how quickly uh the fund balance can go away and is going away, right? Right? So, general fund balance as of 6/30/24, we had 51.2 million dollars. In 24/25 year, we realized a loss of 10.3 million bringing us down to essentially 41 million dollars. If we realize the

059projected loss that that just put forth of 14.7 million, we will be down to a general fund balance of 26.2 million dollars at the end of this fiscal year, okay? So, if you do the math and you see the rate of which expenses are increasing and revenue is relatively flat, it doesn't take much math to say you'll be out of money in your general fund within 1 to 2 years at this pace. Okay? So, in summary, um can we go back to the previous step uh previous slide? Okay. I'm sorry. Forward one. All right. So, in summary, um budgetary deficit in 24/25 was reduced by 7.1 million dollars largely due to one-time revenues and some positive revenue results. And in 25/26, budgetary deficit reduced by 11.8 largely due to debt restructuring and some positive revenue

060results combined with some active managing of your budgetary expenses. Um next slide. So, from here, we will continue to monitor your fiscal projections, okay? We'll we'll keep you abreast if anything changes there. Um we will continue with your team uh with the preparations of the 26/27 budget uh talking some strategy on some different line items. Um also, I know people are are really waiting for the the the homestead farmstead uh numbers as well as tax scenarios. Um we need from the both counties, we need their assessment data. We need from the counties their homestead farmstead data and we need from the state the Act 1 I'm sorry, the homestead farmstead allocation. So, as soon as those data are available, we will be immediately to work on it. We'll immediately put that calculation together for you

061all. And that is all I had for this evening. That's all? That's it. That's all. That that including like the millage staying the same or is that what the projection was? >> Okay. So, here uh I just want to be clear. So, I was speaking of 24/25 and 25/26 to kind of segue into your next meeting of 26/27, right? So, didn't really talk about 26/27 except about the millage rates and the homestead farmstead. So, the you know, that's to come, I believe in May, right? >> Okay. Okay. So, um that that more information coming there. Right. So, my question was your projected close with an estimated deficit of 14.7 per That's this year and then we'll see what happens next year. Yes. Two questions. One, um do the numbers that you're reflecting for this uh

062for these on these pages include that extra money that we were I I don't know what what's that the fund that we were the money we were awarded but we had put in this yeah, that we were awarded that we couldn't use till next year. Is that in there or is that not in there yet? The piece that we're allowed to recognize is recognized. The piece that we had to defer, it's not recognized. Okay. And then jumping back to the the the slide about us I I was going to I'm sorry for not asking you earlier. The assessed value trends, it's very interesting to look at I don't know if you look if everyone noticed this, the commercial trends in the last 5 years are they're getting they're getting they're squeezing. Is that because of

063all the assessed the appeals and all that sort, Chris? That Yes, essentially and no new construction. And and and the fact that, you know, our district commercially, we out our district is our houses outnumber our commercial properties. We don't have the tax base that other districts like Mount Pocono and Stroudsburg have. We have no business. We have no commercial. So, the taxpayers so, really, what I'm trying to get at to encourage the public to head to your your township supervisors meeting and say, "Look, we need to get get business in our area, too." You know, and we're fighting businesses or and uh it's scary. Commercial commercial >> Commercial property >> It really and truly helps balance >> Right. And it's not. Right. I So, it's just alarming. But, okay. I'm sorry. Thank you. Thank you.

064Thank you. Anything else from anybody, board members? Uh thank you so much for the information. We appreciate that. >> Thank you. Good report. Okay. We Anything else, Dr. Vitale? No, that is it. Thank you. All right. We are going to move on to our committee reports. We'll begin with MCTI, Jason. But, we're going to change that order. No. All right. The MCTI Joint Operating Committee met on Monday, April 13th, 2026 at 7:00 p.m. There was no additional information to pass along from various administration and student reports. Uh if you want to see any of these full detailed reports of the directors, supervisors, and representatives, they are all available on the MCTI website. Uh with regard to business and finance, the conference center project, we approved uh the cooperation and funding procedures agreement and redevelopment assistance

065capital program. Uh this is the initial step in our partnership with Monroe County Industrial Development Authority moving forward. Uh the facility maintenance, a change order to the CMG was approved regarding the revised roofing details in the amount of uh $20,437. There were some software and supply updates with the Frontline Education and Absence uh tracking software. Uh in audit and compliance, we accepted the independent audit of the 24/25 fiscal school year, which was performed by CliftonLarsonAllen LLP and it was then approved. Uh we approved the lobbying certificate. Uh in regard to curriculum and instruction, we are pleased to continue our expansion opportunities for our students. So, the Northampton Community College, the committee approved new articulation agreements for the following programs: precision machining and tools design, precision machining and CNC basic certification, and machining fundamentals specialized diplomas.

066Uh next, the JOC then approved the 26/27 MCTI calendar. Uh this helps our families plan for the upcoming academic school year. Uh and we also approved uh policy 626 as well as a new position guideline for a part-time assistant chef support. Um we are uh proud to encourage our students to engage in higher level learning outside of the classroom and therefore, we uh approved the following field trips. Uh the CIS computer information science participating in Penn State of technology uh game jam in Williamsport on April 17th, which has passed. Uh and uh the OPET and auto tech visiting the Automotive Learning Center in Warminster. Uh in personnel news, we welcome Javon Sims as our new custodian and approved various family medical leaves. We also updated our committee rosters welcoming um Michael Geller and Deborah Schuler

067to the General Advisory Committee and removing Lyndon Gerkinsmeyer uh from that committee. Um we are also proud to announce that the uh there was an agreement meet met between um the JOC and the administrative compensation plan. Our next meeting will be held on Monday, May 4th at 7:00 p.m. Okay, thank you, Jason. >> And and just a side note, um it it's exciting to see that the new expansion project is being utilized. Uh the senior awards ceremony is going to be held there for the I think the first time now. Um which will be nice cuz we'll be able to host and they hosted they've already hosted some local meetings and such. Um which is really good to see that project really being utilized uh as by the school as well as the potential for

068the community use it our students to be more involved in the community the workforce and so to bring the workforce into them and I it's it's really exciting to see that project the way it is. Okay, good. Okay, move on to Colonial IU. That would be me. Um at the meeting we went over two recent audits that had happened. The first was from the Department of Education auditing the IU for their use of federal funds. Happy to report um that was a very clean audit. Everything passed well. Also an audit done for the IU for their annual budget and again everything reported to be um perfect with their budgeting. Uh two things that happened that were uh pretty impressive for our IU. The PA Pennsylvania State IU held a safety conference and our IU was

069invited because of their excellent work in two areas to actually present to all of the IUs in the state. Um one was on crisis intervention and prevention and the other was uh bringing employees back to work with light duty uh for workmen's compensation and they again were uh invited to do that which does show the hard work and how well our IU is working. Um also report the annual excellence in education awards. Those are awards throughout the IU where school districts can send in and apply for an award based on some of the good work being done and they are uh the ceremony is held and you receive an award. Also the merit scholars are also from the districts are honored to that. We're happy to say that for our kindergarten structured play we will

070be receiving an excellence in education award which is a very big honor. I might add that East Stroudsburg has a long tradition of receiving excellence in education awards from the IU. So this is a continuation of that excellence and that will be held on May 7th and that will be this year. Usually it's at a venue like Stroudsburg or Blue down in the valley. However, uh there's been a move now. We are going to move that to the Bethlehem area Vo-Tech school and the dinners and all will be prepared by the Vo-Tech students in the culinary program. So just to even further highlight and rather than going to a very expensive venues they actually bring that home to the IU and also um work with the students who are in those programs. So that is

071an excellent trend uh with probability of that being moved to Monroe County um Vo-Tech next year for the excellence in education awards. So I thought that was a pretty cool thing that's happening. And that was my report. We meet again this Wednesday so I'll have more information at our next meeting. Um properties and facilities, are you doing >> That would be me again. This was much quicker. Properties and facilities met on uh Wednesday, April 8th uh at 5:30 p.m. The committee reviewed the Smithfield or excuse me, Smithfield Elementary School sprinkler pump proposal from uh Prime Barker. Uh we also had a long discussion uh of the sketch review of the North Bus facility. Thank you so much for providing those. Uh we reviewed the current capital project list, capital projects payments, and CHA invoices. The

072committee recommended the following actions to the board: accept the fire sprinkler pump proposal for $11,800 and approve the payment to CHS or CHA, excuse me, for the projects invoiced. Uh the next meeting will be held on May 6th at 5:30 p.m. Thank you. Okay, thank you, Jason. Educational programs and resources, Ann. The EPR committee met on Thursday, April 9th at 5:30 p.m. My report is a little longer because our meeting lasted almost 2 and 1/2 hours. Um it truly showcased how far we have come uh in 1 year. Mrs. Snyder started with us 1 year ago and we had a pretty extensive list for those of you who've been listening to me report uh through these last months. Um really and highlighting what our CNI department has done. Our curriculum had been uh behind 20

073to 25 years. So the work that we've been accomplishing uh in the departments has just been wonderful. I do want to say that of course we know that none of these goals could be accomplished without the support of all of our teachers. I would like to begin with a thank you to all of them who presented so thoroughly that evening representing not only themselves but the hard work and dedication of their respective teams and departments. Um we began with Dr. Munez and Mr. Facules immediate intermediate science course plan presentation which highlighted phenomenon based learning and how this addition to the science science units will better meet our students' needs and keep them engaged in learning process. We had just started really a year ago talking about steels uh the new standards coming in and uh

074today, you know, they've already incorporated all of this into um our science curriculum. Uh next Miss Polmanter presented the first reading of our curriculum framework. Again, thanks to her and the high school teachers for working together to create this framework so that we will have a consistent curriculum framework throughout all of our disciplines which will unify the who, what, where, when, and how of all of our subjects so we can see it uh unified and our parents and uh community can see where we're moving. Using this framework Miss Signorella and Miss Communale presented the English 9 curriculum framework and course plans. The amount of time and work that went into this curriculum is outstanding. The blending of the traditional canon with new literary works with the integration of grammar, vocabulary, and writing into these units

075is impressive. So much so that they, Miss Signorella and Miss Communale from High School South and Miss Households from High School North, will be presenting their curriculum framework and course plan at the NCTE conference next year. Kudos and congratulations to them and thank them for not only their hard work and dedication but also for representing our district in such a positive and professional way. In addition, our district's overall curriculum process which is spearheaded by Mrs. Snyder, Miss Polmanter, and Dr. Priel will also be presenting at the NCTE conference next year. Really a tremendous job uh by everyone. We are so proud and grateful for everything that they do for our students. Continuing with that curriculum presentations, I wanted to thank Mr. Sanker also from High School South for the presentation of personal finance 2. As

076a reminder for all of us, this is part of that new state requirement. We had done personal finance 1 a couple months ago. Uh lastly for our curriculum presentations, Miss Polmanter presented the general science curriculum framework. And I just want to make a reminder to all of our uh board members um and the public as well that uh these are all the first reads. So if you have any questions, uh please direct them to Mrs. Snyder before we move ahead to the final submissions and our subsequent vote on adopting new curriculum frameworks. Uh moving on, Dr. Priel presented the district's differentiated supervision plan which basically outlines the steps of the teacher evaluation and growth plan. I was on that committee when it was first rolled out many, many years ago and it was really uh

077fun to kind of see the progression of where we were back then, where we are today, and obviously where we're heading. I really felt that uh it kind of really truly uh mirrored our district philosophy of maximizing today's potential for tomorrow's success. You know, we're really seeing the philosophy and the continuity of what we're trying to do in our district as far as curriculum is tomorrow's success, Dr. Mayers presented a request for a change in instructional delivery for Asaka. The two changes are Canvas as the learning management system and that has an integration with over 400 applications. All of the applications we use in our district such as Sapphire, IXL, Edpuzzle, Discovery Education, and Canva, just to name a few, are part of this integration. Accelerate Education is the curriculum provider which we already use

078successfully with our elementary program. One of its strengths which is a great potential for us moving forward um is that we can integrate existing curriculum resources um with Accelerate. Um the cost to this is an additional 15,000 for the year. Um but the one thing that's really good to know is that also covers the use of Canvas for all of our teachers in brick and mortar, not just in Asaka. So the EPR committee is recommending the purchase of Canvas and Accelerate as educational programs. Lastly, Mr. Kachel took a little bit of my thunder but I would also like to offer congratulations to Miss Blades, Winkler, and Martin from ESC who presented last month on kindergarten structured play and its impact on our students' social emotional learning for receiving the CIU 20 excellence in education award.

079And again, if you haven't had the opportunity to look at all the attachments in the EPR agenda as it comes out each month, please do. As they demonstrate how much work has been done by our professional and Act 93 staff in moving out curriculum and district forward. Also, the EPR newsletter uh now comes out to everyone of the staff in email and it's also published on our website, so you get to see at least uh a monthly update as well. It's truly exciting to see our district moving forward in a cohesive plans and deliberate path. Our next meeting is Thursday, May 7th at 5:30, both here in the board room and of course on Zoom. Everyone is welcomed and encouraged to attend. Thank you. Okay, thank you. And moving on to finance, Rebecca. Mine is

080not as interesting as yours, Anne, I apologize. So, we met on April 14th and we had a discussion with PFM about some debt restructuring, which you will see on the agenda tonight. Um we also spoke about the EPTAP, which is our insurance trust, and that increase that we heard about when they did the budget presentation. We have on the agenda to um renew our warranty for our Daktronics scoreboards. Those are the new scoreboards that we got on the fields. Um we reviewed um and the district made some changes to make it much easier for our seniors to do the property tax rebate. Um we were reached out to by Ms. Probst over there saying that our forms were very difficult and I commend our administration for taking the time to look at it to make

081it easier for our seniors to actually get rebates that they truly deserve. So, thank you for bringing that to our attention. Um we also we talked a little bit about Text My Gov, which we are not going to do because we learned from Dr. Vitali that if the community does want to sign up for our alerts, they can do so from our website and they'll get the same alerts that our parents get. All they need to do is sign up and they can get them through Sapphire. So, anybody in the community wants to get alerts on what's happening in the district, please feel free to sign up on the website. And we had a budget presentation just like you had today, but not as robust. Um you'll see on the agenda some special special education

082autistic support classroom furniture for purchase. You'll see also VM Cloud Ware Foundation contract and um you'll also see a donation from the Walmart Distribution Center where they graciously donated items that we can use in our community and also for our pantries to help our students. Um and it was both clothing, school supplies, and all that. Um what else? And you'll see an adjustment in the SE child for elementary school sprinkler fire pump. We're reducing the cost and kind of changing the way we're billing that out. And you have the recommendations that Ms. Cotulla spoke about in regards to campus and the English 9 curriculum resources. And our next meeting is scheduled for Monday, May 11th both here and via Zoom. Stay tuned cuz we'll be doing a lot of budget talks during that, so feel

083free to come on down. Okay, thank you, Rebecca. And last but never least, Mr. Park on policy. Our meeting was exciting tonight and those that were not there missed it. Uh I we asked administration to post the filing uh items and policies and they are from tonight's meeting uh policy 221 dressing grooming, policy 236.1 threat assessment policy 325 dress and grooming policy 332 working period, policy 209 health examinations, policy 305 employment of classified support employees policy 306 employment of substitute and short-term and summer school employees as well as policy 707 use of facilities. Um we're asking those be put uh up on the up for review with noted revisions and for public review during the month of April for subsequent board action in the month of May. Uh our next meeting uh is May 18th

084right here 4:30 p.m. as well as online um and uh I think that's about it. Did I Did I get it right, Deborah again? A lot of exciting things. Okay, thank you, Keith. Right, we are going to move on to public participation. We do have quite a few people signed up um in advance, so I'll just remind everyone when you come up to the microphone here, uh please begin by identifying who you are and we are limited um by to 3 minutes per person. If you want to watch um your countdown, you can use the game show countdown up here to keep uh abreast of how much time you have left so that you are sure to have um the most use of your time. Okay, so I'm going to begin with uh Corey Turner.

085Corey, are you here or online? Or neither? Okay. Okay, we'll move on. We could come back um to Corey. Karen Iorcan? Is that also online, Ashley? Okay. Okay, uh Karen, if you can hear us, you're on. Hi, can you hear me? Yes, we can. Thank you. Hi, uh I'm attending uh was listening for the budget for the coming year and uh I am concerned about the possibility of a tax increase. Um I understand what was said earlier during the was it budget presentation regarding the lack of commercial properties uh within the East Stroudsburg Area School District. Um however, we are a community that is receiving free breakfast and lunch for all students because of the overall income rates of the people who live within the school district and I don't believe that many of these

086could withstand a tax increase. And the fact is that people are not moving and transplanting at the rates that they were in the early 2000s that if a tax increase forced people to leave um that people with a higher budget would come and take their place. Um it's not easy to make budget cuts and look at those and in my time working um in just in the corporate world, I have been through many a downsizing and restructuring within companies um to help settle the budget. The unfortunate thing is many times those smaller positions are eliminated. It looks good to maybe eliminate five or 10 lower positions instead of maybe one or more that is higher up. Um but sometimes the one or more that is higher up will net you more um in money than

087uh a few um lower positions. Um and I am thinking of teachers who are not tenure and other support staff as well who are vital to our schools and working with our kids directly um and have a great impact on um our children and their education. And I just wanted um we really need to look at that and think of not just the numbers um but how we adjust those numbers to support continue to support our schools and our students. Thank you. Okay, thank you, Karen. Appreciate your input. Our next uh Carl Mayhauser, if I mispronounce that, I apologize. Carl. Good evening, board members and community. My name is Carl Beyerhauser. I'm a member of the grounds team and I'm here speaking tonight on behalf of the entire grounds department. Late Friday, April 17th, 3

088days just before this very meeting we were informed that our supervisor, William Young Jr. will be losing his position effective June 30th, 2026. As a department, we understand that difficult decisions have to be made. However, as a group, we strongly disagree with this one. We believe it will have an adverse effect on this school district. William has been working here since 1998. That's 28 years of service in this district. In 2024 when the first level supervisor position was posted no one on our team even considered applying because we all agreed that William was the natural best fit for this role. Not only does he have the vast experience but he is also our small engines mechanic and we have tons and tons of machinery. Through the many years he has worked through it all. William

089did step up and apply and rightfully so. We as a grounds team even wrote a letter of recommendation for him to lead our department. He has done a great job. There was an immediate improvement in our department from from having a supervisor working alongside us to day-to-day tasks. He has led us through some tough times and always been supportive. Not just with work issues, but with life issues as well. We have a running joke in our shop. Someone doesn't know how to do something, they say, "Just go Google it." And William's response is, "You Google it. I lived it." And we simply just move on and the job gets done. With all this being said, we are confused and disheartened that our district is going to lose him. We would also like to point out

090that majority of our grounds team, including William and myself, are proud alumni of East Stroudsburg Area School District and taxpayers in this community. This is this not our place of work. This district is a part of who we are. We have a personal stake in seeing it through and succeed, which is why the decision is especially difficult to accept. This district's mission statement is maximizing today's potential for tomorrow's success. We ask the board on how eliminating this position aligns with this mission. The grounds team is responsible for maintaining a safe, clean, and functional environment where students learn and grow every single day. Removing an experienced supervisor with 28 years of institutional knowledge does not maximize today's potential. It diminishes it. It does not set up tomorrow for success. It creates unnecessary risk and instability. A

091well-maintained school environment is not a luxury. It's a foundation for It uh I'm sorry, the the time has expired. Did you want to finish your sentence? I mean, feel free to finish your sentence. Uh sorry, just lost where I was. It's not a foundation for student success, it's the strong leadership within our department that ensures the foundation that remains solid. Done? Yeah, I'm sorry. I apologize. 3 minutes. Thank you. Okay, next person up we have uh Veronica Murray. Good evening. My name is Veronica Murray. I'm here tonight because our district is proposing major staffing and financial decisions that directly impact students, staff, taxpayers, and our entire community. We deserve clear answers. Over the past year, the district has created multiple new positions, administrative and professional positions, which Danica is going to touch base on those

092jobs. We find it interesting that at least four of the higher-paying positions have been filled with friends of the superintendent who had also previously worked at Abington Heights High School or school, including Dr. Marlene Perrell, Andrew Snyder, Mario Amelia, sorry if I can't pronounce his last name, and Dr. Karen Hoskey. At the same time, we are now discussing eliminating and reducing essential operation positions, including director of communications and operations, Mr. Eric Forsythe, who has served the district for 35 years. Supervisors of uh supervisor of grounds, Mr. Kirk Young, which is William Kirk Young, who has served us for 28 years. And three other supervisors who have been hired recently to fill positions that the district has utilized efficiently for decades. Mike Stricker, Chris Greco, and Dennis Cook. The last hire coming on board just 12

093weeks ago. It appears that Cook was hired just to be fired, much like our superintendent was by the Pleasant Valley School District a few years ago. These are not just positions, these are people with families. These are experiencing experienced, knowledgeable, and loyal individuals who have continued to serve our district with pride. Yet, boardroom decisions are being made that even key leaders and supervisors unaware of this as late as this morning. That should concern everyone. Every single one of us. Because this is not just about positions on a chart, it's about people. It's about the employees who show up every day to make sure our building is safe, clean, and functioning. It is about the families with health benefits and their livelihoods. It's about work family who trust and appreciate them, and it's about the students

094who rely on stable, well-run schools. It's about impact morale across the entire district. And when dedicated employees see their positions eliminated without clear justification, it sends a message, and not a good one. Nothing is broken in these departments. No clear problems have been identified. So, I ask, if it isn't broken, what and why are we fixing it? Breaking apart operations departments and scattering responsibilities does not create efficiency, it creates confusion, gaps, and risk. And ultimately, positions that are eliminated will still need to be replaced in some form as this evening's agenda shows. It doesn't look like a strategic strategic organization, it looks targeted. And that is what I wanted to say in the district. Our community deserves transparency and our staff deserves fairness, and our students deserve a district that prioritizes stability, smart decision-making. Thank

095you. Okay, thank you. Next person I have is Larry Diamond. He'll be back, Chris. Okay, thank you, Larry. Uh John Rosado. Good evening, board members and everyone else in attendance tonight. I am John Rosado. I work in the business office, and I am also the support staff union president. I would like to talk about the support staff contract that you will be voting on tonight. I would first like to thank the administration's negotiation team and the support negotiation teams for the many hours that they dedicated to get this job done. This is the first time in my 20 years that I have been working here that we have negotiated a contract before the current one ends. This was also a negotiation that we actually felt heard and we treated and was treated with the respect.

096We had civil conversations while adding and deleting items with minimal pushback. In addition, we had 16 support staff join as members so that they could vote. Our ratification vote we had 302 vote yes, and we had six vote no. I would like the board support tonight by voting yes for the contract so that at the end of tonight's meeting, I can go back to the support staff members to inform them that beginning July 1st, 2026, we will have a new 5-year contract. Thank you. Okay, thank you, John. Next person up is Steve Ertel. Uh I'm sorry, our policy does not allow donating time. Would you like your 3 minutes? Okay. There is There is a policy We do have a policy for that, Chris. It It's We have it in the policy. What? I I'll

097pull it out. We Yeah, pull it out cuz I don't I don't recall it. Okay. I don't have my computer in front of me. I'm not aware of that, so We went over that. Well, well, why don't we do this, Steve? We'll hold If you hold, we'll call up another person and then we could go back to that. But, I mean, I'll put my time in like this. Like what? I'm sorry. I'll go ahead. Okay. That's up to you. I wish everybody would take the time just for a second and look at the people that you're going to be letting go. 35 years, 28 years. And the most we can give them is 3 minutes? My mom was one of the first people that went to this school 93 years ago. There has to come

098a point, too, where good people that do good jobs are more important than taking out other things that we really don't need. We have to respect the people that put their time and effort into this. So, I wish everybody would at least would at least respect the time and give them more than 3 minutes for 28 years or 35 years. So, as myself, as a person in this community that fights for businesses, advocates for different places, thank you so much, guys. I appreciate your service. We as families, we as people in this community appreciate your service. I think you deserve more than 3 minutes of this time. Thank you. Okay, thank you, Steve. Our next person is Samuel Oreos. Uh good evening. My name is Sam Reyes. I'm an employee of the district's grounds department.

099I would like to address the proposed removal of our first-level supervisors. I understand that the board has difficult decisions to make, but I'm concerned about the decision to terminate first-level supervisors like William Young, known as Kirk to most, and Chris Greco. From my perspective, they have contributed significantly to team stability, performance, morale, and key projects. Removing them may create uncertainty and negatively affect continuity and staff confidence. I work closely with them, and based on my experience, their leadership has been effective and valuable. Kirk and Greco have been employees of this district in their respective departments for years, correction, decades, and have risen to the position of supervisor through their hard work and leadership. They're a big part of why our departments function well. I respectfully ask the board to reconsider this decision given the potential

100impact on our departments. Thank you. Okay, thank you. Uh the next card I have is Danica Hartenfeld. Does Does he know now? You told him? Okay. Good evening. My name is Danica Hartenfeld, and I'm a resident here in the district. I've owned my home in Smithfield Township since 2004, and I've lived in the Poconos nearly all my life. I'm here tonight because East Stroudsburg Area School District is making major staffing and financial decisions that directly impact students, staff, taxpayers, and our entire community, and I believe the community deserves clear answers. Over the past year, the district has created multiple administrative and support roles, including a food service secretary, dental service facilitator, supervisor of social services, director of professional learning, executive director of human resources, director of human resources, special education coach, special education intake specialist,

101director of comprehensive student support, director of special education, and additional positions. They're all on the administration side. The same time, we're now discussing eliminating or reducing operational roles in communications and operations, environmental services grounds, and maintenance supervisors. Positions that directly impact daily school operations, facility upkeep, and response times. These are just not line items on a spreadsheet. These are people's livelihoods. These are individuals who keep our schools running every day. While you eliminate these roles, you're not just restructuring, you're affecting families, stability, and the quality of the environment our students rely on. It's also important to note that in January 2025, the board approved a motion allowing the superintendent to hire professional and support employees between regularly scheduled meetings as deemed necessary with later ratification. Now as we face budget concerns and restructuring, residents are

102asking reasonable questions. How are these staffing decisions impacting the budget? Why were administrative roles expanded while operational roles are now being reduced? What is the full financial impact on taxpayers, which I think we got some tonight, so thank you. I understand the district has a business to run. From what I recall from previous meetings I attended and following the feasibility studies, we are now at 24 million, now updated 11 million dollars in deficit. I worked in corporate America for 20 years, and I understand you need to balance a budget. I owned a small business, we have to balance a budget, and I understand you have to make some tough decisions. Budgets and efficiencies are important, but so is transparency and communication. The community deserves to understand the the priorities behind these decisions, especially we may

103also face a tax increase. I just understand that we're going to run out of money in 1 to 2 years. While decisions affecting livelihoods, school operations, and taxpayers, the community deserves transparency, accountability, and leadership that puts people first. And our students deserve to have schools that are properly maintained. Thank you for your time and for serving our community. Good evening. Thank you. Uh Mike, I should add um Keith showed it to me. Keith was 100% right. I was 100% wrong. Okay. So if uh but Steve took his time anyway, so I only because only on my bad advice. I think if Mr. Mayorhauser wants to know Sure. I'm fine with that. Mr. Mayorhauser, did you want to complete what you had there? You're welcome. We have a Is this on? Could be. Yeah, you're good.

104We have a large district, two campuses, 10 schools to maintain. This is a lot to manage. And that's a lot of institutional knowledge and experience just to lose. This decision will impact the schools, our department, and more importantly, the students. We respectfully come before you tonight to ask the agenda item be tabled or further for further discussion. Our hope that more conversations can be held to avoid such a drastic change in leadership. We would welcome the opportunity to collaborate with decision makers in an effort to help them better understand the daily operations of our department. So there's a thorough appreciation of the negative effects this change would have. This board has always championed the success of the district's students and community. We believe that tabling this item and engaging further dialogue is is a decision

105that truly honors the mission of maximizing today's potential for tomorrow's success for our students, our schools, and the dedicated people who care for them every day. I want to thank you for your time tonight. Respectfully, myself, Wesley English, Boyd Counterman, Kevin Monic, Joey Anyanwu, Douglas Hafner, William Young III, Nick Walsh, and Sam Reyes. Thank you again. Okay, thank you. Okay, thank you, and we apologize for the interruption of your time. Thank you for finishing. Uh our next speaker, Tara Probst. Hello, East Stroudsburg School Board, and congratulations to all the students in their success. I'm sure you're on the countdown until the end of the school year. Um a couple things. I just had a couple questions about the budget. You had said that the student um average spend was $25,000, roughly around there. And in

1062013, when we had a bipartisan commission, we found that uh East Stroudsburg was spending between 13,500 and 14,000 dollars per student, right where the state wants you. So I just wanted to know, did you have basic education combined with special ed for that number? >> I apologize, we we can't have questions and answers like that. >> to the board. Is the $25,000 basic ed and special ed combined? Because if it's only basic ed, then I don't know how it got to 10,000 more per student in 2 years. Um the second question I had is that um most schools fund balances don't exceed 20%. As a matter of fact, Stroudsburg keeps theirs at 11%, and I know there's assigned and unassigned. You really do have a healthy fund balance compared to other school districts, and um

107you know, I know you have capital funds for buildings and all these different levels, but your fund balance is actually quite high for a 190 million dollar budget in my estimation. Um East Stroudsburg Borough is 72% tax free. They've got the schools, the hospitals that, you know, the colleges, the doctors' offices, the nonprofits, the churches that don't get taxed. So in my estimation, you're doing, you know, the best you can when most of your properties are not taxable. Maybe that's something in the future we can fix at the state. The cyber charter uh chipping away, it's happening again this year. We are in budget times, and here's really the meat of what I wanted to talk about. Whenever there's a budget, it's always doom and gloom. You're not the first school district to, you know,

108be doom and gloom, but it always ends up okay. And here's why East Stroudsburg's going to be okay. From 2015 to 2022 before I was in office, the state gave you 5 million dollars between that whole time. Since I've been in office on three budgets, you've got 18 million dollars. Plan on getting at least another six, if not more, again this year. In your defense, you were the worst funded school in the entire Commonwealth. You were number 500. You've been shortchanged for over two decades under not great leadership in Harrisburg. So since in the last 3 years, we've been trying to fix that. We're not even close to being done helping you. So when things look bleak, know that we will come through for you. We have 18 million dollars in 3 years versus 5

109million in uh what, 7 years? So we're going to continue to fund public education through the state so that we can keep our taxes lower on our residents. Because if people can't afford to live, they can't even afford to have babies. So if we want to keep this population going in East Stroudsburg, we need to make it more affordable for the people who live here. So I'm asking you to consider all the good things that were going on, and please um have a good night, everybody. >> [laughter] >> Uh thank you, Tara. And please know as the board, we do appreciate you fighting for us, and we do appreciate that. Okay, um our next speaker, Jim Cox. Okay, thank you, Jim. Uh do we have Corey available from before? No, okay. Um, are there any

110other comments from the public? Okay. Seeing none, then we'll move on. Thank you. Does anyone on the board have unfinished business? Well, we all have unfinished business, but not for the public here. Okay. Um Our motion to adopt the board policies as listed. So moved. Second. Discussion? All in favor? Aye. Aye. >> Opposed? A motion to approve the agreement presented with CHA Consulting the four professional engineering services in accordance with the recommendation of the finance committee. So moved. Second. Questions? All in favor? Aye. Aye. Opposed? Aye. A motion to approve the updated organizational chart effective July 1st, 2026. So moved. Second. Discussion? Can we Can we go over the changes a little bit? I love >> Yeah, I was just going to say just for the community may want to review those changes a bit.

111Okay, we'll turn that over to Dr. Vitale. Just give me one second to set that up. So, we are eliminating the position of director of communications and operations and five first-level supervisors, maintenance, grounds, environmental services, which there are two positions for that. And we are replacing all of those positions with a director of facilities position, which is in a later agenda item, which will be posted shortly. That director of facilities will oversee just facilities. And then from there, the supervisor of building and grounds and the supervisor of maintenance um, supervisor of maintenance and grounds and supervisor of environmental services will report to that director of facilities. The director of communications and operations position, there was um, some overlap in other departments. So, the other departments have taken some of that work and left facilities just

112as a director of facilities position. Okay. Any other questions from the board? Thank you. No, thank you for the explanation. Okay. Seeing none, all in favor? Aye. Aye. Opposed? A motion to eliminate the following positions for operational efficiency as outlined in the organizational chart effective July 1, 2026, director of communications and operations, first-level supervisor of environmental services, first-level supervisor of grounds, first-level supervisor of maintenance. So moved. Second. Discussion? I think it's probably noting just that they are all administrative They are all within the Act 93 and none of this is being done for performance. They are all amazingly dedicated professionals to our district and have given us years of service. Let me thank them for that. And And they are administrative positions. >> They are administrative positions, correct. Any other discussion from the board? Okay.

113Seeing none, all in favor? Aye. Aye. Opposed? A motion to approve the position description for director of facilities. So moved. Second. Discussion? This will be posted tomorrow. Tomorrow. Okay. The director of facilities, correct. Other questions, discussion? All in favor? Aye. Aye. Opposed? A motion to approve the updated position description for chief of police, director of technology, executive director of human resources, assistant superintendent for direct for district programs, and assistant superintendent of pupil services. So moved. Second. Discussion? This is due to the change in the org chart if I'm understanding correctly. This is parsing out some of those job responsibilities. So, this pretty much would assure that the work being done is still going to be supervised and done and correct. Absolutely. Okay. Any other questions? All in favor? Aye. Aye. Opposed? Motion to approve items

114one and two as per the recommendations of the education programs and resources committee. So moved. So moved. Second. Questions? All in favor? Aye. Aye. Opposed? Motion to approve the waiver agreement between the East Stroudsburg Area School District and the parents of the student with case and the case number is listed there. So moved. Second. Discussion? Did you skip one? Yeah, no. Did I skip one? No. No. Okay. All in favor? Aye. Aye. Opposed? Which one did you skip? Trips and extracurriculars? Which one? 121 and 122. We're not there yet. No, we're not there yet. We're not there yet. We're at the special We're at 113 special education waiver. Okay. All right, we're good. Yep. Okay. Um, motion to approve the We just did that. Motion to approve the waiver agreement and we just voted. I'm

115sorry. Okay, I was distracted. Thank you. All right, so we'll move on. Motion to approve the field trips as listed and you can see them listed there. So moved. Second. Questions? All in favor? Aye. Aye. Opposed? A motion to approve the implementation of the high school south HOSA future health care professionals club. So moved. Second. Second. Questions? All in favor? Aye. Aye. Opposed? A motion to approve the agreement to participate in the 2026-27 Pennsylvania School Board Access Program. So moved. Second. Questions? All in favor? Aye. Aye. Opposed? Motion to approve the proposed adjudication with regard to the expulsion hearing held on April 6, 2026 as submitted. So moved. Second. Discussion? All in favor? Aye. Opposed? A motion to approve the recommendation to modify expulsion uh, requirement agreed upon expulsion waiver of school board hearing and

116release agreement for the case listed in substantially the same form as presented at this meeting contingent upon the receipt of any manifestation determinations indicating the infractions were not manifestations of a disability subject to final review by the school district's administration and legal counsel. So moved. Second. Questions? All in favor? Aye. Aye. Opposed? A motion to approve the settlement agreement for employee 7317 as presented. Questions? All in favor? Opposed? A motion to approve the collective bargaining agreement between East Stroudsburg Board of Education and East Stroudsburg Area Educational Support Professional Association from 2026-27 to 2030-31. So moved. >> Second. Questions? Uh, this question could this doesn't have to be a roll call cuz it's a board level contract. Does it need to? It should be. If you voice voted unanimously, it doesn't have to. Yeah, okay. If

117you want to, certainly fine if you want it on the record, but >> Well, we could voice vote if there's but then we can go back. Okay. All in favor? Aye. Aye. Opposed? Before we move on, um, I I know tonight was a difficult night with elimination of positions and I believe it's overshadowing the work we've done in negotiating this contract. I believe that this contract shows our support staff how much we value them through a compensation package that we mutually agreed upon. And Mr. Rosado spoke about the process. Um, I don't know if in the history of this district negotiations have been light-hearted, full of food, full of laughter, and full of just truly having mutual respect for one another. So, on behalf of our district and the board, thank you for coming to

118the table. Thank you for listening, allowing us to make some changes, and for giving our people exactly what they deserve. Thank you. And I I also want to just thank our superintendent and John just for that again outstanding work. And you know, we all We all learned a lesson of what happens when we really truly work in a spirit of cooperation and respect. And hopefully that's will continue for all of us in all of our things that we do here in the district. So, again, thanks to both of you for that. Okay. And now we need a motion to approve the notice of charges for employee 11939. So moved. Second. Questions? All in favor? Aye. Aye. Opposed? A motion to approve the following memorandum of understanding between the East Stroudsburg Area School District and the

119East Stroudsburg Area Educational Association regarding special education program position process. So moved. Second. Questions? All in favor? Aye. Aye. Opposed? A motion to approve the employment actions listed in accordance with the associated applicable policies, procedures, and contractual agreements. And there that's the big one well listed there. Motion. Second. Any questions? I have an abstention. Okay, we have an abstention. Page 13, 3 4. And I have an abstention, page three, number one. Okay. You can you can I'm not going to vote to make her be retired. >> [laughter] >> I'm sorry. I was going to say something kind about [laughter] her. I want to thank Dr. Kulick, but we haven't voted yet. So, you might know if they'll be working. I Oh, yeah. Yes, we'll wait till we vote, right? All right. Uh all in favor?

120I. Opposed? >> [laughter] >> Only that one. I like it. Yeah, all all people are retiring. I would like to thank Gail. I was for her years of retired. So, she I want to say thank you to all of them. Yeah. Yes. All of the retired Uh but I do want to thank Gail because Gail took my role as the old-timer when I retired 5 years ago, and I have worked with Gail for more years than either one of us will admit. Uh when we first were first principals at elementary level, and it was amazing working with you, and I just thank you so much for all the wonderful things you've done for East Stroudsburg over the years and for the district. It was always a pleasure to be your colleague. I think so. The

121saying is leave it better than you found it, and our district is definitely better than you found it. So, thank you. I would say that everybody in this room has learned how to be an educator from you and what you have modeled, but also everyone on this list that is retiring, it is decades of service to our families, to our students, and to our community. Um we will be at a loss because of this retire all of these retirements. So, we we appreciate Dr. Kulick, but also everybody on this list of what they have given to our district. Absolutely. Okay. Yes, that's right. And on to the golf course. >> [laughter] >> Okay. Um I got I got distracted. Sorry. Okay, 14. Motion that the Board of Directors of the East Stroudsburg Area School District

122do hereby authorize the administration to work with PFM Financial Advisors as Municipal Advisor Eckert Seamans Cherin and Below as Board Counsel and the Solicitor in conjunction with the issuance of General Obligation Bond Series A of 2026 and General Obligation Bond Series B of 2026 issued by a competitive dual track process, the proceeds for which will be used towards the current refunding and restructuring of the district's General Obligation Bond Series AA of 2017, General Obligation Bond Series AAA of 2017, and the General Obligation Note Series of 2021, and no, I will not repeat that. So moved. Questions? All in favor? I. Will we be voting on this? Actually, when she'll get the numbers back to us not next month, but the June June board meeting. I'll make sure we have it there. Yeah, thank you. And

123good. Thank you for the clarification, and we approve then that. A motion to approve the revised property tax rebate resolution in accordance with the recommendation of the Finance Committee. So moved. Second. Questions? Comments? All in favor? I. Opposed? A motion to approve the extended service agreement with Dectronics in accordance with the recommendation of the Finance Committee. So moved. Second. Questions? All in favor? I. Opposed? A motion to approve items one to three in accordance with the recommendations of the Property and Facilities Committee and Finance Committee. So moved. Second. Questions? All in favor? I. Opposed? A motion to approve the payment of bills and un-ordered and treasurer's report listed in this agenda for the 25-26 fiscal year in accordance with section 287 of the Public School Code, recent directives from the Department of Education, and interpretations

124made by the Auditor General. So moved. Second. Questions? All in favor? I. Opposed? A motion to approve the payment of the following CHA invoices for services rendered in accordance with the recommendation of the Property Facilities Committee and the Finance Committee. So moved. Second. Questions? All in favor? I. Opposed? A motion to approve the request to establish a special activity fund for the Lehman Pantry. So moved. Second. Questions? All in favor? I. Opposed? Question, is it they're they're having a fund to is that for collecting money uh or So, we receive donations from different organizations. So, we just received um almost a $5,000 donation from Giant. And what we do with those donations is that we parse them out to each school pantry. Some of our schools never had a pantry because they never had a

125funding source for it. Okay. >> now found sponsors and funding sources, so now this is starting pantries in different schools so that it is a special activity account running through the district. >> The reason I'm asking that is so now if like say a local church wanted to donate instead of in lieu of canned goods, they can make a a monetary donation to the pantry through the school district in their name in for long term. >> schools will have it. Every school's going to have it. Okay, that I like that. Thank you. Thank you. Okay, and we've had voted just to that. Are we already Yeah, I'm sorry. Discussion already done. That's okay. No, I'm glad you asked your question. I just wanted to make sure I said that in my head. A motion to

126approve the following donations in accordance with the recommendations of the Finance Committee. So moved. Questions? Just thank you to the committee. Yeah, I thank you very much. Thank you. Donations are always very much appreciated. All in favor? I. Opposed? A motion to approve the revised 25-26 East Stroudsburg Area School Calendar as presented to reflect two snow days and five virtual instruction days, seven for High School South due to no heat, and establishing June 4th, 2026 as the High School South graduation, and June 5th as the High School North graduation. Question. Yes, will that be outside weather permitting? It is outside weather permitting. Correct. And we do not >> [laughter] >> What? And weather will weather will >> we are able to not make up two snow days because of the number of instructional hours. So,

127those last two days will be pivoted to professional learning for our staff, and the final day will be the now second annual staff appreciation picnic. And you're all invited. Thank you. And last year was really nice. It was wonderful. Yes. Okay. Hope you don't get sunburned again. Less heat next this year. I will just repeat those. June 4th for High School South and June 5th for High School North. Um we have first and second. All in favor? I. I. Opposed? You did not have a Oh, first Oh, well, let's have a first and second. I think it was me and Debbie. Okay. All in favor? I. Opposed? Okay, I I get excited about graduation. I'm sorry. A motion to Yes, I I know. Motion to approve the contracts listed for their specific services, rates, and

128effective dates subject to the review and recommendations of the solicitor and approval of the administration regarding the terms and conditions of any final contract other than price or cost, and there's quite a few pages listed there. So moved. Second. Questions? All in favor? I. Opposed? A motion to approve the Colonial IU 20 operating budget for 26-27 school year in the amount of 4,697,000 $319 with the East Stroudsburg Area School District's amount being 39,884 as previously distributed and presented to the board. So moved. Second. Questions? All in favor? I. Opposed? Okay, um and all if there is any announcements or adjourned any announce >> Motion to adjourn. Second. Okay, so there's no announcements then. Okay. A motion to adjourn. You know if I wanted to say something, I would have said it. Yeah, I'm sorry to

129say it. [laughter] I didn't say I I