ESASD Regular Board Meeting (February 23)

001Okay, we good to start? I call the February 23rd School Board meeting to order. Let's recite the Pledge of Allegiance together. 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 a roll call. Okay. George Andrews? Present. Rebecca Bear? I am present. Ann Petrillo? Present. Mike Petrillo? Present. Jason Goldstrum? Not there yet. Heath Carcutt? Debbie Kulick? Rich Lamas? Present. Janica Story? Present. Okay. Keith Carcutt, present. Okay. Jason Goldstrum? Present. And Debbie Kulick? Here. Okay. Nine present. Okay, thank you. Welcome to all of our guests and just bear with us as we go through our meeting today on Zoom, but welcome to everyone who is joining us. An executive session

002was held this evening before and before this meeting for the purpose of discussing personnel litigation and negotiations. I need a motion to adopt the agenda for February 23rd as submitted with the Board of Ed reserving the right to edit the agenda and take further action if action is needed. So moved. Second. Discussion? All in favor? Aye. Opposed? We need a motion to approve the minutes of the January 26th regular School Board meeting. So moved. Second. Questions, comments? All in favor? Aye. I'm tired of doing this virtually. The weather's got to stop. That's my comment. >> Yes, okay. I agree. And no one opposed, correct? Okay. All right, we're up to our representatives. Not sure who we have with you. Do we have Lawrence and Dylan or for representing North? Hello, I'm here. Hi, Dylan. Welcome.

003Do we have our presentation or do I Does one of us need to share our screen? Okay. Uh no, no, I have it. Okay, cool. My camera isn't working. All right, but I am here. My camera isn't working, but I am here. We hear you, Lawrence. Hear you loud and clear. Perfect. I'm so sorry. I'm not sure if you're seeing the right page right now. You're not. There we go. We got it. There you go. >> Amazing. Technology, isn't it great? Um so this is our East Stroudsburg uh North highlight. We're going to cover January and February cuz we we missed last month's meeting. So we just thought it'd be best to keep it all in one. I'm good for the next slide. Uh so academics is first. Uh just recently on February 13th, the

004Lehman NJHS chapter had its induction ceremony. Now it's kind of weird to cover something that happens at the middle school for the high school, but I think it's important to recognize that this program's really important for building up our NHS program at the high school level and without this program we don't really get to like fully succeed at NHS. And Lawrence and I participated in helping with the the um ceremony. Lawrence gave an amazing speech. I I I genuinely really enjoyed it. Of the speeches I've heard, it it it was a really good speech. And um I helped with Mr. Edwards' stuff as I usually do at these these ceremonies. Tucked away back in the corner. Um not on the main stage. I'm good for the next slide. The arts. So we've had two choral

005events that happened in the past two months. On January 24th, the North choral attended the Wilkes-Barre Scranton Penguins game and they performed the Star-Spangled Banner for the game. It's always great to spread patriotism and get to show the talented individuals that our choral like possesses. I I remember like the first time I heard our choral just being blown away and it's still that like same blown away effect every time I hear them. It's just like we There's students in our building who can sing that well and it's always just such a shock to me. And then on February 11th, those same members of the choral participated in an adjudication at Moravian University, which pretty much means they performed a concert and then they got like crit- criticism, like constructive criticism on how to improve how

006to improve their singing, how to look better as an ensemble, and it's overall just a really good experience for them because it helps them be more prepared for future concerts and specifically the coming concert. Uh the District 10 Band Festival happened in in January uh 23rd to 25th. Uh we had two members, Joseph Kennedy and Nina Yunusi. During the festival, uh they both had the opportunity to audition and were admitted into the Regions Festival. From the people who were there, I've heard that this has been or this was one of the best District 10 Band Festivals that's happened. Um it it was a really good um guest who ran the festival, and it was just overall a a really good experience for them. Then in January, we had the District 10 Jazz Festival. We had

007one student audition, Joe Kennedy, and he managed to get a spot in the ensemble, and uh he had nothing but great things to say about it. I think these festivals are really great for enriching our musician musicians, and overall, they just benefit the community because we we learn and then we move that knowledge into the the people we play with. Then again, in January, we had um we had four students who were lucky enough to audition and make it into the choir, the PMEA District 10 Choir Festival. Those students were Joseph Kennedy, Matthew Fairly, Dio Kent, oh and Valentina Gudaiva. Of those three students, Joseph or four students, Joseph Kennedy, Matthew Fairly, and Valentina Gudaiva were able to advance onto the next round for Region Choir. And then in February, I accidentally uh put the

008wrong dates, but that's okay. We'll we'll live. Um we had three students again participate in the Region Festival. Uh that was Joseph Kennedy, Matt Fairly, and Valentina Gudaiva. Unfortunately, none of them were able to advance to the All-State level for choir, but overall, it was a great learning experience, and they all gained a lot of knowledge, and I I think again, these these festivals really help cement our musicians as superior and really help enrich the ensembles at our home schools. Then uh a little a little twist. We don't usually have students who um audition for there's like auxiliary ensembles at the PMEA All-State festivals where you can audition and they have nothing to do with like the district festivals or the region festivals. We had several students audition for the PMEA All-State Contemporary A Cappella

009Ensemble, and we were able to get one student who managed to rank and achieve acceptance into the All-State Festival. It's I I I don't know exactly how long, but it's been a pretty long time since we've had a student get into this ensemble, so I I I think it's a really great thing that Joseph Kennedy was able to audition and and make it into an ensemble of this this stature. Then just to wish them good luck, we talked about this in November when all the students um auditioned for AS ACDA or the um ooh I I forget the acronym. I'm blanking. It's okay. Uh when we had a ton of students audition for uh another choir festival, um we had Esther Vo, Daniel Gudaiva, Joseph Kennedy, Matthew Fairly, Robert Taylor, Chanel Taylor, and Jasmine Ford

010all make it into the ensemble, and I just like to wish them good luck over the next few days because I believe they leave on Wednesday, and they should come back on Saturday from the festival. So, I just I'm I'm wishing them all good luck on that festival. Next, we have two major concerts coming up. Tomorrow, as long as everything's fine, we will have our annual North Band Department Concert. Um this concert's always amazing. It's spectacular to see the growth because we include the North every single North Band student from fifth grade all the way to 12th grade, and it's it's just always a surreal experience to experience like see just seeing the elementary schoolers playing and being like, I was there once, and remembering when I was in elementary school, or seeing all the

011high schoolers, and just being like, wow, that that's that's going to be me one day. And it's it's always surreal, and I'm I'm pretty excited this year. And the the cherry on top for this concert is we get to work with a uh composer and conductor who will help us learn like a specific song that that we or each grade level has learned. And he wrote a song specifically for the fifth grade band for the world premiere. So, the first time the world will ever hear this song will be from our East Stroudsburg North uh fifth grade band, which I think is a pretty special thing. So, I'm I'm definitely excited for that. And then on March 5th, the choir will perform its annual department concert, which includes choirs from grade 6 to 12. Now,

012I'm kind of a new guy to choir, so I don't really know the the nostalgic ties, but I would assume that there there's a pretty similar like air and aura to it where the there there's a lot of nostalgia and a lot of good ways to inspire more generations to come up through the choir programs and band programs and just build a stronger music program. And then both of these concerts will be held in North Auditorium as per usual. And then lastly, finally, we can announce that our North Spring Musical this year is going to be Roald Dahl's Charlie and the Chocolate Factory. Um Good choice. I'm I'm pretty excited for this. Labar Labar always picks great things, so I I always trust him. It's just been a little bit of a roller coaster ride

013getting to this, and I I'm I'm just happy that we're on track now. Uh auditions were held the first week of January, and the play will be the first week of April, like right after um spring break gets out. And that's all I have next to Lawrence. Okay, thank you. Hello, everyone. So, now we're going to be talking about athletics. Can everybody hear me? Everything good? Yeah. Good. Computers are a little bit unpredictable. Um North trophies, I want to congratulate the boys basketball team on keeping the Exchange Club trophy for the fourth time in a row by defeating South 55 to 52. Um we've always had, you know, a friendly competitiveness, especially with this trophy, and so we're very excited to see North win it. So, we've had a couple we had like two school

014records so far this in the last 2 months, which is amazing. And so, we want to congratulate senior indoor track sprinter Hermani Daniels for setting the new school record in the 55-meter race with a time of 6.673 and earning fifth place during the finals at the Garden State Open on February 20th. Um amazing runner, love to see his progress through through this season so far as I was also with him in these meets, and I just think it's amazing to see him break a school record like this. Another school record, um well, first I want to congratulate the boys swim team who competed at the as districts this weekend. Um and then a special congratulations to Logan Cruz who broke the 100 breaststroke record that stood for 21 years, not once but twice this season,

015and he also placed second in the districts event. Um he PR'd at districts, which he broke his own record that he set prior that season. And like like I I could mention here, it was thing for 21 years, which is incredible to see that North students are still continuing to break records. Um students teaching students, Miss Weatherhold, our special education teacher, and members of the North Unified Bocce team worked with our physical education teachers to teach and demonstrate this lifetime activity to our physical education students. Um and our students were given time to play bocce. Bocce is just a sport that it it's new to the school. It's a unified team that's new to the school, and they have been involved in so many different things, and it's and later on we see that one

016of the wins they achieved. And um just seeing them interact with other students in the school who I didn't know what bocce was prior to this team being formed. And I think it's awesome just to keep learning about things outside of my own my own little circle. I think it's awesome. Senior nights, we had a couple since we're combining February and January. On January 8th, the North the North wrestling team had their senior night. On January 2nd, the Unified Bocce team and swim teams held their senior night. The boys basketball team and cheer teams had it on February 2nd against Pocono Mountain East, and the girls basketball team on February 4th against Notre Dame. North wins, like I was mentioning before, on January 15th, the North Unified Bocce team went to Saucon Valley and won

017both games. And this is only the second year that North has had a Unified Bocce team, and so I think it's it's awesome kind of see us win and do things at our teams are brand new, but it can still show that we still have the ability and capacity to beat other schools. Um and then on January 21st, the East Stroudsburg North girls wrestling team earned their first victory in school history with a 24 to 18 win over Bethlehem Catholic. Um I had a couple of couple close friends in previous years who were girls wrestlers, and there was never a big enough of a team to actually score, never big enough a team to actually be competitive. And so, to see that we've um earned like I say we because I when I even though

018it's a girls wrestling team, it's still my school, and I'm very proud to see that we earned our very first school victory, and I think that's awesome. And so, some extracurriculars, just some extra things that happened. We had our Pike County Leadership Summit where North students attended a Youth Leadership Summit at the Pike County Commissioner's office. Um it we were able to see um as you can see in the picture, Dylan and I were there. We were able to see um actual Pike County meeting go on with the commissioners, which gave me like flashbacks to when we were in school board meetings, except they were a lot more intense there, and it was very interesting to see um I I I've experienced it with the school board, but never to that extent um with the

019commissioners, and so that was pretty cool. Um, and then they gave us some pizza afterwards, and then we were able to talk to different department leaders in that area and show us some job opportunities. The main idea kind of of this summit was to kind of get youth input on why youth were leaving Pike County because they see that the age is usually just older people in the county. They want to see how they can keep, um, you know, the youth there. And I think that was pretty It was a pretty informative meeting where both sides learned a lot a little behind the scenes on their on our part, and then on their part they learned a little more about the youth and what we were looking for. And then at this meeting, we're very

020happy to announce, um, Ariel Biggs, our 12th grader at North, a friend of mine, has been named PA Youth Commissioner. And, um, Ariel's role is to be a voice for the young people across the Commonwealth. She will collaborate with state partners and community organizations to strengthen youth engagement, service learning, and leadership development. In partnership with PennServe, and Ariel was sworn in on January 10th at Judge Jay Levy's office. Um, and at the and at the leadership summit, she was actually given a She was actually given a certificate, and she was applauded in front of all the other, which was It was just cool to see because even though we are in even though we aren't technically in Pike County, we aren't Our district isn't in Pike County, and so when we were there, everyone was

021mentioning their own Pike County relations or whatever and how they felt about Pike Pike County. And North students couldn't too much relate to that since we don't live in Pike County. Our school's what's in Pike County. And so, um, to see that North was like a North student was the star of that in front of, um, the two other schools in the Pike County. I have to say it was it was an amazing experience, and I really just love the North representation. I think this is just proof that North is great by itself, and North continues to prosper. And I think it's amazing to see what our students can continue doing. Thank you for your time. Have a great night. Okay, thank you, Dylan and Lawrence. We appreciate your enthusiasm. Thank you for the information.

022Thank you. It was a great presentation. Yes. Well done. Now we'll shift to South. Mary Nellis, are you with us? B was not able to attend, but I know that Caitlyn is here. I believe she was >> Caitlyn from representing MCTI? Maybe not. No. Hello. Can you guys hear me? Yes, hi. How are you? Hello. How are you? Good evening, school board members, administrations, and guests. MCTI career and technical students have been busy with their organizations. The following East Stroudsburg students placed at SkillsUSA districts on Wednesday, February 4th. All first place winners will be moving on to states in April. We would like to thank all school board members and administrators that attended the event. So, for job demonstration A, uh, I got third place. Yay! For promotional bulletin board, uh, there was a team,

023and it was Miracle, um, Anduhar, and Renata Barrios, I think. They both got third place. For job interview, it was Janae Tate, and she got second place. For cybersecurity, it was Engelbert Dotel, and he got second place. For prepared speech, it was Nazir Frederick, and he also got second. For cybersecurity, Junior Junior, uh, Yurina Aquino got first place. Information technology service, Liam Enhof got first place. And for technical drafting, Nate Roberts got first place. On February or excuse me, on Friday, February 13th, FFA felt held MCTI semi-formal. Tickets were sold in advance, and we had over 150 students attend. And it was a great success for everyone. February is career and technical education month, and we have several activities planned for the students and staff. That concludes my report. Thank you, Caitlyn. We appreciate the

024information from MCTI, and congratulations on Thank you. Okay, um, we're moving. Speaking of MCTI, our next thing on our agenda is a budget presentation by Dennis Burger and Joel Birch. Are you ready to present for us? We are. Thank you. Welcome. So, do you have my presentation or I can share my screen, either or. I think we're setting it up now. What I see is that >> pulling it up. Sounds good. Um, while while that's being pulled up, I want to thank you, uh, for having us tonight. Joel is on as well, and you know, everybody's uh, upset over the snow. I will tell you if it makes you feel any better, the last time I had to do this, if you want to bring up bad memories, was during COVID. So, uh, could be

025worse than snow. So, so yeah. So, with that said, um, again, thanks for having us. I'll try to be somewhat brief. Uh, first thing I always want to go over, uh, for the new board members and for those of you who may not remember is how we're funded. Um, so as you guys know, uh, we serve the four districts in Monroe County, uh, yourselves, Stroudsburg, Pocono Mountain, and Pleasant Valley. And what we do is we take a four-year rolling average of ADMs, um, and whatever percentage that is is the the portion of the budget that you're responsible for. So, essentially, that's just enrollment. Um, it's just a fancy way of of totaling enrollment. You will notice, uh, East Stroudsburg is that there's there's good with this. To me, it's positive. Um, your share has gone

026up because your enrollment continues to climb tremendously. You guys have had a had a pretty, uh, substantial surge in enrollment at MCTI over the last, um, actually more going back more than five years, over the last eight years or so. So, you can see I put in there for reference only, back in, uh, 2021, you were at 244 students. So, that got replaced by 281. So, you guys are um, just growing. I'll show you that in in more detail. But that that bottom number, so if you look at the budget percentage, the 24.98, that's what you're responsible for, um, for MCTI's total budget. So, if you go to the next slide, I just want to focus on enrollment real quick. Uh, just overall, and you guys know this, we you've heard this, um, our enrollment

027is just, uh, is just out of control in in a good sense. It's over 1,200 students. Um, the bad news and and I know Maggie's aware of this, and it's something that we need to continue to work on, is our wait list is over 600 students. Um, just East Stroudsburg alone, it was somewhere around 170 students, I believe. So, uh, that is a challenge that we're going to have to meet. But overall, it's it's the the biggest growth we've ever seen. Um, if you go back, uh, 15 years ago, it's a 50% increase. Um, and just to give you some perspective, and if you guys didn't hear this at our opening in the fall, uh, we are the 12th largest current tech school, um, in the state. So, there's 85 current tech schools, we're at

02812th largest. So, that's something Monroe County should be very proud of. Um, that that that that we see the importance of of current tech ed and and training our youth for the future. So, in the next slide, it's something that I think I always try to include this, um, and it's to me it's more important is the percentage of 10th through 12th graders that attend MCTI. So, state average in Pennsylvania is just under 12%. Um, of all the 10th through 12th graders who attend a current tech school. Monroe County is approaching 18%. Uh, so we are way above the state average, um, not just enrollment, but also in performance. Our NOCTI scores are always tops of one of the top schools in the state. So, we do very well, not just enrollment, but performance as

029well. So, to me, what that means is there's more and more kids in our county, um, who are are looking at current tech ed as a track, whether it's, you know, going into the workforce or or post-secondary, whatever works for them. Uh, on the next slide, you'll see breaking down by school district. And I want to point out the, uh, you guys at East Stroudsburg at the the first one. Just to show your growth, um, if I looked at 10 years ago, it was actually under 10%. Uh, so you guys are at 16%. So, all your 10th through 12th grade in your entire district, 16% of them come to MCTI. Now, you'll probably see the outliers, Pleasant Valley. Pleasant Valley historically has always had a huge population who comes to MCTI. So, 26% of their

030high school attends MCTI. So, overall, everybody's doing pretty is doing well. Stroudsburg had a little bit of a dip, um, but compared to where they were, they're still Everybody's higher than the state average. You guys will see that you are the second largest school district by percentage, um, who comes to our school. Pocono Mountain's our largest in numbers. They just happen to be the largest district, uh, but you guys send the second most percentage-wise to MCTI. So, kudos to your counselors who, um, I would be remiss to not to mention them. Your counselors both at North and South are top-notch for us. Your administration helps us out. So, it's just a it's a great partnership that we have. So, moving on to the next slide, I'll get into the budget. Our budget is is fairly

031straightforward. Um, so I'll go over what the the outliers are, what the why the expenditures are going up. So, we're looking at a a 3.92% increase, about $416,000 for us. Now, you're not responsible for all of that. I'll I'll go over that in a little bit. The driving factors behind that, um, by far the biggest, so over a third of it, um, is our first responder program. So, we are opening up next year, uh, enrollment has already started, uh, for the first responder program. And what that is, um, it's a combination of They'll get intro to firefighting, they'll get intro to criminal justice, um, and most importantly, their senior year, uh, the goal is for them to leave with their EMT certification. Um, we'll accomplish that by partnering with St. Luke's, um, and Pocono Lehigh

032Valley, so they can get their their ride hours. Uh, but that is the goal. So, that will open next year. And of course, when we add a new program, that is the substantial increase for us. So, that's something that we've been working on. Um and we're excited to start next year. Uh secondly is our is our Laurel Lake. So, for those of you who have not been to our school, I'm pretty sure almost all of you have been. Um if you haven't been recently, please come on up. We have a restaurant, as you guys know. Uh they make very good food. It's cheap. Um and it gives the kids a great experience. One thing I will tell you is we have 100 students in our culinary program and two instructors. And our instructors are top-notch.

033They Not only do they run a restaurant every day, but they have to teach and they cater our events. So, for those of you who were at our grand opening in the fall for the new addition, there's over 400 people there. They made all of that food. Um so, uh you know, the saying when you have good people, you tend to use and abuse them, and that's what we do with our culinary instructors, and they don't complain at all. But I think it's time to get them some help. So, what we want to do is hire a part-time We're We're calling it a Laurel Lake assistant chef. It's basically an instructional assistant, but they will be stationed just in the kitchen to help the kids prep. Um they'll be a season They'll be a season

034chef that the individual will be. Um and it frees up our teachers to kind of help our students across the board. Outside of that is stuff that everybody is seeing. Our health care increase is we're budgeting 10%. Um every school district that we've presented at and every school district that I know of is is dealing with this. Um so, that was an increase for us. And then obviously operational utilities, uh 9% for electric, 20% for oil. So, same thing that everybody else is dealing with. They're really the driving factors um for our our expenditures. So, if you go to the next slide, you can actually skip over this. It's the same thing that you guys see. It's We are predominantly Our budget is predominantly made up of salary and benefits. One thing I I will

035share with you is all of our equipment, our high-price equipment, is not included in the budget. Um we get that through grants. Um cuz if I got a $175,000 truck for diesel, you could see what it does to our budget. So, that's all through grant funding. So, for you guys, uh this is where breaks down uh our budget expense, and I'll go over our our vocational stuff in a second. But because of with your enrollment going up, you can see you guys are slated for a 4.5% increase. Just below you is PV, and you can see their their increase will be there on Thursday. Just because you guys are are uh PV are kind of um running away with with enrollment. So, that's that's a good thing. So, percentage-wise or uh dollar-wise is $106,000. Um

036capital-wise, we're not asking for any money. We are in a really really good spot capital-wise, and I'll show you that real quick. Um if you For those of you who've been around long enough, uh you probably remember me coming and kind of begging for money for our projects cuz we really had no capital funds with whatever. We had no funding mechanism for for capital. Um as you guys are aware of, we don't have We're not allowed to have a fund balance. Uh so, it's uh it was a little bit of a challenge, but we're in much better shape now. So, on the next slide, I will show you just the I tried to explain this as best I can cuz it really gives you a a better idea how much uh the school expenditure-wise is

037for for you. Um so, one thing that's a little unique about MCTI is vocational subsidy. Um every career and tech school receives vocational subsidy from the state. So, when you look at the the the proposed budget at the state level, you'll see a line item for career technical education. The vast majority of it is vocational subsidy. We at MCTI actually take that money. It gets sent to us, and then we redistribute it back to the districts. That's how it's always been done. Um the We're not the only school who does it, but it's typically it's kept at the at the uh CTE. So, uh we give it back. So, just to give you a little bit of a better idea of the total expense, um if you take our uh expense with budgetary reserve, subtract

038vocational subsidy from it, um so you can see it's actually a um $1.9 million. It's about $147,000 expense compared to last year. Now, if you go to the next slide, one thing that I I wanted to show you is up until this year, this is total school districts. So, uh all the four districts. And the expense to the districts for MCTI, you can see since 2021-22, it's actually decreased. And the reason for that, if you remember me saying this last year, the vocational subsidy at the state level was outpacing our budgetary increase. Um which is good news. I mean, it's more money you're going back to the districts. That's based on enrollment. This past year, career and tech ed uh the vocational subsidy was was flat funded. So, there was no increase. Um so, that's

039why you see that spike. So, we're still technically lower than we were in '21-'22. Um so, uh but some This gives you a little history on where we're at. And we can go to the next slide. We'll get into uh our capital, which I I told you earlier we are in really really good shape. So, this is after the addition. So, uh we're still wrapping up the addition and the punchline items and closing out contractors, but this is after that. So, we still have $2.3 million in capital, which for us is tremendous. Um and what's not on there is we received a RACP grant uh after we received uh awarded our project. So, Joel, who is on this Zoom meeting, who is doing tremendous work with all of this, has been working his butt off

040trying to give the state everything they need for the RACP grant. If you guys ever go through that process, it is not a fun process. But that's another million dollars once it's all said and done that uh we can add to that bottom line. So, again, for us to have 2.3 or even 3.3 million dollars is is a tremendous uh improvement compared to where we were about 10 years ago. So, if you go to the next slide, what do we What we're doing with that money and what the game plan is? Um We have The biggest one that we're working on right now is we have a uh a sewage treatment plant that we run, and it's It was built in the '70s. It is a huge liability for us because if it keeps uh

041it's just old. And if anything ever happens to it, then we would have to shut down the school. Um DEP is who we work with, and then they're becoming more and more strict. If you guys have to deal with it at the district, you know it's they they can be very challenging. Um so, the goal is to hook up to public sewer. We are in Pocono Township. Pocono Township is in the process of uh providing public sewer to the school. They're actually going to development behind us. Um so, we did have a feasibility's done uh study done what it would cost us to connect. And not the connection fee with the township, it's what we have to do internally. Um it's about a half million dollars. Half of it is funded through LSA grant, but

042we also are going to be applying for the school facility improvement grant, um which is uh could cover the entire project. So, we I've been fortunate enough where we've had different representatives at school board meetings and they've heard me speak. So, we can get their support, and hopefully we can get that connected um through a grant. Outside of that, we have uh some smaller thing Well, not say smaller, but our parking lot needs some work. We kind of maintain it every year. Some point, it just needs to be repaved. Our lower stairs down to the bottom parking lot needs to be addressed eventually. And the big one is program growth, and that's something that uh uh really we're at the superintendent level. So, So, Dr. Vitali and the other supers who will be at MCTI

043tomorrow, there's some options that we need to look at. And that's how do we How do we address that wait list? It doesn't necessarily have to be another addition at the school. Um whether it's hosting programs at the school districts, it's a possibility. Um Northampton Community College has approached us about using some of their space at Pocono campus. So, there are options out there, and that's really the next big push for us is is how do we tackle that that wait list that we've been dealing with for a few years. So, with that, I'd be happy to answer any questions that anybody has. Okay, thank you, Dennis. Any board members have any questions? Dennis, thank you very much for your uh emergency services addition. I think uh those folks are desperately needed within our area.

044Great. I also want to commend Joel on uh those grants that that he continues to uh produce some money for us, and I appreciate that. And you too, Dennis. Thanks, Keith. Appreciate it. Thank you, Keith. Okay, anything else? Nope. Thanks, guys. Okay, if not, thank you, Dennis. Thank you, Joel. We appreciate it. Thank you. Thank you, gentlemen. Okay, and turn it over to Dr. Vitali for the superintendent's report. Wait. Uh Anthony, I'm not able to share my screen. Uh try now. Oh, all right. You know, I have control issues. I can't have somebody else running my slide deck. There you go. All right, here we go. Um so, I'm going to tag team this with uh Mr. Snyder as he goes over the comprehensive plan. So, tonight we're going to talk about the comprehensive plan,

045the feasibility study updates. I just want to make sure that we're level set on our conversation from earlier this month, and then the surveys are at the end of the uh slide deck just as a reference point. But before we get there, I want to talk about enrollment because at our feasibility study meeting, Jason brought up that the enrollment count matrix report doesn't match the numbers that I'm using. And I'm going to try to talk you through it, and Ann Bauer, I know that she's here, and she is going to correct to me if I miss Q on anything. So, that enrollment count matrix report is really used for child accounting purposes, so there's a lot baked into it that doesn't necessarily mean students who are in front of us. So, it shows us the

046students that we're responsible to educate, not the students that we do educate, which is completely confusing. But, if you think about the students who are we responsible to educate, it includes students who are home educated. It includes students who are at an out of district placement, like BucksMont, not like the IU. So, home educated private tutoring, we're responsible to ensure that they're receiving, but we don't offer them direct instruction. Uh charter school students, so we are responsible to pay their tuition, but we are not offering them direct instruction. So, non-public schools, so again, we have to share federal funds and transport transport them, but we do not offer them direct instruction. So, the report shows who we're responsible for, but not necessarily who has seats in front of us and who we're actually educating. So,

047here's an example. On the right-hand side of the screen, you can kind of see a quick snapshot of South totals. So, the report total that you're seeing is 1,366, but the reality is that I use 1,252. And this is why. If you look at BUX, that's BucksMont Academy, those are students that go to BucksMont for their educational day. They're not in our school for any part of the day. Then, if you look at the EXVT, which is the acronym for ninth grade MCTI, which is a full-day program. Kalahari are students who are educated and have a transitional work experience. They are not on school property, they're at Kalahari. Lehigh Learning Academy, those are students that are placed at Lehigh Learning Academy, obviously, and they are educated there. And then, NA are students who are withdrawn

048and we're just waiting to kind of finalize that paperwork. So, when you look at all of that, you see that there's a decrease in those numbers. Now, not all of that is included because I also take out Esaka students, which is 114 of those students. Because although we offer hybrid programming for Esaka, most of our Esaka students are 100% virtual or they go to Esaka for their program throughout the day. So, when I look at the enrollment count matrix, I'm looking at the number of kiddos we have right now in front of us that we're educating. Those are seats in our current sections. Now, both both reports are correct, right? They both are accountability and enrollment reports. I'm looking at it from classizing class sizes and programmatic changes. I'm not looking at it for the

049grand lens the big lens. Now, the reality is that any of those students can be in and out on a given basis, which is why I look at this and compare the numbers month to month to see where we're trending. So, any questions on the enrollment count matrix of why when I talk to you about class size or numbers, my numbers are going to be different than your enrollment report. We we've talked about how else to kind of slice up the pie to show you, but to me, when you look at the enrollment count matrix, now you know some of those codes that those necessarily aren't students in seats in front of our teachers. Any questions or thoughts on that? Maggie, when I'm looking at the enrollment report, I'm looking at who are our resident

050students. Um not necessarily residents in butt and seat, but residents across our district. I'm charged with ensuring that all students all children that are residents at East Stroudsburg Area School District are educated. So, this this is my big snapshot of where they're being educated and are are we be are we responsible for their um education or at least accounting for their education. Totally. And And I I love the work you do. I just look at it from a different lens. You have to do it for that lens, and that's the report we give to the board, but I just want them to understand why there's a disparity sometimes when we're talking. Board members, any questions? >> And I think this has been go this has been my question for many years is how many students

051do we really have? And I when I'm looking, I'm looking in our buildings because I have to look at it from an operational standpoint as a board member of what our buildings are holding and what our FTEs are and everything else when we built the buildings. And I've always questioned that if I understand Ann's point about having to be responsible for all of our students, but my question has always been couldn't can't we can't we separate them? And And we've done that a little bit now. Thank you for doing that. That's helped a lot because, you know, when I look at numbers of buildings and so forth, at at one point they used to be in there into the buildings themselves, I think, which was we separated them a little better over the years. So,

052I I know that's Yeah, I think that I think that's what it was. Ann's giving me a a look I don't think about, but anyway, that's what I look at. And And I think for the sake of this whole uh the comprehensive study, we have to look at that way. Even though Yeah, we we can absolutely break it up and delineate it more because right now, the enrollment count report that you get, which is kind of what this slide is talking about, really is not necessarily all the students in seats at high school South. It there are a lot less students between the day the ninth grade program at MCTI, you have Esaka, um and then you have other learning environments that students are learning at, not necessarily ever reporting to South. So, but the

053reality is is that those Esaka students can come back. The students from BucksMont can be placed back. It can be an an ebb and a flow. So, I don't know how much we want to pull it back. And listen, I can give you any report, right? Like, I can also include in my Friday briefings my report that I do because I pull this enrollment count matrix report and I do all kinds of slicing and dicing to see how many kids are actually in seats in our schools. So, I can share that with you as a comparison to this enrollment count matrix as well just to give you more information, but I don't want to just give you one piece of it because it's not a good snapshot because as Ann is saying, this is all

054the students that we are responsible for. They're all the residents that we are responsible for their education. And And I don't think there's any reason to do that on a regular basis, but in a case like this when we're talking about a comprehensive plan and and re rezoning districting buildings and so forth, we really have to know those numbers in this case. Yep, absolutely. So, I just I I just wanted to make sure we called that out. Any other questions or feedback? I just want to ask real quick. Um again, thank you for breaking that down and and really specifying and especially with the the even smaller sub units on that. When you were saying that these are the kids that we're accountable for, does the the the 1366 include the number of kids in

055the seat, which your report is 1252, plus the other students that can potentially come back that we have, which you have listed here, which brings us to the 1366? In the accountability portion of that, do where do we take into account um high school South or high school North uh charter students? That should be on a separate report that you receive. We've actually pulled that out. So, since I've been here, >> So, we have that, but is that counted into the number of students in your report or the total report or it would that be added to the total report? Would be added to the total report. Yep, it would be added to that 1366. Right. So, theoretically, in the greatest of of situations, all of those charter school kids come back to our brick-and-mortar

056school, then we would have a we would have a different number for your report and the total report. Correct? >> Absolutely. Okay. Yes, perfect. Thank you. Yep. Any other questions on this? Okay. All right, Mr. Snyder, you are up. Tell me when to click slides. All right. Thank you very much. Um this is an exciting night. Um last year when you all uh had your faith in me and hired me, um one of the first things that Dr. Vitali told me was that I would be in charge of the comprehensive plan this year. And for those of you that have heard the story, I apologize for telling it again, but I've gone through 26 years of education and have successfully avoided being part of a comprehensive plan committee for all of those 26 years until

057this past year. Um this is honestly been a great experience, and I'm really proud of the work that everyone did for me to be able to be here tonight to present this to you. If you go to the next slide, please. So, this is not work that was done by me in isolation. This is work that was done by a comprehensive steering committee that included building and district administrators, teachers, support staff, school board members, community members, parents, and most importantly students. Next slide, please. And what we did is, as you know from when you approved our mission and our vision statements, um we started with the mission and the vision. So, maximizing today's potential for tomorrow's success. That was our focus. That was our North Star as we created this plan. And then working through

058the mission statement and knowing how we were going to meet each of our goals that we identified in the plan. So, we started off by looking at our educational values, the values of our students, our staff, our administration, our parents, and our community in relationship to the mission and vision statements. And we worked these up and brought them to the committee, and then we really discussed if we were hitting the mark with values and what the values were in relationship to our mission and our vision. And then we went through and we did a needs assessment. So, in terms of data, we looked at our Future Ready PA Index, and then we identified two strengths and two challenges for our district. So, as we went through, we were rather critical about where we are as

059a district. So, our strengths are college and career measures where we have strong college and career readiness through both of our high schools, as well as the academic growth expectations in ELA and literature. Now, this is growth. This is not achievement overall. When we looked at our challenges, our challenges were growth expectations in mathematics and Algebra 1, as well as our percent of proficient and advanced students in English language arts or literature. So, then we looked at additional strengths and challenges. So, then the team reviewed our related academics, equity considerations, our designated schools, our supplemental plans, and our conditions for leadership, teaching, and learning to identify additional strengths and challenges. And additional challenges that we found were in the recognition, appreciation, and acceptance of individual and cultural differences while striving to develop a global perspective,

060as well as an effective foundation to be established within the academic, career, and personal social development to promote success in all areas. So, our two main focuses of challenges are two So, we we looked at all of those challenges, and then we really had to drill in to identify two that we're going to make our focus for the next 3 years in terms of our academic and overall programming in our district. So, we focused on two specific challenges. The first is to support schools in implementing evidence-based instructional strategies and programs to ensure all students have access to rigorous, standards-aligned instruction. And the second is the recognition, recognition, appreciation, and acceptance of individual and cultural differences while striving to develop a global perspective. So, now we had to set goals. So, the first goal that we

061set was to in the area of focusing on that continuous improvement of instruction. And our goal for that area is that by June of 2029, the district will demonstrate measurable improvement in instructional effectiveness as evidence by professional evaluation data, classroom observation trends, and educator self-assessments reflecting growth in the use of high-impact teaching strategies. Now, a goal without a plan is a dream. So, we set forth a plan. What we're going to do is partner with the Ongoing Assessment Project, or OGAP. What OGAP does is it works with our teachers of mathematics, and it gives them additional strategies that they can use within our curriculum and our programs. This is not another program. It's a professional development plan. It includes four intensive days of hands-on college-level instruction in regard to teaching of mathematics for elementary and

062middle-level math teachers. What led us here is both Dr. Vitali and I did use this in previous districts, and we saw great results. Furthermore, a former colleague of mine had done her doctoral research on pre-service mathematics instruction for our elementary teachers, and came to the conclusion that many of our elementary school teachers have very little formal training in the instruction of mathematics. OGAP will correct that. So, it will give them four collegiate-level intensive days of instruction as well as 56 coaching days that people from OGAP will come in and go shoulder to shoulder with our teachers and help them with formative assessments so that they can reach our children where they're at and get them to higher levels than we ever thought that we could achieve. On to our second goal in regard to social

063and emotional learning. Our goal is that by 2029, the district will show measurable growth and consistency in the quality of SEL implementation as evidence by staff surveys, walk-through data, and improvements in school climate indicators. So, what we said is if our children and our students don't feel as if they are a part of our schools, their learning is going to be hampered. So, what we're looking to do is to embed the Castle standards purposefully into our teaching. So, we're going to collaborate with Resonance Education to provide ongoing professional development to embed social and emotional learning into the everyday practice of all teachers in the district. Again, this is professional development. This is working with our teachers. This is not a program. Our teachers do this. Our teachers teach our children how to work together. How

064to be a good human being and to be a productive member of our school community. What this is going to do is make it purposeful that all the teachers are using the same language, and they're letting their students know when these teachable moments are happening. How to work in groups together properly. They're going to let their students know that we're going to talk about group work before we start with group work, and then they're going to teach them to be a good community and have productive discourse in conversations in their classrooms. So, we are on a social studies rewrite next year, and we are going to have the people from Resonance coming in to work with our social studies teachers as they rewrite their curriculum and specifically and purposefully embed these Castle standards What about

065test scores? So, you saw in a challenge I mentioned that our level of proficiency and advancement in ELA and mathematics, but none of my goals said anything about test scores. Well, I look to our mission and our vision. These are our guiding principles. The impact of student safety and the sense of belonging, combined with best practices in in instruction, will cause our scores to rise. We'll be doing the right things, and the tests will take care of themselves. Does anyone have any questions for me? Any questions from any of the board members? I do want to commend Andy. I was part of the uh steering committee, and this was um really an outstanding process, and you can see by tonight the goals, the challenges, the strengths, and the plan presented, I think are really going

066to move us forward. So, um you know, congratulations to Andy, and the committee was really an excellent experience. And to echo that, so Andy alluded to it, doing a comprehensive plan in most school districts is just something that you you go through the process, you check a box, it has to be done every 3 years. You do it, you don't necessarily do it with fidelity, you put it on the shelf, and you walk away from it. That is not how Andy and the curriculum team took it. They really took it as let this be entrenched in our district. Let's make sure that it is impactful and intentional and strategic. Make sure that it's not overwhelming and that we're investing in the people that we serve and making a really big difference in supporting our educators

067so they can then support the students that they serve. So, honestly Andy, this is this is really well done. So, thank you. Yeah, just echo that. I've been on many committees in the past and this was by far the best plan presented I think in in a while. And I appreciate that because you actually not only did did you research it but you're actually, you know, laying it out specifically and I really I like to see that and I think we're going to see some potential in the future success, you know, through with this. Thanks Andy and everyone involved. Anything else before we move on? All right, thanks Andy. All right, feasibility study updates. So, what I wanted to do here was just summarize what we spoke about in our last work session just to

068make sure cuz there was a lot of conversation that we're all in agreement with where we're moving forward. So, the original Why is it doing that? The original options as we saw them, A, B, C, and D, from our conversation I've kind of struck out um any consolidation of schools, grade span realignment, and right now the creation of a magnet school. So, out of our options we're really status quo with regularly scheduled maintenance, possibly redistricting, and possibly redistricting elementary or all school boundaries, and then renovation or construction of Jam Hill. Um RLPS, one of the things that we really liked about RLPS was their Moscow approach. So, it's must have, should have, could have, won't have. Based on the conversations I just want to make sure that like I kind of understand what we're talking

069about. We believe we must have an alignment of elementary school boundaries to meet high school boundaries, that we should provide consistent secure entries at all buildings, right-size capacity in each elementary school, and create equity in educational programming at all grade levels. Do we all agree that that is a must have? I I after the last work session, I don't think that is all one must have. Okay, tell me what you In fact, I don't I don't remember us like crossing anything off. I don't we we I just want to be clear. We didn't other than what we talked about that meeting and we didn't take any vote there to strike anything. I mean, I'm I'm concerned that we struck things on this thing before the public actually hears us talking about them because we didn't

070really agree to striking things with in a vote. That's what I'm concerned with that. But But I But I know after hearing to if you answer your question, after hearing some of the comments, aligning the elementary schools with the high school boundaries, after hearing some of the comments of the parents, I don't think that was an official determination. I thought we said let's talk to the students at the elementary schools and see if it is a concern to them if whether they go north or south. I don't think we decided that. I think we we we provided a direction to let's look at you know, cuz as as I was one of those big I'm a big proponent originally of let's realign the element, you know, with Resica going north or south. But after hearing

071some of the parents talk at the different uh uh uh presentations, maybe that's not a concern and that's why I think I mentioned that at the last board session to say maybe we should talk to the students and the families to see if that's something that that they're concerned with. Right. I I agree. I think that that was not a must have at all. That's That's why I'm doing this. It is to There were a lot of conversations at some points there were some conversations going on at the same time. So, the purpose of this is really just to make sure I understand what I'm looking at to move forward. And And as you're looking at the must have, right-size capacity in each elementary, I think we agreed that necessarily how can we do that

072in the situation we're in with development and everything else? We can't physically right-size every elementary school. That would far near impossible. Right. I mean, and equity is very important. And and and safety in every building, that's a must, you know, the entries must be safe. That's my opinion. Anyone else I'm sorry, I'm I'm taking over the conversation. Anyone else step back. But I'm probably more inclined to with equity in educational programs at all grade levels. If you don't right-size in some way, you're going to find it very difficult to have equity. So, I think they have to be married in some way. I don't think we I they have to be involved in that discussion because that's part of the problem um especially north and south we're having when we have a 500 different capacity

073or not capacity but enrollment. Um so, I think that has to be explored, you know, obviously there's ways to do that. Mike, I think that as long as we have the opportunity for students to uh be able to take various classes, we can come up with different ways that can happen. Oh, yeah. But I don't know that means we have to move people or we offer them the opportunity to be able to take classes somewhere and then return to their home school somehow. Let me Can I ask a clarifying question? Under our must haves, and this goes back to what Keith and Debbie both said and I agree. I guess in the must have box, I'm thinking those are the things we talked about um be you being re- researching them further so that yes,

074we agree that we have to have equity, but as Deb just says, what will that equ- how will we come about that equity is something we're going to research. Whether it is indeed aligning schools, whether it is indeed moving a line, or whether it's indeed moving students, or offering the courses in some other fashion. Um that's in my mind that's what I was thinking when we when we're talking about those must haves that I mean, there's no doubt that's why we're here to make sure everyone every student has equal opportunity and and there's equity in in everything that we do for our students. And so, it's just a matter of how we're going to get there because I think the feasibility study showed us because of change in enrollment and you know, other things that

075you know, there's a point now that we're getting to we might not be able to offer things um the same or at least in the same fashion. And so, therefore that's what needs to be explored so that we can keep equity. At least that was my understanding as we were moving forward. And if I could say something about the realignment of elementary schools, it's a very tough conversation to have and I really think it it affects different families differently. For example, you may be a student at Resica and have your best friend go with you to north or with you to south. But you may be a student at Resica who your best friend that you've sat next to since kindergarten is now going to south and you're going to north. So, each family is

076going to be impacted differently by that. And we can't predict how it's going to impact each family. I know going through it as a parent and I know Rich went through it as a parent where and our children went to different schools. They were friends in elementary school. They probably don't talk now because they went to separate schools. You know, a lot of my my daughter's friends and I'm sure it's the same for Rich, some of their friends that they made from kindergarten, they don't they're not really friends with as much anymore because they went to different schools. Could have been their best friend? Yeah, probably. But it's not I know my daughter's best friend from elementary school went to south. They didn't start talking again until COVID because it didn't matter where they were

077and they were bored. So, they played, you know, computer games. But had it not been for that, they probably would not have reconnected. So, it's it's you can't predict how it's going to affect a kid and parents can't predict how it's going to affect their children either unless they really have that conversation, hey, you know, Rebecca, your your best friend Mike is going to be going to south, you're going to be going to north. How do How do you feel about that? And if they can't, you know, so it And that could be the one person that they have. I I think an alternate way of looking at it though is you know, is that your best friend from kindergarten to fifth grade might have go might go with you to high school north or

078high school south. But then you find a whole new group of people anyway, you know, so >> And so, you know, three more three more schools with you at the next level. Correct. Yeah. And these are all great questions and things that we have to explore with more fidelity with the community. Right. But my point is does it To say it's in the must have, I mean, we should have we could have it, but that's the by labeling it a must have, my question is I confuse it with that. That's all. What would you think Keith needs to be in the must have. Okay. >> What is a must have to you as a board member? Oh, now you're putting me on the spot. Safety. Safety is important. >> Well, safety is the most I

079think I think I made it very clear the safety of our schools and and entryways all being the same are are a must. That is a must. Definitely. I'm going to add in opportunities for equity. Which I think goes to what Ann said. We can be much more creative today than in years past. And that goes for sports, that goes for educational programming. There's a lot of things that can happen in different ways. I was going to just say that I kind of thought of it the way that Ann thinks of it. Like in the must have category or even should have, that these are things that our superintendent is going to take a deeper dive into and get and so that we can start looking at all the what this is going to look

080like. It doesn't mean that we voted on it, it just means that we want to take a deeper dive into this so we can get more information. I mean, I think we all agree we know we need to be safe, we definitely need equity, but we do need to look at the alignment because at the end of the day North has less students, they're not going to be we don't see that that's changing anytime soon and the programming there is not as robust in some areas as it is at South. And so we have to look at if there's a way to align things so that we can we can see if we can make a shift in that. So just looking at it and getting more information about it doesn't mean that you know,

081that's we're just trying to get more information about it. Am I right in understanding that? >> That that is your assessment. So let me let me go to the next one. So because I think we're getting stuck in in some of the semantics. So moving forward, I believe the directives I've gotten and the direction I'm going in is that we want to investigate boundary lines to possibly redistrict all six elementary schools. And I need to say it out loud, it doesn't mean we're going to do it. But if we decrease JM Hill's enrollment, we wouldn't need a large-scale renovation because to me I don't like the basement for our students. So if we don't need to use the basement for classes because we have a smaller population at JM Hill, we wouldn't need to invest

082in an addition or any of the other kind of possible renovations to delete or kind of omit that basement space from our instructional learning space. So to me the board said investigate boundaries for six elementary schools. Not change boundaries, but investigate. And part of that investigation is running bus routes, drawing new maps, showing what that looks like, presenting it to the board, but also having conversations with families because Mr. Schlemmer said during a meeting, do do parents even care? Um it was definitely misconstrued in some emails that I've received from some families. It's not that parents don't care, it was is this actually a problem we're trying to solve? I say this all the time, what problem are we trying to solve? Is it actually a problem? Perhaps the families at Resica aren't or Middle

083Smith Hills aren't remotely concerned that some students go north and some students go south. It actually might not be a problem for the masses. So part of that investigation of the boundary lines will be talking to those families and understanding. The next part of this was do we look and investigate boundaries for redistricting the district as a whole to add equity in programming so that I don't have a class size with two and a class size of 24 or 25 at South. Um again, it doesn't mean that we're redoing it or we're making it happen, it means we're going to investigate it. I'm going to present you with all the information and then you as a board are going to vote. So that's short-term. So my tasks for my what I understand them is that

084we want maps for both redistricting options, redistricting just elementary schools and redistricting K to 12. We want enrollment numbers for both of those options of what enrollment would look like including class size. We would want to know what the transportation routes are for both. So what is our longest run going to be, what is our average run and what is our shortest run? So are we putting buses students on buses for longer amounts of time? I feel like that is an important fact that you would need to know. I will work on getting all of this pro- it's probably going to take six months. It does it's not a quick turnaround time to build new routes and redistrict. So I would present this probably fall of next year and then you as a board will

085deliberate and discuss it more and this will not go into place until 27-28. Is that I also think you need to figure out how those kids who would like to be in MCTI classes can have some opportunity and how we can help eliminate the wait list for those kids. We if we have open space, we have availability to be able to be creative in that respect. I heard Dennis say that earlier. So we may be an offsite satellite campus for classes that can be moved to some place like the North where students would know that they were going to travel that far just like they traveled to MCTI. So I I'm not sure what I know Dennis said he's looking at Northampton Community College as a satellite. He said the words districts or looking at

086Northampton and we know what the cost of Northampton can be. So I'm just saying that that's a potential option. So that would be so I mean I sat with Dennis and offered some options for that and it didn't seem viable. I'll continue that conversation but it might be us building our own NAHTI programs for depending on what program students are not getting access to, but that doesn't take like I don't know if we could roll that off for 27-28 because that's a pretty big expense of buying equipment, building programs and writing curriculum. I'm not saying no, I'm saying that would be kind of on my long-term list. I'm saying that they've they've already developed the wheel so it might be a satellite. Just an option but I would like to see us I know there

087are students who have said families who have said their students are shut out from there. So that's an equity item. Yeah, it's a huge concern. I completely agree. I'll have to talk to Dennis about what he was specifically talking about because I've spoken to him about satellite and and there were a lot of barriers that didn't seem appealing there. So I'm going to have to revisit that because I thought it was a no in multiple conversations with him. So I will revisit that. So long-term begin to investigate academy programs for high school students, decide what academies and maybe it is a CTC programming that we build our own NAHTI programs or that we create satellite programs, establish a timeline and deployment of that. And then once we decide on that, so we've talked a lot

088about academies, we've talked a lot about what pathway. We haven't talked specifically where we want to start, so I would really like kind of for EPR to give us a good direction on that and to start to have really in-depth conversations about that and then we will start to develop those programs for those academies. And then obviously always ongoing maintenance of all of our schools and then consideration for renovations for JM Hill. I I would like to I would like to offer a suggestion, maybe we need to look at that taking that last statement of consideration renovations JM Hill and moving up to more short-term, not long-term because that's going to affect a lot of the other solutions that you have in this situation, I think, in the short-term. So short-term to me is is

089six months, long-term to me is a more in-depth process. So we can start the conversations of what happens with JM Hill, but it we're not starting a renovation project even in 27-28 because there there would be a lot of work to do. So yes, I'm good with moving it and starting that conversation. Um we're going to need a roof on it sooner than later. So that will probably become before PNF within the next few months. We're going to put that out to bid. Um that that is a project that needs to be done. But beyond that, it really would be a discussion of because the building is intact, right? And students are being educated there, the roof is is a necessity. Boiler isn't due I think for five or six years. So it would be

090what what does the board want to do versus what can we afford and and how much more debt can we take out? >> Okay, well I that I thought that that clarifies a little bit. I thought you're not going to talk about anything with J.M. Hill. Oh gosh, no, no, no. We need a roof. Yep, And we need certain we need to do certain things to J.M. Hill presently to keep it up to date and keep it going. Okay, that Okay, that's what I was concerned with that we were just going to let that go cuz even if we decide to renovate in any way, it's not going to it's going to be a one-year plus project just even develop the plan to renovate. That's why I say don't put off too long cuz then

091you're talking a three-year project. I think to me long long-term meant does didn't mean that we're tabling it and going to discuss it in a few years. It meant that we wouldn't have it finalized by October of next year. >> This is Maggie Vitali long-term. I get it. I get it. Thank you. Uh so, basically I I just want us fact-check. My understanding was that all six buildings elementary schools will remain open. J.M. Hill will not be closed. There will be no consolidation for intermediate and high schools and we may redistrict boundaries either at the elementary or at the district level. We may. Doesn't mean we are. It means we're going to investigate it. Um I I I feel that I I need to offer these reminders because we we've had some people make some

092comments and I just I want to make sure that we're clear that our schools, all of them, have a different culture and that's what makes it a wonderful community. When our families came out about J.M. Hill and they talked about the culture and the climate there, that's what makes our community a community. But all of them have their own feeling and their own kind of culture, but it doesn't mean that one is better than another. I I really want to caution us that when we say we don't want to go to one school over another, it it really almost is an indirect statement that the other school isn't as good or that the other school isn't as positive with the programming or positive as the culture or positive with the students. Um Now, some people

093have not been indirect. Some people have been pretty direct of what they feel about other schools. And I just want to be clear all 10 of our schools in Asaka are wonderful learning environments and any student would be and should be proud to attend them. Each of our schools is full of engaged learners, dedicated faculty and staff, and incredibly impactful programming. And again, we see enrollment in any of our schools as a great opportunity for learning. I I don't want us to say if we separate Resica and it all goes north and it no longer goes north and south that that's a horrible thing to happen to the students at Resica because they would be so fortunate to be north students and so fortunate to be south students. We can't say that one school is

094better than the other. I just want to be really clear. There's there's no competition. They're all different, but they're all amazing. Any thoughts on that? Okay. So, what's next? March 16th board meeting, I will give an update on goals. I should have done it a little earlier, but we had a lot of other things we were talking about. Um the bell time study, that is still out there. So, Damaris is running routes right now and she's going to come back with information and I'll present what that would look like, what the routes would be, and more details on that so we can make a decision for our times for next school year. April 20th, we'll see where our conversations need to go. I don't have anything slated for there, but May and June will be

095the budget. I I do think that the board as a whole should start talking about the budget in April. So, Matt and I might bring you some budget information. Now, the rest of the presentation, which I'm not going to go through because I feel that we really our work session gave us a really good pulse of where you sat as a board, but the rest of the entire presentation, which is like another 20-some slides, is the survey data. So, my hope is that you as a board and the public have some time to go over the survey responses and understand how our community felt about the feasibility study, about the five options, and that we really use that to move us forward. Even though I'm not specifically presenting on it, it was something that that

096we actively reviewed internally with my team and and we better understand how our community feels. Any questions, thoughts, or concerns? No. Okay, thank you, Dr. Tali. Appreciate it. Okay, we're going to move on to our committee reports, MCTI, Jason. All right. Make sure I'm not on mute. Yeah, all good. Oh, where'd it go? I lost it. All right, one second. Sorry. There. Sorry. All right. The uh MCTI JOC met February 2nd and we heard a series of department updates including uh the student representative report from Ms. Capers. Uh we also heard heard uh Dr. Vargas uh director's report this evening, which also included the MCTI budget, which was the same that we heard this evening. Um that was followed up by administrative uh updates. In financial matters, the board moved to approve all current invoices

097and investments. Board officially authorized the distribution of the proposed 2026-2027 MCTI uh general operating budgets to all ascending districts for our consideration and adoptment. For adoption, excuse me. Several key operational legal agreements were approved including a legal services contract with Raffaele Papileo and a three-year service agreement with Dual Temp for $17,000. The board also passed resolutions that were necessary to move forward with the redevelopment assistant uh capital program grant for MCTI uh that Mr. Berger mentioned earlier this evening. And we also applied for the public school uh facility improvement grant. Additionally, we also sold off uh lease agreement or sell off off-lease HP uh Elite computers uh with authorized price set points. Uh we approved several upcoming field trips. Uh this includes for the health professionals a visit to the Northampton Community Nursing Lab. The

098ProStart culinary competition in Hershey and the culinary food tour in New York City scheduled for April. And finally, the board addressed several personnel concerns, which included the acceptance of resignations resignation uh from our academic math instructor, uh Martin Wilson, and the precision machining uh James Gat Garrigan. Granahan, excuse me. Both effective at the end of June 2026. We also approved a new appointment of Jennifer Gable for our new drafting and design instructor. Our next board Our next JOC meeting will be held March 2nd at 7:00 p.m. Thank you. Okay, thank you, Jason. Next is um IU 20, which will be me. Our meeting was held on January 28th. Uh some of the um items that were reviewed were the contracts for service including regional math professional learning with CLIU 21. Uh some safety and security

099software, facility cleaning contract amendments. Uh there was a printing um agreement with Easton Area School District. Compensatory speech therapy services to address vacancies. Uh elevator replacement at the main office. Expanded contract student services due to some vacancies. Transportation radio services and a long-term support to the CPE trapper tracker application, which is the computer program um application. Also during the meeting, we uh had students who were part of the Future Educators Initiative that CIU 20 is doing with Pocono Mountain. Um it's a great program in pretty much uh giving students information from Pocono Mountain about special education careers and we know there's a great demand for uh special ed teachers including those other careers that sometimes students don't even know about like physical therapy, occupational therapy, speech. And this initiative is building on that. So, at

100the meeting, we were able to hear reflections from students who participated in the program and the things they've learned, which is really uh very gratifying to hear and to hear uh some of the students who really are thinking of making commitments in the special education area. Um some good news, one of the teachers from IU 20, Glenn Walkorn, was invited by the CEO of Special Olympics to present at the Sports Development National Conference, um which is an exciting thing to have someone from CIU 20 part of that. Uh the Nazareth Area Chamber of Commerce newsletter recognized the Cafe 71, which is the cafe that is run by the IU 20 students, the life skills students. Uh we have similar ones here in our district and it was really good to see Nazareth Chamber of Commerce

101actually recognizing them in their newsletter. Uh, we also celebrated school board recognition month and we were appreciative of the executive director highlighting all the contributions. Um, budget information will be coming much like we heard from MCTI. IU20 will be shortly visiting us to give us some information about the operating budget. And then the last two good news items, uh, there was a special Valentine's dance that was held for IU20 students at Colonial Academy. It was great. We saw a lot of pictures from that. I would suggest you visit the IU20 website, um, if you really need a boost in your your mood just to see the students having a great time at the, uh, dance there for Valentine's Day. And even though the Olympics were over this month and there was an Olympics going on

102in Italy, the Special Olympics Winter Games were held and IU20 participated in snowshoeing, uh, snowboarding and skiing and that was held at the Seven Springs Resort and they always do a remarkable job and I'm I'm telling you I continue to be impressed by the staff, uh, the executive director and all the things they do for the students because, um, it it the enthusiasm generated was probably rivaled the Olympics over in Milan. So, uh, that was, uh, a lot of good news information and all the pictures are on the IU20 website if you ever want to take a look at any of that. And that's my report, um, properties and facilities. Rich. Good evening. Uh, properties and facilities committee meeting was held on February 11th at 5:30. We had discussion I had discussions around these items.

103One is the trained comprehensive facility assessment potential upgrades. You'll see something in your uh, in our board packet that's later on in our conversation that we'll be talking about. Um, we also had a discussion about the Smithfield boiler replacement, the JTL boiler and, um, water heater replacements. We had a conversation to defer, uh, re- maintenance on the north campus storm well, really the parking lots in front of the schools right there as you come in. Um, we felt that that's not quite ready to be replaced at this point and being that we have some pretty budgetary issues to deal with, we we felt we can push that one 1 year down the road. We also had a very, um, robust conversation about the north bus garage driver lounge and we have some recommendations that came

104out of that. Uh, and we also agreed that we should make take a look at the ESE sprinkler project, see if there's a rescoping that we can do to bring that more in line with where our budget is. Uh, we are asking for some recommendations to give the board. Uh, one is going to be the South Field House we for a pay app for $2,218 for Scranton Electric Heating and Cooling. Um, the high school north natatorium has three pay apps. Um, one for 70,262 for Mon Roof, uh, Mon Roofing. Another two to Mon Roofing is pay app uh, for $36,273.60 and the final one the final closeout was 11,206. Uh, and then there's two other items one both were Albert Electric for the high school north generator one for $102,829.50 and the other one for

105$11,425.50 or so. Again, for high school north for the generator. Finally, there was one change order for Mon Roofing for the high school north natatorium and that was for $69,872.50 as an increase. So, that's my report for the properties and facilities committee. Good. Thank you, Rich. And move on to educational programs and resources. Ann. The EPR committee met on Thursday, February 12th at 5:30 p.m. I would like to begin with a thank you to Ms. Blades, Winkler and Martin from ESE for their presentation on kindergarten structured play and its impact on our students' social emotional learning as well as a thank you to Ms. Osborne, Ms. English and Ms. Pierce from Bushkill Elementary for their presentations on automaticity with addition and subtraction in grade one and high quality read alouds that model fluent reading and

106comprehension strategies in grade four. The teacher and student presentations are always the highlight of our EPR meetings because this is when we truly get to see what is happening in our classrooms. So, thanks again to all those teachers for coming out that night and presenting to us. I would also just like to make an important note that Dr. Pyle has really given autonomy back to our teachers as part as the SPM process, student performance measure process because really all of the things that are going on in these classrooms that they're showing to us are part, um, of this overall, uh, learning and end process for our teachers. Um, that evening we also gave a warm welcome to Kristen Long as our new director of curriculum and programs. She reported on our spelling bee competitions throughout

107the district and we would like to offer our congratulations to our winners and best of luck to them as they move on to the next round. Mr. Snyder presented our comprehensive plan as you all heard this evening, so I'm not going to go into all the details of that and the programs that are part of that. Um, but I didn't really comment on it, you know, when, um, you know, we had questions and time to do that cuz I knew it was going to be part of my, um, report and I wanted to say that, you know, kind of really reiterating both, um, Michael and Dr. Vitali that having been on this committee and having been on other committees, I was really, uh, amazed at Mr. Snyder that he was allowed to escape for 26

108years in education. I obviously was not able to do that, so he's a better person than I, but his report is, I mean, and the whole committee, um, really definitely beyond what we normally see in the scope of a comprehensive report and it's something that is tangible, you know, doable and that's what really makes it unique where sometimes they're, you know, either pie in the sky or just these very, uh, you know, vague, um, uh, ideas and percentages and and so forth. And to be so aligned with our, um, mission statement and our goals, I think is really what is is so important. Um, you know, they're realistic, they're usable and being consistent, um, with our mission goals is really what it's all about. So, as a result, obviously this is coming before us this

109evening. The EPR committee is advising for its recommendation, um, this evening. Uh, Mr. Snyder also spoke to the elementary change to trimesters for our grading periods. Um, and then Ms. Polmounter gave updates on the course plans for science, ELL and the future educators cohort and also an update on the English curriculum and potential book list. Just a reminder to everyone that, um, particularly as we are moving through curriculum, that if you're, you know, not coming to the EPR, that's fine, obviously, but just every now and then give a check when the agenda comes out to click on the curriculum if you want to see them, okay? Because as we're going through with them, everything is given, um, just as we have on our our board meetings this evening, same same principle. Um, and lastly, of

110course, as I always say, it's really just exciting, uh, to see our district moving forward in this cohesive planned and deliberate path. Um, so, thanks to everyone and everyone in the curriculum, uh, department. Our next meeting is on Thursday, March 5th at 5:30 both here, well, here and we're not here. We're on Zoom, but there and you're on Zoom. All are welcome and encouraged to attend. Thank you. Okay. Thank you, Ann. And next is finance. Rebecca. Okay. So, the finance committee, we met So, when did we meet? I don't remember. It seems like forever ago. On February 9th and we had a very robust meeting. We had a preliminary budget draft that we got to see and more to come on that. Then we had discussions around some buses that, um, are on the market

111that we are selling and up for auction, so we talked about that. And we had our power ad partnership agreement that we're looking at which is for our scoreboards on the north and south turf fields and looking at a partnership to begin to sell ads for those and we had a tax equity supplement resolution which you'll see on there and you'll also see on there a renewal of our Zonar contract which is how our buses plan out their routes and also track students on the buses. You'll also see the CHA invoices that, uh, Rich spoke about through properties and facilities. You'll also see on the agenda our Lenovo Chromebooks for our students and we do buy them every year for different grades to replace them. And also you'll see on the agenda our staff Chromebooks

112that are due for replacement as as well. And then we also had our capital payment summary. And our next meeting is on March 9th both in the boardroom and via Zoom. Okay, thank you Rebecca. And last but never least, uh we have policy and that would be Keith. Keith? Okay. Sorry, I forgot to unmute myself. Let me redo that. >> there you are. I'm here. I was talking and no one was looking at me. All right, well, here it is. Uh policy had a great meeting tonight. If you weren't on, you missed it. We talked about a lot since we didn't have a meeting last uh last month. We had to push it all into one meeting. Um we are bringing the policy we are bringing the uh let me get the we're bringing the

113following policies to the I'm I'm just read the read. We made a motion to authorize and direct the administration to post the following items which are policy 204 attendance, policy 218.1 weapons, policy 805.1 relations with law enforcement agencies, policy 805.2 school security personnel, policy 140.1 uh extracurricular participation by charter cyber charter and private school students, uh policy 702.1 commercial sponsorship and advertising, uh policy 709 building security, uh policy 916 school volunteers. Um and just for reference sake for some of the board members and community out there, a lot of these policies we uh went and restructured some of the wording to go along with the with the new uh school budget and the new school code that came out with the budget. Uh several things that we had to look at. Um so those are

114just clarifying some words. Uh we did spend some time on some vol a school volunteers which um which was a good discussion. And then we also started discussing uh policy 707 it was we're just for uh talking about it uh which is use of facilities. We're looking at um we're looking at how we um looking at our policy in general and how much we're charging and so forth for different facilities and looking at trying to line that uh with budget. Uh we're asking uh those noted revisions for public review during the month of February and subsequent board action in the month of March. We will meet on March 16th uh in person hopefully and as well as on uh YouTube and uh for the public to view. Uh that's it for us. Okay, thank you

115Keith. We now move into public participation and remind anyone uh who will be commenting the comments uh should be for items on this agenda by residents and taxpayers of the school district with a limit of 3 minutes for the comments. Do we have anyone for public participation? Did they just raise their hand? Oh, there's a hand up. I see one hand up. Okay. Looks like it's Danielle McCormick. Hi, yes, Danielle McCormick here. Can you hear me? Yes, we can Danielle. Go ahead. Okay, thank you. I am Danielle McCormick, an East Stroudsburg South alumni and PTO co-president at Resica Elementary. I'm here to voice my concerns about redrawing the boundary lines as put forward in the feasibility study. To my understanding at the work session meeting, the board would like to see more students pushed to

116the North Campus for secondary education in an effort to even out enrollment numbers and inequality. Resica families do care where their children attend school after leaving Resica and I can tell you that many of us do not want to see our children going to the North Campus, especially families who are currently designated for South. I have spoken to many parents over the last few weeks and we are in agreement that we do not want to see the lines moved in favor of more kids at Resica ending up at North for their secondary education. Um I have even talked with parents who are district for North and currently go to Bushkill that plan to find alternative schooling or even move altogether to avoid going North. Um I am not concerned with the question of separating Resica

117friendships. Life is not a Hallmark movie where you're best friends with the same person since kindergarten. I have made and lost friendships in every grade of school and even as an adult. This is something that's part of life, learning how to navigate friendships in every way. Transportation in my opinion is horrendous and needs to be fixed before anything else can happen. I live 3 minutes from the school and the amount of times that the bus is delayed over 30 to 40 minutes is outrageous. Um I already have a hard time getting my kid home from school and then fed and dressed before sports and activities. Um we would never be able to get anywhere on time if they're coming from a campus that's over 35 minutes away from my home. Even for the last 4

118years we did participate in BYA sports and their community. This past fall we had to finally say goodbye and move our activities to organizations that are in town. They are closer to my house and the programs are better with more opportunities. I'm here to advocate for my children and my family. I'm invested in their education and well-being. In our family planning when purchasing our home, we did consider the schools and their distances. North is not in my family plan and I will seek other education options be it cyber charter or homeschooling for my children. You the board have directly stated to us that there is inequality between the campuses and I want to remind you that every family is entitled to their opinion on how they feel about each school and its programming. So please

119do not diminish our thoughts, feelings and voices on this matter after telling us that inequality exists. That's all I have. Thank you. Okay, thank you Danielle. Do we have any other uh public input? I have Kristen Will Willis if I can read that correctly. Kristen, are you ready? I am ready. Can you hear me? Yes, we can Kristen. Go ahead. Hi there. Um I just wanted to introduce myself. My name is Kristen Willis and my children are currently enrolled at Resica Elementary. I would like to express my concern regarding both the process of notifying parents of and the potential impact of the feasibility survey and elementary school redistricting. I'm sorry, my dogs are barking. I'm just going to step outside for a minute. Um I wanted to say I have not received any communication from

120the district about the feasibility survey. I only became aware of it through another parent 3 weeks ago. I received multiple multiple notifications daily from the school through ClassDojo and handouts and folders, yet nothing regarding the survey, not even an email. In speaking with other parents at Resica, most were unaware that a feasibility survey was even taking place, what a feasibility survey meant or that elementary redistricting was under consideration. For a decision of this magnitude, it is alarming that parents are unaware of it. I also saw in the stakeholders participation that only 18 families participated in the survey and I think it's because families just don't know about it. My children currently attend Resica Elementary and under current guidelines are expected to be to continue on to JTL and the South High School. That continuity was

121a significant factor in our decision to purchase our home. Both of my daughters attend the Fusia Center for the Arts in Stroudsburg multiple evenings each week which is located minutes from JTL and the South High School. If we were reassigned to the North School, maintaining those extracurricular commitments would not be feasible. We live 4 minutes from Resica, however, district transportation has consistently been unreliable with buses running 40 minutes to over an hour late from our pick up and drop off times. As a result, I provide transportation myself to ensure my children can participate in their after school activities. Bussing Resica students to the North would significantly increase transportation burdens and would force many families, including mine, to alter schedules and give up extracurricular opportunities altogether. I could easily imagine bussing taking over an hour each

122way, not including delays. Additionally, my older son attended MCTI and I can see my younger son doing the same. I would like this to remain a viable option for him. Assignment to the North School would make that pathway significantly less successful for him and other students in our situation. If Resica Elementary were to be redistricted to the North School, I would enroll my children alternate schooling. This is not because of the students, the culture or the teachers, but because of the location, the transportation issues, lack of local enrichment programs and the loss of MCTI as being a close option for my son. I respectfully ask the board to reconsider any proposal that would redistrict Resica students to the North School after elementary school completion. At a minimum, please notify parents about the feasibility survey using

123accessible, understandable language. Thank you. Okay, thank you Kristen for your input. Do we have any other anyone else? I do not see any. Okay. All right, seeing none then we will move on with our agenda. Um we have no unfinished business so we'll move to a motion to approve the revised organizational chart attachment eight prepared by the superintendent as presented to clearly designate the relationship of all employees within the district organization. Dr. Patella, I just had one question. Wait, I'm going to make a motion. Motion and do I have a second? 2nd. Okay, go ahead uh Rebecca, Motion and a Okay, go ahead. Rebecca comment. Question. >> Yeah, I just had a question. I thought we were moving front desk. And I apologize for not asking you earlier. Um I thought we were moving front

124desk away from school police. Or did I miss that? No, we moved front desk receptionist to be school police last school year. At the end of last school year starting for this school year. So, front desk receptionist are now part of school police. They are under school police as they are the first line of security in our schools. Yes. But they're still part of the support staff contract, not part of school security contract. Correct? Absolutely, yes. Sure I understood that. Yep, absolutely. It's a great question. Okay, good. Any other questions on that motion? Can I make one request for future documents prepared? Is it possible that when we make the flowchart uh the actual flowchart with all the different categories on the one sheet maybe a little bigger? And then when we do the chart

125the the simplest simple chart, which I like, can we color code those to the category in the chart? There there's too much like I'm trying to compare and look at one to the other and the categories I mean it sounds maybe petty, but to look at the different color categories on the simple chart like there's a lot of burgundy. And and like it it like can we make them drive with the other chart colors? Absolutely. So, the reality is is that the one page flowchart I find incredibly cumbersome. It is. So, I created my own, which is why you get two versions of it. Which one? But what you're saying is is you want the colors to match between the the more cumbersome one and the individual one on each page. If possible I mean

126am I I mean if the rest of the board doesn't like that >> Anything is possible. It's just that when you're looking at the different categories on the main chart and you compare to the other chart, it's just confusing cuz I'm looking for that category and and just to you know We'll absolutely work on that. And then I have another question. On the other on the on the draft that we're voting on tonight, why are some why are some categories in like like white versus is that just a typo or is that what we're voting the changes that we're looking at? Like say in the assistant superintendent for pupil services those positions that are not fully colored, they're like white. Is that just a I I I honestly think it's a formatting issue. It It's

127not It doesn't mean something different. They're not Okay, I mean Okay. Nope. Okay. Okay, good questions, comments. Any any other discussion? Yeah, yeah. Okay, George. The one like I'm looking at the school police Excuse me. I'm looking at the school police uh numbers. Could we put at some point in time the number of like officers in parentheses? Like the attendance officers five, uh crossing guards three. Do you want that for every classification? Because if I feel like if we do it for one of the boxes, we should do it for all. I agree. We have a pretty fluid personnel department. But we should have we should know what we have scheduled for though, we? I I I would think we would want to do that when we get this every year uh that just to

128see what where we stand. Yeah. So, do you you want numbers of how many positions we have for each classification? Yes. I I would like to see if we could do that. >> Maybe we don't need that on the chart if it's too cumbersome. But It's just a printout. just want to know like for information purposes. Nobody's ever asked me how many school police officers we had, so I'm I'm happy to share all that information. So, you want position control numbers of how many positions we have by classification. Mr. Andrews, is that correct? Yes. How often and how frequently do you want that? Just when we do this this once a year. Well, we don't More than a When we make changes we don't have to do it every every time, but we should have

129some idea of how many people uh we're hiring in administrative and and the support staff. Maybe at the beginning of the school year? Yeah, the organizational chart doesn't mean we're we're hiring. It just means we're re-changing, but I will work on position control numbers. I will get that to you and I will make that something for the beginning of every school year. That works. Yep, perfect. Good. Any other comments, questions? Okay, all in favor? I. Opposed? I. Okay, we need a motion to approve the East Stroudsburg Area School District Comprehensive Plan as submitted. The Comprehensive Plan encompasses the time period from July 1st, 2026 to June 30th, 2029. So moved. Second, Debbie. Okay, questions, comments? All in favor? I. I. Opposed? Right. A motion to approve the field trips that are listed. So moved. Second.

130Second, Debbie. Okay, questions, comments? So moved. Somebody tell me what show we're seeing on Broadway. Does anybody know what show? I I don't. I'm sorry. Okay. Oh well, I'll wait for that name later. We'll wait for the reviews to come out. Okay, all in favor? I. Opposed? A motion to approve the implementation of the following intramurals and clubs as listed. So moved. Second, Rich. All in favor? I. Opposed? A motion to approve the recommendation to modify expulsion requirements, agreed upon expulsion, waiver of school board hearing, and release agreements for the cases listed in substantially the same form as presented at this meeting, contingent upon the receipt of any manifestation determinations indicating the fractions are not manifestation of a disability, subject to final review by the school district's administration and legal counsel. So moved. Second, Debbie.

131Questions? All in favor? I. Opposed? Motion to approve the following position guide for dental services facilitator. So moved. Second. That was like pulling teeth to get that one. I'm kidding. Like come on. I'm sorry. Is this a new position? So, this was if you remember we had spoken about we no longer have a dental hygienist. So, this was a position we spoke about at length about creating um somebody who's going to be responsible for the paperwork, making sure that our students do have dental appointments, and then also scheduling free dental exams for our students. So, instead of having a full-time position, this is a schedule B position. So, it has significant cost savings. It took us some time to fill that position, and very honestly I thought this was already board approved with the position

132guide. It was not, so we're putting it on. And the question would be how will families access this or how will that be uh presented to them? Same way that it always is. Is that we're communicating with families that they need to get an exam. It's at specific grade grades that they need dental exams, and then through communication with families we do mass messages at first, and then we do individual communication with families. Hey, how can we help you? We have dental uh dentists come to our buildings, and then we also have vouchers for dental appointments. So, it's usually on an individual case-by-case basis. Okay. Thank you. You're welcome. Any other questions? We actually have that person who's getting that position on the board agenda as well if I believe if I'm I read it

133correctly, right? Going We'll see that in a couple pages. You should, yes. Yeah. Okay. In case anybody's wondering, the compensation's 10,000 for it. Yes, it is. Okay. Great. Anything else? Right then, all in favor? I. Opposed? A motion to approve the following affiliation agreements with the East Stroudsburg Board of Education and Marywood University for the use of district as a psychology internship site. So moved. Question. Question. Should the agreement be changed to East Stroudsburg Area School District instead of Valley View School District? Yeah, it absolutely should. Okay, so should we make it you know Good catch, Rich. I. Well done. Way to do your homework. Once in a while. Um So, Attorney Brown, I'm assuming we can just update that or do you want it on next month's agenda? >> No, no, just update. It's

134It's correct throughout the body. They just didn't change change the title. I'm sure Steve's office can Have them change the title. We can. Okay, good. Anything else on that? All in favor? I. Opposed? A motion to approve the notice of charges for employee number 11417. So moved. Second. Okay, questions? All in favor? I. Opposed? A motion to approve the notice of charges for employee number 9267. So moved. Second. Second, Keith. Questions? All in favor? I. Opposed? Motion to approve the following memorandums of understanding that are listed. So moved. Second. Questions? All in favor? I. Opposed? A motion to approve the employment actions listed in accordance with the associated applicable policies, procedures, and congratual congrat- yeah, contractual agreements subject to proper completion and receipt of all necessary documents and clearances. So moved. Second. Questions? All in

135favor? I. Opposed? A motion to direct the administration to submit form PDE 2098 to the Pennsylvania Department of Education for appropriations payable in lieu of taxes under the provisions of Section 604 of the Public School Code of 1949. Motion, Keith. Okay, questions? All in favor? I. Opposed? A motion to approve the tax equity supplement resolution in accordance with the recommendation of the Finance Committee. So moved. Second. Questions? All in favor? I. Opposed? A motion to approve items 1 through 4 in accordance with the recommendations from the Finance Committee. They are listed there. So moved. Second. Any questions? All in favor? I. Opposed? A motion to approve the payment of bills and unordered Treasurer's report listed in the agenda of the 25-26 fiscal year in accordance with Section 687 of the Public School Code, recent directives

136from the Department of Ed, and interpretations made by the Auditor General. So moved. Second. Questions? Seven, nine. All in favor? I. Opposed? I. Motion to approve the payment of the following CHA invoices, applications for payment and change order for services rendered in accordance with the recommendations of the Finance and Property and Facilities Committee. Motion. >> So moved. Second. Questions? All in favor? I. I. Opposed? Motion to approve the request to renew the already established special activity funds listed, and they are listed for us. So moved. Second. Questions? All in favor? I. Opposed? A motion to approve the request to close the following special activity funds that are listed. So moved. Second. Questions? All in favor? I. Opposed? A motion to approve the resolution presented concerning capital improvement project subject to DCED grant applications in accordance

137with the recommendation of the Property and Facilities Committee. So moved. Second. Questions? Yes. >> Yeah, I was going to ask for that. Okay. Absolutely. So, we have been working with Train to look at energy saving projects that can save a considerable amount of energy and thus free up some funds so that we can do other projects. So, as Train was completing their capital project kind of list and what they felt we should work on and they kind of set a prioritization of what we should work on, which was the presentation that they presented to PNF, the DCED grant also became available. It is due on March 13th. We are feverishly working on it. So, what we did was we took Train's recommendations for projects and we parsed it out because the DCED grant, we cannot

138start those projects until DCED is awarded, which is not until October. So, what we're recommending here is that we look at capital fund projects, which would be North's HVAC system upgrades, some lighting upgrades, some control upgrades, and possible renewable energy. I would say that that is possible. None of this is a commitment of projects. This is just all how we are parsing it out. We wanted those projects because we believed most of those projects could be completed this summer. They all have considerable savings on our energy cost that will help us fund the DCED grant. For DCED, if we are awarded any of these grants, we have to pay a certain percentage of it. I believe it's 35%. Either 30 or 35% of the project. We are applying for Lehman's HVAC system with a fuel

139switch. We So, switching what the fuel system is. We are applying for Middle Smithfield HVAC system with also a fuel switch. Bushkill Elementary and Resica Elementary generator generator replacement. JM Hill's roof replacement. And then data cabling at Bushkill, Resica, and the North Campus, which is not a Train project, but it would be a project that we could work through. So, what we're asking for the board for right now is to approve that we're going to investigate these. We will not confirm anything until we have bids and we've chosen a bid and moved forward. This is just we would like to start the process of working with Train on these upgrades, get some capital funds to use to use to go for the Train projects and then hopefully get a considerable amount of grant money to

140start working on some other projects and some other upgrades. So, this is not a complete list. I mean, this is not a commitment to to do these projects, you're saying? Not at all. This is So, the grants for DCED are due on March 13th, which is before our board meeting. So, we're asking for the approval to apply for these for the grants because all of these projects have to be done. Right? How do the generator replacements and the cable replacements help us with efficiency of energy? So, we're we're conflating the two and I apologize. Not all of these are energy efficient projects. The JM Hill roof has nothing to do with energy. Oh, yeah, if the roof is done properly, it will help with energy. If it's done >> But by all means. >> are

141These are all projects that need to be done. So, the left side DCED does not necessarily mean that it's an energy project. It means that it's a project that we are applying for funds and grants to help with. The right side is all energy efficient projects. But the ones on the right are not part of the grant application projects. Correct. Only the the left column is DCED of what we're applying for for grants. The right column, are we committing to that financially with with Train right now? By doing >> We're not committing We're not committing to anything. We're taking the list that they presented and parsing it out because they presented a PNF, a pretty comprehensive list of what needed to be done. So, at PNF, we talked about different projects. We talked about whether

142we would take those projects for DCED or whether we would look to do those projects completed this summer. We and look at it, there is an agreement that we have to sign with Train that costs nothing unless we don't do any project with Train. So, if we decide not to move forward with Train on any project, then it's a $65,000 breakage fee. However, if we decide to go with one project with Train, then there is no cost. So, so that is kind of where we're at. We're not committing to any of these projects. This is not saying that we're paying 3 million, 5 million. There's no numbers attached here. This is just that we want to start investigating and we want to make sure that we hit that March 13th deadline for this DCED grant.

143I I listened to the meeting. It was it got very confusing. That's why I was waiting for this meeting to ask the questions. Okay. The key is the 13th. We That's the key to it. We have to get it done before the next board meeting. Right. Mhm. So, we're we're approving a We're approving the approval of submitting the application for the grants tonight. What you're approving, so the the second and third attachments, Keith, are really FYI attachments cuz all you're approving is that resolution, which is approved. Okay, I just I saw three attacks and so I was trying to clarify that. Thanks, Chris, for clarifying that. Okay. Okay, good. Any other questions? Right, then all in favor? I. Opposed? Motion to approve an amendment to the listing price for the surplus bus fleet, reducing the

144unit price from 20,000 to 10,000 in accordance with the recommendation from the finance committee. So moved. >> Second. And the reason we did that is cuz they weren't selling for 20 that and it it's mostly because our buses are propane and they're a little bit more difficult to sell than a diesel or a gas bus. Would you agree, Rich? Yeah, and this is such a huge value. Somebody's got to snatch these things up. They don't realize what they're getting out of this. Right. They don't have a trade-in value, right? Not a high one. I mean, honestly, like propane is going to save whoever buys these buses and it'll save a lot of money on the fueling costs just right out of the gate. But Yeah. Right. It's cleaner energy. You don't know you don't know.

145Right. And a half-off sale can't be that. Okay, great. Second. Any other questions? Or comment? Well, then all Couldn't remember if we made a motion. Did we not make a motion? Did not. >> think so. Yes. Yeah. Yes, yeah. Yes, okay. So we we second and do we have our first and second? Then let's vote on it. All in favor? I. I. Okay. Uh moving on to motion to approve the contracts listed for the specific services rates and effective dates subject to the review and recommendations of the solicitor and approval of any administration regarding the terms and conditions of any final contract other than price or cost and they're listed for us. So moved. Second. Questions? All in favor? I. Opposed? Okay, nothing under new business or um we have the enrollment informations. Anyone have

146any announcements or comments before we close? I just want to make a quick announcement that DECA went to states this past week and I uh we they had kids that did well but not well enough to go on to nationals but I to watch those students uh participate I was uh a chaperone on the trip to watch our students. We had over 60, I think about 66 I think total. They were amazing and I just want to commend our our students for a great and were well-behaved, well-represented and uh very professional in their procedure. So I thank them. And and and and and Miss Duran, great great leaders of that program. Great. Thank you. Any other questions or comments? A motion Motion to adjourn. Second. Second. Second. All in favor? I. Let this be the

147last Zoom meeting for All right. All in favor. Thank you, everybody. Have a good evening. I. I. Thank you. Bye. Bye. Hang up.