ESASD Regular Board Meeting (May 19)

001Goodbye. of allegiance. 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. Ro George Andrews, present. Rebecca Bear present. And Petillo here. Mike Petrillo here. Jason Golstrren present. Keith Cara present. Wayne Roner here. Rich Lane present. Thank you. We welcome all of our guests here present tonight and we ask that if you haven't done so to please be sure that you sign in um outside the doors there so we have a record of who attended our meeting tonight. Okay. Announcement about executive session. An exe executive session was held on May 7th for personnel and was held on tonight, May 19th, to discuss personnel negotiations and litigation. I now a motion

002to adopt the agenda for May 19th as submitted with the board of education reserving the right to add to the agenda and take further action on any items raised in executive session or immediate action on such items is considered to be in the best interest of the board. So move second questions. All in favor? Opposed? A motion to approve the minutes of the April 28th, 2025 board meeting. Second. All in favor? Hi. Okay, we now move on to our reports and we are going to begin with our fine representatives, our student reps. Uh Alyssa, if you'd like to start us off for High School North, it's nice to see you guys for last time. Hi everyone. My name is Alyssa Dena. I'm a senior from Strawburg North and I'm this year's student representative. So, we're

003just going to get right into it with some academics. Our North High School MCTI students crushed their NOCI exams. Every single student who tested completed at a competent proficiency and an impressive 67% of our seniors went above and beyond and scored an advanced proficiency on their exams. So, this is amazing. Um, we're going to move on to the arts. Um, our north choirs wrapped up with the annual spring concert on May 15th. The Mix Choir, Trouble Choir, and Corral performed outstanding performances, and we also celebrated 24 senior members, and we recognized three seniors in particular for their leadership and dedication to the choir among their four years. Rihanna received the Fred Wearing Award. Nia Ecford earned the National Choir Award, and the director's award went to me. Along with beautiful solo performance, thank you so

004much. Amazing. Thank you. Um, the North Band celebrated a mile milestone, their 25th annual choir concert on May 17th. This evening feature incredible performances from the senior win ensemble, the jazz band, and the symphonic band. And had a special performance from their alumni band, which is really cool. Um, five seniors were also honored during this performance. Abby, Abby, Abigail Cooper received the John Philips Soua award. Tyler Boyce and Haley D. Olivera received performance-based awards. and Abby, Tyler, and Haley along with Melinda Ramos and Ty Melissa receive scholarships from this concert as well. On May 23rd, the North Choir and band will wrap up the year and travel to Central Dolphin High School for their adjudication event for music in the parks. After their showcase of hard work, they'll go to Hershey Park where they'll stay

005for the award ceremony and also spend the day in Hershey, which I'm really excited for because I'm going. And finally, for the arts, on May 25th, the North Corral will take center field at the Lehigh Valley Iron Pigs game and perform God Bless America during their seventh inning stretch. And don't get me wrong, I think I heard from a little birdie that Dr. Vitali, you're coming. So maybe apparently Labar told me, but it's nobody wants that. If you come, we'll love you to come. Anyways, um moving on to athletics, we celebrated two senior nights in May, both actually against South. Um the North baseball team um performed Whoa. faced off against South at the PNC field on May 2nd and the softball team um went against South on May 5th as well. The North track

006and field athletics had a busy and successful season. They competed at the EPC championships on May 6th to 7th, followed by a strong performance at district championships on May 13th to 14th. And additionally, the unified track team placed second at regionals on May 7th and will proudly advance the state competition later this month. And now extracurriculars. Our fourth annual Timberwolf Timberwolf pick the litter was a huge success. On May 2nd, 22 North students collected a an impressive 52 bags of trash along the Bushkill Falls road, which is two miles. Um, and this is part of their learning service project on plastic pollution. We just want to have a special shout out to the National Park Services and Layman Township for making this possible. Want to shout out our teachers, Miss Schro, Miss Schweinheiser, Mr. Corb,

007and Mr. Capola for organizing this event. And finally, some upcoming events that you guys should mark your calendars for. The senior and honors awards ceremony as well as the art department annual art show will take place on Thursday, May 22nd. The senior art the senior awards show will take place in the morning. And then the opening reception of the annual art show will take place from 6:30 to 7 pm and that's followed by the honor ceremony at 7 pm. And of course guys, don't forget the East Strawburg North graduation will be held on May 31st at 10:00 a.m. So really excited. But with that, I do end my report. And I just want to say a special thank you for this opportunity. I've been in the school district since I was in preschool. So this

008is just amazing. I love this school so much. And thank you so much Thank you. Thank you, Melissa. We will miss your energy and sheer joy each moment. bring this special event. In closing, I would like to thank everyone. I want to thank everybody that, you know, encouraged me to come up because I was already doing the board readings for MCTI and they were like, why don't you just represent MCTI at our East Stburg district, which I really didn't realize we really needed that until somebody said something. So, I want to thank everybody that encouraged me to do that. And finally, I want to say have a good rest of your summer and you know, see you when I see you. And we do, thank you stepped up to the plate two years ago. Uh

009we launched having an MCTI rep and you jumped right in there and have done a excellent job representing MCTI. I'm sorry. I'm going to interrupt before we move on. We do have a little token of our appreciation for all of you. I also personally forgot to thank you to Miss Paul Mountter who works with me on all my reports. I just wanted to say that. I didn't want to forget. Thank you, Carl. I I have a request. I was virtual and didn't get the full main experience. Could you do your one more time? Thank you. That's very Oh, this is fantastic. I have I have great That's Carl. That's the best photo keychain I've ever got. That's awesome. The only one like this I've ever got. Yes, you did. Absolutely. Thank you. Can we project

010my presentation? Um, you're getting an award on Thursday with Justin. Is that Yes. What time was that? Uh I know it's 35 around 8 at night or is it 8 a.m. Okay, Dr. Vitali, you're on. So since we're in the mood of giving gifts, I want to thank our board reps and our school board has bought you gifts to send you off on your way. I'm glad you came. Well, thank you for your time, your dedication. Thank you. Feel free to open it. Why not? Why don't you open them? Go ahead. Oh my gosh, that's so future Delaware. Future future ESU. Awesome. Congratulations. So, you have represented us well here and we know you will continue to represent as an alumni of our school district. So, we wish you only the best of luck. Now,

011go home and go be a teenager and have a good day. Enjoy all your best. You're drawing a It's the only one that has fun at board meetings sitting in the audience. Last board meeting you had a blast. You were sitting back there laughing and enjoying all of it. And I was like, he's the only one having It's 9:30 and he's the only one having fun. I think he was funny. So, I don't think he was laughing with us. [Laughter] So, thank you truly. We wish you luck. Um, if you're okay if I just keep going. Go. Thank you. Um, we have another one of our board members has a milestone event that just happened. So, congratulations. She had no idea when I said send me pictures that this was why. Um, congratulations on earning

012her MBA. And as I said in an email, she is a full-time parent, a time financial advisor. She was a full-time student and a board member. I don't know how she did it all, but she did it all and does it very, very well. So, thank you for your dedication. now like real stuff. Um, so on the board agenda tonight, I just want to make sure we're we're doing kind of a quick rundown. We have a feasibility study that we are requesting approval from the board from RLPS architects. The purpose of the feasibility study really to evaluate how we're currently using our buildings and facilities to look at enrollment trends data and provide projections to support the development of a long range capital improvement plan to develop focus group develop focus groups to facilitate planning

013conversations of what our district looks like long term and then offer recommendations about future planning for building utilization. What the process was for us was we published an RFQ for this study. Uh we received eight qualified responses. We developed a rubric and we rated them and scored them using this rubric. From there we interviewed the top three firms and we selected RLPS. Um I wish it was just a word, not an acronym. Check thing. That will be my uh my feedback. Um I I believe that they possess a really strong process to help us make future decisions. Um they use the Moscow method which was really really interesting of what we have to have, what we must have, what we don't necessarily need. Um and they will go through that with us as as they

014continue um should you approve their uh contract tonight, but they will go through that whole process. They are A4LE accredited which there are only 10 of these people accredited in the state and it is people who are architects specific for K12 public education or or just K12 education which is just a fantastic resource of this person really understands education and how we use our space and how to best utilize it. They are obviously incredibly experienced in K to2. they are focused on solutions. So I think one of the notes that I wrote down during the interview and Mr. Foresight, myself and Mr. Schlamus did the interviews um the partner of the firm said we're not done until you have a plan. So he said really he's going to offer us information, give us all the

015information that we have and then the board will make decisions moving forward. But he's like we're we're not going to just walk away once we give you the information. If you don't have a path forward, we'll go back and get you more data. And I really really liked that. Like they're not done. until we have our idea, our vision. The final plan will include an educational design brief, physical assessment of the building, enrollment study, survey data, and recommendations. And it should be about four to eight months from when we agree to it. I know that this was not we didn't go through PNF right away. We went right through the finance committee and they moved this forward. It was just the timeliness of it because I want to get started on it sooner than later.

016Any questions or thoughts about the feasibility stuff? Thank you. Okay. Thank you. So our climate survey. So we have sent out climate surveys for students, faculty, support staff, and our parents and our caregivers. And I I've kind of thought about this in different ways of how to give you the information. It's a lot of data, a lot of charts, a lot of numbers. Although that is my happy place, it is a lot to digest. So what I figured I would do is I would break it up in board presentations by subgroup by the stakeholder group and then offer you kind of like a culmination of comparison. What I tried to do as we designed the survey was ask the same question to all stakeholder groups. So I feel comfortable in school which basically means I

017feel like I belong. I feel welcome in school. Okay. So then we can get track it of do our students report the same that our families do and do our teachers and professional staff report what our support staff do so that we have some kind of comparative data about the environment that we're creating for our faculty staff and all that we serve. So this is our caregiver response. Um I know it's small up there but you have it in front of you. Our response rate was incredibly low. There's a typo. Oh that breaks my heart. Um, so it was incredibly low. But because I'm an eternal optimist, I think once our stakeholders realize we're actually using this data because what will happen is that we will set goals on this data. We will talk about

018this data, we will help this to inform all of our decisions as we move forward. So there's questions about facility use and and what people think of the condition of our fil facilities. We'll use that to help us plan as we continue to reference these surveys in all of our conversations both here at the board level as well as at the building level with our building principles. I believe our response rate will increase because people realize we do value their voice and we want to hear from them. So the response rate is about less than 24% of our families, but I'm convinced it's going to increase. So here are the responses. So I broke it up and I want to be very very cautious not to break it up by school. I have that data.

019So I have it by individual school and the building principles have that data as well. But I just I don't want to single out any particular school. So I did it by grade band of high school, intermediate and elementary school. And when we look at the date the data with I feel welcome in school, I'm really happy with that. So, you're never going to have everybody love your environment, but about 75% or more of our people feel of our families feel welcome when they come to our school. Um, this one was do do my children enjoy being in school? Um, as we would expect, elementary is a little bit higher than high school and intermediate. So, I would love to dig into that. The next one is, do my children feel comfortable in school? Again,

020elementary is higher. intermediate dips, which is a trend you would see probably in any school district in the world. And then high school gets a little bit higher and feel safe at school is another question again. Higher at elementary, dip at intermediate, and higher at high school. I asked, so these are not all the questions. These are just ones I highlighted under I feel safe in school. I delineated it between I feel safe in the bath in the hallways and bathrooms as well because that's really important data for us because that's typically unstructured time when if there were naughty behavior to happen that's where it's going to happen when we look at the respectful environment um am I treated are my students treated by with respect by other students this is much lower than I

021would like to see it um at the intermediate level we're we're in the 43% % range of students saying they're not treated of families saying they're not treated with respect. Um I I would really like to see that increase. The next question is are my students treated with respect by admin? Again, this is a little bit lower than I would prefer to see. Um but I think a lot of conversations with people will help me understand that perception. Treated with respect by teachers is incredibly high. So kudos to our professional staff of just creating an incredibly respectful environment for our students and their families treated with respect by support staff. Um I I think again the these are high numbers from my perception and then I I feel that this is a really important question

022of do I have friends at school, right? So, do my students have friends at school? And yes, and having your peer group and knowing your people and your community is really important to me and it seems that all of our students really have that. Um, we asked the question and you have to kind of frame it is the question was my child is treated badly based on right. So we ask this question of by body image, disability, gender identity, race, ethnicity, religion, sexual orientation, socioeconomic status or I have not they have not experienced this. Um it it was interesting. None of it is is atypical from what I would see. I was really excited that about 75% of our families believe their children have not been treated badly by any of these qualifiers. Um, intermediate

023school, I would anticipate that being about a 50-50 split. Um, that is developmentally not appropriate, but it is developmentally accepted or understood. Expected, not accepted. Um, and elementary was actually much lower than I thought it was going to be with that they have not experienced that. So, the fact that 19.6% 6% of our students at the elementary level are being treated badly because of their body image. Like I need to dig into that because that that is not appropriate and and I need to understand that more as far as the learning environment. And I'm not going to read through all of these, but this is just as a parent, talk to me about how we're doing instructionally. Are we meeting your students needs? Do our teachers have high expectations? Do they encourage students to work

024hard? Do they want students to succeed? Do the student do the teachers listen to me as a parent and my student? Do they care about me and my students? Um, do they provide extra help? Do they explain? Can parents talk to teachers? And our students interested in the classes? That's the lowest one. Um again that intermediate level is a really hard level um to teach and work with. But I I think all of these numbers are really really promising of our families feel that the service instructionally that we're offering is solid. We have a lot of conversation about our um slow curriculum writing process at the secondary level and um not intentional with our professional development. Well, our our families are not seeing this. our families are still seeing that we're doing a really really

025solid job educating their children. So this was really refreshing um communication. I'm really interested about parent teacher conferences of how many people attend. If you remember I presented this data uh a few weeks ago about who attended our spring per uh parent teacher conferences and I would say that that data doesn't remotely match at the high school level. Um, so we're going to collect that data again at the fall prof uh parent teacher conferences and see if it matches. But, um, parent teacher conferences, the older you get, the less attendance we have. I don't think we needed to do a survey to understand that. Um, it was really important to me to understand if teachers are willing to meet with me outside of conferences and our teachers are making themselves available to our parents when

026our parents need them, not necessarily at that regular cadence of conferences. And then we asked about the website. Is the website easy to navigate? Um and it it it is no that there are some concerns um which I would say some of us anticipated and with a new website we are growing it. We are making changes literally every day. Um that we can use it as a stronger tool for communication. It is beautiful. It's new. We just keep adding to it. So just know that that's a continual process for us. So this was the question. So the the green kind of teal box at the top was is your school in good condition? This is the affirmative. They said yes. Then the next question was if you are concerned about something in your school, what

027are you most concerned about? Um so those those white boxes below are the areas of concern. Um so it's interesting. Playground is a concern at the elementary. If you dig down, it's certain elementary schools, Bushkill's one of them, that have the most concerns. Um, but they're just talking kind of about our facility. I was super excited to see cleanliness is not an issue, right? I mean, a very small population is concerned about that. So, kudos to Rob and his team. It's making sure that we have clean facilities and and really none of these are super alarming, but it just helps again another data point to inform our decision- making. Yeah. So now what's next? Um I started today. I need to analyze and report out on the student responses, the faculty responses, and the staff

028responses. Um it's a lot. So there's a lot of questions. So just know that that I'm working through it and I will get you that information as quickly as I can. Once we have all of that, I want to compare and triangul triangulate our successes. Like so what are we doing really well? Let's celebrate that. And then what are our areas for improvement? So the people we serve, what are they telling us where we should focus our energy? We will build goals. So I've already talked to our administrative team that they all must have one goal based on the survey. I didn't tell them specifically what it needed to be. I said, "You're going to review the survey yourself. We're going to have lots of conversations about it, but I want them to address something

029in the survey." Um, we will track these goals and then do an annual climate survey to gauge improvement and refocus our attention because hopefully we are checking off our goals. Any questions, thoughts or concerns? Okay. Okay. Other than thank you for the information because there's a lot of valuable things like you said uh gives us a place to dig deeper and uh see what we can do to improve place things. Okay, we're going to move on to our key report starting with MCTI. Jason, I see we didn't we didn't change the order of committees. You said you didn't really like the order. Did I love following these and batting first? Jason, the lead off hitter. Don't worry, you'll have time this summer and not follow them. Jason, just on Monday, May 5th, uh, 2025, the

030MCTIG met to discuss following items. finance curriculum and instruction, student activities, personnel items, and the progress of the conference center. Uh the JOC started off its meeting with uh Miss Naylor Joseph's uh report, the same report you got this evening. Um we moved on to approve the CHA short form agreement for professional services to install an electrical monitoring meter. We agreed on a three-year proposal um from Fox Rothschild LLP for legal services beginning in July of 2025 through 2028. Uh we also agreed to Jay's business systems sales agreement for equipment of financial lease uh and I global uh service agreement for telephone services for the amount of $423 excuse me for 36 months. We approved the uh 2526 MCTI calendar. Uh there was a field trip. We also approved for the Pocono Mountain Visitor Bureau

031Tourism Day at Kalahari. Some items that we discussed were uh some FMLA, some terminations, uh some change of appointments and the appointment of Mr. Patrick McCale, which will now be taking the place of the supervisor of career and technical education and buildings and grounds effective August 1st, 2025. Um, it was really cold and rainy when the building and grounds committee went out and looked at the new addition. I was able to get pictures. I'm sorry. I will have a I'll have some pictures uh for you for next time. Um yeah, it was really bad inside there and the pictures would not have come out and done it justice. So that's why I don't have a slide deck with me. The next day see that's exactly terrible weather. That was a good one. Uh the next

032MCTI meeting will be held uh Monday, June 2nd at 7 p.m. Thank you. Okay. Thank you, Jason. uh colonial 20 is me but uh we will be meeting next week so I'll operate at our next board meeting and now property and facilities committee Wayne okay property and facilities met on Wednesday May 7th um the board made a recommendation uh regarding uh purchases that were subject to bid um the low bid for the JTL data network replacement was given to Guyedi communication ations $450,000 $820. The um low bidder was JB Mechanical for $712,000 for the JTL boiler and hot water heater replacement. Uh JBM Mechanical was also the low bidder for 347,000 for the Smithfield Elementary boiler replacement and Rutled Excavating was the low bidder for the North Phase 3 stormwater repairs for $237,759. [Music] The

033committee made a motion to recommend uh that we engage RLPS for that feasibility study that Maggie just mentioned. And our next uh property and facilities meeting is uh Wednesday on June 4th here and we Okay. Thank you, Wayne. the uh education programs and resources committee and our EPR committee met on Thursday May 10th at 5:30. Uh Mrs. Lori presented the B alliance update highlighting the various holidays and celebrations for the month of May. This list along with all the support materials and articles is being mailed to the staff. The May coffee chat is the minority myth and the last workshop which is scheduled for May 22nd is fostering culturally relevant learning. Everyone is invited to attend that via Zoom. I'd like to thank Mrs. Goldstrand, Mrs. Shroth, and all of our librarians for their wonderful

034presentation and update on our school libraries. Uh we really appreciated them taking the time to show us all the progress that has been made since if you remember last April, we approved an extra librarian and a support staff uh personnel up at Lehman so that all of our um librarian programs could be utilized and that every school would have a library. And so they came to first thank us for the for our support and obviously uh bringing this to all of our schools and then secondarily to uh show us the goals that they have accomplished uh since we've made those additions now that all of our students do have the experience of um their library curriculum. The increase in circulation was amazing especially in our elementary levels because that's where we were missing the librarians

035or we had shared librarians if you remember uh prior to uh last year when we approved them and now because of having the additional uh par support we did not have to close libraries during any lunch periods so that all uh students could have access to the library at all times of the day. So, um, you know, we all know how important our librarians, our libraries are in terms of, you know, getting books and really just, uh, making reading a priority, uh, in our school district. So, I want to say thank you to all of our librarians for the work that they do, you know, every day uh, and appreciate all that they have accomplished uh, for us. Um, moving on to uh curricular items. We are in the first look for our world language

036course curriculum grades 9 through 12. So just a reminder to all the board members that that curriculum is available for your perusal. Uh please advise me if you have any questions or concerns so I can pass that on to um the administrative team. I'd like to thank Miss Mat for her informative presentation and really to all the world language teachers for their hard work and dedication in doing the research um you know in terms of what's you know really looking forward for um world languages and uh you know overall the skills and then of course the final writing of the curriculum itself. So very much appreciate all that hard work. In addition, the following force curriculum and accompany books and materials are in the second look stage. Uh we talked about this our last meeting.

037Um and we've made any uh additions, corrections, and so forth that were needed at that point. So tonight for your approval is intermediate math grades 6 through 8, English language development courses grades 6 through 12, family and consumer science courses grades 6 through 12, and our business courses grades 9 through 12. And remember that's the curriculum will be one boat and then the materials uh and books are in the second boat. Okay. Um, I just wanted to take the time to uh say that because I will be out of the country at our next EPR meeting, I would like to publicly offer my advanced congratulations to all of our seniors who will be awarded scholarships to all of our students who are receiving various awards. You know, all the the dates coming up and really

038um you know, thanking them for their hard work, but really congratulating them on their accomplishments having been a teacher for almost 40 years. Um it really is absolutely incredible this time of year to see so much that our students do and you know we see it through our reports you know um that our students give uh through all of our schools and elementary through high school you know and to parents who are listening or maybe in the audience uh you know thank you for really encouraging them um you know because it's it's such a hard thing really you know people realize you know education is so important important to the foundation of our society. Um and to at this time of year we really you know want to embrace these kinds of celebrations and you

039know really thank you know everyone who our teach from you know from the teachers to the parents the students themselves you know and these students who are achieving uh you know so many awards you also find that you know then they're music students and they're in sports and you know that you know just this well-roundedness um that our our school district offers you know and we should be just so proud to uh be part of this wonderful school district. Um I know I'm proud uh to serve as a board member, you know, having been an educator here as well. Um but it's this is the time of year to really just embrace those kind of celebrations and to say congratulations um for you know the amount of dedication they put into their academic work. Um

040they make all of us in East Straburg proud. Um, and I just wanted to kind of make that overall wish and um, for the seniors in particular, I always have a soft spot for seniors because I taught seniors for so many years and um, you know, to wish them well in this next stage of their journey of life. You know, high school is so important, but it becomes a blink of an eye, you know, uh, as as we move forward in our life's journey. So, just all the best to uh, all of our seniors. And then lastly, I see that she's in the audience here. I would also like to publicly offer our warm thanks to Dr. Heather Pipper um for her contributions to our district as both principal and director of secondary education. I

041won't be at the your last EPR meeting. This is really your last board meeting as well. So, she begins her retirement. So, I just wanted to say thank you very much for all you've done for us. And then I always say this because my friends over here always says everybody has to come to the policy meeting. So I always have to say it ahead of time before he even talks, everyone should attend the EPR meetings. Uh listen to them because this is really where we learn about all the excellent programs uh that are offered to our students. we get to meet our awesome educators, you know, that give the different presentations and really just to learn about the wonderful learning opportunities um that we have for all of our students uh K through 12. And

042with that in mind, our next meeting is on Thursday, June 5th at 5:30 p.m. here and via Zoom. Everyone's welcome and encouraged to attend. Thanks very much. Okay. Thank you. And we are on to finance. Rebecca finally met on May 12th and Dr. Mattelli, thanks for embarrassing me. You're welcome. I don't usually like that stuff, but thank you for recognizing me. I appreciate that. So, we met on May 12th and you'll see on the agenda the purchase of four Cisco PoE switches for power additional cameras that the district were awarded through a grant from PCCD. You'll see the purchase of 56 Cisco Mar cameras accompanying a 10-year license from Intrica 1, which is also paid for by a PCCD grant. You'll see the approval to renew the contract for custom student RFID cards. You'll also

043see the renewal for Brightley's software suite and the purchase of also you'll see purchase of 17 Glock 19 Gen 5 MOS COA with armppoint COS optic non-titanium front and rear sights 315 round magazines 9 millimeters Whitmer public safety group and that is for our school police so they all have the same weapons not bringing their own from home we are going to be proving providing them. Um they're going to see the contract renewal for Vector Solutions and also approve the insurance package renewal for our broker Angel Hammer and Davies across the the lines of coverage and recommend for the board of approval. You'll hear a presentation from Peter Bart on our budget and we'll be voting on next steps tonight and we have all the recommendations from properties and facilities mentioned as well as the

044recommendations from EPR and the our next board meeting I mean our next finance committee meeting is oh and we're also rescheduling a meeting in October from Monday to Tuesday October 13th and that is because of the observation of the holiday and our next meeting will be Monday, June 9th here and via Zoom. Okay, thank you Rebecca. And now the wildly popular policy committee meeting reporter Keith. Again, I would just like to uh just let Mrs. Catrill know I I do not show up your meeting live, but it is a great tool to to listen to the YouTube channel when I'm on a long drive somewhere. gets me through my journey and I stay involved in what's happening in the district. So for all the public out there, you may not attend live, but you can

045still vote and still look at it after the meeting and boost our YouTube ratings. I would like to say policy is the most efficient. It is the most efficient. You got to you got to say that we got our work done. Um policy met tonight and for those that didn't attend, you missed it. Um, but we are bringing to the table the following policies for public review in May and subsequent board approval in June. We're looking at new business policy number 123.3 sponsorship and evaluation of interchool elastic athletic programs which is a new policy and if you haven't had a chance to look at I encourage the board to look at it. Um this policy is um a policy that our our administration worked on and uh the policy committee was rather excited to um

046read it. Um and when our challenge of bringing on new athletic sports uh and there was a question of how what's our policy, what's our procedure uh Dr. Vitali um realized that maybe we need a policy. So they worked on this and it's a really uh I think it's a well done policy. Uh so you can read that for your approval. Also um policy 204.2 non-school district sponsored educational trip or tour. Uh policy 317 conduct disciplinary procedures. Uh policy 3 freedom of speech by employees which was formerly freedom of speech in non-school settings. Policy 618 student activity funds. And policy 6 uh 18.1 special activity funds. Policy 718 service animals in schools. Uh policy 8:15 acceptable use of technology which was former formerly the acceptable use of the computers network internet electronic communications information systems

047and just like that that that title was a lot of words. This policy was a was a lot of pages um and it was 24 and uh Mr. Barash worked fiercely with administration. They worked fusely and got it down to a three page 700 words 24 pages to 700 700 words. Yeah. So, and it's and believe I looked it has it all in there. It just it's amazing what you can abbreviate sometimes. Uh somewhere they say more is less. Less is more. More is le. Yeah. Well, you don't think? Yes. What more? Uh policy 225. See what you're missing if you don't come to me. Policy 225, relations with law enforcement agencies, which is a repeal uh because that was replaced uh we already replaced that with a policy 805.1. Policy 235, student re rights

048and privileges, which was formerly students rights and surveys. And uh we're ask these meetings, like I said, to be posted. Our next meeting will uh be here at 4:30 p.m. on June 23rd, 2025, as well as online. And uh as always, so your support is always appreciated. Thank you. Okay. And if you want an interesting read, there is a policy about service animals. Yes. Oh, that's what about miniature horses. Miniature horses. That's a very good read. Yes, that is an important item. I I wasn't going to touch on that, but thank you. Didn't want to horse around with that. I don't want to around with that policy, but you're okay. And and on that note, oh, where'd he go? There he is. For you, Peter. We've got the audience ready for you. Yes, we're hor.

049And before Mr. Bard starts, we would just like to thank him for his service. This is his final meeting with us and this is his final week in our district. And we have been very fortunate to have your service and your support. So, thank you. Thank you guys very much. I appreciate it. Uh, this is a before I start, so I I'll I'll say that I'll get the good things out of the way first before I deliver the bad news. the community. No. Oh, that's I'm sorry. Right. There's no there's no Well, every time you hear the budget, you think of of of things of things bad. I want to say the finance committee is really the committee that everybody should come to because nothing moves forward without money being paid. So, that's where everybody

050should come to. Um, and so I want to thank everyone, especially uh the board members here. I think the community is is really blessed here to have such a cohesive nine member group that really the district forward in such a positive uh direction. And I particularly want to thank um Rich and Rebecca and Wayne and George, the members of the finance committee who have had um who have been fully supportive of me and my two years here. They've been the same committee members since I've started and they have just been phenomenal and very very grateful to me and very thorough and I wanted to thank you guys very much for your support and and how wonderful you guys have been and the community is truly blessed to have you guys. So before now I got

051that out of the way now I could start the presentation to go forward. So these are some of the changes. Um, this should say proposed final budget, but the uh the preliminary budget that we've been talking about, the overall net from the last budget you guys have saw, the full board has saw in April, there was a $619,000 increase. So, I guess some of you guys can say that might be um a little bit change of news. Not bad news, but a change of news. The health care costs have gone up 13% from the from previous years, and that's up 11% in the previous budget or an approximate increase of 500,000. The increased electricity cost of 361,000, an increase of cyber cost of 600,000 were offset by attritional savings of $342,000 and a decrease in

052the budgetary reserve of 500,000. The reason we're able to decrease the budgetary reserve for you guys for so the board as a whole knows why we're able to do that is the budgetary reserve historically in the district has been set at a million dollars. we were able to lower to 250,000 250 or we lowered it to 750,000 in the previous budget pres presentation and this one another 500,000. It's because of your fund balance health. Um the fund balance has over $3 million in unassigned fund balance that is more than enough to cover any expenses that may come up that would be outside of your budgetary um limits. So I believe that would be a comfortable enough range to put in there. Um so you guys will not have to worry about that. the increased electricity

053cost or more of transition or transmission costs, not the actual supply costs. It's the actual lines to get the um the transmission cost that we were hit with and the district was hit with. So, there are some very positive news though. This is good news. The Homestead Farmstead exemption number went up by $991,000 that the state has given us. That's money that we got from the gambling um proceeds that the state gives out to the districts. So, per approved homeowner per year, last year was $679. This year it's going up to $785 or almost close to $786. That's per year. That's an increase of hundred a little close to $106. If you break that down a per homeowner approved homeowner per month, that's $56 per month uh that we got per year last year. They're

054going up to a per an approved $65 per month or an increased monthly savings of $8.83. That is a phenomenal savings um for our approved homeowner in the district. And how you get the homestead farmstead exemption is you apply in January, the district sends out the applications, you fill it out, you send it back to your county, and then you go through that process. The district is hands off on that and it counts for your primary home ex your primary home gets covered with that. So that's some very positive news. So let's talk about the budget uh options that are on the table for tonight. The board has to approve 20 days before they adopt a final budget. They have to approve a a proposed final budget and advertise it for 20 days. So what

055is on your table for the board tonight and for the community as a whole is the district the board has to approve one of three options and this is option number one. This is the 0% tax increase or what we what I call the STEB rebalancing. This is based on the the assessment rates in the counties. Monroe County would stay at 31.05. 05 mills which is what is is assessed what your rate is for this year or for last year. Pike County would go up to 126.0020 based on the uh assessment values between the two counties or an increase of.15. The annual increase for the homeowner in Monroe County of course would be zero for the annual increase for Pike County would be $3 would be a little over $3. The revenue loss for the

056real estate tax revenue though for the district would be a little over $1.6 million. This is primarily based on an assessment appeal that the district lost for one of our top 10 tax uh uh one of our taxpayers appealed and it was a commercial appeal and we lost and and we settled it. It would have been a lot higher if it wasn't for the the excellent work that Attorney Brown does on these things on these matters, but we still lost $1.6 million on this revenue. And so this would be the the option the option one for a 0% tax increase. Um does anybody have any questions on on option zero or I on option zero? On option one for uh for this for this particular option. Um actually I'm finished with the slides. I apologize.

057I'm jumping ahead because um I don't want to I want to respect the time. But this would be what option one looks like for the deficit. The revenue would come in at 188 million8.5 million. The re expenditures would be a little over 212 million with a projected deficit of 23.4 million. The fund balance would look like at this level would be the general fund balance would be 51.2 million. That is what the audited number was in on July 30th, 2024. The assigned funds to balance what we budgeted for in 23 or 2425 was 17.4. I am still anticipating the the budget in 2425 to come in around $7 million for the deficit which is because we're performing very well in terms of our expenses and our revenue. And so that would I would expect the

058ending fund uh funding the ending general fund fund balance to be around 20.7 million at the end with the capital reserve fund balance to be around 15 the ending or the excuse me the capital fund uh reserve fund balance is sitting around 15.2 million. That is exactly where I think option one will get you for this particular year. And now I'll ask you guys if there's questions on option one at this point. Okay, let's look at option two then. That's the 2% tax increase. The option two 2% tax increase would bring Monrose County's millage rate to 31.59. It would bring uh Pikes County's millage rate to 20 128.38. this if you remember so from the finance committee to this meeting I want to bring your attention to this because there was a slight decrease in

059Pikes County's uh millage rate from one presentation to the next and the reason being is it was a it was a pee borrowed error on this particular uh case simply because when you put the mil the money into the PTE on into seif what they call you have to put a dollar amount in and when you put the dollar amount in it calculates the millage rate this is the first district multi-county district that I've been in where and due to my uh experience level where not only did we the board inre considerate increase but also considered the uh the homestead farmstead dollar amount went up as well. So it did it's it decreased the Pike County mill rate by a point a a couple of hundreds of a millage rate which then decreased their annual

060increase by a couple of cents. So brought it down to actually $55 even for the annual increase. So if you guys compare presentations from the finance committee to this one, you will see a slight decrease. I wanted to draw your attention to it. So if you had two competing presentations in front of you, you would see that there was a slight change in the decreasing side. It will still bring you the same exact increased revenue of $1.6 million. It will still have the annual a increase of the to the average homeowner of the $57.72 for Monroe County and the Pike County at $55. However, when you look at it, when you throw in the homestead dis the homestead include the increases to the homestead uh amount, you would still see the people that had the

061homestead discount will still see a decrease in their taxes by $48 in Monroe County if by $47 in Pike County and a monthly decrease of $4 in a little over $4 in Monroe County and a little under $4 in Pike County. So even with an increase in taxes where the district is recouping that $1.6 million that it lost through the through the tax appeal. So it's benefiting the students and the and all the programs that the district loves so much is still the people are still getting a tax break because of the increased homestead and farmstead. So let's take a look at what the option two looks like in terms of revenue and expenditures. The revenue would be 190 million 190.1 million. The expenditures stay the same at 212 and the projected deficit will be

06221.8 million. This would bring your ending fund your ending general fund balance with keeping everything the same at $22.3 million from the previous uh option one would be $22.3 million keeping everything the same when I say it that way from the anticipated u assigned funds to balance the 2425 budget. So, you get a little bit better uh you get a little bit better of a financial picture with this one. Are there any questions on the option number two? Okay, let's look at option number three. The 3 and a2% tax increase. The 3 and a half% tax increase would raise Monroe's millage rate, Monroe County's millage rate to 32.12. It would increase the Pike County's millage rate to 30.56, which is a couple hundred points lower than the finance committee meeting agenda for the similar reasons

063before. It would bring you an increased revenue of $3.2 million. However, when you look at the annual increase for the average homeowner in Monroe and Pike County, the average in the home the increase would be 116 116 in Monroe, 105 in Pike. But when you break it down and you take out the e the increase for the home and the the homestead discount, it would only be $10 for the for the 12-month period in Monroe County and $3 for the 12-month period in Pike County. Breaking it down for a per month increase in Monroe County of only 85 cents per month and a Pike County of only 26 cents per month just for the 3.5% increase and you get the $3.2 U increased revenue. When you look at how that breaks down for the revenue

064and the expenditures, you get $191.7 million in revenue, $212 million in expenses for a a general fund funding general fund balance at 23.9 million, just shy of $24 million. Um, based on everything um being the same, are there any questions from the board on option number three? Okay, let's look through the 2526 expenditure details by object. This is so the salaries come in at 88 million 88.1 million or an increase of 2.6% from the previous year. The benefits are 66 or 63.4 million or an increase of 5.7%. The the major driver of this is the health insurance costs at 13% as the as the increases for that. the professional and technical services which are uh services that we contract out for primarily our our special education students and some other there are some other services

065primarily in there but $9 million of that are are special education services that is 11 a little over $1 million or 13.6% increase. The purchase property services come in at $2.4 million or 10% increase. The other purchase services are $16.2 $2 million or just a little just under 7% for the increase. The primary driver of this is the charter school tuition at $9.6 million. And when you look at the the next screen here for the supplies, the um the supplies are at $9.6 million or $1.7% increase. The primary drivers of this are electricity, natural gas, water. Um school supplies are a very minor um drop in the bucket in this $9 million. primarily this is a lot of your um your your utilities and spend in that in that nature. The property spend is 2.8

066million or 2.85 million or 14% increase and your other object and debt service is 18.7 million or a decrease in four uh an increase in four a decrease excuse me of 4% from year-over-year. Now I see Mr. Andrews has a question. Uh Mr. Andrews, what what is your question on this? Yeah. On the funds to balance budget, uh, do we expect to see the I know we have a very conservative that you're very conservative, which is good, but do we expect the same thing on 25 26 that we have in 2425? Yes, I I do I do believe that the the 25 26 expenditures are in the the worst case scenario. you don't spend every dollar that you budget, but you have to plan that you are going to spend every dollar that you budget

067because that's what um the budgeting is is primarily for. Not to mention that salary and benefits make up 73% of of the budget and those salary and benefits are are non are non really are non-negotiable type of things. They're things that were already kind of set in stone. So those things are going to be expended. So you kind of look at that as your as your starting point um for these type of things. So, while we do look at that as a as a good starting point, um I don't expect you to I mean, I think $23 million is the worst case scenario and you'll get better better results moving forward from there. Thank you. Yep. I I have a Can I ask a question? Sure. Uh how do you what what what figures are

068you using to get this 13% health insurance cost increase? Uh being that we're self-insured, we don't how what are we using as our baseline? that comes from our our trust that we're invol that we are in with a PA. It's a EPEP, right? That's that. So that's our that's our contribution is going to be right. That's our it's our contri but but just we don't know what our healthcare costs are going to be since we're we're self-insured. Correct. Correct. There's a chance that percentage of that could come back. The the cost the I base that on the fundings the funding rates that they provide on an actuarial trend basis for the last three years. So, it's we've had a very very bad three-year trend on medical and prescription drugs on the last three years and

069that's what their basis on the actuarial cost is. Expensive. Not bad. Expensive. Expensive. Yes. It's very expensive. Oh, I I understand it's expensive, right? Yeah. Um so, yeah, we've had a very expensive uh uh run in the last three years. And also inflation is inflation in the health care field is a lagged indicator. It usually takes about a year a year and a half to get the inflation into health care. And all of us have all of us in the in the trust have hit that hit that wall. All eight school districts and and three technical in years past we we were contributing in years past we would be contribut I I I thought I think we were contributing more than we had to to help the the pool since we're a large school district.

070Is that is that still the case? Are is everyone are every all schools contributing their fair uh actuaries so to say? I mean yes and we've actually we actually on top of that yeah we've ate through our reserves that we've had we're actually down to four months of cost which is the bare minimum that we can have via the trust rules. Um we've actually we've we were had as much as as 12 months worth of cost, but we've gone through years where um the previous uh we've hadn't had any co really increases that we should have had ourselves. Um we're just catching up to what we've needed to have. So there has been some expensive years that we've actually let our reserves in the trust pay for those expensive years historically. Okay. Purchase property services.

071Can you elaborate on that for us? Yes. The purchase property services are things in there such as uh snow plowing and um garbage garbage services and different things of that nature that come out of those in the 400s. So when you get your budget to you get the budget to actual reports in your um in your board books that are anything with the object code 400 between 400 and 499. Yes. That's what we that's what we hope for. Absolutely. So, I have a question. Do we want to talk a little more robustly about the budget now or save it towards where we're going to be talking about? I have a more I have more slides to show. Oh, you have more. Sorry. I start questions. I'm sorry. Yeah, I have you could go ahead. I'm

072sorry. No, I I was just saying I Sorry, should have asked a question later. Sorry. Well, I have some questions to ask. So, but not yet. So, I have a comparison slide to show you the different options that you might want to ask questions about. also show you the option one, two, and three and how it relates to the average taxpayer for the monthly increases for the homestead with the homestead farmstead deduction in as well. So everybody can see it. Uh the revenue and the projected deficits for option one, two, and three, the uh monthly increase with the homestead um farmstead deduction built into it or uh decrease for two of the three options. And on option three, how little how small the monthly increase is is for Yeah. for the homeowner for that one.

073Um, if you guys I mean you guys can ask me questions now or you can ask it when we get to the agenda item. However, whatever the best throughout the let's go through it now while that makes that makes sense. My question and and I don't remember if you said it today. When is the last time we had a tax increase in there was a 1.15% tax increase? I believe in 2021. um that was the last small tax increase that was done and then prior to that it's been probably about 13 or 14 years and then that 1.15% increase was um eaten up by assessment appeals relatively quickly. And about what percentage of our property owners take advantage of the homestead farmstead? Um, I could tell you that it was approximately 6,600 properties in Monroe

074County and approximately I don't I'm trying to think of off the top of my head how many properties in Pike County. It was probably around 2,000 properties in Pike County that took advantage of of that. And there was an increase in numbers this year than there was last year. And how many tax bills do we send out? Uh, I'd have to get that number. I don't know off the top of my head. It's it's definitely more than the number of Yes. property owners taking advantage of right, right? Because it's only the primary res. It is. But I'm just thinking of the folks who have homes that could potentially be utilized on this who are missing out. Yeah. And it's a one-time apply, right? You could apply once and then it automatically renew. You have to

075apply every year. No, you don't have to apply every year, but I think I believe you have to renew it every I think two or three years, but they tell you when you have to apply to renew on the application. You don't I never re it's every then that's good. But I know in some in some municipalities you have to apply to renew to renew it. But in at least listen, when I was in a different when I was in a different municipality, you had to apply to renew it. So if you don't have to do it in a different county, then I just want to give the information I know. But when you apply to renew, if they send you an application, you should fill it out. So that's all I know. So if

076you get a homestead farmstead application in January, fill it out and send it back to your county. That's my that's my recommendation from for everybody. So that's like So if you're hearing my voice, if you get a homestead application in January, please fill it out and send it in. Do not take it for granted that that you that you're automatically on it. So Okay. So So we almost I I have a question. Yes. So, this re this is going to kind of take a more strategic or longer view look at a budget. Yes, we're looking at a budget and you have these numbers that are 20 two 20 million in the deficit. This is kind of by design since we put money away several ago to pay for things like teasers and health care so

077that when we needed it, we were able to pull it out. And we're going to be in a situation in a few years where we have a number of teachers retiring. I imagine there's a good amount. Do we have any idea what number would that would be or between professional staff, support staff, administrators? I imagine there's going to be a number of teachers transitioning out and and that's going to change the budget a bunch, right? Um and I know that there's going to be increasing state support. So with all those factors, you know, you look at and say, "Okay, there's these trends, but we're also talking about doing this survey, the district survey of our facilities, and you we can't afford with the budget we have to do a project. We would have to do

078something that was going to be somewhat bigger, require some bonding in order to to do a real project, right? And we can't really do that while we still have $18 million worth of debt that we're paying off that by 2031 we are almost almost free like a million dollars left, right? So we have a couple of options. I mean, we could, if we want to do something in the near term, we might have to refinance our bonds, all the stuff that we already have if we can, and that way we reduce our bond debt, taking on a little bit more bond debt, but it actually free up revenue and because we wouldn't we'd be refinancing all a bunch of that, let's say, and then we wouldn't be doing huge projects like we did back in

0792000 or 1990s where we built, you know, four schools. I guess what I'm saying is that there's a way to that we could restructure that and still accomplish some of these things or and this is where the strategic part of this is or do we say we're going to let it ride until we 2031 discharge 99% of our debt and then start making those obligations for additional new debt at that point to do big projects and that's really you know I'm saying that now because it it has an impact on what decision we'll make in the next in the next month or so and So, I'm throwing it out there. I don't have a preference. I'm just saying that's something we should absolutely be considering right now. Right. So, I believe to answer your question,

080I have 19 teachers right now with 26 or more years experience. Three of them are retiring now. And then next year you'd have more. So, right. So, to me, I'm looking at 30 years of experience. So that window I have 19 I have 16 more that I would anticipate going within the next four years. In the next four years 16 and figure that's about $180,000 each year in cost per teacher. You have their base salary their pasers their health care all the other thing of FICA all that good right? So when you take away that much you would be replacing some of them obviously but not at the same rate. So there would be some change in our in that and that's the teachers that not support staff or administration. I'm imagine there's other folks

081that are looking at retiring as well. So and then I guess when we take that all objectively we're looking at this and saying do we need to do a tax increase? Do we does it need just to be a little bit in a few years we will be at that point where we're going to be the whole cycle is going to be flipped. What do you guys think? Then hopefully I like your I like your approach and and like I said like I always say too is at this point we don't know what our state contribution is going to be still and and I've been told it's going to be robust but you can't guarantee that right as well as well as the is is the e equity money in this we're factoring that in

082here. Yes. But but is the equity I thought the equity money was going to be a yearly thing wasn't it? It is. It is in a yearly thing. The $5.5 million of tax equity is in this budget and you'll get it because we got it's the $5.5 million is in the budget, but that was for last year. It was go this year. So then we'll get this year for next year. Yeah, this year's for well this Well, the money you're getting this year is in this one for this year. And then it's also I mean you're going to get it for next year, but we can't budget it for this year because it's for next year. I mean just a comment. So if I if I can just pause real quick in speaking to some

083of our state legislators what they have said is legislators is that worst case scenario is status quo with the funding. So the worst case scenario is that we receive the same funding that we received last year which is actually really good because it's more than we've received and a general increase. The best case scenario is that that tax equity grant is stacked. And what they mean by that is it's 5.5 million. Then it would be that plus 5.5. So you're at 11. Then the next year would be another 5.5. So they keep adding 5.5 million for eight years. And the whole goal of that is to bring us to bring us back to where we should have 12 years. Correct. Right. Now I can't promise that's going to happen. that stacked tax tax equity that

084solves everything because every year we get the amount. So we would get 11 then we would get 16 and a half. It just keeps growing significantly. Um but we don't know if that's guaranteed. We have a house but the and the point is we don't know that but we also don't know. I mean, literally for the f last 15 years, you know, we were told by this time we were going to be $30 billion in debt. And I know that because I had a we had a strike here because of that information. And as of this day today, we have not taken any money out, you know, of the general fund. Not to say it's not going to happen, but looking at this, we said, you know, we were told 17 million and now maybe

085it will be 7 million, but we don't even know that. That's still a maybe. And I don't think we should be writing taxes on a maybe, adding to the fact that we'll be at least status quo with state money. We could be better off as we move forward. And to Rich's point before, which I think is is really important, as you know, we have a new superintendent, you know, we're collectively working together at this point to really look for a vision of where we're leading the district and we have to make those, you know, those decisions. You're just, we're just starting today if we approve the feasibility study. You know what I mean? So, it's, you know, in my mind, um, you know, I don't think this is the time, uh, to raise taxes because

086we don't have that information here present for us. Number one. Um, and number two, just from the standpoint of our um, you know, constituents, our neighbors, you know, it's it's a tough economic year to begin with. There's so much, you know, being unsteady uh, you know, out there. And secondarily, you know, the Monroe County tax, etc. that municipal taxes went up saying that we're really uh, you know, hit, you know, all of us um, extremely. And I want to say to, you know, everyone out there listening, go to those meetings because if we as a school board raise taxes, we can only raise it like 5% anyway. And they did 29 and 17 if I'm I don't, you know, pretty high. So like if you want to get out and start filing taxes, go to

087those meetings, you know, also just as an overall statement um you know moving forward and I know Vitali's been working closely with Arisaka bring kids back from charter school and we also have that with legislation as well is charter school reform school reform and we're paying you know for students to go somewhere else and that shouldn't be and I know we're and I don't know if taxpayers know how much East Straburg pays compared to other school districts. probably double. Um, what is it per regular ed? 18 and change and then 49 and change or special ed. For special ed? Yeah, I can't get on my screen. It's it's a little bit more than that. I think it's it's 51 for special ed and we get it 39,000 with the new legislation that reimbures us for

088it. Um, I think it's in the 20s for regular ed. I can't pull it up on my screen now because I'm sharing it, but which is what it is. It's 189. Okay. 189 regular ed and I'm sorry 51 for special education per student. Yes. And I you know that baffles my mind that we pay that much for that because I know that other school districts across the Commonwealth are not paying $51,000 for a student with an IEP. Correct. And I want to be clear, it can be any IEP, right? So that could be a speechonly child who is receiving 30 minutes of speech every two weeks. Mhm. And it's $51,000, right? It could be any IEP. Correct. Yep. It could be my kid doesn't do well in public school, you know, in in with lights

089at me or something like that. So, I also want to bring to the attention the the deficit that I spoke of today also includes one-time revenue sources that only have that I brought in only one time about $5 million of one-time sources. So, when the deficit So, we did experience a deficit. But once that's different, a different than what that historical perspective is. The district last year had a a $47,000 deficit, which was the first time the district experienced a deficit in its probably at least five or six years. So this year would be the next year that experienced a deficit. So the deficits are charting larger. It's the first thing you need to to understand. Um, secondly, the reason that this deficit won't be as large is because, like I said, there was a

090$3.5 million uh income that we brought in because of fixing a plan con documents that weren't fixed historically and a transportation report that was fixed, which was another $1.3 million. So, that is something that may not be pointed out in time, you know, might be pointed out in the audit, may not be, but there are some things you have to remember. That's a one-time type of things that come in that also help your district in the future that came up. So, there are type of things that do that do show up. um and and these different things. So the only thing that I will add um being that this is my my last meeting is that just like tax equity things may stack tax increases also stack. So when you raise if you if you

091raise a tax 2% that also stacks up the following year and continues to build your equity base bu back up as well when you continue to do that. So that's the only thing I will add to it. Um the the budget timeline is the proposed final budget is is voted on tonight. In June, you will vote on the final vote and approval. There can be changes made. You're not locked into this proposed final budget. There can be increases and decreases. However, I would recommend that um if you vote you don't, you know, I I would recommend that you just don't increase taxes. If you vote for no tax increase this time, you don't vote for a tax increase next time in June. It doesn't look it doesn't doesn't look right. That's just my that's just

092my thing. But, uh, that would be the only thing I would say. You could decrease expenditures and and you know, different things of that nature from there, but um, that would just be my thing. So, the proposed final budget will go on will go on. We probably we'll try to get on the website um tomorrow after it's uh after it's passed. So, are there any other questions for me? You can ask me more questions too when it comes up for a vote as Well, I can answer anything. Yeah, we'll have this. Any other questions for now? And then obviously we have that opportunity again. I I just wanted to ask one one last question. Um I just wanted to verify that this is correct. If not for the revenue loss of, as you said, one

093commercial property of 1.6 million. Is that correct? Yes. Okay. Um, option two, which is a 2% increase, makes that basically a zero gain, right? So, so what we would have to decide is option two, do we present the community and the taxpayers with a 2% tax increase to offset the revenue loss of one commercial property that questioned their assessment. That's basically I mean that's basically it because otherwise it would have been so I feel like we're kind of penalizing the entire population of the community of the taxpayers by offsetting the loss of revenues with one commercial. That's not your that's not your fault or anybody's fault. No, like you said it could have been significantly worse. But I'm just trying to look at it through that lens. Yeah. And it's not Listen, I I have

094to be completely honest. It's not property taxes in general aren't necessarily the right way to to fund anything but fund municipal governments in general um because of this um inequity that it that it that it drives. Um and so I don't think that is really what you're I mean you've pretty much summed it up basically. So it is it is a it is an unfairness to for the and the commercial properties drive down the so ever since the assessments that were that the assessments took place in 2020 and then everything that happened the commercial properties were appealing their assessments and that's been driving down the the equitable market and and that is what's driving down all of Monroe County's appeals or properties. That is why the need for the tax equity payments that the state

095has been giving. They recognize that problem here and that's what they've been driving. And I appreciate the job that you and you know Mr. Brown has been fighting this battle um on a constant basis for the last we still have more too. There's more comp there are considerably more compliments, right? We don't if we're not on the right side of the next one, it's significant, right? So nothing's coming as big as the one that you were just talking about. But in the aggregate, sure. Absolutely. But here's another problem. I if you're talking about losses in business revenue, but then if we raise taxes, then we could potentially lose more businesses wanting to move to our area and and and thrive here because our costs are higher. They're not. So, it's the future of our our

096county is going to get worse if we don't if the whole county doesn't get their act together. Really, I mean, if if you look at our district versus Pocono Mountain, our biggest problem in our district is we have no commercial properties. Look at Pocono Mountain. If we have Pocono Mountain situation with all the resorts and all the the casino and everything else up there, we have nothing. We have closed resorts, right? and and what resorts we do have that are open are going for nonprofit status. We would ran a couple things by attorney Brown that he's going to Oh, and not to mention the Homestead Act. Remember 20 years ago, the Homestead Act was supposed to eliminate property taxes. The the gambling the gambling money they they you know, Governor Randelle said, "If you approve

097this, we will not have any property tax in the future." And where is it going? It's going to stadiums in Philadelphia and Pittsburgh. Sorry. I mean, Pittsburgh makes sense. Go Eagles. Well, Philadelphia, there are a couple alternative revenue sources. There's one alternative revenue source that I ran by attorney Brown and he's going to work with your new school consultants, uh, your new business consultants that are coming in on working on them. Um, it's it's a slow process though, working with nonprofits and stuff like that. Um, that don't that are tax exempt. Um, so I don't know exactly what you know what that might bring, but that's something that would be worked out. So, so thank you guys for that and you guys could uh if we have any other questions we will uh we could

098feel free to ask them at the end. Okay. Thank you Peter. Appreciate the information. Yeah. Okay. We're going to move on uh to and thank you everyone for hanging in there with us very long this evening. Um we do have public participation at this time and that would be just a couple of procedures limited to comments on this agenda by residents and taxpayers limited to three minutes each. if you come up if you please give your name um and your township or uh if you are student or teacher or whatever uh else your status may be. Um I do have people have signed up in advance so we'll begin um Steve or if you're here. Okay. Thank you. Once again want to thank you guys so much for doing the hard job you guys do.

099My name is Steve. I come from uh Mount Nebo. family's been up here for over a hundred years. As a proud parent of two students in East Strawburg, I tend to look from the outside in. I tend to look at things from a business perspective. Sitting in a public hearing the other day with Lisa Fatulli, we sat there for three hours listening to the cyber school charter issue we have. I want to sound the bell and simply say I haven't heard anything in the budget that's going to address the over $8 million that CCA alone this year will advertise to take students out of school district and put into theirs for profit making cyber schools. They don't carry the expenses we have, the the buildings, the the food preparation, the transportation. They're out there to

100make money. And there's 14 of them. And there is choice for parents. And we tend to forget that the parents are the customers. The students are the product that we're putting out there. So, I ask everybody to take a good look at what we're offering from our cyber academy school. And I have. It took me 15 minutes to find the page and a half. I found pictures with faces blurred out with smiley faces. I found a very limited amount of from a parent perspective to get good education for my student. Then I went and I looked at three other academy schools that look like college campuses that were properly marketed and what they're doing is selling us out. So I ask you guys in your marketing, please take it seriously to get your website together

101to understand that we have the Cavalere and Timberwolf pride that we must market against these 14 other cyber charter schools. Cuz you are right, it is $51,000 for disabled students. They're taking us right and left and they're taking money out of our taxpayers, our hard-earned taxpayers. So at 9 million this year, I'll give you a number. from 2019 to 2023, these schools, they gained 64%. That's what they gained. So again, when you do your studies, you must keep in mind that this is the way parents are having their children learn. They may not need a school because there's other cyber charter schools out there marketing our kids right out from underneath us. So please think about it, put in your budget, sit down with myself or anybody that's marketed businesses over the years. I've done

102it four decades up here. But we must understand, we must do it now because they're already doing it. If you don't believe me, please visit three of their sites and then go back and see what we're offering. We're not even competing. We're selling burgers, but theirs has lettuce, tomato, pickles, onions, avocados, and all we're selling is a plain burger. So once again, please take a serious look in this budget. put some effort into retaining our students and giving that pride so when they walk across our platforms to graduate they get an East Straburg certificate. Thank you. Hey, thank you Steve. Um we now have Isabella. Are you coming up together? You're more than welcome. And Jonathan and Isabelle Thanks. Good evening everyone. My name is Isabelle Manley and I'm a junior on the East Stburg

103South track field team. Um we're here tonight to thank you or the board for allowing us to have an official winter track season this past year. For those that don't know, this approval has allowed us to practice 5 days a week throughout the winter season inside. Despite the snow, sle, and hail that our athletes work hard at practice, often running down the hallways and up the stairs. Our team had traveled to multiple different invitationals, including meets at Kutztown University and your Sinus College. Our athletes had the opportunity to compete against serious competition before actually starting our dual meet season in the spring. We had many people meddle during the winter season. My teammate Jonathan will discuss how our success carried us into this spring. Thank you as well. Uh hello everyone. As mentioned before, my

104name is Jonathan Agenti and I'm also a junior. The 2025 season for the South track and field team has been nothing short of remarkable. Both the boys and girls track team had an undefeated season this year, winning all seven of our dual meets. This included beating Straber on both the girls and boy side for the first time. Yeah. Uh multiple school records were broken, including the girls conference and district 11. Oh, including the girls 200 meter dash and the girls discus. At the Eastern Pennsylvania Conference and District 11 championships, we had multiple athletes placed in the top four spots. Along with that, 10 athletes are traveling to Shippensburg University to compete at the state championships, which is an amazing feat compared to the one athlete we had compete last season. All this success could not

105have been possible without the support of the school board, coaches, and administrators. N Strazzer, on behalf of all athletes on the track team, we would just like to say thank you. Thank you. And thank you, Isabelle and Jonathan. We we very much appreciate you coming here at St. Kind words and we're so proud of all your uh all your accomplishments. Coach Cromise, congratulations, too. We uh we appreciate and we appreciate you coming to inform us on how well it's going to. So, thank you so much and thanks for making us proud. We appreciate that. Any other people that didn't sign up? Any other public input? Okay, seeing none, we'll move on. Uh, does any board member have any unfinished business? I just wanted to say I I attended Jessica's celebration of the arts and it

106was once again spectacular and uh there were so many people there. It was uh it was just a steady flow and I thank the uh administration and the teachers, the parents and they all look thrilled to sit in the recorder concert. It was very exciting. Um and also the uh the students who did such excellent work and I do have to say my granddaughter did a parrot with a cracker in its mouth. It was, you know, it was a terrific evening. We got the invitations for the Hughes Hughes today and I was saying to Rich, our kids that are graduating this year were the first kids to go through Hughes Hughes and I'm like, I have to go cuz it's like a full circle. My daughter Carl was there. Miss Lewig, are you DJing? She's

107not here. She left. She DJed for the one that we had when my daughter was in fifth grade. So Rich and I will have to see it. Carl, you have to go too. That is really quickly so we could attend this. Yes. But I'm excited to go for memory sake. It's the same night. Since Debbie brought this up, I just want to bring something up. Um this week I had the privilege of going to a couple concerts. um some elementary concerts obviously one for my granddaughter and then ones for other and uh one of the things I also attended this past week was the robot robotics competition where all six elementary school stools got together and I was impressed and amazed at that program. Um, but one of the things I want to challenge uh

108us to think about as a as a board and administration is uh it it seems in our district we have a great robotics program that goes starts in elementary and goes through intermediate and kind of fizzles out in high school. I would like us to somehow figure out how to get that keep that going in the high school level. uh because it's an amazing program and and there was there was a shirt I took a picture of a student's shirt and and I just have to it was I'll show it to you all later but I gotta get the right exact wording. It said robotics is my sportica. Okay. And that's that's an important thing there for these students that is their sport. We focus so much on athletics in our district and and we

109we focus on the arts too. I don't know if you all know name name what is the the National Association for Musicians. We're top top school in the country again for like 17 years 12 years and that's amazing. So we we focus on a lot but I think we need to keep focusing on something like robotics and stuff like that because that it's amazing to watch these kids. Dr. Vitalai was there and and it was really it was really cool and uh I love that program. I love to see it grow. So, there was nothing more exciting than the energy in that room. Oh, yeah. Like, you would have thought it was a Super Bowl. They were running to the scoreboard to get the results and it was fantastic. It was just It was amazing.

110We just have to make sure all teams have matching t-shirts next year. Yes. Oh, any other unfinished yet? I just went to a bunch of concerts the last couple weeks, which have been amazing. I travel to whatever school I can get to when I wasn't traveling for work that I went to middle schools. I went to high schools and it's phenomenal to go. And people are always surprised, well, your kids aren't playing. And I said, I'm going because I care about my district. So, if you guys can ever get to any shows, whether they're your kids schools, other kids schools, go and support them. They love seeing you. So, oh, and the chess tournament. Well, that's all elementary schools. Last year, Rebecca, there were only a few elementary schools. Yeah. This year, every elementary was

111represented in the chess tournament. That was so fun. Last year, I didn't get to go this year cuz I was traveling. See, that's what happens. One of the biggest mistakes I made as a principal is I walked into a chess tournament that was going on and I thought I was going to be nice and I went, "Hi, everybody." And they almost all jumped out and I got dirty looks and every So, I learned that's not what you do. The protocol at a seen, of course. Okay, we'll move on then. Um motion to adopt, amend, or repeal the board policies as listed. Second. Questions? All in favor? I opposed. Motion to appoint Matthew Krauss as board treasurer for the period July 1st, 2025 through June 30th, 2026. The district shall pay the cost of the required

112bond. The treasurer shall without compensation other than mileage and actual expenses. Second questions. All in favor? Okay. Opposed motion to reappoint Patricia Rosado as secretary to the board of education effective July 1, 2025 for a 4-year term concluding on June 30th, 2029 at her prevailing rate for the actual hours worked. Secondbody, we want Patricia there. She's so great. Yes. All in favor? Motion to change the regular school board meeting which was scheduled to take place on Monday, June 23rd, 2025 to Monday, June 16th at 2025 and advertise to reflect the change. So moved. Second questions just to verify that will give us enough time for our budget. Yes. Okay. All in favor? I motion to change the policy committee meeting which was scheduled to take place on Monday, June 23rd, 2055 to Monday, June 26,

113excuse me, to Monday, June 16th, 2025 and advertise to reflect the change. Second. Questions? All in favor? I motion to approve the cancellation of July 10th, 2025 education programs and resource committee meeting. Second. Questions? All in favor? I motion to change the finance committee meeting which was scheduled to take place on Monday, October 13, 2025 to Tuesday, October 14th, 2025 and advertised to reflect the change. So move second. Questions? All in favor? I opposed. Moving on to new business programs. Motion to approve the following curriculum in accordance with the recommendation of the education programs and resource committee. Second questions. All in favor? New business pupils. Motion to approve the in uh the issuance of high school certificate diploma to each candidate listed subject to their individual successful completion of the prescribed course of instruction and

114graduation requirements established by this board as part of the school district's comprehensive plan. I'm proud to say first motion second questions and congratulations to all graduates especially those in the family here. Okay. Um all in favor I Motion to approve the code of student conduct for the 2526 school year as presented. So move. Second. Uh I have just a comment and I just thank uh Dr. Vatitali and everyone all administrators, teachers who worked on that. Um it's one of the best that we've had in a long long time. So um thank you for that work on that. All in favor? Sorry, new business personnel. No, sorry. Suspensions. I forgot that one. Motion to approve the recommendation to modify expulsion requirement agreed upon expulsion waiver of school board hearing and release agreement for the case listed

115in substantially the same form as presented at this meeting contingent upon the receipt of any manifestation determinations indicating the infractions were not manifestations of a disability subject to final review by the school district's administration and legal council. Some move second questions. All in favored. Okay. Personnel motion to approve the amended agreement to the assistant superintendent's employment contract as presented. So moved. Back in questions. All in favor? Motion to You're stuck. Motion to approve the agreement with Mr. Stevens as presented as executive director of human resources of the East Rouseburg Area School District effective July 1st, 2025 through June 30th, 2030. Hi. Any questions? Congratulations, Steve. I just said that. Well, I think we're going to vote yes. All in favor? Congratulations, Steve. See, I was optimistic. I knew the vote's going to go that way.

116Motion to approve the following notice of change of charges. Sorry. Motion. Let me say that one more time. Motion to approve the following notice of charges listed below. So moved. Second. Questions. All in favor? Opposed? Motion to approve the following terminations. Second. Questions? All in favor? I. Motion to approve the employment actions listed in accordance with the associated applicable pos policies, procedures, and contractual agreements. So move. Second questions. All in favor? Opposed? Okay. Um, so we have two administrators here to recognize. First of all, um, Sheay Jones has been the supervisor for social services K to 5, but been doing this work K to 12 for years. So thank you for your dedication to our district to our student population and congratulations um for the promotion. We are incredibly proud of you and excited to

117see what you do K to 12 really honestly what you continue to do. Also uh created a new position which is really a value statement from our board and our district of what we is important to us. We are not just investing in salaries of our professional and support staff or administrators. We are investing in their learning. So congrats Dr. Pry. Welcome to East Stradsburg as our new director of professional learning which is a position does not exist anywhere else that I know of and this board is just honored and pleased to have you on board with us. Thank you so much. Thank you. Hey thank you for recognizing. Okay. Uh the next motion uh reminder whoever is making that motion would have to add one of the options in there. Motion to adopt the

1182526 proposed final budget selecting one of the following options as recommended. I think you skipped I think you skipped letter F. Fend addendum. The addendum. Sorry. It's right there. A motion to approve the separation of service agreement for employee number 785. So move second. questions. All in favor? I I now a motion to adopt the 2526 proposed final budget selecting one of the following options as recommended by the finance committee. So move I would like to I would like to motion Oh, is ready to go? Yes. I would I would like to go with uh option one, please. I'll second that motion. Oh, we have the right one. Any questions? discussion. Discussion is it wise for us to maybe plan something like option number two since we can change it next month and we may

119have more information. I'm just offering that as a thought. We can always go back. It's my understanding we can also go backward to well forward however you come. I mean I know um Mr. Bard said that, you know, we should add it to go in the way you went because the public would, you know, see it, but we've had if the public listens to what we've been discussing, um, they know the reasons why we're voting zero. And if those reasons change, then we would make that decision. At least that's my my I think there would have to be some really different numbers that were presented to us to make that decision. Now, most people would look at that budget and say, "What what are you thinking? You have a $20 million deficit." But I think

120to Pete's point is that there's a lot of, you know, there's uncertainty. There's a lot of uncertainty in there and these are maxed out expenditures, but I al and I know that it's cumulative when you put in a a increase like this. The other thing that I'm thinking is that in 2031, and I know that's a long way away, I really should see it as saying we're going to be losing 187 18 million worth of debt. And that should be returned to the taxpayers. And by hopefully by that point, that stabilization that's coming from the legislature works out, we might be even having some tax decreases prior to that. That's my hope. And so, like, I'm just c I'm just saying I'm not so sure I'm ready to do that. make it make it an

121increase when it's possible maybe three years from now with retirements and with other changes in our in our district we might be looking at reduction I hope I I would definitely agree with everything Rich I agree with what you're saying Rich and and not to mention a 0% will actually for those who are part of the homestead would actually be getting a decrease um in taxes which is always good to see so correct um well I would just hope that uh the information we gave tonight for those who are not taking advantage of the homestead that they would seriously consider that because that will be helpful to their own personal bottom line in their homes. Yeah. I believe if I remember what Peter said it's like $50. We do senior and veteran rebates in this

122in the Strawburg area school district as well which many people don't take advantage of. Right. Right. Okay. And that is important. I don't know how many people watch are watching us, but like please, you know, it's worth a call to our school district just to ask what's available, you know, to see if you qualify for something. Give your information and, you know, people that talk to you here will tell you what you can qualify for. Um, because certainly if you do deserve a decrease in taxes, I would definitely encourage you to take advantage of it. It all depends on your net income, whether you get Yes, of course. Okay. Any other discussion? Okay. So, just to remind you, the motion on the table is for a zero option one 0% tax increase. All in favor?

123Roll. I'm sorry. Roll call. Trisha. Keith Carut. Uh, yes. Jason Gold. Yes. George Andrews. Yes. Rebecca Bear. Yes. And Catrell, yes. Mike Catrell, yes. Debbie Kulich, yes. Wayne Roner, yes. Rich, yes. Okay, great. Okay, we move on. Motion to adopt the proposed final budget for the 2526 in the amount of 212 million $34,500 which shall be posted and advertised in accordance with the PA school code and amended and that said budget together with the taxes proposed here and shall after proper additions and amendment amendments be adopted no later than June 30th. The tax levies for the Monroe County shall be 31.05. Thank you, Peter. And the tax levy for the Pike County shall be 126.2 mills. And don't make me repeat that, please. If anyone wants to repeat it, please questions. All in favor? I

124the roll call vote. Oh, I'm sorry. Yes, roll call, too. Thank you. Get the first who did the first I did first motioned. I did the second. It was Wayne and Keith. Okay. So Wayne Broner, yes. Keith, yes. George Andrews, yes. Rebecca Bear, yes. And Catrillo, yes. Mike Catrell, yes. Jason Gold, yes. Rich Lameus, yes. And Debbie Kilk, yes. 90. Okay. Thank you. Motion to approve the disabled veterans real property tax exemptions as presented in accordance with policy. So move. Second. Questions. All in favor? Motion to award items I through H in accordance with the recommendations from the finance properties of facilities and education programs and resources committee. Second. Second. Oh de. All in favor? Opposed? A motion to approve items A through F in accordance with the recommendation of the finance education program resource

125and property facilities committees. Second questions. All in favor? I opposed. Motion to approve the payment of bills and unodudited treasures report listed in the agenda for the 2425 fiscal year in accordance with section 687 of the public school code. recent directives from the director of education and interpretations made by the auditor general. Some move. Second. Questions. All in favor? I. Motion to approve the payment of the following invoices for services rendered. So move. Second. All in favor? I. Motion to approve the request to renew the already established special activity fund for transporting dreams. Can I move second questions? All right. Who's going to ask what is transporting dreams? It is a scholarship fund that our support staff bus drivers have created. Oh, that's awesome. Excellent. Oh, trans. I get it. That's what's that's related. Okay.

126Um, all in favor? Opposed? Motion to approve agenda items A and B in accordance with the recommendations from the properties and facilities committee and finance committee. So moved. Second. Questions? All in favor? I opposed. Motion to accept the grant from the Coconut Mountains United Way for East Straburg Area School Districts summer steam program in in the total amount of $4,500 via donation from Wayne Bank. So moved. Second. Questions? Abstain. I abstain. Not that we have to, but we we do two abstensions. Uh with that, all in favor? I I pass with two abstensions. Motion to approve the agreement with Miller Engineering concerning emergency remediation work on the Bushkill Elementary underground fuel oil tanks and to authorize the administration to submit a claim to the Commonwealth's underground storage tank indemnification fund for the remediation work and

127any additional applicable expenses. Second. Questions? I. All in favor? Opposed? Okay. Motion to approve the 2526 insurance renewal package from our broker Angel Hamre and Davies Inc. totaling 1,25,698 across all lines of coverage in accordance with the recommendation from the finance committee. I move second questions. I just wanted to say thank you because it was higher much higher at the finance committee meeting. So thank you for getting that number down a couple you know. Yeah, Pete. Thank you. $15,000 almost that went down. So, thank you. Okay, good. Hence, the increase in the budget. All in favor? Opposed? Motion to approve the contracts listed for their specific services, rate, and effective date subject to the review and recommendations of the solicitor and approval of the administration regarding the terms and conditions of any final contract other

128than price for cost. So, move second. questions. All in favor? I uh do we have any new business? Okay. Motion. Uh the enrollment reports have been given to the board members and then we only need a motion for an adjournment. Motion. Our meeting is Thank you.