001for a long time, so that's fantastic. When do we get the stream going and finish up these one or two things that I've done? I want to follow up. All right, we're moving. How's it going, Harry? How's it How's the streaming? I'm on a roll. Okay. Yeah, but I got that's the whole thing with that I'm on. I was thinking. Yeah, people are texting me saying this. Okay. All right, we're good now. Allison? Mr. Marco? Yeah. Excellent. Uh one other thing that you'll notice on here and I want to make sure this is uh aware to folks before they we move through public comment. Uh we do have added items to this agenda uh that were not a part of the uh agenda last night. Uh what would have to happen here is the board
002would have to vote to add to make an addendum to this and add it to this meeting and then adopt a resolution. The purpose of this resolution is to allow the district to submit that facilities improvement grant uh because we won't have a meeting next week it wouldn't meet the deadline uh because our meeting is not next week but two weeks. Uh we need to do it today. So, if anybody has any questions, please let me know. But I just want to make everybody aware of that. That's all I have. Thank you. Uh I have one comment uh one comment I wanted to follow up with um Director Conic Conic, sorry. You guys' names are very similar. Um yeah, I've been working with you uh from the last time that we met you had expressed
003some concerns about classroom size, things of that nature. I just wanted to make sure I followed up. Uh Mr. Conic has a lot of that information. If you haven't received it all by now, um just want to make sure that we, you know, you mentioned in public comment I want to earn public setting I want to make sure that you are aware that we're following up with uh answering all the questions so that you have everything. Absolutely. And middle school and high school just to just add to that, middle school and high school is also very far along in their schedule as well. So, we're going to get some good opportunities for our seventh and eighth grade kids to possibly Uh you know, have some access to foreign language uh at the eighth grade level
004in exploratory which would help you know, increase the the volume of folks in those programs uh and just some help. I know we've been struggling with middle school kids getting help with after school. I would like to get them in those classes as well as well as some access to the more elective courses instead of a really prescribed version that they have now which is really probably more appropriate for sixth grade but not as appropriate for seventh and eighth grade. So, we're going to give eighth grade kids a good transition to their high school level more opportunities to kind of have some choice in their their plan. Thank you. All right, uh we're going to move to uh public comment. Director Palora, if you could come on up, please. Missy Haynes. If you could state
005your address, please, for the record. 882 Singletree Drive, Elizabeth, PA 15137. Address 7. Something doesn't add up. Um I'm here cuz I just came up in the last 10 minutes. So, I just looked at the agenda in the last 10 minutes. So, I'm like, yeah, I need to clarify some of these things. Um when you get to the discussion on 5.7 for the two electronic display boards for the high school gym lobby for $72,000, really like a detailed explanation of the capabilities of this, the purpose of this. Um when I think display board, I just think that like we've always done a nice job around here giving information like at Central with the board and out here at the board. Um $72,000 for two boards is basically the equivalent to uh new teacher salaries. And
006I guess to my second point, I have been planning to come up this week on behalf of the teachers. Not on behalf of them, but on behalf of myself for them. Um you know, I know you're working on negotiations and everything and I don't think I have to tell you I think it's pretty well known where we stand in terms of disparity of other districts of similar demographics, similar size. Um but the achievements we're pretty high achieving and and that is due to the work of our staff and our teachers and we have a fantastic administration and I've made that known. And I still think that you all earn every penny that you earn and it's well deserved and you've done so much. And the teachers also deserve that and it's time. Like it's time
007and I guess it's not at a great time but I trust you'll do your due diligence with everything and take all this into consideration. Um you know, I know there's a lot going on but this cannot like go to the wayside and this cannot be well We see everything that's going on with the construction, reconfiguration. I mean you're changing everything they're doing in the next I know it's exciting and and everything that's happening and all the changes but I mean these are big changes for teachers. You're changing buildings Central like it's hard for me to think that that's not going to be I Central you know, my kids it's going to be all different. It's going to be an emotional time. The staff, the students, the community. So, just respect the process and please do
008what is right and make a difference. Um that's all I wanted to hear about the boards. I'm done with it. I'm done. I'm listening. If I can speak to that, uh we do have Matt Hoff, our our director of information technology, as well as some representatives from the company with the with the thing. So, I almost like I knew your question was coming. Uh we also This is also uh an option that we're presenting to the board. Uh there are other options that we can accommodate. Okay. That's fine. That's all I have. Mr. Hall. Please state your address, please. 104 Brandon Drive, Elizabeth, PA Thank you, sir. Um first thing um since there was no change orders presented at the um facility meeting last night, are we going to be able to ask questions on
009anything that you know, comes up and um cuz it was stated that it would all be presented tonight. Yeah, I'll allow that. I mean, as providing they're within the perimeter and direct to what we're speaking about. Yeah, no problem. Uh that's great. All right, um as we go forward here I'll give my disclaimer been all along with you know, consolidation and we understand we have to do something and athletics is important for kids. But it shouldn't be a priority. And um our priority so far through phase one has been athletics. And if you look at what we're going to take ownership of on March 31st we already have one of each of the things that we're going to take ownership of. So, we spent a lot of money over the last year and it hasn't
010been on that end a lot for education. Um so when you look at what we started out at when we hired our architect of record we were going to keep the band room and the choir room in the place that we it existed because we were going to keep all the noisy stuff at one end of the building. But I guess we figured we needed a state-of-the-art um weight room more than we needed a band room and a choir room. So, we pretty much kicked all the kids that are involved in music education to the side. They're not going to get what they have until end of next what, October maybe? Um so um when we say it's about education, when we did our presentation with with all the um the three different meetings that
011we had about our consolidation we talked about all the awards this district has received. Um we don't receive those awards without our staff. We don't receive those awards without our support staff that works with our staff. But every time it comes up that um we it comes for them to get rewarded for their hard work we never have the money. And it's showing over the past five years we've probably lost 60 teachers. All of them aren't new teachers. They're going somewhere. They're going places that pay more. Mr. Grub, uh could you give me about 30 more seconds, please, if you could? All right, um Thank you. If if you look at the location of the new auditorium we're going to be talking about building a wall. I'm not sure how the taxpayers should be paying
012for that wall. We chose the only place on the whole 72 acres that we own that the auditorium wouldn't fit. And now because it doesn't fit we got to pick up an extra 130, 150,000 bucks because we got to build a wall. So, I think we should consider holding the people accountable that designed it in a spot that it won't fit. Appreciate it. Thank you. Thank you, John. Um we're Okay, um that concludes public comment. Uh thank you both for speaking, appreciate it. And we're going to go ahead and move to um finance and technology, 5.1. Okay, uh this time of year I take a look at where we're at from a salary, benefit uh tax perspective, remuneration is what it's called. Look at where again, everything that I'm going to talk about is assuming
013that everything is fully staffed all year long. Cuz you just got to look at you there's too much uh play back and forth on if someone leaves and it takes 3 weeks for someone to be uh hired or double vacancies that we have. So, this these numbers assume that everybody is in place throughout the year. So, for this year, what I think we're going to end up with from that perspective is about $36,411,000. And going through contractual increases benefit uh increases, meaning our health benefits we actually had a PSERS reduction. Um and then anytime there's any pay increases, that affects PSERS cost as well as social security. Going from the 36 411 as of and this is as of February, where things were in February, it looks like it's going to be about $37,727,000. So
014to break that down a little bit that is about a $1.3 million increase the salaries, benefits, and taxes. $675,000 of that is related to contractual increases. $441,000 of that is related to the 8.3% medical cost increases. About 7,000 related to dental insurance. We actually had a PSERS rate decrease. That's what the school district has to pay on behalf of every dollar that's spent of 0.41%. That saves us about $87,000. What I talked about the PSERS and the social security related to pay increases, that's about $275,000. Put that all together, it's about a million three or 37,727. That million three, I consider it highly 1,000% that is not going to happen. There's no way. You can't absorb that kind of increase. So we'll most likely be either through attrition, some positions if there's going to have
015to be something's done to bring that number down closer to a $600,000 uh number. Looking at what we budgeted last year, it was 36,574. We're at 36,411. Again, if everything is staffed 100% it's about $162,000 less than what was proposed. One of that is we we combined a reduced uh a high school principal. Medical coverage choice, we had $75,000 a $75,000 hit because of just changes in people's family status and what kind of medical benefits they need. And then employee turnover saved us about $88,000. So again, I talk about this around this time of year there'll be a lot of crunching and looking at different things to get to a budget that actually works. Any questions on that? Uh let's see. The Google Classroom thing. Um and now I see we get as part of
016our audit, there's what's called a single audit whatever it is that the uh um auditor has to do an audit on one of our federal programs. This year they used the cafeteria food service. And we got our report back pretty quickly. The uh PDE said that we pretty much did everything materially right. That's where they always make their opinions. So, we had a good uh report on that audit for our federal funding. Okay, approve the student transportation of America. Um so, this is the proposal for a 5-year contract with STA, our current bus carrier. And um it's an amendment to their existing contract. So the major changes of the contract are one, they provide they proposed a basically a 10% increase in the rate structure. Um we negotiated uh Josh Goodger did a great job
017in talking about like our trips to Steel Center our after school runs, things like that. So, the 10% went down to about 6 and 1/2%. Cuz we were able to negotiate some of those down. Um this contract would also include a they would provide a full service maintenance garage. We used to have to do that on our school property. They would do this on the Route 51 location. They would put it up, they would pay it for it, and they would operate it. Um they would also provide an office trailer that we would put on our Nike site location if that's where we end up our final place for buses. Um and what we have to provide is lighting and the hookups and the propane tank and all that, which we already have the propane
018hookup and all that up there. The other part of this is South Allegheny. So, we're doing this in combination with South Allegheny, not and I haven't told South Allegheny anything about our contract. But because they work together with bus parking and all that for STA, it works or we assume better by having us both agree to a contract. So, for us to get a final contract South Allegheny had to um agree to their terms. Part of the terms are they will park some of their buses on our parking lot and for that, we'll get $30,000 a year. And the last piece is they added um that anything over 235 per gallon for diesel, gasoline, and propane that we would be responsible for. At the time they gave us this gas was about 235. Well, I
019think we all know that's not the case right now, but I think that'll change by the time this comes into play. Propane is at $1.34, which is the majority of our big buses, so we won't have any impact from that. Any questions? Thank you, Bob. Um next item. Speaking of energy, so there's a 3-year contract extension for Direct Energy. That is the company that provides our electric supply. Um and this contract basically agrees to their fixed adders, which is capacity transmission. It's consistent with our current agreement. And it extends it out 3 years where they will buy blocks of electricity basically at the appropriate times when the market's down, but this gives them flexibility. It's also with the AIU with the Allegheny County Consortium. So, a lot of schools use this and they have a
020bigger purchasing power. Item 5.5, we will be having uh brought to the table to approve athletic training tables for the new uh training room for $8,754. Um that is for a taping table and a treatment table. And that is I'm not sure who it's from, but it's on the agenda. It's from Performance Athletic Training. Why so much? Like there's a ton of those out there. How many do we have at that one? That's a tough question. I didn't even share a head with Mr. Ober. 50 bucks. That can there's a ton of options. And that's Okay. Okay, and this uh Mr. Toth will help with these next two items. So, 5.6 is to approve the purchase of the network switches and wireless access points from Link Computer Corporation for the high school auditorium. Um what
021Matt did was he went through a mini bid process through PEPPM, which is kind of like Co-Stars. But the lowest price uh that is 91,852, but he will be able to go through the E-rate process. And it'll save us 60%. Right. So, that number will be closer to $37,000. Again, these weren't part of the original package, so these are things that we um we had to get for the auditorium. Any questions on that from the board for Matt, but Does that fall in the soft cost that was in the >> Owner provided Does that fall in the soft cost of the phase one bids? That was not part of the soft cost. Owner provided items. So, owner provided items. Which I want to pull that together, too. Been adding to it. Can I ask a
022question? Are we are we sure that we're going to get this E-rate funding? Yes. Okay. And then 5.7 is the approval of the two electronic display boards. Um The new high school gym wall lobby from Howard Technology Solutions. And they are Co-Stars, so we bought the Co-Stars, which means government the Mr. Toth, take it away. Yeah. And I was tasked to look into these display boards. Uh one on the main wall as you come through the new entrance. Uh the dimensions would be about 15 ft by 4 and 1/2 ft. Display board there. Uh which was going to be an interactive display board that was going to do multiple things as far as building mapping. If somebody comes in and needs to go to a classroom, we could show them how to do that. Um
023it would also we were going to do a lot with the alumni association and have images and things for that up there. We were also going to do um You know what I mean? We have the as a service. We have that we had that TV that used to have service members that we recognize. Yes. Yeah. And a couple other things. So basically, we were going to do an iPad kiosk situation where somebody comes in the building, they will have multiple selections to either be look up, play videos, uh trophies, see the trophy case come alive, those kind of things. Who's been awarded you know, every trophy for the past however long. So that's basically what the big board was going to do. And then on the side going into the gym, it's a smaller
02411-ft board that is going to broadcast what's going on in the gym while people are outside at the concession stand so that they can eat and and still keep tabs on what's actually going on in the gym. So they can uh still see the event. They can do this type of thing. Plus, we can mirror some of the other options as well for that. When I started looking into this the IU has a board. So I started down there and looked at that. To give you an idea, their board is almost $200,000 just for their board and things. And I knew that was out of the couldn't even look at that. And then I got some other pricing from LG. We've done some things with LG in the past. And that was even very, very
025costly. So when I we were looking at interactive classroom boards, and that's when I ran into Neil and and and these guys, Jason. And we actually have a board that's up at Central that they let us use to pass around to teachers to actually interact with and replace projectors and replace the book reader things and all these other types of things. So we're trying to standardize on that, too. But they when they quoted these prices, the prices this is installed. These prices that are listed um was just phenomenal. The the price point was phenomenal for a 15-ft board and an 11-ft board at the high school. Now, Jason can take over any of the tech aspects of it that you change the subject. Yeah. I'm Jason with Newline, so I appreciate the concerns. Before you
026start, and I don't mean to cut you off. Why do we need an interactive display board? The word display is a display. You buy an 11-ft monitor, and with our technology, you program what you want to display. And I mean, we know the software out there, the apps are out there to make it amazing. You want to stream something from the gym just like we're streaming to the people on the school board, you know, watching the school board at home. Why do we interactive in the classroom? Absolutely. I had a Newline board. It wasn't Newline board. It wasn't Promethean. It was Newline. It was fantastic. I like it. I don't like it for $72,000 for a display in the front lobby. So just for um continuity purposes here, any questions that are among the the
027crowd today, they have to be directed to to us and me so that we can delegate accordingly. Okay. So we're talking about No, you're done. Just let me follow the processes. Absolutely. So no worries. I appreciate the information. One comment that I did want to make on the 26th of March, I believe it was, uh we had an athletic No, no, not 26th of March. When did we meet? Finance and Technology. The Finance and Technology Uh we we did go through the 19th. Thank you very much. We did go through a lot of this stuff, too. And I and I just kind of want to reiterate the the importance of these committee um um these yeah, committee meetings because we do go through these with pretty great depth. Um you know, just I love the
028questions here. I love the interaction. Just want to make sure that other people know that we are doing these meetings. It's important to participate in these meetings. We want you guys to be engaged. We want you to be heard. We want to be able to make sure that we have the information that we have, you have. So just, you know, moving forward, pay attention to the the dates on the committee meetings and make sure that you are in attendance with them as well. But thank you. And I And then let's let let's let that We we were trying to move to the yeah. I told you. Let them know, please. Well, I I Were there any specific questions that I can answer from a technical perspective? I don't have any questions. Is it protected? If
029somebody an angry away fan gets mad and leaves and throws their bleacher seat, like Yeah, it's a it's a great question. So one of the reasons that we choose this display like this in a public setting is because it is not your typical glass that you see in a normal display. It is a hardened surface that is meant to withstand everyday public experiences, especially an angry fan from an opposing team. So yes, the short answer is yes. And so this big one, the one that's the larger amount, it will What's it going to do? Is it going to talk talk Tell us about the board? Yeah, if I could just if I could just tell you just tell them the stuff we did during the League of AA School visit. Um during the League of
030AA School visit, we were able to find out that that Keynote, which is an an Apple product, uh what it does is it really serves. And I I I have a friend at uh uh Avonworth who's who's paying a large amount of money for this same service, but we're able to do it with our Apple product. If you have a Keynote, you can put up a screen that says every year's Hall of Fame. And if you touch the iPad, if you touch [clears throat] that, it will take you to the next screen, which will tell you about each of those members and provide you with information. Uh so Hall of Fame folks, we could do it. Uh some of our our professional folks who have left and become professional, the Hall of Fame also talks
031about all those people and you know had incredible academic achievements and and our Hall of Fame really goes with that, not just including athletics. It talks about those people that have gone out and you know, were went to Princeton and was a lawyer for the for the uh the defense department. Uh so those are things that we could do. Also, some of those trophies that were not needed now to display, uh some of those record wins. So it's really a place where people can come and learn about the district and understand us a little bit better by going through this touchpad that will then display up on the board. So we found a lot of And Rick, you were there. Yeah. Um we had our event here for League of AA Schools at the middle
032school uh gym. It was very uh the user interface was very nice. The information was very um at your fingertips, very much available. And you could cycle through a lot of different things, which is, you know, helps with real estate and things of that nature. On a daily basis. And how If you have you have access? How will people have access? In fact, I can speak to that. But if you remember going back a long time, uh it seems like a long long time ago. But do you remember we inside the trophy case, we put six TVs that were together? Uh does everybody remember that in the in the trophy case as you walk in the front door? There were six TVs that were put together, and we would run um I know that they
033would run daily news. They had that broadcast that they do in the room. That would come up on the screen. Anytime we had an event, they would they would display those things. Any accomplishments that happened in the district uh would be shared on those screens as well for anybody that was coming through. >> Mr. Clark, thank you. Is Keynote the software? Keynote is what that It's uh It's it's PowerPoint for Apple. It's PowerPoint for >> have to have a Newline to run it? You can run it on whatever TV you want. So what's the price on the software? It's No, no, I said that somebody else we were able to do it for free because we used we used the Keynote. This friend of mine doesn't use those things, so he was going to pay
034a company to get him some software to do it. And iPads, that will be used to interact. We already own those. Yeah, we did use one of ours that we had down So we don't have to No iPads on the Newline board. Is there one that we can Do you have any installed in in the area that that if the board wants to see? Uh there's similar technology in the area. Uh I can speak to what we've done nationally. So we've done these nationally. We can certainly provide some references for you. SEACC has touch screens at their college. I go there, so they have stuff that you can click and see where to go in the building. This is we don't have visitor We we actually discourage that. So I I'm just I'm just wondering,
035you know, visitors that come to a basketball game or a a musical, I guess they wouldn't even go that way for the musical. I guess anybody who goes to a musical would they be exposed to it? They they use our other entrance. So I'm just trying to figure out who would actually have access to it. I know in the past, and you know, I've seen this on where they you you integrate several inexpensive flat screen TVs. Have you done that in the past? Have Do you feel that that's an option? You know, you you'll see where guys they have a whole wall of televisions and they integrate it to it's it's one TV when they're done. Uh did you do it? Did you look into that option at all? Can I say something on that?
036Let's let Let Mr. Please let Mr. Austin. We had that. Yeah, that's I just say simply my answer. We had that. I mean, it was So, this again this is the importance of the committee meetings. And this is just for discussion right now. It seems that with the engagement that we have on this, not that we're looking for alternative options here, but we should certainly you know, investigate other things to look at. And uh Mr. Koth has already talked about some alternative options. Right. And I just want to make that information available because this in my opinion now Mr. Koth has done his due diligence on this. May I say something at the committee meeting, Greg? I was at the facility meeting. And [snorts] it was this this was discussed there, but it was it
037said that Matt would make a presentation at this meeting. So, I took that we were going to be able to ask questions. I didn't realize that it was at a different committee meeting because there's no agenda put out for what we're going to put talk about at committee meetings. So, I can't speak to that cuz I wasn't I'm not on that committee. I don't know. I just was on the one with the Well, I was at the facility meeting also and it was on there. And it basically was just said it was 72,000 and not nothing was really said and that Matt would be here to discuss it. Well, we're going to be giving some additional information. >> But and just to make a comment, you know, 5 minutes ago Al said 1.3 million. And
038we can't we can't hit that number and we're going to struggle and then couple agenda items later it's 72,000 per board. I know. We We're beyond public comment. I know. I'm just saying, you know, I really do appreciate comments and information, but you know, we have to do it during public comment or we have to do it at meetings. We got to make sure that we kind of keep raining this in a little bit. I apologize. May I just make my comment? So, when I talk about the numbers, there's two two buckets. There's the buckets the bucket of the construction side, which I'm keeping all in fund 39. Help better keep track of it. And then there's the operations side. The construction side of everything that is spent, the contracts we're into, the savings from
039reconfiguration, that's going to be all contained within self. The operations side is the revolving yearly operations that we have to manage as we go. And I'm not saying we would purposely spend any money, but I'm saying they are two different buckets. Well, any additional questions or comments will be uh available after the meeting. Speak with Al about this. Thank you. Okay, moving forward section 6 education and grants. I want to give you just a couple shout-outs to some of the events that have been happening in the district recently. So, currently we're working on a comprehensive plan. As many of you know, 2023 was our comprehensive plan and 3 years have passed by that quickly. And this is something you have to do every 3 years. This is from the state and it's essentially it's a
040roadmap that focuses on continuous improvement, student achievement, you know, operational efficiencies. So, we're currently working on that right now. Mr. um Konic will be sending out invites to faculty and family members to be a part of the team. And we'll meet with them and just kind of get some input from the community on you know, some of the things that they think could look like, you know, places that you know, they would like to see us go. And we share a lot of information at those meetings as well as far as like current stats with you know, staff and students and um and data with achievement and that sort of thing. So, that that ends up being a lot of meaningful So, just look for that. A letter was sent out to all the families.
041We have the PSSAs and we have the portal here. So, the teachers have been preparing that for that all year long. So, we're looking forward to seeing our students you know, results and so they can demonstrate their learning. Read Across America was all last week. So, the elementary and middle schools planned activities every day. There was special guest readers in the classrooms. There was a reading rivalry competition. Both schools students came up to the elementary building. So, it's a really great way to connect the two buildings and also put a strong focus on reading, which is so important. Kindergarten fun nights, those are our yearly fun nights that we have for incoming kindergarten students. So, those are going to be held throughout the next couple of months. Flyers have been sent out. So, please anyone
042who might know somebody that has an incoming kindergartner to please encourage them to register. They can do that now. Our elementary schools Mr. Marco was here participated in a unified robotics competition at Hopewell High School. So, that was a very successful event. She was there with the gang along with them. Them and that is for anyone that doesn't know what the unified robotics program is, that's um program that encourages students that are neurodivergent to couple with students that are not. And they they build robots. I mean, we do the vex competition. So, there's a real collaboration between the two of them and it's really encouraging neurodivergent students to participate in STEM. So, let's see. Among voting earned a community impact award. And then Central received the unified team award. So, again that's a really great
043event. Kids were really excited for and about that. >> Could you please share with us the competition that those elementary kindergarten So, I do want to I do want to point out that our elementary teams competed primarily against high school and middle school students. And two of our elementary school teams made it into the top 10 against high school and middle school. So, we have a really great program going on and I'm really really proud of of them. And a lot of the fifth graders, we started this program last year and to see them as fourth graders move up to be fifth graders and take leadership roles in the competition. And you could really see them thrive this year and they're really excited about it. So, they did a great job. Mr. Konic is presenting
044that at the lead video. Yeah. We're we're trying to spread that beyond just the the region. We're working with a school in um Ferry Hills, North New Jersey to get a a unified robotics program in their school. Uh through some grant funding through the Grable Foundation. So, we're really excited. We're going to talk about that at our meeting meeting this week. Thank you. Sorry to cut you off there. I didn't get that out of me. No, no. I'm glad you brought I'm glad to hear from you. So, PNC partner program at the high school. So, many of you already know we do this every year. So, this really partners our high school students with community members about to learn about financial literacy and career readiness. So, that's always a very successful event that they have
045up there. The high school hosted their ninth grade curriculum night. There were well over 60 parents in attendance. So, you know, all of our teachers, a member of each department was in um in um present to talk about you know, some of the upcoming offerings that the students will be able to classes that they'll be able to take and kind of what's to come in the next 4 years. So, that was a great event to see some of the families show up for that. And then I just our fifth grade choral performance at the middle school. So, that was that was at the end of last month, but I don't think we were able to give a shout-out to that. I did want to give a big shout-out to our music department for that event.
046You know, they gave a performance to the students at the middle school during the day and then there was an evening performance, but it really does take a team effort to bring all of them together. Yeah, I made it to the evening event. I think Mr. Cummings you came and Mr. Adams we left a committee meeting here and went downstairs. It was absolutely phenomenal. Yeah. The band played with Mr. Cook in the beginning. Yeah. And then this Dr. Villaran came up to help out the kids. She played the piano for our kids. Yeah, they're all there. Mrs. Mrs. Folks and Mrs. Hoffman were Kothman were there. It was it was really They were very good. And the place was packed. It was packed. Yeah. That was really exciting. They did a great job. And then
047finally obviously there's so many things that happened, but just some of the like long versions of these things. The middle school starts their spirit week next week. So, it is a St. Patrick's Day theme. So, that's good. So, please look for pictures on social media. I'm sure they'll be blasting them out all day. So, that'll be great. To move on to 6.2, the board is asking to approve the 26-27 Allegheny Intermediate Unit program service budget in the amount of $2,042,600. This budget supports a variety of regional services provided to school districts in Allegheny County including professional development, curriculum support, and specialized student services. So, the total contribution from Allegheny County School Districts is $1,984,523 with the estimated fourth school district estimated to share $26,217. So, it's basically a pot that everybody chips in and then
048everybody benefits from them. 6.3, the board is asked to approve the agreement with West Mifflin School District and Delta Education for the placement of special education students through the 2025-2026 school year. This agreement provides the district with additional placement options. So, if the student is experiencing crisis, needs additional support with mental health and education, this is another option. So, we currently do not have any students attending this program, but it's an option if we did. 6.4, the board is being asked to approve Mr. Konic's attendance at the Forum for Western Pennsylvania School Superintendents Spring Conference in Bedford Springs. There's no cost to the district. All expenses are covered through the district's membership dues. And 6.5, the board is asked to to the Elizabeth Forward High School Technology Student Association students and Miss Anna Campbell, the
049TSA sponsor, to attend and compete in the 2016 PA TSA State Conference at Seven Springs. The registration cost will be $840 paid for by the district funds, but the students will be um responsible for all other expenses related to the conference. And obviously, approval is subject to the state of the nation at the time of the event. Finally, 6.3, the board is being asked to approve um Miss Adele Is it Kwasny? Somebody say that. What you say? Kwasny? Kwasny. I'm for her to see I know that. Kwasny. Kwasny. Kwasny. She's an instructional aide at William Penn Elementary School. If you're out there, Adele, sorry that I misspelled both your names. Um to attend the NEA ESP ESP National Conference uh at Anaheim, California from March 26th to the 30th. The conference provides um professional learning
050and I know she was um nominated for an award. She was selected to receive a scholarship. So when I called her, I said, "Well, tell me about this scholarship." She said, "Well, I'm gaining interest in union proceedings and what's going on with support staff." And she said, "They chose me." And they're [clears throat] paying for her costs to go out there. Yeah. So um we're just asking the board to acknowledge that she is permitted to go on this trip no cost to the district. Congratulations, Adele. Yes, definitely. All right. Uh section seven, facilities and transportation construction updates. I think we have uh as we always do with these, we have uh Mr. Maclane and Mr. Maceo. Oh, Mr. Maceo is back there. You want to Who wants to go first? I'll give you an update
051on where we're at. We'll have uh updates on construction of the high school. Mr. Maceo to start and then we'll move to Mr. Maclane. The weather currently is far as phase one and in the uh sidewalk portion, the weather started to break a little bit up there. Not tonight, but uh we're getting ready to start sidewalks and curbs and and preparing for paving. Uh pavers tentatively scheduled for the end of the month. Start the access roads coming up from 48. Uh interior-wise, uh the um locker rooms and surrounding areas are on the first floor expected to be ready at the end of the month. Uh currently, lockers are being installed. Uh PA systems are being completed. Some Dura Tile flooring is getting done along with uh VCT. And the electrician started installation of backup generator
052uh so we can relocate the existing generator so we can start phase two. As far as the auditorium goes, uh they're still continuing on framing and drywall. All the MEP rough-ins. The poured entrance slabs in the entryway doors. Fire protection ongoing. The aluminum storefronts and window installation started. Upcoming, we're hoping to start getting ready get some asphalt down. Rigging uh for the stage is scheduled to start on the 15th of April. But he was able to move us up. Originally, it wasn't scheduled till June, but he had an opening. He got us in April, so we're kind of rearranging some overhead stuff. So we can get him in there earlier. And uh Yeah, phase two, they're still uh scheduling and coordination with the district. I think we have the initial phasing plan pretty much nailed
053down with Kelly, the principal. So uh that's uh worked out some of the details with the big windows and so forth as far as the structural details. structural engineer Plumbers orders waiting on some materials uh to get start their utility relocations. That's it. That's week I think it's so. I'll get him going on relocating sanitary lines and so. And then we're in the final stages of putting together a master project schedule. some stuff we can accomplish biggest issues are the mostly the weather and We're trying to coordinate this summer activity summer work with the existing parking lot to shuttle people around. So the sequence of work access and traffic Maclane All right. Um as most of you I'm sure are familiar with this format. Um this is the overall cost summary the construction cost summary
054of the phase one project. Um so we have it set up by general contractor and in front of the board um tonight we have uh for their consideration um uh change order number GC C17 for the general contractor in the amount of $229,755.88 And that is in in two parts essentially. It is um a change order as a result of it what what's known as ASI. When we say ASI, that's architect supplemental instruction. We release additional information when it when more work needs to be done. So the civil engineers released what's what's known as ASI 28 and they added additional sidewalks and curbs and therefore storm sewer work, asphalt, and then there was fencing and safety bollards around um the um I believe it's for the gas meter where they we have the um additional
055fencing and bollards. So of that change order of that 229, $89,738.88 is for its part of that ASI 28 um increasing the amount of uh uh sidewalks and pavement. And essentially, in the beginning of the project, there was the um hope that some of the more of the paving and the existing sidewalk would be um existing to remain and be in serviceable shape um you know, to use again. But um the condition of them and the drainage improvements that need to be made reset the elevations of of some of those sidewalks. So there is improvement to the overall um site in terms of paving, sidewalks, and drainage under that um first part of that, which is that um 89,000. Um there was also an ASI 21. You may recall we had down in this estimated
056column for I think it's been the better part of a year now. Um there was the in um information that was determined that the gas company had the incorrect location on their main line that comes along the the road um and it affected the placement of parking and grading in that area. So when field work determined that that gas line was closer to the building than their records had shown, then there was an adjustment that needed to be made. And as you heard earlier this evening, there is the requirement for a retaining wall there because to excavate the way it would have to without the wall would expose that gas line. And if there was considerable effort spent trying to negotiate with the gas company to pay for them to move that line in the
057event that that might be a savings overall, but um they refused on on the request for that. Um so that line stays where it is and we have to deal with it um in the way of the civil engineer we've got here. And that um work all of that included in there is for the um the there's grading, retaining the retaining wall itself, associated safety fencing, and all the excavation backfill, and drainage. And that's adds to this change order $17. So that's the change order GC17 for um for the general contractor. That's right. Real quick, I'm trying to follow along with the attachment on the agenda. Can you just look I it's it's different. And I think that could be if if you if what we did, if I'm not mistaken, was we updated this
058sheet so that you may have been showing um GC18 as well. Is that the change we're talking about? The the one in red, it only goes to GC16. Um Oh, that might be last That that should be a dated one then maybe. I'm not sure if or we or if we had a typo on there. I'm not sure, but if if I was thinking that the one you had might be showing GC18 or was it just with this one? This one is 16. Yeah. So that's that's probably just I have the one that has 18. The yeah, the updated one. So I I apologize if that I that very well came from our office when we sent it to Keith if it was the if it was a dated one. I have a feeling that
059might have been the one either a draft. I think it was either a draft or the one from last last month. I'm not sure. I will I'll work with Mr. Maclane tomorrow and we'll get that straight out. Right. But what we did have There was one version of this where we had a GC18 up here. We moved it back down into the estimated column. This $37,117.50. That's for the limestone rock drilling that we've gone over a number of times here. If anyone has any questions, we can take them, but um there's negotiation going on and still going on on that. We had had um viewed that there was significant improvement in the in the number. We originally were showing it at 70. It then went to 60 by by negotiations that are going on with
060the geotechnical engineers and the contractor and subcontractor. So now we we had gotten it to 37, 117. We're holding that in the estimated column because there's a hope of additional improvement to that. So that a change order, if it comes in, you know, timely way, it would be likely GC-18, which would come in at an improved number of that 37,000. So the one that we have in front of you for consideration now is G is that GC-17. And I think we would have You have a copy of that one in there, too, but that I Can I ask a question on the retaining wall? So this is pertaining to the GC-17, is that what you're asking? Well, the one that the only thing that I have available the number to public, the last thing that
061was posted was from November of last year. Was the last time that the construction was updated, and it was a GC number nine. It was the retaining wall. Is that GC number nine still up? Scroll up and see on GC-9. I'm sorry, if we go up here, GC-9, what happened was there was a number when at the time we wanted to do the wall, and that was before the suggestion to try to get the gas company to move it. So we had that change order queued up. We had to retire that number and take it out of there because as these change orders go forward, the contractors payment applications get updated for that. So if you have a one that's not going to get approved in a timely manner, we had to bump it down
062until such a time when it came back around. So that delay between the time that we asked the gas company for their an improvement to that and didn't get it, that's when we finally brought it back again. So that that GC-9 is a retired number, we'll say. Now that with the fencing and paving, is that involved just with that retaining wall? That's not the other fencing that we're talking about. I believe that we put out a bid Dave, I don't need Dave my dealer ship. The fencing is for the relocated gas meter location. Uh the fencing side increase with regards to the $80,000 number. There's also fencing that had to be installed above the retaining wall due to the site. So I'll say fencing in there. There was a reduction on the asphalt paving associated
063with the retaining wall, approximately $5,000, I believe the number was. With regards to the asphalt paving. Uh do we need a variance from the township to put that fencing out there? What we're going to do here, Mr. Stroup, I've been advised that, you know, additional questions and stuff for the details of this will be after the meeting. We can speak with Dave on that just so that we can get your questions answered so that we can get through the rest of the agenda. Okay, but can I just ask one question, right? GC-17, the additional sidewalks and paving elevations. Is Was that requested by the school board for that? Or is that a architect necessity? We've had multiple conversations. This is the concrete that connects the two new pieces of concrete. This is an option to
064connect those with brand new concrete. That was something that you guys requested. To explore this and get us a number, absolutely. Then it's a break to the board. So and to be clear, GC-17 is not attached. It's still sitting. We'll get that figured out. Maybe actually we have some other uh Um yeah, so that's the GC side of it. On the mechanical side, there was additional information again, an ASI that was released because there's a room that has a unit heater in it in the area of the kitchen, and it was like a at some point a storage room, I think, years ago, but it's now where they they eat I think the staff back in there. There's a unit heater in there that was not picked up on the original drawing, so it's still
065a steam unit heater. So that steam unit heater will be converted like all all of them in the building to hot water. So this is to install that take the old one out, put the new one in, and the piping required for that that unit heater in that space at the cafeteria. And then there's also an exhaust fan and ductwork because in the new band room, there's an IT closet that was created because in the completion of the wiring for the IT for the new auditorium, the runs from the existing IT closet out to the end devices that are out there exceeded the advisable limits for the copper, you know, for the cat uh six fiber. Is that what it is? Yeah, fiber. For the fiber wiring. So there's an IT closet that's being installed
066there. That IT closet has some heat generation because of the mechanical racks that are in there, so we're adding an exhaust and ductwork to that. So that change order HC-7 is for that added work for Lugailly Mechanical, uh $15,921.37. Um Then we have nothing on the plumbing. On the electrical, there's a change order of number EC-9, which is 4,320, and that is again related to that data closet. It's for the wiring for that new data closet as long as as well as the wiring and electrical work associated with the exhaust fan and the unit heater that are being put in by the mechanical contractor. So those are both tied to what is ASI-32, which added it it it got that heater in there, the exhaust fan, and the IT closet. So that's the summary. So
067then front of the board this this month for consideration of approval is that $249,997.25 of potential change orders given your approval. Summary prior to this is here at the bottom of this page. I think if we go to the next page, um we see that that at the top, I think that um that same summary is repeated. So this is what has been approved already. If you then add to it the pending ones that we have in front of you this month, you'll then have the the total change orders approved to date of $1,103,162.97 against your contingency of 5%, you have a remaining contingency of 1.9 million, and you've used 36.62% of your contingency for the project, and then your percentage of all change orders relative to the total budget is at 1.83%. And then
068like we always do, this is the summary of completion by way of payment request. Most recent payment request from the contractors of percentage is complete on the project. Are there any questions? Yeah, thank you. It's exciting to see that number still not creeping up and we're nearly The numbers at the bottom are creeping up to almost 100, and that number is still 36% of our contingency. Yeah. Mr. Blair, I'm sorry, I did have one question. With the exhaust in the data servers and everything, you said it's in the band room, right? No, I'm sorry, corridor room. In the corridor room. Closet in the corridor room, which will now have some IT. So is it going to be loud? I don't believe so. No, Matt can Matt can answer that. Just a reminder, got to have
069the You said a question. I know. I I just I I've been advised differently. I was trying to be nice and cheap but to have it on the record. Those questions are intended to come from the board at this point. So it's correct. Correct. When he asks, "Are there any questions?" it's basically for the board to ask questions. Um moving on, 7.2. Keep those SPA. Yeah. Um I don't know about Al, you got to adjust the Yeah, as in any drivers room, that will be updated for the resident or the payment. Okay. Um and I believe the last thing to discuss is section 14 policy. Yeah, do we 13.1 or are we able to 13.1 is under special today. Yeah. Uh Dr. Seritsky, if you want to talk about the updates to the preparedness plan.
070Yeah, this is something that was done several years ago. It is an internal document for our staff in case of an emergency related to weather, related to death of somebody, related to anything that, you know, can go awry in a school district. I had the Elizabeth Township police look at it. I had the Elizabeth Township emergency management coordinator look at. I worked with our safety officers on it, and um it's it's a it's a nice document that, you know, if if a new teacher comes on board, oh my gosh, what do I do? You know, it's it's I don't say it's a checklist, but it's a guide to assist all of our staff members, including principals, administrators, Mr. Konic, Dr. Perry, what do we do in certain emergency situations. So I'm asking the board to
071recognize this revision to the preparedness plan. Perfect. Thank you. Uh that will conclude the committee of the whole meeting. Um as far as new business or discussion, we're going to move to the new business section. This is what Policy. Policy, yeah. Forgive me. Oh, that's that's section 14, section 14. I'll take 14.1. We had a We had a homeless McKenzie at Vento audit through the state government. I want to really commend Lori Rogers, our social worker, who is our homeless liaison, as well as Mary Myers, who is our PIMS coordinator, who provides all the data. We had a virtual call with those folks. They were very impressive and Mrs. uh Mrs. Rogers does a fantastic job with this, as well as Mary Myers. They found absolutely very few issues with any of the work that
072we have done. We will receive those final that photo scores, but the only check that they did have is that that the policy needed to be updated. This one will be updated and we will then be I believe in 100% compliance and meet all the expectations of that audit. So, we're asking folks to do that at the recommendation of that audit process. The next one, 14.2, is adoption of the policies for foreign exchange students, class rank policy graduation, searches, and medications as presented. Any discussion on any of those? This is the second reading and we're looking for adoption of those next time next week or 2 weeks from now. Any Any questions on those? I know there were some questions. I guess I'm still not understanding why there's no self-administration. And I will We did
073some research with that. I talked to Mrs. Mrs. Turpin. So, Mrs. Turpin, will you want to speak to it? There There's some code there that speaks to what they need to be able to demonstrate in order to do that in the school code. So, will you want to share that? All right. So, I'm going to look at my screen at the same time. And I can provide this in writing I I think separately. But, school code section 14-14-14.1. So, many of these policies, right, from PSBA are driven by changes in in statutes. And at times there are like you know, there's there's the statute itself and then there's the distillation of those into our policies that they that they recommend for you. So, from the school code itself, it charges the the law charges the
074school nurse with determining whether a student has an understanding for self-administration. So, I think there and that applies both to uh to the EpiPens and the asthma inhalers. There is a little bit of a difference for for diabetes medications and treatment like even in the statute itself. And so, we do want to We're going to take a last look at that and make sure that there's not something that needs to be tweaked. The assessment, though, is is to determine that the it's not to determine the student's health. It's not to determine whether or not the the student is allowed to have it. It's simply that they understand the the process and procedures that their doctor has indicated for them. And then if they did and if the there seems to be an ambiguity, the school
075nurse can reach back out to the doctor and just say, "Hey, I've done this very procedural check, right, internally and want to provide you with this feedback." But, ultimately, we follow the doctor's orders in in our school buildings. And and and then it is not a separate medical evaluation of any sort that that we're asking our certified nurses to to do for students. I This is Mr. Rubio, this is your EpiPen, what do you do with it? Yeah. That's all. And then that protects the kid and then if there's an issue, then then we can reach out to the parents. It was just the way coming off. The generic word assessment, it doesn't it's it's mushy and leaves some some room. So, we can certainly talk internally if there if there is something just locally
076to provide clarity to that, but certainly we're going to follow the law and the the law points us in that direction. Thank you. You're welcome. Thank you. Okay, we're cleared out. I appreciate that. All right. We're going to move to section 15, new business. Um Mr. Reagan, if you'd be kind enough to uh we'll do a roll call here. Um so, uh we are going to vote Uh yeah, so first I need a motion to approve the additional agenda item 15.2 to the March 11th, 2026 Committee of the Whole School Board meeting. I figure motion. Follow the vote. I got I got to do a roll call. Yeah, I got to do a roll call. We need a motion and a second to get you Follow the vote. Yeah. Second. There you go. Director Allen.
077So, you would do a roll call, but if you're voting on 15.1 15.1 that I just did the roll call. >> to the agenda. Yes. I just So, go through everybody. I just go through everybody. Director Cummings. Yes. Director Evans. Excuse. Excuse. Yeah. Director Ferrara. Yes. Director Henry. Excuse. Director Horning. Yes. Director Novesel. Yes. Director Shardy. Yes. Director Stover. Yes. Motion carries. Thank you. So, we're going to proceed to section I'm sorry, item 15.2, adopt resolution 003 Elizabeth Forward School District approving the public school facility improvement grant as presented. Again, this will be Yeah. Good. Thank you. This will be a roll call vote as well. Mr. Allen, Director Allen. Yes. Director Cummings. Yes. Director Evans. Excuse. Director Ferrara. Yes. Director Henry. Excuse. Director Horning. Yes. Director Novesel. Yes. Director Shardy. Yes. Director Stover. Yes.
078Motion carries. Thank you. And uh do I have an adjournment? I move to adjourn. All right. Motion. I move to adjourn. All in favor? Aye. Thank you for coming. Appreciate everybody. Aye. I move to adjourn. All right.