001Good evening and welcome. Uh the purpose of this meeting is to conduct the business of the Gettysburg Area School District. Board director meetings and committee meetings are open to the public but are not public meetings. All school district residents who wish to make public comment should sign in prior to the start of the meeting and request to speak during citizens participation. School district residents wishing to speak to the board shall do so only during the citizen participation section of the meeting. Public comment is always welcome and all issues will be referred to the appropriate board committee or administrator. Comments will be summarized in the official board minutes which will be available by contacting the business office. Please take a moment to silence your cell phones and other electronic devices. All of our uh board members
002are accounted for um except for Mike Dickerson who is excused this evening. Please stand for the pledge 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. All right, we are starting under notices and communications um with unless there are questions on 3.1 to 3.4. Any questions? Okay, then we are on 3.5 the ACTI presentation. I believe Mr. Eken wrote it here is here. Welcome. Thank you and good evening everybody. Now I'm on. Uh thank you for uh having me here tonight. Um several months ago, uh ACTI and the superintendent and the joint operating committee, um heard some discussion in the community that, uh we weren't providing enough information or good
003information and there was some feeling that, you know, we weren't being transparent. So, we decided to come up with a plan to make sure that that wasn't the case. So the first thing we decided to do was on October 16th, we had a community information session for ACTI expansion that was held at the Gettysburg Haria High School auditorium and uh Dr. Perry and I had about a 45minute presentation that we gave to the public. Uh we did not give the opportunity to ask questions at that session. That was by design. We just wanted to get the information out there, let everybody digest it. And then the second part of that communication was to do meetings like this. We would come to individual schoolboard meetings and we would very briefly review the presentation we gave on
004October 16th and then give you all a chance to ask questions and we waited till January because we knew the elections were coming and we knew we would have some new schoolboard members. So we wanted to make sure the new members got information as well. So uh that's that's my reason for being here tonight. Um, also to foster better communication, we created a long-term planning web page on our main website. Uh it's easily accessible under the information section and you can go there and find a little bit of history about career and technical education, a little bit of history of ACTI and before that Adams County Tech Prep and uh you can get a summary of what we've done so far to uh try to expand ACTI and and offer more career and teched to
005our students here in Adams County. Um and also along with that I started doing a monthly newsletter. Uh my report that I give to the joint operating committee every month is in the form of a newsletter and then as soon as that meeting is over the next morning I send that newsletter out to all schoolboard members. So I have all of your new email addresses. So you all should be getting that that monthly newsletter at the end of the month after the joint operating committee meeting. So, um, I'll just very briefly I'm I'm not going to go through this whole presentation because that would take a pretty long time. Um, but I just wanted to kind of go through the slides and make sure everyone kind of knew what we presented at the October 16th
006meeting. So, uh, first of all, we just kind of talked about ACTI and what we are, what we do, and, uh, the programs that we have at at ACTI to offer high school students. We talked about the benefits of career and technical education, of which there are many. Uh if you do any kind of research at all in career and technical education, uh I know I'm a little bit biased, but I think you'll find that career and technical education is one of the best things going in our public education system. Um so there are there are reports and organizations that promote career and technical education studies that have been done. Parents, students, business leaders all agree that career and technical education is a valuable part of our education system. Um students are satisfied with their
007experience in career and technical education. And one of the things we like to talk about is the one ratio. And basically what that means, we'll use the medical profession as an example here, but this basically applies to any career field that you take a little deep dive into. The numbers aren't exactly like this, but they're all around this ratio of 127. And what that means is for any career field, there's one person that needs a advanced degree, a four-year plus degree, a master's degree, a doctorate degree. So in the medical profession, think of your PhD, your doctor. And then there are a couple folks that need a four-year degree. Think of your nurses, uh, people like that. But then in that same career field, there are seven careers out of 10 that don't require any
008kind of four-year degree. It might be a two-year degree, might be a tech school education, it might be just an industry certification like an EMT or something like that. So, uh, our point here is that, um, not everyone needs a four-year degree. uh you can have a very satisfactory career and standard of living with uh some technical training and a two-year degree or something like that. So that's that's what that means. Uh we talked about how career and teched works for students and works for our communities and local business and industry. We talked about career and technical education in Pennsylvania. Basically, in Pennsylvania, you have what are called approved programs. And the first part of that list there, the top twothirds of the screen, those are basically the hoops we have to jump through to
009get our programs approved through the Department of Education. So, there's a lot of work that goes into what we do before we can even offer one of our programs. If we jump through all those hoops and have good quality programs, then uh we get some financial benefit from it. We get some subsidies, we get some grants from both the state and the federal level. So, it's worth it to do that work. Then we got into career and technical education in Adams County and took a closer look at this map and it's kind of hard to see, but uh this little crossroads right here, that's Route 30 and Route 15 just down the road from us. And you don't see ACTI on this map because ACTI didn't exist until about five years ago. We had our
010tech prep programs for a number of years, but uh we didn't have a fully countywide career in technical school like most other counties had. Most other counties have had their schools for 50 years and ACTI has been around for about five years. Then we took a look at um some data and this I'll spend just a little bit of time on this. I think this is important. And if you look at the size of Adams County, out of 67 counties, we're number 31 populationwise. And so that's kind of middle of the road. Um, if you look at our high school population, grades 9 through 12. We're also kind of middle of the road. And that's the yellow line going across there. We have about 3,500 students in the five school districts, grades 9 through 12
011that we serve. So that's about middle of the road for uh school districts in Adams County or or career and tech schools in Adams County. Um so this list is a list of all of the tech schools in Pennsylvania, the countywide tech schools, and we fall in the middle there. If we sort through the number of high school students in the participating districts, if we look at the number of programs available in the tech school, that yellow line drops right to the bottom of the list. So even though we're about middle of the road for how many students we're trying to serve, the number of programs we offer to those students is way at the bottom of the list. We're down there, the line in green is Fulton County on the other side of Franklin
012County. They have about 500 students in grades 9 through 12 and they have seven programs for their students. We have 3,500 students in grades 9 through 12. We have seven programs for our students. So uh I don't like being at the bottom of that list. Um, and then some of these are just some other looks at data that are similar. If you compare us to the the tech schools that surround us, Franklin County to the west, Cland Perry to the north, and York County to the east, you can see how many programs and students those schools serve here in Adams County. That's about the footprint of our little building next to the Gettysburg Area High School. Um, and you might say, well, those those schools and counties are much bigger than ours. And that's true,
013but the closest one to compare us to is Franklin County. They're about one and a half times the size of Adams County, but they have over three times the number of programs, and they serve over four times the number of students in those programs. So, um, I I think we should have more programs to offer our students. The programs that we do have are good. We presented some data about how well our students do and how good our programs are. Um some more data on our students. Uh the columns in yellow here tell us that about 58% of our students go right to work after they graduate and about half I'm sorry about 50% of our students go right to work and about 55% of our students go on to post-secary education. So the old
014myth that if you go to the tech school you can't go to college, that's not true. Our half of our students go to college. So we think we can do better. So um a number of years ago we developed some guiding principles and we had Crabtree Waral do a feasibility study and they analyzed a lot of data related to the workforce needs in Adams County in South Central Pennsylvania. And through a lot of work and discussions, we came up with seven programs that we would like to add to what we have to offer now, which would double the number of programs we have. Um, the educational space was close to 80,000 square ft when we determined how big the labs would have to be. And then of course, we would need offices and uh maintenance
015facilities and stuff like that. So bottom line is they're recommending for 14 career and teched programs they're looking at about 142,000 square foot building. Uh and just for comparison I understand the new Bermudeian Springs Middle School is also about 140,000 square feet. So that's kind of what we're looking at. They looked at a number of different options. Um, right now the joint operating committee is focused on the option where we build all 14 programs in a new facility on a new site all at once. Um, we know the construction costs aren't going to go down. So, the idea of trying to do a little bit now and a little bit five years from now and a little bit more five years from now, it's kind of, you know, it's not going to cost any less
016if we try to do it that way. Um, one thing to keep in mind that is these cost estimates do not include uh some of the site acquisition fees and some of the soft costs and things like that. So the updated numbers here, we asked Crabtree even though this study was done a couple of years ago, we asked them to come back and update the numbers. So the updated numbers we have from them is the total cost for this project would be between 56 and $63 million for the building alone. Um, we know that that's a lot of money. So, the superintendent and I got together with our business managers and ask the question, can we afford this? Knowing that an all-in cost would probably be about $75 million. And the short answer was no,
017we really can't afford $75 million. So, we came back and said, what can we afford? And the answer um seemed to be around $ 35 to $55 million depending on the district. some, you know, they looked at all their upcoming capital costs and decided that that was about what they could afford. So, we figure we have about a $40 million difference between what we'd like to do and what we think we can afford. And some of that we can make up with grants. Uh we know that there's grants available out there to help schools do this type of work. There there are numerous tech schools in Pennsylvania that are doing renovations right now. Uh Cland Perry has a $24 million renovation that they're just getting started on. Um so there's there's grant money out there
018to help us make up that difference. I don't know if we can make up $40 million, but you know, we should be able to do something with that. So we're looking at a smaller project, maybe not 14 programs, maybe 10 programs. We we don't have that figured out yet. And the reason we don't quite have that figured out yet is because we're still looking for a building site and that's that's kind of where we're at right now. We also presented um the way the articles of agreement are written. Each district would pay a percentage of the total costs based on uh a pretty large formula that determines the relative wealth of the district. So you can see Gettysburg there. Um, of all five districts, Gettysburg would have the largest share at 35.56% of the total
019cost. Um, that formula is not set in stone. That formula is in the articles agreement and it could be changed if you know if the discussion continues and someone decides to do something different, that formula could be changed. Then just as a rough idea, we came up with um this is our current operating budget. Gettysburg's share of that budget is about $451,000. Uh if we were to issue a $70 million bond, which we're not we know we're not going to do. We know we can't afford that, but that's what Gettysburg's share annual share of that bond would be. And then if we had to uh up the operating budget for ACTI for 14 programs, that would that's our best guess of what Gettysburg share of that would be. Um $6.8 8 million overall to operate
020ACTI to cover our debt service and our operating costs of a new larger building. That's if you compare with my list from of all the tech schools from a number of slides ago, that's about what a school that has 14 to 15 programs cost to operate in in Pennsylvania. And I know that number is kind of scary and big, but I think in in Adams County, we're just not used to that number. But if you look at what other counties are paying for their tech schools, that's what it costs to do career and technical education. Okay, here's that comparison to similar size schools. We have our seven programs. Um, so if you look at uh some of the schools down here, here's a school that has 13 programs. Jater Greater Johnstown area, 6.48 million, $6.7
021million for Lawrence County CTC. So, um, our estimates are not too far off from what somewhat other schools actually pay. Potential building sites. We've evaluated so far about 11 potential building sites. We looked at a number of different u um aspects of those potential building sites and each one seems to have its own challenges. That's why we haven't been able to settle in one just yet. Uh whether it's utilities like sewer and water or whether there's a lot of vegetation or the location or wetlands or whatever, it just seems like there's there's a um a lot of challenges to finding a piece of land that's suitable for what we're trying to do. And we're not trying to do this alone. We have our partner schools. We're partnering with local businesses. We're talking to legislators. The
022the Adams County commissioners have given us a $500,000 grant to help buy land. There may be some more money available there with that grant. If if we can identify a piece of land and spend that money by December 2026 is when that money runs out. So, we're kind of under a time crunch right now. Um, so that's that was kind of the presentation we gave back in October. So, uh, >> what kind of questions do you have for me? >> Sean, thanks for being here this evening. >> You're welcome. >> Uh, where are we? Uh, there's a rumor that you're thinking about retiring at the end of this school year. So, we were just, uh, curious where I think we're pretty close. uh uh uh if I recall uh to hiring a new executive director.
023Could you give us an update on that? >> Yes. Um we uh we opened the position in November, about mid November. We've had it advertised on our website. Uh Dr. Sharon Perry from Konaga Valley School District, our current superintendent of records, she is leading the search. Uh so it was advertised on their website. We put it out on social media and on on Indeed and everywhere. We have um I think nine applicants and the joint operating committee is meeting in executive session tomorrow evening to look at those applicants and decide who they would like to interview and what the process for hiring a new director would be. Uh I think we have some good candidates to choose from. So >> all right. Thank you. >> You're welcome. Any other questions? >> Okay, Tim, go ahead.
024>> Um, so on your presentation, you said that Gettysburg had the biggest chunk of this. So, and I I find that odd considering that Kanaga Valley is a much bigger school district than we are. So, I'm trying to figure out why we're paying more than Kanaga with a larger school district. >> That's a great question. uh Kwaga Valley School District is a little bit bigger than Gettysburg school district populationwise. Uh however, the formula that's used to determine these percentages is in part based on um the aid ratio of a school district, which is, and I'm probably going to get this wrong, Belinda, maybe you can help me a little bit. It's uh it's the market value divided by median income or something like that. Go ahead. It's m it's multiple factors. Um and so uh
025in terms of what those numbers are, Gettysburg um is obviously different in that calculation simply because um not that I like to um highlight this, but we have more wealth in our district than Kawaga Valley does. So market value income ratio, market value aid, uh enrollment, all is into that factor of providing that number. >> Yeah, like I said that that I don't think the formula is specifically spelled out in our articles of agreement, but it refers to a formula in school code that's used for other determinations like determining how a particular grant gets distributed among school districts. It it's a frequently used formula but it is it's based on rel relative wealth of the district. >> Many of the a many of the technical institutions and across the state use those formula based driven
026data requirements and bill out towards the schools. >> Right. And our our um our operating costs budget formula is a little bit different. Um, so it that's more based on how many students each district sends to ACTI. So you the more students you send, the more the higher percentage of our budget you're responsible for. So a little bit different than that formula. >> Thank you. >> Yep. You're welcome. Sean, also um my understanding is um there's a lot more demand than we can meet at ACTI. >> Approximately over the last couple of years, how many uh how many students that have applied have we are we turning down? Uh I I' I'd be interested in Gettysburg numbers and maybe also if you have any idea how what that number would look like across Adams County.
027I I don't have the uh numbers broken down by district right now, but I can get those for you. Um I can tell you overall over the last several years uh we've turned away 25 to 30% of the students that applied. We have about 150 seats available each year for juniors and typically we've had over the past couple of years, one year we had 206 applicants. Last year we had 193 applicants. So, we turn about 25 to 30% of the students who apply away. And that's that's the way it is across the state. And I think we would have Yeah. I I think if we had more programs, um, obviously we'd be able to serve more students. Um, but I think with a a new school and the promotion that we would do and the
028excitement that it would generate, I think we would still have to turn away students. >> Agree. >> Yep. >> Can I ask a question? >> Yeah, sure. Go ahead, Justine. And then I see you. So, if you were to get the 500,000 by December of next year, which would be great, what would the timeline look like in building and opening the doors, and I know that's probably not an easy question, right? >> I I don't have experience with school construction. Uh Dr. Perry has a little bit of experience with that, and she thinks two to two and a half years, maybe. Uh so, we kind of worked backwards. I forget exactly when we thought, but maybe like the beginning of the 27 28 school year. Um, but it would it would take a couple years
029obviously to to build a school building. >> Ryan, go ahead. >> I'm just looking at your existing programs on slide two and I'm wondering, I mean, it sounds like instead of expansion of existing programs, the the emphasis in the presentation is to have new programs added to them. Are there any examples of new programs that you have in mind? Is there sort of market research from the students or from the county? >> Yes, the feasibility study that was done back in 2023 >> suggested these seven new programs. Um, allied health, we already have allied health, but we every year since I've been here, seven years now, we have over twice as many students apply for allied health than we have seats for. Now, if you remember, uh, some of you weren't on the board at
030the time, but we passed a budget amendment at the beginning of the school year to hire a second allied health teacher. We we've completed that. So, we're now taking 40 students in allied health every year instead of just 20. So, um, we squeeze them all into one classroom over there in that little building. So, we need a second allied health program. So, we've already addressed that, but HVAC, we need advanced manufacturing, some type of a program. Uh, we were thinking a mechanics. Um, but even something, you know, more involved than that. I mean, we're Adams County, right? So, we should have some kind of big a program, automotive technology, welding, and possibly autoc collision repair. Um although I I just read an article the other day that um all these data centers that are being
031built, they're thinking they're they have like an 80,000 person shortage in electricians and plumbers for building all these data centers across the country. So maybe uh electrical occupations would be a good one to add to and this is all based on the feasibility study data that Crabtree Roarbalt conducted. Any further questions? I do have a question. First, thank you for all you've done. You'll be missed when you retire. >> Thank you. You're welcome. >> Uh, that's a statement, not a question, but I do have a question for you. So, if if you're hoping to take advantage of the grant from the Adams County Commissioners, which would have to be done by the end of December of this year. You mentioned, I think, 11 sites that you've been looking at for locations. What's your projection in
032finalizing a location? And then once you do, what kind of support are you looking for from the different school districts to be able to secure the purchase? >> U the initial 11 sites we looked at, most of them have been rolled out. I I' I'd say we're down to about four that we're focusing on. and just talked with the superintendent record about this earlier this week. We're going to get all of that information together in one table, one spreadsheet, pros, cons, all of that, whether utilities available or not. um whether there's wetlands to deal with and you know the joint operating committee's current thought is you know they're willing to pay a little bit more for a piece of land that's ready to go instead of one that we're going to have to mitigate wetlands
033and pay million and a half dollars to get utilities to or things like that. So we're trying to be very thorough in our evaluation of the potential building sites. Um, I would like to have at least something under contract before I retire at the end of June. Um, and I think that's doable. We just we just have to make sure we're pushing forward. Another thing that we did last school year was hire an assistant to the director for me to take over some of the daily school operating responsibilities. And that's been a big help for me this year. So first half the year was spent doing a lot of training, but he's now, you know, kind of taken over a lot of the stuff that I used to have to do that kept me from
034analyzing potential building sites. So um, did that answer your question? Did I hit a null? >> Thank you. >> You're welcome. >> Any further questions? Thank you so much for all of the information you're providing and um and the efforts are really appreciated. Looking forward to the newsletter. >> You're welcome. Thank you. And uh open invitation to anybody if you want to come tour our programs and look at our students and teachers in action. I love to talk about it and show off what we do. So thanks. >> All right, that moves us to 3.6, which is our audit presentation. Welcome Good evening. I'm Tina Gipa, manager on your audit. Uh appreciate your time this evening that we can go over the results of your audit. As you'll notice, you don't have your audit package
035yet. We are still wrapping everything up. Uh we have some small review processes. Belinda's working on a couple things for us to put in your audit, the uh management discussion analysis, and we're waiting on the solicitor's letters yet. So there's still a few steps that we need, but we can still present where we're at. So just to say those bound copies will be provided at a future meeting. So our next is be before we dive into the results, I want to start with the why, what, and where. Why, what, and how just to lay a foundation for an audit. So why does a district need to have an audit every year? Pennsylvania Department of Education requires a independent audit be done to comply with your financial reporting requirements. The federal government requires a compliance audit
036when you spend more than $750,000 of federal funds. And last year, Gettysburg spent about $3.5 million of federal dollars. Additionally, there are requirements for continuing disclosures with your bond holders. So, they require an annual audit. And of course, you the school board in your um fiscal responsibilities, you want to see that everything's been been evaluated. On our next slide says is the what or what we call our scope of audit. So, this slide covers all the funds reported by the district. They're all listed here on the slide. The other part of the the audit is a governmentwide financial statements. And in those governmentwide statements, something you only see once a year in our audit package, presents your long-term assets and liabilities. So that is your capital assets, your long-term debt being your bonds, and I
037think you have one general obligation note, your pension and oped liabilities, and your compensated absences. Our next slide is how do we conduct an audit? So we approach the audit in a three-step process. We plan, we execute and we report. So the first two phases the planning and execution are focused on evaluating controls, assessing risk and then of course verifying the accuracy of the numbers that will appear in the report. Our team performs the necessary testing to ensure the district has the appropriate processes and procedures in place as it relates to financial transactions and reporting in ultimately to ensure the financial statement presentation is accurate. And our final step involves compiling the financial reporting package and issuing our opinions based on the results of our work. So bor and rotor provides three audit opinions in
038your report. One for the financial statements and two related to the compliance audit. The first report is the independent auditor's report over your financial statements which is anticipated to state that the district has received an unmodified opinion on the financial statements noting that they are reported in accordance with generally accepted accounting principles. of course the best possible result uh that you can get and what you would expect to see and I believe what you've seen historically. Then we have our basis for opinions section where we state that we conducted our audit in accordance with the um appropriate auditing standards that were independent of the district and that we've met our ethical responsibilities. The next paragraph is new this year. It's a change in accounting principle and that is for the implementation of Gazsby 101. This
039new standard required a re-evaluation and a recalculation of your compensated absences. That is your employee liability, um, vacation, personal days, sick leave. The new standard has increased what was reported as a liability and it's done that for pretty much every school district that we audit. Then we identify that management is responsible for the preparation of the financial statements and is also responsible for the internal controls related to your financial transactions. Next section is the auditor's responsibilities and we note here that we uh must obtain reasonable assurance that the financial statements are free of material misstatement and to issue our report and again just a note that reasonable assurance is very high. We do not have the capability of looking at every transaction that went through your books last year. And then we have the of
040course the RSI required supplementary and supplementary information. And then the last report references our next report and this is one of our first on compliance. So this is the next slide is our independent auditor's report on internal controls compliance and other matters. In this report, we anticipate providing another unmodified opinion. Specifically, we did not identify any material weaknesses in internal controls over financial reporting. However, we did identify two deficiencies in internal control this year. A significant deficiency in closing adjustments and a compliance finding for delayed filing of your data collection form. And that is the form that has to go to the federal government based on what your federal expenditures were and the results of the audit. In relation to that closing adjustments this year we identified we the auditors identified 11 adjustments plus there
041were eight provided by the business office. Most of the auditor prepared entries were um Gazsby related. So that was just in like the food service fund reporting some of the things that have to be done for the pension and oped and compensated absences fixed assets that kind of thing. We identified two significant general fund adjustments this year. One related to recognition of a deferred revenue plan CUD subsidy receipt that you received that had been on the books for many many years and finally came through. and then one for a new grant that needed to be booked. And again, like I said, the district did not submit the data collection form within the nine-month reporting period, and that was just due to changes last year, which in turn delayed submission of that report. We are on
042track for submission timely though this year. Our next report is the independent auditor's report on compliance. This is the third report and it focuses on your major federal programs selected for testing as part of the compliance audit. This year we tested your special education cluster, which is your IDEIDA funds you receive from your from the intermediate unit, as well as a child nutrition cluster, which is all of your school breakfast and lunch and donated commodities combined. Those two programs accounted for about 1.9 million of your federal expenditures. The report's again expected to express an unmodified opinion confirming the district complied with all of the program requirements. Our opinion is based on the audit conducted in accordance with the three professional standards, generally accepted auditing standards, government auditing standards and uniform guidance. Again, management is responsible
043for ensuring compliance with the program requirements and then we test we perform tests to identify and verify that those compliance requirements were met. And then finally on the last page, we note that no deficiencies in internal controls relating to the program were identified during our testing. Our next slide is just a a glance at the financial statements. So those were the three pages that we your auditors are responsible for and as I said before the remainder of this is the management's responsibility. So a few sections to note is management and discussion analysis on page beginning page four when you see it is currently being prepared but it will provide a strong summary of the district's financial position explains the changes that occurred over the prior year. And we consider this one of the more important
044sections because it breaks it down and gets it direct to you, easier to read. Next section to highlight is jumping down to page about the middle of the screen is the footnotes. And you'll see we've identified six that we feel as more significant to draw attention to. A new one is in note one, the restatement for Gazsby 101. And here, um, just as a note, the change resulted in a decrease in your beginning net position of $261,000 due to that recalculation. Page 71 is our budget to actual report. Very important page to look at because it does show where what you budgeted, what you actually spent, and where your variances are. And then lastly is our single audit reporting section. first five pages of that where what we already went through is our two reports.
045Your FIFA or schedule of expenditures or federal awards is in this section. It lists out all the district programs, the amounts received, the amounts spent, and what you have left to carry on into the new year. I skipped all the rest of them because we're going to hit the numbers on the next couple slides. The first slide is your general fund. As expected, both revenues and expenditures have continued to increase year after year. A few uh the it does note on on this screen shows your current year actual and budget and then the previous two years actual. Top is the full general fund results. The bottom is just your local revenue detail since that is a big chunk of your revenue. So, just to address that, taxes account for approximately 61% of the district's general
046fund revenues. Those taxes are your not just your real estate, that's also your earned income taxes, real estate transfer taxes are all included in there. Your state and federal sources contribute another 34% to your budget with the remainder coming from miscellaneous revenues and investment earnings. This year, revenues exceeded budget amounts by about $4.1 million, primarily due to higher thanex expected tax collections, receipt of that item I mentioned earlier, that deferred plan con funding that had been hanging out for a while, as well as federal and state grants that were not budgeted for. Expenditures, including transfers, also were above budget by about 1.4 4 million last year largely because of the excer last year. So overall, our net of revenues over expenditures ended the year with a decrease or a deficit of $229,000. Again, you can
047see they're significantly better than what you had budgeted your end of year to be for a total fund balance in the general fund of $26 million. A breakdown of that is on our next slide which shows your various classifications. So you'll see that we have non-spendable fund balances of 235,000 related to inventories and prepaid expenses. 4.3 million that are restricted or sitting in reserves at the Lincoln benefit trust. 10.9 million in committed 5.8 8 in assigned for various specific uses, all noted on that screen, leaving 4.7 million unassigned and available for operations. Again, like I said, the rest of that has all been earmarked or set aside for specific purposes. Our next slide is the capital projects reserve and capital projects bond funds. Just to note that nearly all the revenue within that capital projects
048reserve fund comes from investment earnings or transfers from the general fund. So that was that $2 million this past year. 1.6 million of that was transferred in from the general fund. So our ending fund balance in the capital projects reserve fund was $11 million at the end of the year. The bottom is our capital projects bond fund. The $590,000 revenues are your investment earnings because that this fund came through from um financing expenditures of 13 million related to your construction projects. So we left an ending fund balance of about $7.3 million for capital projects. Our next slide is our food service fund total revenues again you'll see decreased over the prior year and that decrease occurred in both your food service revenue which is your charges for services your meal cost as well as your
049federal and state grant revenues both decreased last year. Again, expenditures increased over the prior year in both salaries and benefits and your food and supplies categories. So, you ended the year with revenues over expenditures in a decrease of $200,000, leaving a net position of 1.7 million for future. Next, we have our student activity fund results. This represents a combination of all the district student activity funds. So you'll see we had an um increase in net position of 21,000. So that is your revenue over expenditures leaving 204,000 available for the students in the 2526 school year. And our last slide of numbers highlights some of the most significant assets and liabilities on the those governmentwide statements showing $47 million in cash. Most of that about 26 million sits in your general fund, $18 million in the
050two capital projects funds and 2 million in food service. Capital assets net of depreciation is 104 million. That includes approximately $500,000 specifically related to your food service activities. General obligation debt of approximately 60 million is the four outstanding issuances with principal and interest payments scheduled through 2037. Then we have our accumulated sick leave and our pension and oped liabilities. Those pension I p pension liabilities are all through pasers. So the liability is actuarily determined by them. The oped liabilities is a combination of what's sitting at peasers and then you also have a a um district program there that has to be recorded. So that's it on the financial statement side. You will be receiving two other letters as part of the audit package. That is our what we call a required communication letter and a
051couple things that our next slide highlights from that. We had no uncorrected misstatements. All adjustments identified during the audit were reviewed and approved and posted by the management team and the financial statements all reflect all those adjustments. We did not have any disagreements, significant issues or significant difficulties encountered during the audit. Everyone was very helpful and cooperative. Truly appreciate all the work of Belind and Tom and the rest of their team for ensuring another successful audit. And then finally is our management comments letter. And this is just to let you know of a couple upcoming items. The first one is uh a Gazsby for financial reporting. model. Um, it's going to require some changes to your MDNA, to your proprietary fund revenue and expenditure ska schedule, that is your food service schedule, and your budgetary
052comparison statements. And then the other item is the uniform guidance revisions for this coming year. The biggest thing in that is that that threshold went from $750,000 to a million to require a single audit. Unfortunately, we're still spending more than that. So, single audits will continue. Then we'll work with the management team to get everything implemented next year. That that's all I had for you. So, if you have any questions, I can try to answer. >> Yeah, thank you. Thank you for that presentation and for um Belinda and Tom for your work with your team on that. Looks like Kathleen has a question. >> Yeah, I do. Thanks. Um first these were really informative slides so it was good to see them. Uh it would be helpful to receive this kind of thing before the
053meeting moving forward. Uh so when we receive the audit packet I'd also like to receive these PowerPoint slides please. Thank you. And a question about the two deficiencies in internal controls. Did we incur any penalties due to those deficiencies? >> Oh thank you. No, the DC or um they did not do anything on the data collection form. It's just the fact that it it changes how we what how much we have to audit as part of your compliance audit. But there is nothing that that uh caused any penalty at all there. >> So those two I had a similar question th those two deficiencies are not considered corrective actions. There will be a corrective action plan have to be attached to your audit report when it comes out just indicating that it was >> okay
054>> the the the one like I said it was we picked up the revenue and and took care of receivable we had to pick up the re the we picked up the cash and the receivable removal but we didn't pick up the revenue for it because it being a longlived receivable it also had to be recorded as a deferred revenue. So you you hadn't picked up the revenue for it in history. >> Thank you. >> Any further questions? >> Okay. Well, we will work on getting that material to the board and thank you. Thank you for your presentation. >> All right. Thank you. >> We are moving on to citizens participation. Al >> Thank you, President Alice. Uh before we start that, uh I would like to say on behalf of the board, a big
055welcome to David Walker who's filling in tonight uh for Lee Dalton. Thank you, David. We probably won't have as much fun tonight as we had last night at Littletown, but still it'll be okay. Uh we have uh good evening everyone. We have two uh people that have asked to address the board. Uh we'll start with Sharon Ka. Am I pronouncing that right? >> No. Help me out. >> It's Ka. >> Thank you, >> Ka. And um also, >> we're actually together. >> You're a team? >> Yes, we're a team. >> This is highly unregular or irregular, but we're going to allow it tonight. >> Okay. Well, she needs to go first. >> And and uh your name is >> Joanne Nicholson. >> Joanne. Joanne. All right. Thank you. Uh Sharon and I are here on
056uh behalf of Pathways to Racial Justice. It's a committee. We're a community and faith grabbased group working to create a world where racial justice is woven into the fabric of society, ensuring dignity, equity, and opportunity for all. The success of our children depends on their ability to effectively deal with a rapidly changing multi-racial and multicultural world in a way that facilitates success and happiness. All students need many different positive role models to help mentor their hopes and dreams and to prepare them to succeed in a global environment. We believe that diversity among our educators strengthen strengthens learning, broadens perspectives, and helps every student feel seen and valued. To that end, we urge the Gettysburg Area School District to form a task force or to adopt a clear action plan to recruit, hire, and retain African-American
057and Hispanic teachers and administrators. This is about preparing all our students to live and lead in a diverse world and showing them through our example that every child belongs and can thrive Karen. I just wanted to uh present a point of clarification. So let us be clear about our intentions. We are not asking the district to make concessions by lowering or altering teaching standards for the candidates. We are asking that the district intentionally seek and seek out qualified candidates that are of African and Hispanic descent. Thank you. >> Thank you. >> Thank Thank you. And we certainly uh I'll just tell you from my own personal experience being a former superintendent for a lot of years as much as we intentionally try to recruit diverse candidates and so on uh we can't force them to
058apply and I I don't want to speak for Dr. McFarland or Dr. Matzer but we we would love to have uh diverse candidates apply here at Gettysburg. I I'm pretty sure I speak for them when I say that. But thank you and uh we appreciate your efforts tonight. >> Thank you. >> Great. Thank you. And great to hear about um that committee as well. So I wrote wrote down the name of your committee. Thanks so much. All right. We are moving on to routine approvals. We're going to take items uh 5.1 the agenda, 5.2 the financial report, and 5.3 human resources recommendations as uh as one vote. So looking for a motion for 5.1 to 5.3. >> So moved. Second. >> Any discussion? >> Madame President, I just would like to thank Michael Gitner for
059his 32 years of service to the district and we wish him well as he retires. >> Thank you, Kathleen. Any further discussion? All right, take it to a vote. Kathleen. Yes, Dave. >> Yes, >> Tim. >> Yes, >> Justine. >> Yes, >> Al. >> Yes, >> Donna. >> Yes, Ryan. >> Yes. >> And I vote yes. Moving on to items for board action. We'll take these separately. Starting with 6.1, the Lincoln Elementary School bridge repairs. Can I get a motion for that? >> So moved. >> Second. Any discussion on the school bridge repairs? >> Okay, we will take that to a vote as well. Dave, >> yes. >> Tim, >> yes. >> Justine, >> yes. >> Al, >> yes. >> Donna, >> yes. >> Ryan, >> yes. >> And I vote yes. Moving right along.
060>> And I will also vote yes. >> Oh, Kathleen, I'm so sorry. and Kathleen. Normally I check them off, Kathleen, and I forgot. Thank you for saying something. Okay. Um 6.2, the administration building renovations. This is for the revised project scope and budget uh has been up for a couple of different information items over the last few board meetings, and tonight it's up for a vote. Could I get a motion for 6.2? So move second. >> Um and the floor is open for discussion. >> I have a question. >> Go ahead, Tim. >> Um on the numbers for this project, are all those other than the 10% allocated for I guess change orders, extra stuff that might arise, are all those hard numbers? No, they're just uh probable construction estimates based upon the uh level
061of completeness for the design, which at this point is about 10%. >> So, are we are we voting on um to do this project or are we voting on to move forward to the actual design and bid process? >> Yeah. So what this vote is, Tim, is to um have the board act upon basically granting the administration permission to uh adjust the project scope and budget based upon the information provided. Um in both the information item as well as on the plan views that were distributed. Um and what that would allow us to do is get the the design completed and then at that point um we would move forward with bidding the project. Um, so to answer your original question, again, the numbers that you see here are just estimates. We won't know what
062the actual construction costs are going to be until we receive bids. >> And just to clarify, then after you get your bids, then you would come back to get approval to finalize to move forward with the project. >> That's correct. We would go through uh facilities and finance committee. the committee would make a recommendation and we will put it on the board agenda for information and then move it to uh to action and the board could select the desired scope at that time. >> Thank you. >> To give um give a little bit of context um the board was able to walk through the space and building um to see kind of what that renovation would look like and what the needs of the building are as they stand. And uh just a reminder from
063some of that information that um this this building and renovation of this building, I'm going to get the time wrong, so somebody's going to have to remind the year, but um it was on the capital project to be addressed back when James Getty's was also being renovated and got kind of um kicked down the road a little bit. Um so it is still still a high need um renovation. And Josh, you had told us the year that it was last renovated or maybe that it wasn't, but the year that it was built. Um, I'm wondering if you could share that with us. >> Yeah, original construction was in 1960. We'll call it for the front uh portion. 1965 for the the back portion currently where we are uh we are currently uh both um builds
064were two stories. U so 60 and 65. The last renovation uh off top of my head, I believe it was 2002. Um, and main focus at that point was HVAC. Typically, you're 17 to 20 years for HVAC systems. Um, and historically that's what Gettysburg has acted upon in the past. Um, so we're basically just really following suit um to make sure that our HVAC HVAC systems are still viable uh moving forward. >> Great. Any other questions? Yeah, Dave, go ahead. From the standpoint of the project, I do not have any issue with trying to decipher and decide which of the three options we choose. I do have a little bit of concernation attaching a number to it before you have hard cost. So, I'd rather see that we approve to proceed forward with the design
065that is the selection of the board, but not to attach a number to it at this point in time. I'm wondering if there's an easy way to explain the process of bidding. Like I know um Belinda, you had talked us through a little bit of the ways in which uh like I'm going to use the wrong words. I feel like you said public appropriations or something like the bu building when you're doing buildings in a public school for example that there's like certain things that we have to follow and do. And I'm imagining some of that budgeting process is the way to guide what you know like um what bids can come in. Um so we we set a budget so that we know what we're able to work within but then if a bid
066comes back that's lower than that then we go with the lowest bid. There was something about that. >> Yeah. So once the actual cost is known, it'll be the cost and then that'll be before the board to make a decision as to what if they want to move forward, if they don't want to move forward, if they want to do a change an add alternate, which would be one of those options that were but we're not talking about doing the options tonight in the cost. All we're asking is the revision of the the um the design and the scope to include that because originally when um the architect was procured, it was designed one way and now so therefore we're asking for it to be designed another way to include the opportunity for the expansion,
067>> right? and providing the budget for the architect to actually be able to give you something that works within that. Otherwise, they wouldn't know what >> correct >> what type of true cost until the bid date is performed. We're mandated to take low bid without any regard and then what that project looks like. The board will adopt what that looks like. >> Okay? You may decide I don't want to do the project at all because it costs too much money or you may decide I only want to do the HVAC or I only want to do the addition and not the expansion. So it's just um asking this evening to proceed with the design scope change so that we can go get those pricing >> and like Tim had asked those bids would come back
068to us for a vote. >> That's correct. It would go before a facility and finance committee meeting to review those bids and it would come back for the board to then to take action on those bids. So, we would notify the contractors that had bid the project accordingly. I also just want to make sure that we're clear on what um the motion is. So, there all of the options are are listed here on the agenda item. Um and the the uh option on the table here is the administration's um recommendation um of going with option two with the add alternate from option three. So the ability um to have in the design that second floor plan um but not not acting on including that necessarily in the building later. Um just adding that into the
069the planning process is my understanding. >> If I could jump in here, I clarify that a little bit. So, um you mentioned the different options. Uh our administrative recommendation actually is to um act upon and provide permission to uh adjust the scope to and budget for option three. Okay. So what so what what that would look like is we would basically amend the design contract with Barton Associates that was previously approved by the board back in May and we would um release them on designing the scope and option three up to 7.5 million with the full intention of when we go to bid we would have base bid be option two which is the singlestory boardroom edition adjacent to where we are right now um boardroom addition single story out in the in the parking
070lot and we would uh delineate in the bid documents that uh the second floor to that first floor addition um would be at alternate number one. So, but with that said, again, we're asking for uh board approval to design up to 7.5 million for option three, but there will be again no requirement for the board to approve any bids when we get them. This is just to provide permission for us to amend the design contract. >> Got it. I appreciate that. I was reading that. I just was calling it option two, but I understand what you mean. So, option three, including that ad alternate for the second floor. >> So, question for you. >> Yep. Go ahead, Dave. >> So, you're you're approving the design concept. I have no problem with that issue of altering
071the design and adding the alternative option. But then if you put in the motion and the approval that you're willing to spend up to 7.5 million before you know what it actually costs, then you're basically you're saying that you're going to spend 7.5 million of public money >> without knowing your hard cost. I'd rather see a motion that says we will proceed with the design and design to the need of the district for alternate three for option three and let them design it and then bid it. To me, this is backwards. >> Well, that's what we're going to do. >> Yeah, but you're putting a cap on it of 7.5 million and we don't know how much the hard cost is. So, at present moment, that is the way that this goes for all of
072the buildings that we do. Um, that's a bigger conversation, and you may disagree, but that is not something that is up for discussion right now. Um, if you do disagree, you can vote no on it. Um, but I think at this point we have to move forward with the understanding that our team can't can't operate with no budget. Um, that is that is the responsibility we have to help provide. >> You can operate with estimates in construction. And you always have an estimate, but you don't provide a budget number for an architect to proceed with. You design based on what your needs are because otherwise the cost of your architect always is going to be prrated based on what you're already giving him to sealing out. So to me, it's backwards. >> May I ask
073a question? Clarification based on um Mr. sites inquiries where did these figures come from? So where did the 6.8 million and then the 7.5 million like where did the figures come from? >> So I I'll jump in here. Um so the estimates were provided probably a month or so ago. I call it executive content I guess. Um, so to answer your pointed question, Barton Associates, who is our uh design professional we contracted with back in May, uh, part of their contract is to provide these estimates, probable construction estimates. Um, that's just part of the part of the agreement. So those numbers came from them. Go ahead, Justine. So, I know I said this, I guess, at the last board meeting, but thinking again and just I guess for the purpose of the vote tonight. Um,
074and Sean kind of brings my point forward and it's exciting to me to hear building of an ACTI for our county. Um, but that building is going to be vacated and then there's classrooms within the high school that will be vacated. And to see the um tech room tonight in the basement, I guess that I thought it was a lot bigger than what it is. Um there's a room in the a classroom in the high school that the computer tech operates out of. So, I don't I think just to think spacewise and the addition and and all the um options that we have, we should also think of a completely vacated building in hopefully less than 3 years. >> I go ahead. >> I'm just going to jump here because I'm not super techsavvy. Um
075I get frustrated with my phone, but to me it would seem and and I get your point, Justine. And I'm not trying to degrade it, but the cost to move that particular stuff to an entire new building, I'm thinking would cost a good bit of money just to move that just to reset it up somewhere else because it's all functioning from this place and it was designed that way. Am I correct? >> It would cost more to set it up over there than it would here. Uh the disparity between the two, Tim, I couldn't speak to that. Um, but what I will take an opportunity to speak to is if if the thought is that we would vacate this building and make that the admin building, um, that hasn't been a part of the discussion,
076nor would that be suitable without a significant renovation. And you were saying, "No, I guess that's not what your idea is." Um so the the thought is is we have a consolidated IT department as part of this project. Uh as we mentioned downstairs in the basement um they're they're fragmented really at this point. Uh as well as a lot of our other departments I mean like Kevin for instance he's in the basement and the rest of the facilities departments on third floor uh because that's where we have space for them. Um, so we're we're trying to gain do what makes sense and gain some efficiencies and a group people um as you would um if you were to basically build a new building, right? Uh you wouldn't say I'm going to have people spread across
077three different levels. Um that's one of the goals. Um we haven't really spoken to that, but just kind of goes without saying when you're when you're um redesigning a space. And I think too when you were mentioning the the kind of reallocation of office space and consolidation of offices to better work together, you had mentioned that um or somebody had mentioned that there were, you know, there's a potential for our family navigators to be housed in the building and have a landing site. There's a potential for the special ed department and different um roles that we're gaining um and adding to have office space to do that. um some of whom right now are kind of maybe have a space in a school but maybe sometimes don't. Maybe it's closet space that's being used as
078an office. Um but I did appreciate also learning that in the process of renovating the building to accommodate those needs that there is a plan I think you know um not like minimal minimal construction not totally overhauling the building but that you're saying um I can't even remember which floor it was now. second floor maybe um that you know offices would be added but off like some of the existing offices would also become a little bit smaller because that is something that you can do to then add more. So, it's something that I appreciate that that's been thought out. Um, and it's not just, you know, adding a bunch of kind of excessive administrative space, right? It's it's actually taking it and consolidating it further so that you're you have what you need and people
079who are added to the team or somewhere else right now have the ability to also be um it it's just better thought out space. Um, so I I don't know if we had mentioned that recently. Are there any other comments on this item or questions? >> Sorry, I got one more. Yeah, go ahead. >> So, knowing that over the next couple years we're going to be in taking the LIU kids back, are there >> are there any positions, administrative positions that you have to hire for that particular need? >> And how many and do you know how many that would be? >> Right now, we will need to uh and it's in our comprehensive plan. And we will pro we will need to hire a second uh supervisor of special ed. We have one. We
080would have to hire a second. Uh then one would be dedicated to elementary K through five and the other would be secondary 8 through 12. So that's another person that you know we would have to create an office space for. >> And then does that person also get a secretary or they not? Okay. So, I just wanted to know if there was any other. >> And one thing I'd like to point out that I don't think I've mentioned this in the last couple of times that uh I presented this and we discussed this was um the option three including the second level. Um uh we're we're calling that a shell space although it it would be finished um similar to basically what you see here. um you we would have the option the board would
081have the option to award that ad alternate um and by doing that um I would anticipate um there'd be good value in doing that uh because you're taking advantage of economies of scale so to speak in that uh if 10 years down the road after we were to complete this project say we were to just the ward option two and then 10 years down the road we need five more offices well we're not going to any space to expand. Um, and I I think that it's safe to say that our staff's probably not going to shrink. Um, if anything, it's going to grow. Um, so you have that opportunity to to take advantage of the economies of scale and and build at uh call it next year's dollars rather than, you know, 10 years down
082the road. >> I I have another question. So, looking at option two and three, um adding a first floor boardroom addition that would be toward the parking lot. >> This one, >> the behind you. >> Yeah. The first floor boardroom addition would be just on the other side of this wall. Single story is what option two is. >> Is that taking any current parking lot? >> It is. We would have to replace those parking spots. The uh thought with that is we haven't you know gone down this rabbit hole, but the thought is is we would add uh parking bays on the the uh other side of the loop road out for a loop driveway out in front of the building to pick up those parking spots. Uh as well as we do have um
083a little bit of spare capacity, I say 98% of the time over in the parking lot that was added uh probably four years ago now u out in front of James Getty's. >> All right. Thank you. Any additional questions? >> No, but I do want to say, Madam President, just to kind of uh to to save you for a minute, I think you were correct in interpreting the writing in the agenda to mean that option two is recommended because that is what it says. So I think probably what is really recommended is not option two as this states but what is really recommended is option three and I I think we need to be clear about that. >> Okay for the record I'd like to revise that then I'm sorry if I was incorrect. The
084administrative recommendation is option three. >> Okay. >> Um at 7.5 million uh which would then provide the board the option to award that ad alternate which would be the second level. So, I apologize for uh my typo. >> Thank you. That helps. Um any other questions on this item? Okay. So, the motion on the floor is voting for >> two plus two plus one. >> Well, it is right. the um I'm wondering if we need to amend it to to do that because it's written as option two and we we voted for we put forth a motion for what it is written there which would be option two um which is not what it is. So can is would some would who who made the motion? I can't remember. >> I think I did. So
085um I'll just amend my motion. >> Great. So, I'm going to amend my motion to um I don't know what's easier, either striking two and going with option three, which includes the at alternate. Great. Is there a second for the amended motion for option three? >> Thank you, Donna. Any further discussion on the amended motion? All right, great. We'll go to a vote. Tim, >> yes. >> Justine, >> no. Al, >> yes. >> Donna, >> yes. >> Ryan, >> yes. >> Kathleen, >> yes. >> Dave, >> no. >> And I vote yes. All right, we are moving on to policy 6.3. Um, I think I'm going to take policies 6.3 and 6.4 together unless anybody has um a need to separate those since those have been items for information. All right. Uh, looking for someone
086to make a motion for approving policy 611 purchases budget budgeted and policy 137 home education programs. >> So moved. >> Second. >> Any discussion? Not a discussion but just to share that uh these uh policies have been vetted by our solicitor uh PSBA and our policy committee. >> Great. Thank you. >> All right. Uh Dave Dave had to be excused for a prior commitment. So just in case people were wondering, um I'm gonna start over here. Justine? >> Yes. >> Al? >> Yes. >> Donna? >> Yes. Ryan, >> yes. >> Kathleen, >> yes. >> Tim, >> yes. >> And I vote yes. All right, that brings us to our information items. Um any I I guess uh we could give maybe a little small overview on 7.1. Um our LIU general operating budget for 2627.
087Um I know Dr. Matner had sent us a little update about kind of why that's on there and what we get from uh partnering with the LU. >> Correct. So we as member of the LIU um we do use their services. We have students uh that attend there. So um they've obviously already are voted on their all the sorry all the districts uh that are in that footprint need to vote and approve the general operating budget. We really don't have much of a say in their budget. It's really just a routine approval. Um, so they if we were to not approve it, and the majority of the districts do, it would still pass. Uh, but they do have a school code that has said we have to approve it every year. >> Are there any
088questions on the general operating budget for the LU? >> All right. 7.2, the district academic calendar. Any questions on that? >> Not a question, but a quick remark. And maybe uh Dr. Matz or Dr. McFarland might want to could please correct me if I'm wrong. We looked at this uh during policy committee and uh it's very similar to years in the past. Uh something that is unique with the celebration of our country's 250th right around Remembrance Day. Uh I I believe we're going we are scheduled for two remote learning days. Uh at the request of uh several people in town due to uh roads being blocked off or celebrations occurring. Uh that is correct. >> Help me out. >> Yeah. So I actually I met with some uh members of the America 250 committee um
089on the celebrations happening in town on the 18th and 19th of November. Uh they basically warned me uh about 6 months ago when we met that most of the roads in town will be closed because of the enormity of the celebration that they're planning which is terrific. Um we will certainly struggle to get buses where they need to be to pick up and drop our students off. So I just haven't noted on the calendar uh right now. Um just highlighted to point those days out. We will most likely end up just having remote learning those two days. Um I am in full transparency still meeting with members of the committee to determine if and how our students can be a part of those celebrations. Uh so that will be happening in the near future and
090I'm really hoping that we can get as many of our students to be a part of those celebrations as possible. >> Great. Thank you. Moving on to 7.3 facility usage request. >> Um Madam President. >> Yep. Go ahead, Tim. Um uh this this usage u of course as is for a memorial event. Um um and I I'm it's not documented here so I'm not going to say the person's name. I'm not putting anybody out here. But anyway, uh the person is a pillar of this community and has been for decades and done quite a lot for the district as a whole and the athletes and students here. Um, I would like to make a motion to move this directly to an action item and with a side note that this will not have any cost
091on the family or the people using the facilities for this memorial service. >> Does that need a second? >> It does. >> Yeah, >> I will second that. >> Thank you. So this um any discussion on or is public comment now or public comment >> we have to move it. >> Yeah. So correct. So you're you're attempting to move to act on this tonight. >> Yes. >> Okay. Uh we didn't have it on the advertised agenda as an action item though. It was only an information item. >> Yep. >> I know. But we can move items to and the reason this is happening because this particular moral service is this coming Saturday. we would not have another meeting. So, we were jumping. >> So, so here's the process. We we can do this. Uh we
092would have to move to amend the agenda to add this as an action item. We would then have to allow public comment on it and to comply with the 24-hour posting requirement as amended by the recent court decision on that. The district would have to post the amended agenda by the close of business tomorrow. But as long as we do those things, we're in compliance and we can move forward that way tonight. >> Okay. Thank you. So Tim Tim's motion might need to be slightly amended. It's to amend the agenda rather than >> correct to amend the agenda to add this as an action item for this evening. >> All right. So we're going to amend or I would like to amend this information item to an action item on the agenda. >> Second. >>
093I will second that. >> Thank you. Any discussion before we vote on um amending the agenda? All right. Not hearing any. Donna, >> yes. >> Ryan, >> yes. >> Kathleen, >> yes. >> Tim, >> yes. >> Justine, >> yes. >> Al, >> yes. >> And I vote yes. >> So now it is on as an action item. We need public comment before that. >> Offer an opportunity for public comment. >> Wonderful. It is. >> We got one. >> Come. come on up. >> Jul, I saw the thing. I saw how you were doing it. And I Juliet Bose for whoever sits there. Um, I thoroughly encourage that you do vote yes on this memorial. I've met the gentleman. He's fabulous. And it would be a wonderful thing for you guys to do that for him.
094>> Yeah. >> Thank you so much. Any other public comment from the community in the room? Okay, great. Now, I'm looking for a motion uh to approve or to a motion for approving the request to use the high school uh cafeteria to host this memorial event for Saturday and waving the facilities fees for the event. >> So moved. >> Second. >> Thank you. Any other discussion? Hearing none. Ryan, >> yes. >> Kathleen, >> yes. >> Tim, >> yes. >> Justine, >> yes. Al, >> yes. >> Donna, >> yes. And I vote yes. Okay, moving right along. Um 7.4, the team room warriors stadium scope modification. Um, this was an item that went back to our facilities committee and has come back as an information item with a couple of options on there. um for the
095team room project. Any discussion or or not discussion rather questions on this item? >> Um I'll just say my piece. >> Um so as as you can tell it's for the same thing we kind of discussed last time we talked about this um about potential removing of the pathway and the viewing platform on top of the team room. Um, I'd just like to say that, you know, we do a lot uh for the school and the students in the school and when we get a chance to make the spectator um alumni um parents of kids a um better experience uh of viewing our sporting events at the stadium. Um, I think it would be a great thing and also knowing that just the and if you decide not to do this and then you change
096your mind 10 years down the road, you're done because once you change this, you the the structural integrity of that building will not let you do any of it. So, it's kind of a now or never moment. And for the cost of this to gain an extra viewing area is, you know, unsurpassed. Go ahead, Justine. >> So, I did have a question um from conversation about the the seating at the stadium, and I don't know who I asked that question to. Um, but my understanding is that the the stoned areas, the where the red stone is on both sides of where the home seating is. When the stadium was built, the intention of that stone area was for future seating if it's needed. Is that correct? >> I can't answer that question. I wasn't here.
097I'm not sure. Dave, >> it was >> Dave gave a thumbs up. So that was what the intention was. >> Okay. So I think >> that's just for the lower section, right? >> Yeah. >> Yes. >> By the field. >> I think there's room inside the upper section. >> For the upper section discussion with the top section. >> Okay. >> Yeah. And I think so like with the options that are on the table, I going to vote next month. um the roof access path being removed and that structure on the on the roof not being an option to save however much is being saved. 214,000 doing that. Um, it's what's being recommended from administration and I I look at it as when you have the rooftop for people to stand on and you have the
098team room and you have kids running in and out and you have rivalry and you have things being thrown, it's just a a safety issue, a major safety issue in my opinion. Any other comments or uh questions about this information item? >> I I do have a question. >> Go ahead, Donna. >> Well, I think that's a slight pitch to it, but it is a relatively flat roof. Josh could tell you. I know that the um Sorry, I got a little loud. Um I think it was 400 and some people's what the thing which would never happen. people's going to stand along the rail. Um, and then you have a 6 foot wide pathway that goes from the concession stand to that which people could stand along that rail as well. So, you're gaining a
099long span of rail for people to stand at. Not to mention that when the stadium was built, the burrow uh only allowed us to put as many seats as we had parking for. That's why there's only 2500 seats. So we can't expand the home side unless there's hoops to go through to get new approvals to do this and cost of probably million plus to do add any seats. So this gives you viewing area that you couldn't get for that kind of money. Um and if you go like I said you go to the games and and you're on that mezzamine at halftime at any time there's always four deep trying to look through people. the mezzamine's packed with cheerleaders and stuff at halftime because that's when they get their chance to go to concession stand
100or somebody's trying to sell t-shirts or whatever out there. It's it's a very crowded situation which let some of those people fade away over to here and make it a little bit more flowing in that place. >> Madame President, I I just have a comment really. I was on the board on October 6, 2025 when this was voted on. I voted no because I had a lot of heartburn about spending $2 million on something that in my estimation was a nice to have and not a need to have. All that being said, I'm a little perplexed why we're revisiting this. The board that was installed did its due diligence uh October 6, 2025 leading the months leading up to that. The finance and facilities committee did its due diligence and made a recommendation to the
101board. The board voted in the affirmative, though I did not vote yes, but anyway, in the affirmative. And I guess I have a concern that we're are we setting a precedent that that any future board can go back in time to a vote that a board made in good faith with the best interest of the district in mind and revisit that. So, I I'm perplexed why we're doing this and I'm I'm uncomfortable about the precedent we're setting. >> Thank you, Kathleen. >> Ryan, go ahead. >> I just have one more point to make, which is um and not seeing this fully planned out. Um, but having spent time in the stadium, I it does seem that you you we'll be looking down on the roof of the the team room from and and just, you
102know, what is that roof going to going to look like from from the bleachers is something that immediately pops to mind like if is it going to be a black tar roof? Is it going to be um surface in some way? >> It'll either be a probably a black rubber roof EPDM or it may be a tpo which will be a white white colored. We have options. Let's put it that way. >> Thanks. >> Now, if that's a standing, that won't be rubber. >> If it is a viewing platform. >> Oh, no. There'll be a concrete paper system on top of that if it's a if the viewing platform is approved. Yes. Sorry. >> Any additional comments or questions? >> Okay. Thank you. Um, on that item is it's written out in great detail. So,
103I encourage uh board members to check that out at your leisure. Um, and I imagine the finance and facilities meeting is uh always open to people who'd like to come to that. This will be on as an action item next meeting in the beginning of February. Um, moving forward, we have four policies under information item. Policy 100, comprehensive planning. Policy 113.3, discipline of students with disabilities. Policy 113.4, confidentiality of special education information. And policy 146, student services. Um, I just want to say a quick note. Um, I was reading I just feel like it's important to say this. I was reading uh the Gettysburg Times or saw an article pop up um that was um quoting and covering the policy committee meeting that had these items on that list uh to to review which uh
104clearly uh they have done since they're on our information items. I was unable to attend that meeting. However, um some of the quotes about sort of the reasoning behind having some of these policies, I know came across to some of the public as um less student centered than perhaps the way that we intend this to be. So, I just want to speak kind of on behalf of the board and mostly on behalf of myself, I suppose, but uh the school district's main goal when we're talking about policies, whether they be for all students or specific to an area of students, um students with disabilities, students with different education plans, um is is always to cover and protect the students and families that are in that position in the school district. So, while policy also of
105course is something that we need to be legally following uh to make sure we have our ducks in the row for you know paperwork and state uh mandates and and the like federal federal rules and laws. Um it is also with the best interest of the students in mind. So um you know whatever was quoted in the context of that meeting was to help understand kind of the general um purpose of these policies but also uh please please know community in general and community members out there that um the school district does operate with care for our students uh who have those needs and these policies outline the ways we can make sure we're supporting them in the ways that fulfill uh federal policy to protect those students. So, uh, I just felt the need
106to say that out loud. And, um, at this point, if anyone has questions about any of those policies, um, or or comments from the policy committee. Go ahead. >> Yeah. Thank Thank you, Alice. Not a question, but a comment. I haven't read the paper or how they perceived, uh, our discussions there. Uh, all four of these policies are brand new policies uh, recommended by PSBA, vetted by our, uh, committee, and by our solicitor. Uh, yeah. So, I'm I'm not sure what how the I'm not sure what you're talking about with the Times article. I'll have to check that out. But, uh but uh uh they've been clearly vetted and we had a good discussion. Alice, if I could add something just very quickly. Um uh many of you may or may not know a year
107or so ago we went through a review of all of our policies and actually collapsed uh some some categories into our 300s which is all of our basically our personnel employee um policies. We are now in the process of doing that with our other categories 100s 200 specifically. Uh, and a lot of our policies actually go back and reference other policies. And these four in particular are are ones that were referenced in other policies that we did not have um on our books. So um the suggestion from our solicitor was that we get these policies added and that's kind of what brought this up. Um, we'll probably be going through we'll be going through uh all of our policies and we'll probably be looking at four or five each of our next several policy committees
108uh meetings, which means we'll continue to see some of these policies that we need to have that we don't have or ones that need to be updated because they're very outdated coming around in the near future. >> Great. Thank you. Any other questions on those policies? >> Okay. Um, board committee reports if there are any? Great. So for the for the next uh meetings coming up um they will remain for February uh policy committee the second Tuesday of the month at 4:00 and finance facilities the third Thursday at 4:00. Um and we are we are planning on looking at uh you know moving moving that structure and changing that structure as we've been saying. So, just in full transparency, uh, looking at doing that moving into the month of March, hopefully. So, we will keep
109you updated with that, uh, to try and get more of our board members the availability to attend those meetings. Program reports, Dr. M., >> yes, I do have a couple things quick. Uh, looking at the time, I can see it's, you know, we're we're moving on, so I want to make sure I do this fast. Um, first of all, we do have a couple of upcoming winter concerts, uh, I would like to put out there, uh, for any board members or anyone listening that would like to attend. Fourth and fifth grade orchestra concert is at 6 o'clock on January 28th being held at the middle school. Also on January 28th at 6:45 at the middle school is our fourth and fifth grade band concert. So we do have some things coming up. Um would also
110like to thank our communications coordinator, Vanessa Shender. She puts a calendar out and I believe sent some information to you guys. We would love to have you at any in all of our activities. On that same note, um it has not gone past us that January is schoolboard recognition month. So I would like to personally thank all of you uh for the job that you do and again with the help of Vanessa, we did reach out to all of our schools and asked our students to uh express their gratitude for the work that the school board does. So, we are presenting each of you with a token of our appreciation uh that has messages in there from staff, from students, from faculty, just thanking you all for what you do to help our school district
111run as it does. So, thank you very much. >> Thank you. I'm very excited to open this and read it. We did get responses, I would say, from Vanessa, I believe, over 300 of our uh students and staff in there. So, you'll have I'll have a little bit of reading to do. >> That's wonderful. Thank you so much. All right. Uh our next meeting will be on February Monday, February 2nd at 7 p.m. in this room. Uh looking for a motion to adjurnn.