001Good evening everybody, especially the students. It It's nice to see a younger generation at our lovely meetings. So nice to see you all this evening. The purpose of this meeting is to conduct the business at the Gettysburg Area School District. Board of director's meetings or committee meetings are open to the public but are not public meetings. Schoolboard residents, school district residents who wish to make public comment should sign in prior to the start of meeting and request to speak during citizens participation. Public comment is welcome and all issues will be referred to the appropriate board committee or administration. Comments will be summarized in the official board minutes which will be available by contacting the business office. If we could take a moment and silence all our devices, cell phones, there are two distinct meetings tonight.
002The first one is a a budget hearing, a public budget hearing. After this meeting, uh after that meeting, which will include the students from the district, we'll take a brief break. That'll give you an opportunity, parents and students, if you want to leave and not sit through the budget hearing, you're welcome to, but I will take a break and allow you to exit so that you're not stuck here for that. Uh, at the end of the budget uh um public budget hearing, we'll take a brief 2 three minute recess and we will get right into our regular scheduled meeting. Any questions? No issues? Okay, roll call. Um, everybody's here with the exception of Alice. She's excused this evening. Will you please stand for the pledge of allegiance? I pledge algiance to the flag of the
003United States of America and to the republic for which it stands. One nation under God, indivisible with liberty and justice for all. Um, under our notice and communications, we're going to jump into 3.1, the presentation of the students artwork to the board. Um, I have on here, Miss Davenport, whoever I I'm just looking at what I have written here. Welcome. Thank you. My name is Lydia Westerry Stith and I have the privilege of serving as the co-art department chair for the Gettysburg Area School District alongside of Mrs. Lineia Johnson who is our art teacher at GAMS. Thank you for the opportunity to speak and highlight all of the success our art department has had this year. I want to take a moment to highlight something that I believe is not only valuable but essential to
004a well-rounded education, and that's the arts. Art education does more than teach students how to draw, paint, or sculpt. It teaches students how to think critically, solve problems creatively, and express ideas when words fall short. In our classrooms, students learn to take risks. They learn to reflect and to see the world and themselves through new perspectives. Art offers a space for students to connect, to be heard, and to build confidence. It supports emotional intelligence, fosters resilience, and encourages innovative thinking. It's no coincidence that at any level of education, elementary, middle, or high, students more often than not say that art is their favorite class. And this is because it's one of the only subjects where passion meets purpose and creativity and individuality with skilled educators to guide each student along the way. Within our district,
005we are privileged to have six talented art teachers. Each of us cultivate an environment within our classrooms for students to experience the best of art education at the high school. Mrs. Amy Drees had another successful year of teaching in her 30th year of teaching with a full AP art student roster, jewelry and metal smithing and 2D art. I am in my sixth year of teaching at the high school and my first my sixth year of teaching in my first full year at the high school where I introduced a new course this year called art foundations along with drawing and painting, 3D art and ceramics and sculpture. This year, our high school art students were given the opportunity to travel to Philadelphia, experience multiple visiting artists that are masters in their craft, and participate in numerous
006art shows, including Drexel University, Wilson College, Scholastic's Art and Writing, Art at the Market, and multiple shows at the Adams County Arts Council. Of these shows, our talented high school students received recognition for their artistic success. Junior Madison Garcia won first place at this year's student recycled art contest and exhibition in the category of recycled art materials with her jawdropping dress made entirely of soda tabs. I'm not sure if you saw this online, but she made an entire dress out of recycled soda tabs that her and her mom collected for months and it was on display at the arts council for a while, which was really cool. Um, receiving an award for Scholastic's art and writing is something that any school is lucky to receive one award or an honorable mention. And this year at
007our high school, um, we were lucky enough to have students awarded with five gold keys, four silver keys, and eight honorable mentions. at uh my annual pop-up art show, Art at the Market, which I started my first year of teaching at Lincoln Elementary. It was once again the most foot trafficked day of our locals farmers market. They keep track of how many people enter the market somehow and art at the market for the sixth year was their most trafficked day. Um attracting hundreds of people to see artwork on display with a theme of monarchs, an endangered butterfly that many of us all know and love. If you know nothing about insects, everybody knows the monarch. And our region is actually a major reproduction hub for the monarchs and a pivotal point in their migration south.
008At GAMS, Mrs. Lineia Johnson is in her 10th year of teaching and had not just one but two fantastic art shows, including one tonight, which went amazing. Um, for her seventh and eighth grade art students, bringing families together within the walls of GAMS to show off the impressive works of her middle school artists. She displayed over 300 works of art, many of which are still hanging up right now. So, if you have the opportunity to walk through GAMS in the upcoming days, you should check out the art because it looks amazing. At the elementary level, student art was showcased at the Adams County Arts Arts Council for the second year in a show all by itself um with all three elementary schools participating in the show together. Um, in addition, our elementary art teachers collaborated
009with the music department for multiple f foreign arts nights throughout the year at each of their schools, which always draws such a large audience and many, many generations all together in one location. At Lincoln Elementary, Mrs. Amy Masonheimimer is in her 25th year of teaching, her first full year of teaching art, and she did something really cool. She partnered with a variety of local businesses this year and every month would load up her car and change out all of the artwork at these local businesses all through town. So, it was a huge to-do and a and a really impressive endeavor. Uh she would like to thank Gettysburg Pediatrics, Adams County Library, Gettysburg Community Theater, and Raric Orthodontics for displaying artwork for the entire school year. At Franklin Elementary, Mrs. Tori Davenport is in her sixth
010year of teaching and doing a fantastic job collaborating with other departments in her building. At James Getty's Elementary, Mrs. Savannah Manetta has revitalized the garden, creating a space where students can interact with art and nature and find inspiration right outside of their elementary school walls. Mrs. Manetta would like to say how proud she is of all of her students hard work and creativity at JGE this year. As our successes emphasize, the art education is crucial for cultivating creativity, developing critical thinking and fostering emotional expression in students. It enriches their educational experience, promotes internal and external awareness, and enhances academic performance across all subjects. In Gettysburg, our students create more than just beautiful artwork. They are creating meaning, bringing together the community, and exuding joy while doing it. Okay, so now it's time to showcase some
011really awesome art ranging from elementary to high school. The works of art you're about to see exemplify the talent, the perseverance, and the creativity that our students have to offer. The hardest part about this was only picking seven works whenever there's so many talented artists in our community. Um, thank you for believing in the power of art education and for supporting our students who benefit from it every single day. So, first up, students, go ahead and rise and stand by your artwork, please. We will showcase the district art honors first and then we will end with the superintendent art award. Our first artist is from Franklin Township Elementary. This is fifth grader Lillian Davis and her chalk pastel artwork titled Into the Darkness. [Applause] And then if you just want to wait over here, we'll
012take a picture at the end. from James Getty's Elementary. First grader Emma Carter and her temper painting titled Stained Glass [Applause] Window from Lincoln Elementary. We have fifth grader Casey Cook and his mixed media piece titled [Applause] Bob from the middle school. We have eighth grader Ruby Lancaster and her pen and ink illustration titled Through the Wide [Applause] Windows. From Mrs. Drees at the high school, we have senior Madison Beninger and her digital illustration titled Untitled. [Music] [Applause] from my students at the high school. Senior Shang Hugh, who is not able to be with us tonight because he's sick, and his pencil drawing titled Street View. Go Shang. [Applause] And now for this year's superintendent award from Franklin Township Elementary, second grade artist Ellis Rice's chalk pastel artwork titled Lamborghini Time. [Applause] Awesome. Let's give
013another round of applause for these talented young artists. [Applause] Thank you all for having us tonight. I know that this is quite different than your typical board meeting, but it's a night that we look forward to and we can't wait to show you some more awesome art next year. Thank you. Thank you so much. [Applause] Vanessa, were you getting any more pictures? Okay. So, we are at that portion where we're going to continue on with our proposed public budget hearing. I'm going to provide an opportunity for the parents and students if they would like to exit. Uh, I'm going to give you that opportunity. I don't blame you. I'm going to ask him real quick just so I have knowledge. Okay, that brings us to um 3.3, the proposed 2025 2026 budget. I'm assuming Belinda
014uh you may take take the floor. Good evening board. Um this evening you'll have the um budget and this is a reiteration of the last presentation that we had that is available on our website um was that was of course with the board action to propose the final budget uh for display. So the next slide if you don't mind this is exactly the same slide that you've seen before. It's the proposal of um 1 and a.5% increase as the administration recommendation. Um this is not any different than what was presented at the last board meeting. However, the next few slides is just going to be a different view. So it's more of a visual approach rather than seeing numbers. Um so it's a reiteration of information as we move forward the next few slides. So
015this information has not changed since the last board meeting. Um so I just wanted to make sure that I shared that this is presented on our website and available and so um since the last board meeting. Next slide. So graphically obviously visually you can see that the budget in itself 68% is local sources state is 30.7 and of course federal follows slightly behind. The federal is more in detail on the very next slide that you can see um the change in federal overall. Thank you. So as you can see, you know, the the local sources have been pretty much remaining consistent um over the course of time. State of course as well uh remaining pretty consistent. Not a large changes on the state revenue. Um I will indicate that there has been some minor changes
016um increases for next year as you can see for the 2526 proposed that the state money is a little bit higher than what it was for the 25 and of course the 24 budget. And the green line of course is everything related with federal dollars. Federal dollars now for the 26 proposed school year is title 1234 and also we have some JRTC money um equating till the estimate of 928816. As you can see the larger numbers in the past, most notably in the 2024, um it was the SR3 money and ESR 1 and two in the previous years along with the COVID money um in 2021. So those green lines have fluctuated since again I've I think I've mentioned to the board before we nearly received $8 million worth of federal funds that we've expended
017over the course of the the time period that has been attributed to us. But again, we're back down to regular status on federal dollars. Um, now what we'll anticipate is seeing reductions in federal revenue. Um, it fluctuates yearly. I don't envision increases in federal by any means, but of course the concern is will we receive the federal dollars after uh the 2627 school year. So this is just a snapshot of the revenue slides and the detail and just in a view uh that is much more visually uh appeasing than just looking at numbers. Next slide. This is a representation of the local sources state and federal over budget. So the change over prior budget and again another visual presentation um of those numbers. The next slide is the actual areas of the proposed revenue. So
018the areas of local sources you can see largely are driven by the real estate taxes and as well as earned income. Earned income has uh greatly changed over the course of period. again is very it fluctuates regularly in terms of uh when the payments do come in through the district. Um earned income is strictly on earned income. Current real estate taxes is strictly on current real estate taxes. Uh so you could see that it's still or remains pretty consistent. Um and the proposed revenue does have the tax increase as proposed in it. So, of course, if we're looking at further, you know, changes to the budget that would change the the revenues snapshot. Uh, state sources, you can see here that um um minimal increase of 2.28 and just basic funding. Uh, special education up
019slightly by 4.23%. transportation uh an increase as well as some um share of retirement and um social security taxes. Uh the transportation is based upon an index. So this is one area of state money that we receive a good return on investment. Um so hopefully there's no uh anticipation from legislators to change transportation because it is one area that pretty much um takes care of the increases that we see in in in transportation alone. Basic ed is based upon the governor's proposed budget as to what we will receive currently not as to what's proposed in the budget. So again their budget is the state budget is not uh approved as of yet. Overall the budget you can see a total revenue of 77 million. This goes back and can tie into the very first slide
020of all the numbers. Next slide same slide that has been presented at the last board meeting showing all the expenditures in the areas of such um for a visual representation of this. The next slide will provide you how it's broken down in terms of salaries and benefits. Uh the purchase of services which is the three and 400 object series. Other object and the supplies and property is the six and 700. So you can see that they're broken down. Largest portions of the budget of course is the salary and benefits. Next slide, another representation of just how it's broken down by the the the objects below. Uh you can see salaries and benefits increasing. Um likewise with the purchase of service and of course other objects. Next slide. Like revenue. This is a representation of what
021expenditures over prior year has done. Um so it's budget to budget and you can see what those changes were from prior year on this PTO slide. Next slide is another visualization of just a little bit more detail in terms of the objects and the major sources of of changes. We have of course salaries and benefits as I said of $47 million um followed by our purchase of service of $18 million supplies and property at 3.7 debt service of 9.3 for a total expenditures of 79 million. Next slide fund balance was presented in the documentation that was listed on the website as well. The only change from the last slide is just instead of indicating which board meeting, we just changed May as as as the header on the top. So 1% May and 1% 1
022half% in May. So uh rather than listing individual board meetings as we move as we propose prepared the po proposed final budget, excuse me. Next slide. This is a historical as well as current um projection of just the revenues, expenditures, and general fund balance. You've talked a lot about fund balance over the years. Um we tend to balance our budget with fund balance. uh whether that's carried over from a prior year or you you know as it rolls into the next budgeting cycle it's available and there to use um we have historically I understand uh the fund balance has tried to be maintained at 8% but the last few years we make make the minimum 6% guidelines as according to policy because policy indicates a fund balance should be 6 to8%. So you can see
023you know just graphically like the changes over over the time period as well as um fund balance remaining consistent and yet declining at the same time. Next slide is the another slide that was also presented at the last board meeting just reiterating what the increases and decreases were for the proposed budget. Um no changes u since the last meeting so of course the items stayed the same. Next slide is an a reiteration of the the real estate which we find this worthy of sharing regularly simply because we can look at Gazd's um where our tax increases came in at andor proposed at compared to the index and just like I mentioned before the index is what the state allows districts to raise taxes to to short to address the shortfalls in your budget. So Gazi
024has never been to the index in all these years. And some years we've had 0% increases. So on average, you can see over the five, excuse me, over the 8-year period, it's been 816 increase over the average years. Um so we try to maintain um a low increase in consistent with just addressing our needs not necessarily um taxing just a tax. The next slide is the tax impact based on homestead farmstead. Again this is presented at 1 and a half%. So you can see is for the average homestead assessed value of 2738.91 a new taxes would be 4670. Again, this slide is on our website and followed by the next one which would represent the homestead farmstead. So, if you're receiving a tax bill of increase of 4670, you the homestead farmstead has increased. Um
025so therefore the appropriation would be reduced to reduced by um just under $30 whereas the net effect would be a $17 increase for a one and a half% increase for the household on the assessed market value analysis. Next few slides is I just like to share um forecasting uh we now according to the you know the aggregate model that you see every board meeting um in presented with the financial statements uh the same model uh that we use to prepare the aggregate financial report also has forecasting models in so therefore we can start to look to the next five-year projection and that's exactly what this is doing. So if we're looking to maintain our uh change revenues and expenditures in any way, shape or form by the um what one we need to be cognizant
026of is if we do nothing and no tax increase of course over the next few years, we will be facing a large deficit not even having fund balance available. So that's just this representation of how the fund balance would fall as well as what the shortfall would be if that trend were to continue not addressing um revenue and our expenditures. Next slide is um cash on hand. Now you may ask why do I share this? Well fund balance really is cash on hand. Fund balance is the net difference between your revenue and expenditures. This is what sits in the savings account, so to speak, to pay the bills. So, until tax revenue comes in, we have to rely on fund balance, cash on hand to make the bills. And you can see on our month-to-month
027basis what we're spending already. Um, so again, of course, you know, in projecting in a model like where were we? We had 47 days of cash on hand in 2020. That's great. That's fine. So projecting it forward to 2029, we'd be minus 15 days, which means we'd have no fund balance. Um, for the end of 26, we'd have 7 days to make payments on our c on our dep uh purchases and so forth. Likewise, for 28, it' be a negative 9 days and 29 is 15 days. And fund balance is really assuming cash. It's not taking into consideration any receivables that has been generated or or accounted for by the end. It's clearly just cash looking like how many days can we operate on that fund balance? And mind you, it's 6% of expenditures. So
0286% of expenditures equates to how many days that we would have available to to continue on operations. Next slide is um enrollment. Uh this is based upon PTE's enrollment. So again, I know that forthcoming we have the demographic study that we're going to be coming out. I'd just like to point out that this is based upon PTE's information. So this information can be found readily. Why I like to point this out is a new slide. The demographics has remained consistent. There is no leaps and bounds of enrollment as you can see has been pretty consistent throughout the time. 2020 was of course the highest and then 21 you know a lot to do with COVID years a lot to do with ch cyber charters those two years but overall I mean and if I'm viewing
029this chart in the fashion that it is it's remained consistent there is no large increases or decreases to be concerned with and again our enrollment projections by Steuman demographics will be forthcoming the plan is to see the demographic study at the next FNF meeting and then following the FNF meeting, we'll bring it before the full board on June 2nd. The next slide, of course, is what does that enrollment mean per student? And I like to make a caveat here. Um, this is taking the general fund expenditures divided by district educated enrollment. So district educated enrollment are students within our district and general fund expenditures are all expenditures. There is a large difference between cost per student and per pupil student expenditures simply because a cost per student in the eyes of PTE there is many
030functions that are not factored into what the cost per student is. For example, support services are not necessarily factored in. debt services are not factored in what it costs per student. This slide is just a just a representation of what it is. It's just the total general fund expenditures divided by the district's enrollment, which was the slide before. So, this is a far different number as well if we're looking at what our tuition billing is. So, again, I just like to mention that simply because it's not as easy. Oh, you're getting 26,435 per student. That's not necessarily the case. This is just if we're looking at our total budget, what does it cost per student? And that's this slide here. So, and the next slide, of course, is just uh we've seen this before. Um
031it this really budget presentation for the hearing. Many of the slides were already presented the last budget meeting. They're available on the website. Um they haven't changed other than for this evening. Just giving you a visual view of mi much of the same information. Up and coming June 2nd, we will have another review and discuss and recommend the final budget. And then of course we have June 16th as slated for the final budget approval. Questions, comments? Yeah, I have a couple. Um, so where to start? So, our contributions, um, and I wasn't at a couple meetings and I do apologize. So, our contributions, I think I asked you this once before, Belinda, you know, where are we, what are what all are we contributing to? Do you know that again? I mean, apolog I don't
032have the exact number. I know we contribute to two fire companies and then GAF, right? So, I have GAF and I was doing a little looking on that. I knew there was a presentation. I wasn't here for it. So, I think we've been doing that for eight years at 25K a year, which is $200,000. But we get about 3,000 in grants out of that 25,000. So, from a business side of things, that does not make sense to me, nor should it to the taxpayers. Um, I'm not saying GAF is a bad thing or anything like that. I think it needs to sustain itself. Um, and I think we need to look into that. And I don't really think that we should be funding $25,000 in order to get $3,000 back. I don't think that makes
033sense. I don't think anybody at this board sitting here could explain to me how that makes sense. So I think that alone, you know, I know it's a drop in the bucket compared to what we're looking at. And also, you know, every year, you know, we do these we do this budget. We don't have the exact numbers. you never have the exact numbers till later on in the year because so everything's done and paid and we always come in a little high. Um and then we roll that number back over into next year's budget. So, you know, we're looking at a one and a half one% sitting for ACTI, which makes perfect sense to me. I think it's very important and I think it's important to most people sitting around this board. Um but that
034half a percent if we were make that zero and whatever funds we are above and beyond at the end of this that we receive in [Music] um should considering our track record and our history with what we've been doing with budget should be more than enough to cover. So if we lowered our general fund or put in less contribution to that to bring that budget down to 0.5 and then whatever excess we get in above and beyond we could then put back into that general general fund. Does that make any kind of sense? So let me repeat what I I'm hearing you say. Okay. So we proposed a one and a half% increase. Right. 1% is pretty much all supported by ACTI. Correct. Okay. So, we're talking about the half a percent, correct? Um, and
035your discussion is surrounding the half a percent to reduce the capital funding. Therefore, when the audit is finalized and any excess revenue obtained that would roll into fund balance is to transfer that to the capital plan, right, to replenish what we took to get that half percent. because with the money, you know, I mean, we're very close and you all do a great job, but we always seem to come in just a little, you know, just a little high. Um, and rightfully so. You'd always want to come in high rather than low or y'all wouldn't be doing your job. So, I think if we if we looked at that, we could probably get rid of that safely, get rid of that half a percent. Um, I feel I spent a lot of time going over
036all this and, you know, I'm all about ACTI. I really am. And I don't I don't want to lose that. But, uh, but this half a percent I I feel I feel we could, uh, do something with that to at least get that to zero. Um, I don't know how anybody else feels, but that's where I'm at with the whole thing. Um, I spent a lot of time here this year trying to figure some things out. Um, if anybody else has anything, now's your time. One thing I'd like to add just for the board. So, several years ago, GAF that was set up and put in place, there was board action to fund GAF. So, of course, during the course of the budget, I would need directive by the board to no longer fund that
037for 2526. Okay. Okay. Just I'm only sharing that simply because it was put in by the board. So, therefore, to take out, it would need board consideration. if that's during the course of the budget, that's the course of the the discussion and the process that we take. It's just it needs to be a part of the process just so we know moving forward. Um, and I'm not against the grants. I'm sorry. I don't mean to cut you off. I don't want people to think I'm against EF because I'm not. I just And I'm not against the grants. It's just it would make better sense for us to fund the grants ourselves at 3,000 than to spend 25 to do it. Um, if that makes sense to everybody because I'm not against GF. Not at all.
038Um against EAF. So is this a followup to his? No. Can you give me one just so we're not skipping back and forth? Just a follow up to Jeremy's. What does that what's that.5? What's that equate to? Um it equates to $188,000 of revenue. So we reduce revenue by $188,000 and then we address the capital plan funding reduction by 177. cuz as soon as you touch your expenditures, you're now looking at changing your appropriation for your fund balance. So remember 6% of the expenditures are fund balance calculations. So that comes out to be about um let me guess if I have that here about I round it up about 11,000. So 188,000 on the revenue side to get to remove the 5% and pretty much 188,000 on the expenditure side. So change in fund balance
039as well as change in homestead farmstead reduction because that will also change in the calculation. If I'm wrong, stop me. Mhm. So, following again with Jeremy's question here, if you take out the 0.5 188,000, does not the audit come in every year prior to you even being here? Does it not come in at some point past our negotiation and past our adoption of a budget somewhere close to a half a million dollars? Historically, yes. It has had its es and flows. And I will say that every year, while it's not a line item that you see during the budget, that money all rolls into fund balance and fund balance calculations are are redone and utilized just to make sure that we're maintaining a fund balance of 6% according to policy. Right. I understand that. So,
040and I don't know if I'm wording this right. If we took out the 0.5 and we we allocated the 1% across the board to ACTI, we have a shortfall. that that 5% is 188,000. Our budget historically, I'm sorry, our audit historically has come in somewhere around 500,000. So under what Jeremy is saying, if I'm understanding you right, Jeremy, is you would take when we realize that 500,000 whenever that is cuz it's not right now. We can't see it. It's that magical rabbit that's out there every year for us. But historically, it comes in. So let's presume that this year is the same as the last seven years I've been on this board. that 500,000 or thereabout ultimately comes back to the district's coffers. Could that not supplement and what we took out of fund balance
041and still keep the mandate of 6% between 6 and 8 that the board adopted. In other words, you're borrowing from Peter to pay Paul. We know that we we're over we know that we have a $500,000 windfall typically and I don't want anybody to get caught up on 500,000 thereabouts. we have a windfall. I guess my question is is do we have a 188,000 windfall? Because if we do, then it's a wash for me. We're not dropping the fund balance below the 6%. We're staying in line unless I'm missing something. Just to make sure I'm hearing it correctly, you want to maintain the 1% fund balance, 1% increase for ACTI. Correct. We're only talking about half a percent. Correct. If I make a recommendation to the board, if you're so wanting to get to the
0421%, again, I'll just reiterate from my perspective, that's not the administration recommendation, but again, the board's choice is takes action and moves forward with it. If you're looking at the 0.5% and yes, if you want to use fund balance for the 0.5% or not fund the exact amount for the capital plan, I would make the recommendation that when the course of the audit is finalized and that difference that is known that that money be set aside to fund the capital plan. So instead of advanced funding the capital plan, we're rearing the capital plan. So that way it will not affect our facilities and our infrastructure improvements of what we need to be doing. And and that's not the path I'm going down. And and I and maybe I'm not articulating it right, but I think
043you just did for me. If we know we have X coming in at some point, cuz we historically have, and by the figures tonight, it's $188,000. Balances it out. We could shortfall something here instead of taking the 0.5 off of the taxpayers, cover that, still stay within the board's adopted guideline of 6 to 8% of the fund balance. The only difference is is next year when we come to budget process, we'll be in the same dilemma. We're not going to have that extra money sitting in fund balance to help balance the 2627 budget. Correct. Correct. That's correct. So, I guess my last question and I'll I know Al has some questions. This budget here, what does it where does it how does it accomplish what the board adopted as balance revenue and expenditure that we
044the board adopted here several years ago? And if it hasn't, and I'm not suggesting you're not doing that, when will we start to see or are we actually seeing that now where we're coming closer and merging that to a zero, you know, a win-win? We're coming closer, but if I to do a five-year projection without any additional revenue, we have a shortfall of $5 million. So that you you can if you continue punting it down the road, and I'm not saying it's good, bad, or indifferent, but you know, we had almost a million dollars of salary increases with the contractual negotiations. Somewhere down the road, we're going to cut expenditures to make up the difference for not raising taxes. So, that may not be next year or the year after. Once you use fund balance
045and it's gone, it's like your savings account. Once you use it, it's gone. It's not there. It's not replenished unless you put more money back to it. So, to work to the five-year revenue and expenditure equaling out, two things have to happen. Cut expenditures, cut programs, or raise taxes. one of the two to meet equal out. Um there's there's no mo there's no large wiggle room within the budget to pay Peter to pay Paul in this aspect. If it was we wouldn't be recommending 1% for ACTI. We would take care of it on our own. So we we have to you know plan for the future at least for ACTI because the the funds just can't come up quickly for the funding of that. No, I do I I understand the 1% on ACTI and
046maybe it's just my I'm not getting my head around this. If we have for the LA I'll just say this one more time. If we have an audit that shows us that we have a half a million dollars each year that's not been used that we're rolling over for the following year budget because we're getting it at a later date after a board adopts a budget. Why could we not supplement that instead of raising the 0.5 knowing that we're getting a projection of of X coming in? I don't know how that changes our financial picture even moving into the next year or the year after because we didn't do anything different. Maybe we should do this because I'm kind of turned around on this. These are great questions. These are great questions. So instead of
047a what we are asking is to account for the change in fund balance from this fiscal year to next fiscal year. We don't know those certain certainty of those numbers. Historically yes we've been an increase of 500,000 but to sit here and say that we are going to obtain that or if not more or if not less that's a risk. That's a that's a calculated risk that we take. Um, so I mean it's not to saying that we can't, but I also hear you saying that you don't want to change the capital plan. Somewhere along the line the expenditures have to change in order to use the fund balance. No, no, I understand it. I understand it's a gamble, but I mean I don't know need to be a gamble for seven years that I've
048been on this board. We've always come back at the end of the audit after the board vote and recognize that we have a significant amount of money sitting here that we roll back into the into the fund balance. I'm just saying maybe the idea is to in terms of balancing it, use it instead of off the tax raise of 05 um and then just pay it back once the money comes in. I think that's is that what you're saying? That's what I'm saying. I mean that that's all I'm saying. you know, is historically where we've been and we're that close right now. I mean, I can't imagine we're not going to get the money, you know what I mean, the money back considering that's the way it's been for how long. So, um, yeah, that's
049all I'm saying. And we could possibly look at getting rid of that 0.5 and get this thing back to zero and you know just get that money once we receive whatever we're receiving that'll get that money back in there and we're on down the road. So now I I apologize. Maybe I'm a little blocked on this. I hear you say get back to zero. So to me No, no, I meant get rid of the 0.5, not get 1% for ACTI. Get rid of that 0.5. Now, what what I'm looking at is I'm I know the ones there for ACTI. It's the you know, it's it's the 0.5 that we're raising. If we can get that get rid of that.5 and get it to one GAF. Yes. Okay. All right. Um now, do you want to
050see these changes for the next budget meeting for our review, discuss and recommend the final Belinda? What I would suggest is what we've done in the past and we did it last year and I don't want to put extra work with you, but you can show us the 1.5 and you can show us the 1.0 dedicated to ACTI and as a part of that um you probably have the information readily available than any of us on the board. I would like to see what that that it's not a shortfall that what that audit showed over a 7-year period. did it. I want to see what the lowest part of it was and what the highest part of it is because I think that's a pretty ga pretty good gauge on where we're going to be
051when the audit you know is finalized in the sense of we see that that bottom number is Matt is that you know where I'm at with I can provide that to you but just with an air caution we've had three three years of eser money it's going to throw a curve into this in a large fashion not not saying you know because we didn't budget one first year we budgeted us or second year we took it out because we wanted to make sure that whatever revenue is coming in the expenditures that we're expending so it will that fund balance that's remaining over the years will fluctuate but I'm just caution I I can provide the numbers to you not a problem but I just wanted to share on air caution like we've had er in
052this that that's going to like largely change that number as to what but I will provide that to you so Phil blind I'll make it easy for me I won't speak for anyone else on the I'm just looking for your best professional opinion as to where you think that projected is going to be out. And if you can show me where where it's been over a snap a snapshot of time, that allows me to a better informed decision as to if we drop the 0.5, are we really going to be able to make that up or are we going to have to make it up on the back a higher tax rate next year on taxpayers? Okay. Sure. Okay. Yep. Melinda, I realize uh you're in a tough spot without knowing what our state subsidy
053is. I I personally uh like you, I'm a little nervous about punting this down the road uh and taking off that half of percent because whatever fund balance that we do, first of all, we can't overspend as a state entity. Uh so budgeting conservatively makes a lot of sense. The other thing is we take that 0.5 or half a percent out, it's just going to uh create more problems for the next year's uh board and down the road uh where we're going to have to raise taxes probably not incrementally but uh a lot more. Couple quick questions. the per pupil expenditures is that the one of the key factors uh when uh they decide upon Gettysburg Area School District's rate to reimburse charter schools, cyber charter schools, is is that part of what's used to
054determine how much we pay for that? Not ours. It is a factor of of it because instead of our cost, it is a factor um that has multiple factors assigned to it. They use that wonderful PD 363 to figure out what charters are. And charters are broken down either between special education or regular ed. There's no elementary or secondary cost that we obtain from our students. So, it's it's a different different cost per student. I I was glad to hear that even with some of the cuts and a small incremental increase that you all are recommending that we're not losing any of our professional or support staff. Although recently uh I attended the uh pupil personnel services advisory council uh meeting last week. I was really impressed with our counselors, psychologists, instructional coaches, family navigators,
055and others that were there from the elementary through the high school level that are ensuring or increasing the high probability that our kids and especially our atrisisk kids, our homeless population and so on are not falling through the cracks. It was really good to hear that. I would love uh Dr. Matzer, Dr. McFarland. I would love to have someone representing that group come and share with you all. I I I realize, you know, we we have limited time here, but I think it was good for it would be great for you to hear some of that. Um, as I said in the email that I sent to you all, I do think uh it would be the prudent and right thing to do after having three years of family navigators that we make a full
056commitment to them. My understanding is they are currently uh as they were the first year they were hired. They're independent contractors. They lack any contribution to their pensions or any benefits and so on. I I don't want them feeling like secondass citizens. I I I think from what I heard last week, they are an indispensable uh members of our uh staff and that they uh provide a critical service to us. And I think after 3 years and again I know this is opposite of what some others are saying tonight but I would like as a request I would like to understand that if we would do that for our family navigators how much of a budgetary hit would that be I and I'm not asking you to answer that tonight but if you know that
057that would be great. We do. Yes. It would have cost an additional $50ome thousand to bring those two employees into the district folds. Yeah. Right now as independent contractors it's at over it's one rate but if we're bringing them on as employees dealing with piecers insurance it's an additional 50,000. I get that and I know it's a hit to us financially to some degree but I also know that we run the risk of losing some really good people that are doing some really good things for us. So I I would at least like to see uh a little bit more about that or or that given consideration. That's all I have. Thank you. I'd like to follow up with that. So, and I'm with you on that. I think it's uh I think it it's
058definitely something, you know, we could use. So, our contracted rate and then if we bring them inhouse, you said it was 50,000 roughly, I guess you could say 50,000 difference in money. So once we bring them inhouse, are we still paying would that still would we still be paying them full contracted rate and then giving them whatever their benefits are on top of that or does their are we paying them a little less money on the front end, but we're giving them their benefits, I guess, is what I'm asking. Does that make sense? I don't know. It's a great question. and the salary that they're obtaining. Obviously, if they were likely to come in, it's going to be more of an increase. Um, how much more, you don't know because we don't have that type
059of classification as an employee to start with. We'd have to make the classification, make the setup, make sure the certifications are done, and then the offer of course of salary would be somewhat different. The proposal that I gave you of a 50,000 increase is just taking their current independent contract adding piecers social security health care cost to that. And so the difference as I presented um of 50,000 is just looking at the increase based upon what they're currently being paid. Okay. I would definitely like to look I'd like to see that a little more in depth. I'm with Al on that and if we can look at that a little bit more and see where we're at. I got uh one here on on on that too. You said it was 50,000. So, but every
060year that amount would go up because the piecers and stuff. So, it's just a start at 50. That's correct. Um what percentage of the budget do we have control of as a board? Little to none. I wish I had. Yeah, I was going to give you the exact number, but it's been historically trending at 2%. It's really looking at the supply category. And just to share that the supply category, which is the 600 total, was actually down from the actual of about 977,000. So, um I'm going to say it's still ranging at 2%. But that is one category which includes general supplies for the classroom includes electricity, propane, fuel oil. Fundraising supplies, meals and refreshments, tech hardware and supplies, tech support. So that overall is um object code is 3.5 and um that's about the
061only place for control. Okay. other other than capital um funds um the five-year capital plan other than the capital plan. Sure. Other than that, so we set aside control what we're going to contribute to that based on the capital plan and during the budget phases the capital plans developed the the outline says these are the needs and this is the plan. So of course it can change annually uh based upon you know changes at the time cost changes the projection can change annually the the the plan itself comes back even though it's a 5-year plan the plan itself comes back annually so we fund that currently to what that 5-year average is but for 26 20 like the 25 26 school year uh we're funding less than what that five-year plan is now with this
062budget presentation and taking more dollars out. Okay. Okay. And then the other question was I know it was uh the fund balance was like 4.7 million left over when budget was over. What is that actual percentage? What is what is 6%? You said we can't be less than 6% of the total budget. What is that? So it's 6% of what the expenditures are. Yes. So what would that number be on the budget itself? Sure. So 4.7 million um is based on $76 million of expenditures. Did that not answer your question? Sorry. No, I was just I mean is that I guess when you had it up there, you had uh the the amount for uh 0% in one in percent increase and 1.5. So that was there it is. Yes, the slide here. So no,
063it wasn't that one. I guess it was the one be the main but not just not by month for the year. Oh, here we go. I think it was on there. Uh, fun balance. So, to keep us I guess my question was that 4.7 was that exactly 6% or is that like Yes. Yes. Okay. So, it's exactly 6%. Exactly 6%. And how and that changed to 180 uh 1.8. Yeah. So the fund balance would change if you're taking a look at dropping $188,000 of revenue. Your expenditure side of the equation also has to come out with $188,000. So it's going to drop the funding to capital plan by 177,000. Then allows for a fund balance reapprop recalculation of that 6% based upon the total expenditures. All right. So, you're taking theund I'm sorry, the 76,000
064less 188,000 to figure out what your new 6% fund balances. Yeah. I just wanted to make sure it was exactly 6%, not like 6.2 or you know. No, no, we calculated 6%. All right. Anyone else? Belinda, can you tell us what what's the criteria for the the federal funds because it went down from last year and state fun like is because we see other districts get way more money than we do. What's the criteria for that for how they determine who gets what? Dr. Mr. Master can also weigh in on this. Um, but federal funds are usually one by your population, your diverse free and correct correct the free and reduced reduced lunch. Yep. Yep. Is a factor to do with your um it's it's the uh diversity of the population itself in terms of
065the ser who you're servicing whether it's uh the Hispanic population whether it's the Caucasian population. there's income thresholds as well that is populated to that. So even though Gettysburg is a general 50% of the properties pay 100% of the taxes around here. Is that safe to say locally? Yes. Well, exactly. Yeah, because it's park service and national park, state parks. So, yeah. And the federal government doesn't help kick in that consideration. No, they do not. They could care less apparently. Well, even though federal tax dollars are still our tax dollars as our state tax, still our tax dollars, just different pool money. But I was just wondering like what's the criteria that other districts even in Adams County get more federal and state funding than we do. And I wondered why that is if there
066was a reason. But yeah, our our biggest um program of for federal funds is title one and that is all based on um poverty level and and you know we have three title our elementary schools are title one building. So it has a lot to do with um as Blenna said free reduced lunch population and blind while we're on the subject of what she had spoke about. It just reminded me um we have is there some um um property tax hearings coming up for certain businesses that were trying to get theirs lowered. How would that affect this budget as well if they get Great question. um if the appeals win in their favor, we're reducing um funds revenue for the district. So, we have um and some of those are calculated in uh to this
067budget uh but to the magnitude of we don't necessarily know who's going to appeal and what that appeal is going to look like. For example, we're still working with the um the outlets. Uh that has not been satisfied as of yet, but because there's a large discrepancy as to what is taxable and what is asking for appeal. Um but uh considerably if the continuation occurs for example for Gettsburg College um that's a considerable change in revenue to the district simply because the college is one of our top 10 taxpayers and uh any large assessment changes would affect our bond ratings as well as being having the ability for uh the top 10 taxpayers if any one of our top 10 go off that More of the burden, as Mrs. Meyers has mentioned, falls onto the
068residential taxpayers simply because our loss of revenue is the increase of residential properties. Why wouldn't the state and federal pick it up, though? They're not going to pick up local taxes. They don't care. It's everyone's right to file an assessment appeal on their property. um it's whether or not the county so far grants it. Um they can be considerable at times. Uh we typically take a look at those when there's the assessment change of potential or revenue of a $500,000 increase or decrease. Um, we're very concerned for the decreases simply because there's only so many that you can take a hit for and without increasing taxes, not to you're you're you're not going to somewhere along the line you're going to have more reductions in um higher real estate values than what you're actually obtaining.
069So, so Dr. Mashner, now you can answer me this. So, what is the biggest reason that I mean, if you had to pick one thing out of there, what's what's one of the biggest reasons why our funding from state and federal then is is so low in comparison to other districts, similar to what Michelle asked? Well, federal again is is our uh our population. It's it's students between the age of five and 17 that fall below the poverty line that are are low income. Um, that's where our title one funds are allocated to. Um, special education. Say again. Special education. Correct. This for the state. There's multiple factors that go into the calculation of new money. There's hold harmless with the state level, but any changes enrollment, any drops in enrollment and changes in your
070market value, income ratio, all are factors of what your new state money appropriations are. Anything additional? Well, it just seems that most of us local people that have been here all all our lives, we're not getting any richer, but yet we keep losing money. So, it's really hard to choke down when you're on the other side of this thing. And I don't know why that is. And maybe someday somebody can explain that to me. Anything additional, Brenda, if I can take two seconds to wrap this up for you. So, I think what I'm hearing from the board or what we talked about tonight is that we were looking for uh a budget presentation of 1.5, the one point 1% of that being allocated towards ACTI. the other five as you described here this evening. We
071are also looking for a comparison if we took the 0.5 out leave the one 1.0 at ACTI earmarked what that would look like including the shortfall. I think you came in tonight at about 188,000. I'm not going to hold you exactly to that. And then as a supplement to that, if we can look at the past audits, see what the windfall uh the actual windfall, not the projected, um out of these last audits were so that the board can make an intelligent decision as to whether or not they want to use that funding uh opposed to to refund the fund balance opposed to using the 0.5% uh tax increase. Does that make sense? And you're looking at reducing the funding towards capital plan to balance the budget. Well, I think the board was open to
072suggestions where we're going to pull it from because it's my understanding it would only be temporarily. If you're telling me there's a a shortfall of 188,000 and where our projection is somewhere between 400 and 500,000 every year, wherever we're pulling from and not taking away from the services that we provide, when that money actually becomes available, then that's going to supplement and pay back. Okay? I shouldn't say pay back because we're not taking it. We're we're just going to we're going to fund it, right? We're going to fund that. So that and then in addition the last thing in terms of the budget is uh Dr. Moyer and Jeremy expressed an interest to uh see what the positions that they spoke about tonight of how that affects the budget so that the board can give
073a consideration to that. Am I correct gentlemen? Thank you. So those are the things unless the board has something different moving forward for the next meeting that we can look at and Okay. And I guess the story for me and I'm going to move on to citizens participation is the highlight of this whole meeting and I think it gets lost in the media and it gets lost in the public and it certainly gets lost during election season when you read and hear some of the great ideas that we're hearing and there are some fantastic people running but the board's only raised taxes 0.86% in 8 years and tonight was remarkable. I think the lead story anywhere is that ever whoever sits here moving forward in the future. Understand that you have 2% of a $78
074million budget. Now, if you do your math, that's about 1.5 million in a year that the board can arbitrarily use taxpayer money for. Everything else is earmarked by unfunded mandates. Okay. Any nothing else? Uh Dave, was there any citizens participate? Wow. All right. Yeah. This uh the budget public budget meeting will stand adjourned for 5 minutes and we'll start our um next board meeting. We stand adjourned. you. Well, good evening again for those watching out or maybe turning in now. We just finished our public budget hearing. Um, and we're moving on to our regular schoolboard meeting. The purpose of this meeting is to conduct the business of the Gaysburg Area School District. Board of directors meetings and committee meetings are open to the public but are not public meetings. All school district residents who wish
075to make comment should sign in prior to the start of the meeting and request to speak during citizens participation. Public comment is 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 made available by contacting the business office. Please take a moment once again to silence any electronic devices. As a side note or a board note, the uh board will go into executive session immediately following this board meeting. So, we would kindly ask everybody to exit so that we can get moving at a timely hour related to I'm sorry. Oh, yeah. Related to legal and personnel matter. We've already done the pledge of allegiance and roll call stays the same with Miss Broadway being excused this evening. There's where
076citizens participation. Okay. Dave again. None. Okay. So, for those at home, no citizens participation tonight. That takes us right into routine approvals. Uh, tonight I've had a a request to separate 5.2. Mr. Passinger, you do have a presentation from our food services director and I apologize. I had that circled and I got ahead of myself. I apologize, sir. So, please take the floor. No worries. Thank you. Appreciate it. Good evening, everyone. Thanks for the opportunity to talk tonight about um resolving student uh meal debt. Uh in the 2425 school year, the Gazdy Food Services Department has served over 340,000 meals since August 2024. Uh meal counts have remained strong year-over-year in food services due to continued quality services. Um however, student meal debt continues to be on the rise as well. With that said, on
077behalf of food services, I am seeking a commitment from the board tonight to invite the district community and its local business partners um in a campaign aimed at supporting uh students with meal bet meal debt uh due to economic hardships. Second slide. Um some interesting facts um about Gazi food services and the PD school nutrition program. have approximately, 1100 Gazdy students qualify for free meals currently. Um that's roughly 38% of our overall student population. Approximately 1,000 are directly certified uh DC free and categorically free through the supplemental nutrition assistance program or SNAP uh temporary assistance for needy families or or TAMP uh foster and Medicaid uh benefit status. Approximately 100 students qualify for free meals through direct approval process which are homeless, runaway and migrant students. Um approximately 120 Gazdy students qualify for reduced price
078meals. Um so approximately 45% of all Gazdy students in the district are considered economically disadvantaged based on free and reduced meal status data. Um what's interesting is the Department of Education Child Nutrition Program um states that schools are prohibit prohibited from denying a school food program meal to any student who requests one but does not have any money to pay for the meal at the time of service or in their meal account. So this rule was actually established during the Healthy Hunger-Free Act of 2010. Next slide. So who sees the impact uh who is impacted the most? Uh so less than 30% of our Gazdy students are are able to purchase ala cart snacks and second meals due to limited funds available to them. Um students without additional funds are unable to participate in program
079allocart items or program specials offered throughout the school year. Um safeguarding the basic needs of students which includes ensuring that no child is without proper nutrition is a wellressearched key component to producing positive outcomes in the educational system from academics to social, emotional, physiological and behavioral health. Students do not perform or behave at their best when they are not wellnourished. Next slide. Um, community organizations often gift or donate money to schools to be used for students that have insufficient funds. Schools may accept gifts or donations for the district for the direct benefit of students. The revenue must have a separate account or funding number so it is not co-mingled with food service account revenue funds from federal and state reimbursement and food sales revenue. The donated or gifted funds may be transferred to the food
080service account or fund at the appropriate time to offset delinquent student meal accounts. Through gracious donations throughout the 2425 school year, the food service department distributed over $11,000 to student meal accounts, but unfortunately the cumulative debt has risen over 24,000 in the recent years. We are working diligently as a department um with families on payment plans for high debt accounts along with email notifications and phone calls to support and reduce the overall high balance that we are encountering. We are taking all actions with the exception of initiating formal collections procedures which is a process we would certainly like to avoid. Next slide. Gazdy Food Services promotes district-wide Jeans Day. Um I have a little bit of update here. Uh back in early May, May 12th, there was a fundraiser that helped cover student meal debt.
081Um and our update from that event, our proceeds from the fundraiser totaled over $450, which was added to the food services donation account. Uh the funds will assist students and their families in financial need who are ineligible for free and reduced meals due to current household income threshold. The department is currently in the process of dispersing another round of donations before the school year ends. So in conclusion, I'd like to say our district's meal program provides thousands of nutritious meals to students regardless of their ability to pay. However, unpaid balances have continued to grow, resulting in a financial strain on our schools. As warriors, we stand together to ensure the food service program remains strong and available to everyone. We are proposing to invite the community members and local businesses to help us recover this
082debt through voluntary contributions and awareness. Please support our district's students and families in need with sincere appreciation. Food services. Thank you. Thank you. Uh board, any questions? I have a question. What's so what's the total dollar amount to get that to a negative? So when we um when we uh recently looked at our um account balance, uh before any new dispersement of donations, we were running around $24,000 debt. Um we just received donations from Giant Foods. Um we are we participate with Giant Foods um rounding up program and also feeding school kids program. Uh we receive donations from Giant about $5,000 um and through other private uh donations um close to $6,000. So we should be around $18,000 um balance, student debt balance um probably by the end of the school year. It it also
083blend where does this come into the budget? I mean we're not we're funding all this correct. I mean I'm I'm saying this as a good thing. I think we should be. Now this is one of those auditing adjustments that occur because food service cannot obtain debt in itself. Some recent legislation rules and regulations in place. So in essence it's like becomes a due to due from to and from the food service. So whether general fund the district's budget pays for uh this that's my point. So if the year ends if his budget ends or his expenses end at 10,000 we the general budget would then pay that so that they don't because they can't operate correct in a deficit. Correct. Okay. And we don't we're not budgeting that on our own in our general fund
084budget. Um so it just becomes a dod do from process that we will change back move back and forth. Um start of school year, end of school year. We're always creating the d2 from status. I I I understand. I didn't want to misconception because that could be very easily misconceived. Food service stands on its own. It can't operate in a deficit. But food service is a part of Gettysburg Area School District. Correct. We ultimately all are responsible for that. Correct. Yeah. So I I have a question. I don't gonna belabor this. So when I first came on the board in some of the buzz budget presentations, you shared Gettysburg Food Services was actually turning a profit. Correct. And then CO happened and on all the unfunded, you know, meals and everything else, we we were
085sort of running at a loss. So if they can't incur a loss, so the district wrote the check to cover cover that. Correct. Okay. Our my last question is is are we back to running in the in the black? The the audit ended of 24, June of 24 showed that the food service department had um a net income of about $75,000, which is down from the year before. Um but again, uh their books don't represent the loss. It's a dut from that the general fund represents. So that is all their profits basically is income of the 75,000. Okay. Thank you. I I may have missed it, but the 18,000 that was just represented as being people owing is that uh over multiple years or just this year? It's multiple years. How how many years? It
086continues to grow uh at least since 5 years or more since been here. Yeah. I for just some historical data, I I I did start in the year 22 23 and um when I was working through that school year, we were as high as $35,000 um in debt. And uh I think you know obviously um through uh the balance letters and notifications, phone calls, uh payment plans, all these type of actions that we're doing, I think we've made a lot of strides in that area. But uh the biggest uh contribution I think comes from the um private community. So so you put this up here, but how if people watching at home, how how can they make donations? And that's I think the next step um I certainly wanted to speak to this group here
087to make sure that um this was appropriate to do and uh the next step would be to um work with my team and also uh Miss Sanders too to get the word out there. Um we would certainly um send notification letters out there, use social media as a platform and other media sources. Um so we we anticipate to set up a um an account through RevTrack Veno Events uh fundrais similar to the Steve Linton memorial award that we did. So uh Mr. uh I appreciate all the efforts that you and your team make to try to collect as much as humanly possible and also to reaching out to uh the private and public sector for donations when the as the rubber meets the road and you keep track of where families are and they have
088a they still have a balance and let's just say for instance we we have commencement coming up. uh do we have any leverage over those families or those students that are looking to graduate or are there other things that we can do to help motivate people to try to to to pay their unpaid balances? It's a great question. There really truly is not much leverage. Um we do send out our own um uh end of year graduation letters to um the rising seniors to inform them if there's a balance. Um but we have there's no um ramifications or any anything um precluding them from graduation. Sure. I'll just borrow the microphone for a second. We we collect money prior to graduation on all fronts. library books from five years ago, damaged laptops, other miscellaneous accounts.
089So, we do in including lunch food services if need be. I mean, they do a great job on their own, right? As he's already shared, but we we're at the end of the line. So, so I'm going to simplify this and if I'm wrong, somebody speak up and tell me. I just heard that that it makes about uh food service is about runs about 75,000 but we're about 18,000 on the books in the red. Correct. So why would we not take the 75,000 that we just made profit? Wipe the books clean so we're not worrying about that. Still do the exact same thing that we're talking about this evening in terms of donations for the underprivileged and for those kids that can't and families that can't afford it. But in terms of for us to
090sit here as a board, to me rationalize this, it's a simple fix. It's a book fix. The $75,000 profit pays off the 18 that that food administration, the food department can't show and we move on. Or is that did I just make that way too simple or wrong? It's too simple. And you and while in some cases it's very um considerable to do so, in some instances you're wiping off debt that families have the opportunity to pay. So you're taking district paid funds, district tax money to pay off poor parent debt association. We're doing that anyway. Yeah. Are we not? Or are we just doing it on paper? We're carrying the debt on paper, but we're not physically paying it. Oh, that makes sense now. Okay. So, I there's no reason to get alarmed here
091this evening because we're really not spending that. Okay. We we work with families on on all fronts and and we do have hardship funds and you know, we and we know families and again, we we work with families on payment plans and um again, not just for food services, but on on lots of different things. So, and and I will com comment they do do a great job in trying to collect funds. This starts from the elementary level and sometimes it carries up to the high school level and unfortunately the high school then has to deal with it and going out um more so quickly than what many of the elementary will do. The debt carries forward. If it starts very early, it carries forward through all the years. I'm good. Anything additional? No citizens
092participation. Nobody jumped in. Right, Dave? Good. I didn't know it was a pretty tough pretty top hot topic there. I'm not making light of that because I'm sure we'll hear from it about it. So, we have a separation tonight at request 5.2. May I have a motion for 5.1 and 5.3 under routine approvals, please? So moved second question on a motion on the floor. Did you say 5.3 as well? Um it's 5.1 and 5.3. 5.2 the financials is separate. Gotcha. Uh not a question but a comment. Uh just want to say publicly how good it is to see Dr. Matzer in that chair there and Dr. McFarland and that chair over there. And I'd like to uh publicly congratulate as we did earlier before this uh board meeting Dr. McFarland after eight years of great
093service at Lincoln Elementary whereby several of my grandkids uh had the privilege of having him as their principal. It's great to see and gratifying as a school board member to be a small factor in rewarding uh that person with a promotion. Uh congratulations Dr. McFarland. So, any additional question on the motion hearing? None. Roll call. Ryan, yes. Jeremy, yes. Tim, yes. Al, yes. Mike, yes. Michelle, yes. But did somebody make a motion? Yeah, we made a motion. 5.1 through 5.3 is included in 5.3 human resources. Okay. I just missed you first and second. Sorry. No. Yeah, they they did. That was Sorry. So, is it yes? It's a yes. Sorry. Thank you. And I vote yes. So, at this point, since 5.3 was just adopted by the board, uh I'm going to turn it over
094to Jeff for a minute. Uh I would like to reiterate what uh Al Moyer said and congratulate Dr. McFarland. Uh very excited to continue working with uh with Matt and I know he's done such a fantastic job as a principal Lincoln Elementary School uh for the last eight years I believe and we're very excited to uh bring him over to the admin building to fill in as assistant superintendent. So Matt, congratulations. Thank you Dr. Mat board. Greatly appreciate the opportunity. Look forward to it. I know this information uh privately but let's do it for the board real quickly. When do you officially start in the role of assistant superintendent? July 1st. And the posting for his position goes It is already posted. It's already live. Oh, okay. As anticipated. Okay. And for those out there,
095um, Dr. Parent is still with us for a couple more weeks and then he'll be moving on and Jeff to my left will be the new superintendent. Okay. 5.2, the financials. May I have a motion, please? So moved. Second question. Hearing none. Roll call. Michelle, yes. Mike, yes. Al, yes. Tim, yes. Jeremy, no. Abstain, Mr. President. My wife's being paid by the district for business she owns. Noted. Ryan, yes. And I vote yes. items for board action. 6.1, elect a treasurer. At this point, uh, I will take nominations for treasur. And I normally don't do this, but I nominate Tim Sigman. Second. Are are you willing to I guess I'm supposed to accept, so I accept. Well, and I normally don't nominate, but nobody nobody stepped up, so I'm not going to sit here in
096silence. So having said that, we have a just ask if there are any other nominations. Okay. Having having the one nomination, are there any additional nominations for the school treasure, school board treasure? Hearing none, I will do a roll call for Tim. Ryan, yes. Jeremy, yes. Tim, yes. Al, yes. Mike, yes. Michelle, yes. And I vote yes. Congratulations, Tim. Thanks. a rough job, but I accept it graciously. Next uh action item is 6.2, the administration building renovation um subartan associate design proposal. May I have a motion, please? So moved. Second question on the motion on the floor. Uh I do have one. Josh, this is for you. So, the fee proposal for Barton is 6.5% for the construction costs. Um, is there any wiggle room on that or is that just what is that? I
097did all the wiggling I could fair enough. Yep. That was an easy question, Josh. Okay. Hey, is there any additional question on the motion hearing? None. Roll call. Ryan, yes. Jeremy, yes. Tim, yes. Al, yes. Mike, yes. Michelle, yes. And I vote yes. Motion passes. Brings us to ourformational items. 7.1 is a district-wide safety film bids. Um, I want to limit the scope of this discussion publicly uh in in the in the parameters of the safety features and what the district's trying to do and not putting that out there for people that we don't want to know and that's not the common citizen I think you know what I mean. So is Josh are you or do you want to go by question and answer? Uh I'll just buy or do a little background here.
098uh business office pursued and was granted a um a grant. Um so this isn't actually uh money out of our our budget. We were awarded a grant um from PCCD and uh we're going to put that uh money to use doing the window film as as you mentioned. Um so we did a formal bid uh low bid came in at uh $33,691.31. Um, and the work is projected to be done by June 30th. Are there any questions? Listen, my understanding, not my understanding, I know this is a grant. So, at this point, I would entertain a motion from somebody on the board if they want to move this from anformational item to an action item so we can vote on it this evening up or down. move it forward or not move it. I'll make
099the motion. I'll second it. Is there a question on the motion on the floor? And the motion is is to move the theformational item 7.1, the district-wide safety film bid, which is a grant, from anformational item this evening to an action item. And obviously, anybody in the public or in the audience that would like to make comment in reference to this? Nope. Yeah. So, right now we're voting on just the change and then there would be public comment and then there would be vote on the substance. Yeah. Oh, I forgot we're voting on change. We're actually I got you. All right. Any question on the vote and changing this from aformational item to an action item? Roll call. Michelle, yes. Mike, yes. Al, yes. Tim, yes. Jeremy, yes. Ryan, yes. And I vote yes. Brings
100us to an action item, districtwide safety film bid. May I have a motion? Public comment. Public comment. Sorry, Dave. Nobody's commenting. Okay. Sorry, Dave. May I have a motion, please? So moved. Second. Question on the motion. Hearing none. Roll call. Michelle, yes. Mike, yes. Al, yes. Tim, yes. Jeremy. Yeah. Ryan, yes. And I vote yes. The next is 7.2 the ACTI operating budgetformational item. Is there comment tonight on it? I mean, um, there's not. We do have our director Sean Ekenro with us this evening. So, if there was any questions, um, that the board had on our operating budget, um, now would be a good time to ask him while he's here. You can not a question from me but a comment. Sean, I'm under the understanding um when I saw you recently you have
101agreed to stay until next summer before retiring. Is that correct? That's correct. I just I just want to say uh thank you for that. I have a question. Michelle, um, is there I was at the ACTI meeting when they discussed the I guess an assistant to the director position and at that time it was discussed to be about $85,000 position and now we're at 150. So how did we get from 85 to 150? That's the first thing. Well, I think when you factor in the benefits and so on and so forth, that's where it ends up. Am I correct, Yeah. Sure, Sean? It would be just for the people in the Okay. Uh, yes, that's correct. The joint operating committee approved the creation of that position and approved us to advertise an interview for the
102position with a salary range of 80 to $90,000. And that was just the salary. Um, when I factored in benefits and made some assumptions about insurance coverage that that candidate may elect, uh, the total salary and benefits package came out to be about $150,000. And that 8090 showing that we did that because it falls in the assistant principal range. Correct. Right. Um the title of assistant to the administrative director I think was chosen because right now we only have one administrator that's me. Um typically career and tech schools have three administrators a director an assistant director and a principal. Um we typically you don't see an assistant principal at the CTC schools but that's basically what this position is. It's handling attendance, discipline, you know, typical things that an assistant principal would do. We didn't
103want to call it, well, actually, I wasn't in the meetings, but I understand the title assistant principal didn't want to be used, and it's not really an assistant director position either. That person uh typically handles all the grants and um you know, the day-to-day operation of the building. Uh, so I believe the solicitor recommended the title of assistant to the administrative director, but yeah, it's more of an assistant principal type position. So what would you then be doing? I would be right now a lot of my day is spent on the daily operations of the school. Um, so if we hired this position, I would be able to focus more on the higher level operations of the school. Um, things like trying to push forward a project to bring more career and technical education to
104the kids in Adams County. Um, so I would be in a more of a director type role rather than the day-to-day operations type role that I that I have now. Um, yeah. What what's the ACTI's enrollment currently? Our enrollment is about 300 students. I think it's to be more specific, it's about 272, I believe. There there are there are a number of things at ACTI that we don't do real well. not not from the student perspective. Our programs are very strong. Our students get industry certifications. Uh they do well in the NOTI test. Um our teachers are awesome. There are just some things administratively that we could be doing better and this position would certainly go a long way towards helping with that. Um, if you think about all of the administrative positions you have
105at a school district, um, we have one person at ACTI that does all of that. And not complaining or anything like that. I love my job, but um, could use some help. Sean, if I Sean, if I might add, I actually understand for the first time. So you're equated to you're the superintendent, your assistant superintendent, you're the principal, your assistant principal. It's about 15 different hats you're wearing every single day. And you're looking to have somebody offset this. No different than Mr. Losing, an assistant principal that handles 9th and 10th grade, an assistant principal that handles 11th and 12th grade. That allows him the flexibility to do his responsibility as principal. Totally get it. Understand. Right. And um I we also do not have a business manager. So I function as the business manager, school
106safety and security coordinator. I mean I I could list all of my duties and responsibilities. Um and uh some of the some of the things that are being said about ACTI right now as far as lack of transparency and communication, those are my responsibility and I could be doing a much better job at all of that if I had someone to take care of the day-to-day operations of the school. Thank you. Do you have any candidates for this position? Um, we have we had five applicants. We interviewed all five candidates. Later this week, there's a executive session of the joint operating committee where we will present the results of our interview interviews. On the interview committee, we had myself, the superintendent of record, our HR representative, and one teacher on the interview committee. Do you
107promote with within at all? We we could. There's nothing that says we couldn't. I I appreciate it. Does anybody else have any additional I just have one question. You you said there's about 280 seven or so students. How many how many students are turned away from ACTI every year? Uh that's a good question. Um we had about 292 applications this year for uh seats. So we turn away about 40 to 50 students and that's that occurs every year. Um and that's occurring across the state in career and technical schools. So about 25% of the students who apply to ACTI do not get in. Um we would need a larger facility to accommodate more students. And I don't want to get into a whole lot of the reasons why and the programs that we should have,
108but that's all part of our feasibility study that we had recently. And um you know we we kind of haphazardly or nonchalantly refer to our waiting list at ACTI and that's the number of students that didn't get in. And I don't like referring it referring to it as waiting list because those are students lives who we could have helped. Those are students who may not have wanted to go on to a four-year school. Those are students who could be contributors to our community and we're just not serving those students the way we should be. We don't tell any kid in high school and you can correct me Mr. Lusk if I'm wrong. We don't tell any kids that they can't go to college. Am I correct? But yet we turn kids away and for a
109lot of kids or some of those kids that is their college. They're coming out of there and going right in the workforce and they're working in this county and they're doing work for your friends, your neighbors, whether it's electrician, plumbing, building, you name it. And I think it's a huge disgrace to the county and to this these children when we're turning them away. It's it it's ridiculous because I'm going to tell you, if you did this, if you did this in a placement program or you did this in an advanced class or you did this in a gifted program or you did this somewhere else, this place would be packed. We would be at the auditorium. parents will be outraged, but when it comes down to this dis this this set set, it is what
110it is. Mr. Ekar, could you email us the feasibility study because I don't know that any of us have seen it. Could you email it to all of us so that we could you could just send it to the the board as a whole so that we could all see? And I'm not against ACTI at all. I I go to the meetings because I'm interested in what's going on, but I I didn't see any of the feasibility study. I mean, there's a I went through all the minutes. I have them. Mhm. And I mean, I have a lot of questions, so it's probably good idea for maybe you and I to sit down and talk and just go through some of the questions I had. But if you could email us the feasibility study so
111we could all take a look at what's been talked about, that would be awesome. Sure. Thanks for uh sticking around for another year. Yeah, I appreciate. Yep. You're welcome. Yes. Thank you very much. Can we move that? Is there do we need to move that to Can we move that to action? Make a motion. You mean in ter You mean in terms of the budget? Yeah. If I have a I'm not prepared to vote on that budget until I continue to look through it. I guess my question I know why we moved the last one and I'm not saying we can't move this one. Voting on that tonight or not voting or voting on it at the next meeting. Does that adversely affect anything at AC? We can wait. Michelle can get her questions answered
112and move on. I'm good. Okay. I hate to ask board committee reports. President Hassinger, the only thing I have to report is that uh tomorrow is primary election day, I believe. Uh so I would encourage everyone to uh uh use their uh uh power to vote. Thank you. Anything additional from anyone else? Program reports? Yeah, I just have a few uh calendar updates. Uh Keystone testing begins tomorrow at the high school. Uh be taking place Tuesday and Wednesday. Students not scheduled for testing will be working remotely those two days. Uh, also a reminder that next Monday, uh, the 26th, there is no school because of Memorial Day. I know the parade is that afternoon. Uh, and of course, this time of year, we're going to be talking about graduation. Graduation takes place on May 29th
113at 6:00 with a rain date, uh, Friday, May 30th. And the last student day, uh, which is quickly, uh, approaching, is Friday, May 30th. Be early dismissal that day. Secondary will be dismissed at 11:00, elementary at 12. That's it. Our next uh board meeting will be June June 2nd, 2025. May I have a motion to adjurnn? So move.