001The purpose of this meeting is to conduct the business of the Gettysburg Area School District. Board of directors meetings and committee meetings are open to the public, but not public meetings. All school district residents that 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 during the board meeting shall do so only during citizens partition participation section of the meeting. The board will not tolerate public outburst disruptions nor will it tolerate comments made outside of public citizens participation. Public comment is welcome and all issues will be referred to the appropriate board committee or administrators. Comments will be summarized in the official board minutes which may be made available by contacting the board uh the business office. Um
002attendance for tonight Brooke is um Kenny Hassinger, Cindy and Jeremy are all excused. Everyone else is present. If everyone would please rise for the pledge of allegian pledge of allegiance. All right. So, uh, Dr. Baron notices in communications. Yeah, I think Dr. McFarland is up this evening to share information about Lincoln. Good evening everyone. Matt McFarland, principal of Lincoln Elementary. Um, brought a few friends this evening to share some of the great things we're doing here at Lincoln Elementary. Uh, I have Mrs. Carrie Peterson, a fourth grade ELA teacher, Mrs. Amanda Stal, our school counselor, and Mrs. Shannon Jones, one of our learning support teachers. Thank you for having us. Um, we are here to talk about the Warrior Way at Lincoln. So for us at Lincoln, the Warrior Way is a schoolwide PBIS program.
003Uh the goal is to model, promote, recognize, and celebrate the positive behaviors that we observe uh in our students. It's preventative in nature and um it's a means for us to improve school culture. We want Lincoln to be a place where our students feel safe and comfortable learning every day. So in some the warrior way is an effort to reduce student behaviors uh to improve the student educational environment and increase student engagement which then in turn will directly impact student uh academic success and our student outcomes. So we have a warriorway committee that meets bi-weekly. We the three of us plus Dr. McFarland represent four of our nine committee members. Um, we've created videos and we do school rotations. So, the students rotate throughout the school to learn what the expectations are at those different
004places within the school. Um, throughout the year, throughout the day, the students earn tickets, which you can see in the upper right hand corner that just say why they've earned the ticket. Um, and of course, the teacher is congratulating them. They then take it to the office and the office members congratulate them. So, um, they're very excited about receiving those tickets. On average, we set the goal for a thousand tickets, which turns out to be about a monthly reward. And then we display the progress as the students go um by percentage in the cafeteria. You can see the arrow head is kind of filled up. And so once they get that one last bar, we'll be at 100%. And at that point, then we would celebrate by the schoolwide reward. Um the reward is earned
005throughout or by earning these tickets and the wonderful thing about this is that all students in the school participate um in those rewards. So um whether it be pie in the face or whether it be the soccer game, the students all get to participate and be a part of the experience. Here is our matrix. The committee had designed this about four years ago at this point. Um but you can see the different categories of the places within the school that we have those expectations set and then our pillars of be here, be involved, be committed and be kind. Um and the expectations within those four categories as well. So these um matrixes are hung in every single classroom. The teachers refer back to them throughout the school year. The teachers are explicitly teaching them in
006the beginning of the school year. and our committee is coming forth firsthand to um also start off the school year by saying this is the expectation from the committee to you as students. Thank you. The warrior way um program would not be possible without having fundraising. So our main fundraisers this year have been the spark good a local um grant from Walmart and through give butter through the GAF organization. We want to give a big thank you um to Todd Orner for helping us and to all the committee members and parents who have donated. We are grateful for your donations and proud of what we've been able to provide for the students at Lincoln Elementary thanks to all your donations. So obviously we're very excited about what we do. So we want to promote it
007and make our students very excited about it as well. So um in order to do that as um you heard earlier we have that behavior matrix uh displayed everywhere. You can't go anywhere in our building and not see it. Um and also not see that warrior your way banner that you see in the upper right hand corner there. Um so we are talking about it all the time but it's also visual everywhere. Um we also have banners that um our students are a part of creating and those banners are hung uh outside of everyone's classrooms, outside of the um custodial office, outside of the nursur's office, etc., etc. Um and they all represent um the four pillars there of the warrior way. Be here, be involved, be committed, be kind. Um so that allows our
008students to um additionally take some ownership uh in the warrior way. We also um as you can see in the picture there in the sea of maroon have t-shirts for all of our staff and students. We uh are wearing ours uh today to present to you. Um and for some special occasions and things like that, we encourage our students to wear them. Um and also um one of my favorite things is getting to hear um those names read uh on the morning announcements and watching the students come down and put those tickets uh in the office in the bin there. So, it's very exciting when they get to hear their name on the announcement um and why they earned a warrior way. All of their peers get to hear about that and then they get
009to take that ticket home and share it with their families at home. So, I like that a lot. This is just a snapshot of the rewards that the students have received throughout the school year and then our upcoming scavenger hunt and bounce house um on the agenda for the upcoming two rewards. Um, but this is planned from the committee the year prior. And so it's just a scope and sequence so we know what the budget needs to be like and um just kind of what we need to do to prep for the following year because things like minute to win it took, you know, a lot of preparation. The scavenger hunt took a lot of preparation. So it it the committee knows what's upcoming and then also um the students get to hear it on
010the announcements what they're expecting. What are they working towards? What is that thousand tickets going towards? So, uh, they're always excited to hear it. And sometimes we leave it a mystery and I'm not sure whether students like the mystery or knowing it better one way or the other, but, um, we'd have to take a poll. So, here's just a couple of pictures of our reward. The first reward this year was the pie in the face where the students um, their warrior way tickets were randomly selected to be able to pie their teacher or principal in the face. The next is our camping day reward where students participated in fun activities under our canopy tents um with the teachers participating um with group activities or students doing in um small group activities. This was a movie
011reward with snack from the cafeteria. A little relaxing time. Um this was our minute to win it reward that we had. This was so much fun to watch their faces light up as they rotated through stations um with minute activities. They were very excited about that. Uh this is our Lincoln Elementary crowd favorite. Mr. George got the students all pumped up with his readalouds. They really get excited to see him. Uh the glow dance party is another always a favorite for us. Uh, a huge thank you to a community member Jimmy Phelps for being our DJ each year. He comes back and helps us out through that even without having students here. So excited. And this was our class versus class soccer game where students enjoyed cheering on their classmates just as much as they
012enjoyed participating um this year. So it was fun to have that. As you can see, the students truly enjoy and look forward to each of these Warriorway rewards. Thanks. Um, so maybe next time we have a little bit more time, we'll we'll be able to show some of the videos that we've all created because I'm sure you would enjoy them as much as we enjoyed making them. Um, but this is so important to everything that we do at Lincoln Elementary and you see a lot of hard works put in here from the planning phases, even planning into next year. Um, our proactive approach to behavior classroom and schoolwide management. Uh, just a little bit of data behind this. um 2018 2019 school year we had 203 behavioral referrals that school year. Last year we had
01342. This year we have 36. Um during that same time in 18 and 19 we had 81 suspensions and this year we have seven. Um, obviously a decrease in referrals and suspension, decreasing classroom distractions and interruptions where most of the time those happens result in an increase in student time in the classroom, effective teaching and student engagement, and obviously a better culture and climate at Lincoln Elementary. Um, that tells me this is working. We're getting over 10,000 tickets. The kids are buying into it. Our teachers are buying into it. Thank you again to Mrs. Jones, Mrs. Peterson, Mrs. Stal for your presentation, your leadership with this. the rest of our Warrior Way committee and our teachers, students, and families at Lincoln for supporting this. Thank you. Yep. Thank you very much. Can I ask a
014question? Absolutely. Yeah. Uh Dr. McFarland, just a couple quick questions for you or uh any member of the team. I'm just curious. I'm guessing as interesting as Mr. George is uh the principal getting a pie in the face maybe the most uh motivational for the kids. I don't think so. I don't think anything can outshine Mr. George. I don't know. Sometimes we take a poll of the students and ask what they are looking forward to. Some of their requests are a little bit out there spend the night or have their horses or goats come to school and those kinds of things. But uh yes, pie in the face is a crowd favorite. So we do poll the students and ask what their favorite things. Thank and and I'm guessing uh because of that matrix we
015saw up there and the really good things uh regarding behavior for instance as it um it's PSSA state assessment time and so on. Does it does this impact a little bit on maybe helping the kids taking the assessments a little more seriously uh along the way? Uh I I don't know if you answer can answer that or not. I I don't know if it directly impacts taking the assessments more seriously, but you know, it really teaches um our kids how to engage at school, the appropriateness uh to engage in instructional time as well as in the cafeteria in those different locations. So, I don't know if it specifically impacts PSSAs as well as an overall expectation at Lincoln Elementary for your engagement with each other, your teachers, the classroom, and the curriculum. Well, I've been
016at uh Lincoln for a few uh activities including the literacy night and a few other things. And I would just say from firsthand experience of my two granddaughters that are in the school, they're having an amazing experience. I just want to say a big thank you to Dr. McFarland and the entire team there that I just think are great role models and you all have a lot of energy and I just think the kids there are very fortunate to have you all. And so I just wanted to say a a big thank you and and also a big thank you to the Gettysburg Area Education Foundation and Todd Orner and what they do for us as well as Walmart and and so on. Uh but as many may or may not know, Todd is a
017former employee here of the district, former board member uh of the district and still has the motivation and the energy and the enthusiasm to want to contribute to the school. So, a big thank you uh Mr. Todd Orner. Thank you. Anything else on um the Lincoln? Thank you, Dr. McFarland. Um our next presentation will be from the GAF. Actually, it's not that much. I got to do this. So, I'll just say beep or something. Um, thank you. U I I'm not sure I need to use my introduction now because I think most of you, you know, Al took care of that. Um, so I want to thank Dr. Parn and Dr. Matzner for the opportunity to be here uh this evening with you. Um, as uh and an admirer in the back, classmate uh Mrs.
018Moyer uh said, I'm I'm Todd Warner. I am a graduate of Gettysburg Area High School, class of 1980. Um I am, as Al mentioned, a recovering 12-year school board member. Um and Mr. Dickerson, I uh uh I appreciate where you sit because I sat there for six years as well. Um, and uh, I'm a charter member, executive director, and president of the Gettysburg Area Education Foundation. Beep. Thank you. So, I'll I'll try not to read the slides uh to you. U, but Gettysburg Area Education Foundation was established in 2006 as an IRS 501c3 charitable organization. And right out of the right out of the box, they said, "Hey, we want you to help us build a stadium out at the high school." So uh we uh put together committees and and did all that and
019uh everything was moving forward. Um uh the price went from 3.5 million to 5 to 7 to 9.1 and the board finally voted in 2008 uh on the uh football stadium, the the all sports stadium and it was a resounding unanimous no because uh for those who study history uh 2008 was is now known as the great recession. So, uh, the board of trustees of the foundation chose to kind of go into, um, hibernation. Uh, we did business, but we just kind of laid low and wanted to, uh, weather the the recession and also give the stadium Fallout some time to, um, uh, to pass. So, uh, fast forward to 2014, excuse me, 2014. Um, the school district, uh, created the Warrior Education Fund at the Adams County Community Foundation. And, uh, that's an endowment
020that, uh, uh, that brings some money into us, uh, into the foundation, um, every year. Change in the 2016 2017 budget. Um, uh, the school board established an annual gift for GAF of $25,000 to support a part-time paid, uh, director. Um, Rebecca Kon, some of you may know Rebecca, she was our first director, hired in 2016, and Rebecca hit the ground running. Uh, she immediately, uh, created some fundraising events, which we still do today, at least two of them. and she also uh offered grant writing collaboration with school district staff. And that collaboration uh brought in over Rebecca's three years with us probably close to 15 to $18,000 uh primarily from the um from one of the local trusts. Okay. Um, in 2018, the foundation was invited to participate in the uh giving spree at
021the community foundation and we've been doing that ever since. Uh, in 2019, Rebecca left the foundation and uh, we did a pretty extensive search, had some good folks, but then COVID hit, so we kind of said, "Well, we're going to hold on." So, in 2021, we finally kind of come up out of the out of the dark like most everybody else did. And um we uh hired a new executive director, which happens to be me. Um never in my um my bucket list, in my whatever did I ever think that I'd benefit from the board's gift. Um but here we are. Um the uh first year um I focused on reviewing the governance for the foundation because it had been quite a while since the foundation was uh created and the district had changed. The
022world had changed. Um so we uh updated the bylaws and uh then what can we do to help raise money? Before the foundation was we're going to go out and raise money for everyone. Well, it takes a lot of time and a lot of luck. So, I refocused the foundation on helping the folks in the district raise money like Dr. McFarland and they left and the Warrior Way folks uh the PTO's and like that. And the tool I selected was is called Give Butter. It's a free online fundraising solution uh where the foundation uh meaning me um works with the uh for example the folks at Lincoln uh to put together the fundraising campaign page and then once that's set up with a picture and a story and all that sort of stuff then we
023release it to the public and then I monitor the back office items make sure that uh checks are received and deposited and like that. And then at the end um our groups right now receive 100% of the proceeds from the Give Butter fundraising. And uh we don't char Give Butter doesn't charge anything uh so long as we uh they have a thing called a tip in there which you can zero out and we don't charge anything thanks to the generosity of the school board. It's the least we uh we can do as a foundation is to pass through the um um things at little to no cost uh to the folks that we're trying to raise money with. Um then in 2022 we got our small games chance license which is mainly being you which
024had originally been uh used by um athletics and now our PTO's are using it and some of the buildings are using it for 50/50s and I think we're going to have some raffles flying next school year as well. So uh for uh the foundation we do uh we have three annual fundraisers for ourselves. Uh we do the Gettysburg Area Education Foundation evening at the Totem Paul Playhouse which is coming up August 20th this year. Um we pick a musical and we have a pre-show uh reception uh and uh we sell the t most of the tickets there always have a couple left over because uh but uh uh but we do sell most of them. We uh something Rebecca got us in that. Rebecca also got us the National Apple Harvest Festival where we u
025make some good money providing volunteers at the pit beef stand and then the affforementioned giving spree where um we do okay there as well. So, those are our major fundraisers and our annual funding sources are the Warrior Fund Endowment, uh, the Giving Spree today gifts, the Larry R and Janet M. Reading designated endowment, and community aid donations. Today, I dropped off 17 bags of clothes and and uh, two boxes of books that all came from the uh, the quick clothing drive that we did. I look back at Dr. McFarland again at Lincoln's um chalk the walk event a week ago Monday. So give butter um today uh these uh uh fundraising campaigns listed on the screen are active right now and the QR code will take you to our fundraiser active fundraiser screen. Not that
026I expect you to do that and there will be no quiz after this I promise. Um but um The warrior helping hands is um you uh is where our set up for our uh social worker, the school district social worker uh to for people to make donations so she can spread that to the kids that need it the most, the homeless and others. Uh James Getty's winter wish um is uh raising money to purchase a laminator. uh Lincoln Elementary PTO annual campaign uh where the P folks that want don't don't want to buy donuts but want to contribute now they have a place to do it or candy or whatever or just to make a donation. Uh Franklin Township does their uh this year literacy lights the way campaign um which is great and we
027have a lot of participation there. Cash Town Lions gives has given $3,000 each of the last two years to that campaign. and uh the high school technology student association chapter annual campaign. Again, that's a spot where folks can uh donate uh easily. Next, and uh we have three annual uh grant programs. Uh our innovation and challenge grants, which are we give up to three each year for up to $1,000 each. um staff applies in the spring and then they have all the ne if they are awarded they get the whole next school year, excuse me, to um to implement our uh the applications for that are due on the 30th of this month. We'll award them on the 14th and we will infuse the money into the budget on uh July 1stish. Our uh other
028second program is project support grants. They're available all year long. Maximum $500 so long as we have money available to give. And then the reading fund, that's the Larry and Janet item I mentioned earlier. Um the uh that is an endowment fund that provides financial support through grants to assist Gettysburg Area High School students with limited personal finances, participate in career and technical education programs, and associated student organizations. uh both at the high school and our students that are enrolled at ACTI. Uh we had two students this year, one at the high school, one at ACTI. Uh they both benefited as well as the FBLA um chapter uh that part of the reading grant helped them uh for the transportation to get to the states. So, by the numbers, and I have an update on
029one of the numbers. Uh, so far for uh this school year, this fiscal year, we've raised helped raise $56,621 and change. And the breakdown is there. So, we've given out uh of the um the uh three grant programs I just spoke about, uh 6,260. And then the rest, give Butter, as you can see, is the biggest. We they do the lifting for Give Butter, the heavy lifting. They do it. We provide the resource, set it up, watch the back end, and then cut them a check at the end. Um and then uh the Warrior Endowment Fund, this is the number that changed this evening. Um we the as of March 31st, uh the endowment is now at $48,976. Um the big part was the grants that come to the foundation, $3,437 and then um there
030was a little bit of a loss um and some fees. So uh we're still sitting nicely. And then coming soon um we have some fundraisers. Uh we're g uh the foundation's going to work with the PTO's to do a raffle in the fall winter. someone uh suggested a PlayStation or something like that and to make sure all of the kids find out about it at school. Um so hopefully we'll get that done. Uh looking at Warrior Salutes, it's an ongoing staff online staff appreciation opportunity to where folks can donate as little as five or $10 and they name a teacher or two or three or four and a message. the teacher gets a nice certificate that uh honors it mentions who donated and um and we make a little money on that. Other fundraisers and
031projects we're working on uh the JOTC uh class is working on uh renewing their wall of service. It's a they're going to double it in size uh right by the classroom and it's where they have p they're putting pictures of our graduates who in any branch of the uh armed services. Uh very nice project. Um and uh we have a rising junior Sarah Rice at the high school said you know I have a friend who couldn't go to a competition because that friend didn't have any money. and she said, "Wouldn't it be nice if?" So, we're working with uh with Sarah uh and Mr. Lusk and uh Mr. Godsy and Ms. um Wigle uh to put together a long-term fundraiser for that. And then we're working with James Getty's uh uh Jen Daniels librarian and
032Kyle Soal at the high school uh to put in to uh look at the cost and putting in a story walk in the courtyard at James Getty's. So, uh board of trustees, uh our bylaws say we can have up to 25. Right now, we have six. uh but with a seventh coming on board in May. Um we have uh some reserved uh voting seats uh currently occupied. Dr. Parin as the superintendent. Uh Alice Broadway as the board member and a gentleman named Joe Sherah as the class of 59 uh from the alumni association. We're always looking for new uh trustees. So if you have any friends and family or influential folks with deep pockets, did I say that out loud? uh uh please send them please send them my way. We would love to have
033u uh a few more. I'd like to have at least a dozen on the board of trustees. Our meetings are uh a second Wednesday of every odd month at 4 o'clock. So I just want to take a a moment here and talk about uh mention our our partners in all of this. The National Association of Education Foundations, the Pennsylvania Association of Nonprofit Organizations. Um they help us out immensely uh with governance and a whole host of things. Um even small games of chance. Uh community aid and Adams County Community Foundation are both integral to not only GAF uh but also to the to our communities at large and our business partners who we could not work without. Uh Members First is where we keep our money. Uh Raffensburgger Martin and Finenbinder is who keeps track
034of our money for us and keeps us honest. Uh you've heard a lot about Give Butter already and Assured Partners is our uh provides our U insurance and it's the same partner that the district uses I believe. So there we go. Um so thank you for your support and uh thank you for the opportunity to give you an update on GAF and the work we're doing with the building's athletics clubs and PTO's. I believe the GEF GAF uh has made great strides over the past two years and I'd love to make these updates to you a regular item moving forward maybe three four times a year. Um and I'd also love to hear from you. Um I'll be staying through the meeting. Uh so I'll be right over there uh in case you might have
035any questions that you thought of after we uh after the meeting. And you're always welcome to reach me via email. TWW Warner at Gazdy Gazdy-PA.org. Same as the back end of yours. So, that's what I got. What do you got for me? Yeah. Thank you. Thank you, Mr. Honor. First of all, thank you for the the presentation. Um, I do think it would be awesome for you to come visit us more often. This is my first uh time serving on the board in 5 years that I got a presentation and I found it extremely insightful and helpful. Um, so I would encourage that. And then I would also like to say thank you for your prior service as a board member. And I would open it up uh for anyone that has any questions for
036you. Thank you, Mike. Uh Todd, uh did I see that correctly with the QR code that is through give Butter? So if Tim Sigman tonight would want to bring his phone and and put a couple hundred dollars into he would just have to put his phone up there to that QR code and he can make that donation. That is 100% correct, M Dr. Wy. That is Yeah. planning to see with Tim. Thank you in advance, Tim. He's he's he's loaded, so I know he can do that. So, thank you in advance, Tim, for not smacking Dr. And then also, did I hear you correctly that because the education foundation has a certificate or a license for small games of chance that also then a side benefit of that is our PTO's can utilize that that
037certificate to raise money through 50/50s, raffles, and whatever, right? and and we've already uh Franklin Township has used a couple uh we did one at the Chalk the Walk um uh on the 14th uh and uh Lincoln made 50 bucks. Now we do we do take a little taste of that of the of the um small games of chance. We take 5% of uh the gross of the gross proceeds uh because we have to renew the license every year. That's $125. Um and uh we have to buy the real tickets, you know, the 50/50 tickets, we have to buy them and provide them. Um so we do take a little bit from there, but 5% um uh was mutually decided uh as a good number uh with Mrs. Wallen and uh and uh the athletic
038group because again they were mainly using it. Which one uh of the several uh options for small games of chance? I I would imagine 50/50 seems like the easiest to uh uh uh to to to utilize. Uh which ones besides 50/50 might be the most beneficial or bring in generate the most uh revenue or donations? The the um raffles generate the most? Um I I think uh it was u uh John Kan's that's I'm drawing a blank on that. Soccer. Girls soccer. Uh, I think they brought in like $3,000. Wow. Okay. Yeah. I mean, because And uh it's And what's really great is when the prizes are donated. Yeah. Um because then there's no cost other than the tickets and the high school um publications club uh prints all of our raffle tickets. Yeah. Well,
039I just want to say I I agree wholeheartedly with what Mike said and this has been really beneficial and thank you for coming tonight and I would love to have you uh return a couple times a year and update us. Thank you. Would love to. Thank you very much. Thank you, Mr. Oer. Our uh next topic is our favorite time of year and our favorite type of presentation. Miss Belinda will give us the budget presentation. Good evening. Um, our first slide, um, of course after the main slide here, we're talking about an update to our revenues. Um, yeah, apologize. This is not the right slide. This is the April 7th. You have the April 22nd. If you like, I can resend it to you. Okay, bear with a second. So, this is providing an update
040to the already presentations that we've had before the school board. Uh, so this evening we're going to talk a little bit about um the changes in revenue and um any changes in expenditures that uh have occurred since the last board meeting. So our very next slide is the preliminary revenue. Uh this is deferring a little bit differently from the previous uh presentation this evening. What you have before you is the columns. Now again this presentation will be available on our website tomorrow as well. Um I know the numbers are a little hard to read. So I'll try to do a quick summary here. So this slide represents our 23 24 actual um which is to the far left. And then moving across the columns, you have our 2425 budget, which we did include a 1%
041tax increase to uh help uh begin the funding for ACTI. So our proposal as we were building the budget, we were basing it on a 0% tax increase. We also have consideration of a one% tax increase for again for the second year funding of ACTI. And then thirdly, a one and a half percent increase to include the ACTI 1% and a half percent for other uh items such as salary increases, benefit increases, and the overall um inflation increases that we were experiencing ourselves. So the largest things that you'll see here on this particular side is just the local sources of revenue. They're changing. The federal has not changed. I don't anticipate them to change uh simply because uh the state sources the likelihood of us receiving any updated information from the state is probably um
042not going to be a a timely manner in which we need to prove our budget. Um so again we have for you this evening the revenues uh 0% utilizing uh piecers committed fund balance of 345,902 for a revenue source. So our 0% tax increase uh we would have 76,984 A14 of revenue. For a 1% tax increase 77, 362 351 and for 1.5% increase 77,550 953. Overall it is a 5.4% 4% revenue increase mostly in terms of one uh real estate taxes uh the assessment data and also earned income. Next slide. Uh this is a representation you will see all three pretty much of the columns 0% 1% and 1 and a half% columns very similar in nature. Uh I will review the changes in expenditures in a upcoming slide but for the most part uh
043I'll move to the next slide if you don't mind. This is a representation of what has changed to date. So March 17th board meeting April 7th and then our April 22nd meeting considering the 1% and 1.5%. So revenues without fund balance you can see is listed there going from 75 million to 77 million. the far right which is the one underneath 1.5%. Our expenditures are 79 million. We started off April 7th 79 million 362 the first 1% tax increase is 79186 and again 79186 for 1 and a.5%. The third column down the third uh line item down is just the gap the gap between the revenue and expenditures which is unreconciled. April 7th, we were looking at a 3.7 million deficit, 1% tax increase, a 2.3%, excuse me, a 2.1% uh 2.1 million, and then
0441 and a half% 19 1.98 million. We are proposing to use a committed uh piece fund balance that was set up. Uh we have a pration formula that's used for every year that the piecers rate increases. We are pulling a little bit of those funds in to help offset the increase in piecers. Our unassigned fund balance 2526 again our unassigned fund balance is a percent of expenditures. So you can see that it has slightly changed from April 7th of 1.6 million to 1.635 for April 22nd. leaving our available funds which would be the gap the unreconciled portion um minus the available funds. You can see our um available funds of course uh 1.97 million to 1.98 million and then of course um our gap minus available funds excuse me apologize I was looking at something
045on my screen here versus that. So we went from um a gap initially of uh March 17th meeting at 2.5 million April 7th with additional cuts 1.8 million um with a 1% tax increase associated with ACTI. We are still looking for 188,62. So we still have an unreconciled portion of that. Um however if we were to entertain a 1 and a half% increase that unreconciliation becomes zero flush means that our revenue and expenditures are balanced with a 1 and a half% increase. We are maintaining across the board a 6% unassigned fund balance. This is as per policy. So you'll see that listed there. Um going once expenditures change since unreserved fund unassigned fund balance is a percent of expenditures. Once the expenditure line items change, the unassignment will also change too because it's a percent
046of expenditures in your budget. Next slide. So um the variables that we have and the changes year this is to date as to um what our budget has been since we've been presenting. So we have the revenue funding for second year of ACTI support. We have the revenue funding for personnel health care cost services and inflation. Um we have uh county real estate data as of February 2nd which is the duplicates that we're using along with uh an estimation of additional assessments that come will come onto the market by July 1st. Our expenditure reductions is reported on April 7th was 725,000 just rounded. Additionally, reductions. As of this evening, we took a look at another $176,000 of expenditure reductions largely in the area of athletic security. Um, now this is not removing athletic security. This
047is just maintaining the same vendor rather than looking at an additional vendor which in the preliminary budget phases we had additional cost in to look at another possible vendor. And um during this time frame it determined that um we can look at cost savings within the current provider. Um that way we were able to reduce the um excess demand to look at another security company. This is not our police force. This is an a uh security services provided specifically for athletic events. Also a reduction in our five-year capital plan. Um so we reduced funds. We have an annual commitment to from our budget to our capital PL for our capital plan and a capital reserve. Um so therefore we reduce this in order to um try to reduce the demand of of the unreconciliation of
048our balanced budget. What's to come? We still have yet to have our homestead farmstead numbers come in. Um I don't anticipate major drastic changes for the assessment data. Um but the homestead farms numbers could change. um once they're available to us. And that would likely change the revenue section of the budget. And when I talk about Homestead Farmstead impact, um it's important to note that available households um that have the Homestead Farmstead available to them will receive a assessment as well as a tax dollar deduction from their tax bill. So when we talk about a millage impact when we want to look at increasing any type of millillage we have to consider that homestead farmstead because that is a reduction um the state provides us uh that and it's a it's been in uh the
049legislation now for some time um which has been a generator from um gambling uh proceeds over the years that has come back in terms of reduction of um real estate taxes. So for our millillage impact, if we were to of course um look at a 1% tax increase just for ACTI's purposes, it would be on the average assessment value of a homestead in Gettysburg is 273,891. We'd be looking at a $31.14 increase for annually annually for that year. Um now again like Homestead Farm said once those numbers come in the likelihood of that dropping that number that demand is is obviously uh opportunity because if our homestead numbers are increased by the state we then pass those funds through our real estate taxes. Um likewise if we have a 1 and a.5% increase that average
050homestead um would also produce $46.70. We also like to show our index what that index would look like for the um average uh market value assessed value. Um so our um index for next year is 4.8%. So if our board and again that would be if and I don't anticipate our board going to the index. Um our goal would be to stay as minimal as possible to cover the expenses as where we could. That's why we are proposing the 1% and as well as the 1 and a half%. But our index is 4.8 which would equate to uh about $159 increase in taxes. Um we just show this just so to answer the question what would it be if we were to increase by our index. Um, again, the only other thing that I would
051think would possibly change to our revenue portion of the budget is in fact when we receive those homemstead farmstead numbers likely to come out the beginning of May. So, I'm hopeful that the next meeting in May, we can have um a further update on our budget as to where it is to hopefully reduce that um request. Uh I mean, I I would propose administration would definitely propose at least 1% to cover ACTI. Um but the goal would be try to minimize the other demand of 1 and a.5%. So if homestead farm sense comes out a little bit higher the likelihood of one and a half% increase could come down just slightly. Um and therefore what we'll do is at the next board meeting we're going to recommend and adopt a proposed final. Now that is
052just a proposed final. That is not the final and items can change between that and the time that adoption comes around. we must meet an advertisement uh deadline um in accordance with act one to have the budget available for a minimum of 30 days. Um and then so of course by doing so recommending adopting a proposed budget we will meet our timeline to have our budget approved um and as by an action vote by the June 16th meeting. And so um again our deadline to file with PTE is June 30th or technically 15 days after we adopt a budget. Um but those this is kind of brief update from where we are at. Um I don't anticipate any additional expenditure reductions at this p at this point. If anything uh a change in revenue to
053help minimize that 1 and a half% proposed increase questions. Just as a reminder, thanks uh Belinda for uh putting uh all of the uh the slides together. Uh we we stay pretty conservative with our state funding uh projections because although we have a deadline uh the state generally goes way way beyond that. So we have to be somewhat conservative in terms of what we're what we're projecting for the district. So, Belinda, uh, did I hear you correctly? From March 17th until April 7th, you all internally have cut $725,000 worth of expenditures. That's correct. Um, and we were able to do that without curtailing or eliminating any programs or services or have we eliminated some some things? No curtailment of services. no program elimination with that. We are planning on replacing positions as they um retire
054and or resign. Um so there is no elimination of positions. Uh there is the change of course to our capital plan. Um so therefore future meetings with our finance and facility committee meetings to determine what the needs are with that reduction in that funding to that with that significant am dollar amount. My um uh feeling is uh I'm guessing some of our administrators have asked for some additional u items that didn't make it through uh yet. Uh I would be I think it would be interesting for the board if there was some personnel positions or um what it would be interesting for us to maybe see what were some of the major cuts. Maybe not all the detail or whatever, but it would be interesting, I think, for us to see the types of things
055that were requested, but but did not make it through to this point at at some point. There there used to be larger a lot more requests. They're getting used to it. Gotcha. But um but I think that uh but to your point like your earlier question, uh we we tend to basically just use a concentric circles model with with budgeting. So, uh, students in the center and we start as far away from them as we can when making those reductions. Um, and, uh, so that's where we're at. Uh, that's great and I really appreciate that. No, uh, cuts to any of our counselor counselors or nav family navigators or any of those things. All right. Thank you. Any other questions, comments? And actually it was close to 911,000 if you combine if you combine both
056those terms. Yes. Yeah. Yeah. They got pretty creative on reallocating funds and and kind of shifting focus on priorities. So it did an amazing job. Thank you Belinda. And Mr. Moyer there as the previous pres budget presentation out on our website does list those items that were cut the previous meeting. Thank you. I think that wraps up our program reports. So we will move on. Uh I don't believe we have any citizens participation this evening. So we'll move on to routine approvals. I do have a request from a board member to separate 5.2 the financial report. So if I could please get a motion to um move forward 5.1 which is the agenda, 5.3 which is a confidential student agreement and 5.4 um as the HR report. If I could get a motion to move
057those forward. So moved. Second. Any questions on 51 agenda 53 confidential student agreement or 54 HR report? All right, hearing none. Roll call. Michelle, yes. Alice, yes. Tim, yes. Al, yes. Ryan, yes. And I vote yes. So, we'll move on to 5.2, the financial report. May I get a motion to move the financial report forward? So moved. Second. Any questions on the financial report? All right, hearing none. Roll call. Ryan, yes. Alice, yes. Tim, yes. Al, yes. Michelle, no. And I vote yes. So, moving on to number six, items for board action. I have 6.1, which is our high school greenhouse renovations. It was an information item last week. So, we'll be get a motion to move that forward. So, move. Second. All right. Um, questions on 6.1. All right. Hearing none. Roll call. Alice,
058yes. Tim, yes. Al, yes. Ryan, yes. Michelle, yes. And I vote yes. Our second item for board action is 6.2. Um there's the award contract to site log IQ uh for commissioning the service agent services for the Lincoln Elementary um renovations. Can I get a motion to move that forward? So moved. Second. Any questions on 6.2. All right. Hearing none. Roll call. Tim, yes. Al, yes. Michelle, yes. Alice, yes. Ryan, yes. And I vote yes. Um they said we got a request for our information items moving to the sevens. I did get a request from a board member to separate um 7.4 which is our team room bid review. So if I could get a motion um to move forward in here 7.1 our data dashboard uh no action just for yeah we're going to
059yeah we're Yep. Absolutely. These are information items. So 7.1 uh dashboard 7.2 2 addendum cooperative for the football agreement for the Fairfield football co-op and 7.3 on policy 815.4 use of generative artificial intelligence and education. I believe that's all the sevens. Um Mr. Dickson. Yes sir. Um I'd like to move uh 7.4 forward to an action item to um I don't know how to to remove or to cancel the bids for uh I don't know the term to reject reject reject all the bids for said team rooms. Okay. So So this is just a motion to amend the agenda right now. It's not we're not voting on the substance of it. We're just voting to amend the agenda to make an an action item. Yep. So the motion is to amend the agenda to make
0607.4 an action item for tonight's meeting. So we need a second for that motion. Second it. Okay. Any any questions on on um amending the agenda to move this to an action item? I think I think we'll have a little bit more of a description. Um yeah, I was say I don't know if now is the time to ask the question. I guess I, you know, I'm not at finance and facilities committees meetings, but I imagine this is partly due to the conversations that were happening there. Um, and I'm hoping you could provide some context for the reasoning there. Yep. I think there'll be time for questions and discussion on that when we do it as an action. Yep. Okay. Good. Okay. So, any questions on that besides besides Alice's? All right. So, roll call.
061And this is to amend 7.4 to make it an action item. Um, so we'll start with Michelle. Yes. Alice, just to be clear, apologies, I'm asking again because it doesn't say this here to be an action item, but you said to the action item is to reject all bids. I think that'll be a second motion after this. Yeah, we're just separating. The substantive motion. Yes. Okay, got it. Um, yes. Okay. Um, Tim, yes. Al, yes. Ryan, yes. and I vote yes. Um, so I think what Mr. Sigman was was trying to allude at, I think what we want to do is to make a motion to effectively reject all bids and put out a request for all of the biders to rebid. And I think there was some context behind that attempt if you wanted
062to if you just real quickly, we should have public comment. Absolutely. Yep. Um, so we would do that now. Yeah. Okay. Before we have the discussion. Yeah. Okay. So technically what we should do is is there's going to be a motion to reject all bids on the team room and put a request out to the biders to rebid the project. Um so we would like to take open this time up right now if there's anyone present that would like to comment or ask any questions um on 7.4 for explain why I was going to say can can we not provide context ahead of time for go ahead and tell yeah yeah we're just trying to follow procedure so semantics the um at the meeting the bids had finally come in for that and the the
063bids were way uh more than we thought they were and we also think that there are reasons um that people were bidding them higher than they probably good uh because of the climate that we're in right now. So, we wanted to uh put these out and try to get them rebidded. Um the project just uh the numbers just got a little out of control. So, there was no sense in having information on something that was a little financially irresponsible. And that Yeah. And that's my understanding too that that'll provide our our business office and project management folks to to provide a little more direction on terms of the the biders and what the qualifications and requirements for the bid will be. So, I think it would just be in the best interest of the Yeah,
064probably as a as a reminder, the the funds being used for that project are a finite amount of funds because they're basically funds that remain um on uh on a previous bond. So, it's not a it's not something we can fluctuate too much on because the bonds the bond that's left over is a finite amount. Yeah. So, is there any public comment? Anyone that would like to say or ask any questions? Okay. So, hearing none. Um I'm sorry. Go ahead. My apologies. Do I have to press the just public comment? Yep. Thank you. So, it's moving from information to action. And Tim, you're saying because the bids are too high, right? Yes. So why does it have to tonight move from information to action? I don't see the information, I guess, is my question. Is
065there supposed to be information that we should be able to see? The information was just um I guess showing everybody what the bids were and where we were going with it. And there's really no sensor to it when we went to get rid of it because it's not financially feasible for the district to do so. So we want to take it back. Yeah. And I think the urgency and I'll I'll let Miss Wallen answer this. I think the urgency is the request to move it to action to reject all bids and to request a rebid is so we can still meet certain timelines and still um take advantage of certain funds that are available. It's still worth the project. We're just trying to get it cheap. It'll come so they get refused and then it'll
066come back as information again. Right. Absolutely. And enable us to use the bond funds before they turn into a pumpkin. Thank you. Yeah. And real quick question, Belinda. Um, is is this one of the situations where if we couldn't or didn't use the funds that we would have to pay that penalty repayment arbitrage? Uh, yes. So, I will be reporting to the board up this coming summer as soon as I receive more information from our agent, but um we, as Dr. Pin alluded to, we do have bond funds that we need to get spent down. Um, and we continue to to uh acrew basically arbitrage. So the quicker we can spend down these funds, the minimization of future arbitrage that we will have to pay. Now arbitrage is not a bad thing. Um we borrow
067these funds to do these projects when the market was great. We've earned the interest. We've set that interest aside. We must pay that interest back to the IRS. I'll know more information coming this summer. But bottom line is the t the clock continues to tick until you spent down those funds. Thank you. Yeah, we the the the board took took action and barred at the right time um for those bonds. We we were less than I think less than 3% on those bonds and as someone who's been looking at houses recently. That's not where they're at right now. Yeah, I think I think the urgency was we were able to take advantage of that. Record interest rates and not being able to use these funds would be more expensive than than using them. So, any
068other public comment? Okay. So, we're going the there's a motion on the floor to move this to an action item. Okay. Uh motion to um reject these um bids so we can put them back out. Second. Any questions? I have a question. Sure. So, I just want to make sure I'm clear. We're the bids were for to build new. The the bids come in for the new team room and the repair of the visitor bleachers. So since the bids were re since we're saying we want to reject the bids, is there any chance that we could instead of completely building new, could we use the two buildings that are already there and repurpose them? And I know everybody's saying they're full of storage, whatever. If we're going to do the bleachers, build your storage behind
069the bleachers. It just doesn't make sense to me to build brand new when you have two buildings there that could be repurposed. Well, and I'll let Josh speak to some of this if he has a comment, but I know we're not building new bleachers, so we're repairing the existing ones, but the buildings that would be in the back, the cost to bring them up to code that we could use it for that would probably exceed what we're trying to do. Yeah. To utilize the existing structures, uh we would be we wouldn't get the value uh out of those two structures versus building new. Um is would be my answer for that. Um I I think a little bit of background, we we had a budget of 650,000 for the project and it came in well
070over 2 million. and the current environment that Tim mentioned. Um we've got a lot of uh conversation about tariffs going on and um we're suspecting that the escalated price was due to um the the lump sum pricing which is uh if they underpric a project and say it's going to cost them 3.5 instead of 2.5, they eat that. That's their loss. Um, so we suspect that they added quite a bit of contingency to their number uh to protect themselves because to be frank with you, they're probably not 100% sure what it's going to cost them. Um, because we could wait 60 days, make the award, and at that point, this stay on tariffs that could go away. And instead of 10% across the board, uh, depending on where it's coming from, what products they're ordering
071from, what country, they could go from 10% to 125%. So, we have a strong suspicion that that's why the price went through the roof, so to speak. Um, and, you know, looking at it from their perspective, the contractor's perspective, uh, I can't say that I wouldn't have done the same thing. So it was uh just an unfortunate circumstance of timing basically is what we're looking at. So there's the context I think people were were looking looking for. And to Michelle's point and I'll let Josh chime in as well. I think initially we looked at this, we would have to go back to the drawing board, go through all the re-engineering and design um and we would potentially miss the opportunity to use the bond money. So I think this would probably be the most pertinent
072action at this time to see if we can get a rebid quickly. Yes, this would be the quickest quickest method to um get a revised price is use the current design uh which took four months, 5 months to develop. Um if we were to shift gears and basically uh start over, we would be looking at another um you know time frame probably into August, September to then put a bid out for a completely different design. All right, any other questions? Just to thank you for the context on both ends. It's very helpful. Okay, so hearing no more questions. Um roll call. Uh, Tim, yes. Al, yes. Michelle, yes. Alice, yes. Ryan, yes. And I vote yes. [Music] Mike, is it okay to make a quick comment on one of the other informationational items? Sure. Dr.
073where I just wanted to make a quick comment uh and thank the school district uh for our last policy committee meeting where we had a pretty robust discussion on the generative artificial intelligence and education. And as u as a result of that discussion, I uh I I just think Gettysburg school district is taking a really good proactive approach to uh creating uh these new policies uh you know with the help of our solicitor and so on. I I do know there are some districts I think that have their h heads in the sand a little bit and uh I my personal opinion is that uh AI is going to have uh a significant impact uh on all of us in the very near future uh K to2 students as well as uh all adults and
074so on. So I just wanted to commend our group that was part of that discussion with the policy committee. It'll be interesting to see the final uh document. Thank you. And thank you, Dr. Moyer. So, we're going to kick it over to uh Dr. Mner uh for a little bit of information and context on the data dashboard. Thank you. Uh I promise I'll be quick with this presentation. Uh normally about this time of year, I would be doing a presentation on our district data, whether it be PSSA Keystones. I know last year I talked a little bit about growth versus achievement. Uh this year, we're doing it uh we're going to I'm going to present a little bit differently. Um, as part of the 2022 to 2025 comprehensive plan, which started before I, um, before
075I got here, um, part of that plan included the formation of a K12 data dashboard that will be attached to our district website. Um, that will eventually be public facing for parents in the community to see. Um, we actually have that dashboard completed. Hopefully, it's going to go live um, as early as tomorrow. But I just want to kind of present some of the things on this data dashboard um that uh will be visible to eventually to the entire community. Um current student data for example uh just enrollment figures. You know we can break these down by um different years. We have the 23 24 and then 2425 enrollment data uh that will be on there. We can break it down by attendance. Um this is a percent of our students that are present each
076day um in each one of our buildings. So you can see our attendance is pretty solid through um all five of our buildings in the district. That can actually be broken down even further. I apologize. I know this is kind of small, a little bit difficult to see. Uh but with this data dashboard, we can look at our attendance by grade level. We can look at our attendance by gender, by ethnicity. We can run reports fairly quickly uh to identify students who, for example, missed 10 school days. And um we can try to um put some interventions in place to help make sure that those students are coming to school. Uh and then as talked about with um Lincoln and Dr. McFarland earlier, this is district uh whole incident report um of our majors and
077minors that uh were reported in 2324 and 2425. So this is all data that once this data dashboard goes public um or goes live will be will be public. Uh student demographics another um important area here for us. We can break our enrollment down by gender, uh, male, female in the last couple of years. Uh, very simple reports for us to run. Uh, meal status, we can identify what percent of our students are on free and reduced lunch. Um, which students, you know, obviously pay full price. Um, and all these different data points um will cover the last couple of school years. Uh, we can break it down by our enrollments, our different ethnicities. Um, and you can see our percentages of each one of those categories along with um whether they went up or
078down from last year to this year. And we can continue to track that um using the data that we put into the system. Then of course um my report this time of year wouldn't be complete without some student achievement. So this is our um PSSA scores from the 23 24 ELA PSSAs last year. Uh, and again, this data will be made public. So, um, if you have a child at Franklin Township, you can certainly look at, um, Franklin Township scores and see where we were with students that were below basic, basic, proficient, or advanced. Again, this is, um, ELA PSSA's last school year. We have our math scores um, from last school year. Uh and again, most of this data is going to be last school year because a lot of the uh assessment data
079for this year, obviously, we're we're testing starting today, so it's obviously not out yet. Uh PSA science scores in all of our different buildings. Uh move into our Keystones up at the high school, uh Keystone algebra. We do have a small handful of middle school students that take the Keystone exam. Uh but the majority of of these are all of our high school students uh Keystone literature and obviously then also our Keystone biology. So all of this information will be um public facing so parents, community members can go on to our website and I'll show you how to find that um at the end of the presentation. And then internally as as a district, uh teachers can go on and look at individual students in their classes. Um can see their grades, can see their
080attendance, can see uh any notes or any important information that they have on that student. They'll have access to all the all students in their classroom. They can see historically how they've performed on different assessments this school year, last school year, uh from semester 1 to semester 2, or across marking periods. So our teachers will have um access to that all in one place. And then um or this uh last screen here, teachers can look at their this called a data wall. So teachers can actually create these data walls uh to see some information. Again, I apologize it's a very small screenshot there. um can see information about their class as a whole, identify areas maybe where they need to spend a little bit more focus with particular classes to make sure that they are
081uh getting what they need. So, this eventually is going to if you go on to our district web page uh under the services tab and then click on the curriculum tab, you'll see um on the lefth hand side there, you'll scroll down where I have that gray arrow pointing says K12 data dashboard. If you click on that link, it'll take you to this data dashboard. And uh again, this is going to go live tomorrow. More features will come on as the rest of the year progresses, but a lot of the information um at the beginning will be there for um both there'll be things that are in there specifically internally for uh teachers and administrators in the district and then there'll be things on there specifically for the public. um one of the big movements
082in the uh comprehensive plan from 22 to 25 and then the one that I led the committee through for 2528 is um a push towards more um more transparency with the community so they know what our students are doing. So this data dashboard is is a vehicle to help us achieve that. Uh and again this should be going live on our website tomorrow. That's it. Thank you. Dr. Aser, is this replacing Skyward? This is not replacing this in addition to I I don't have any kids in the district, but Skyward is what I was used to. So, it's just Yeah. And again, this is, you know, if you have kids in the district, obviously you have a Skyward account, but if you don't have kids in the district, do you not have access to all
083the same data? Thank you, uh, Dr. Mesner for the update on the data dashboard. Just one more item. I was wondering if you'd please provide a quick update on um the addendum to our cooperative agreement between Fairfield. I think we have some good news about the cheerleaders there. Yes. Um we because Fairfield with the football co-op because they are um going to be um sending cheerleaders for football. It's basically fall cheerleading. Instead of doing a whole brand new co-op, we we decided just to make an addendum to the football co-op to include fall cheerleading. Uh so we will um we have that on as an information item for uh obviously forformational purposes and hopefully we'll vote be an action item at the next board meeting. Yeah, thank you for that. I think that does it
084for action or uh information items. We'll move to section 8 board committee reports. Just a quick update on my end policy committee will be uh May 13th which is always the second Tuesday of the month at 4 p.m. here in the administration building. Um Tim, do you have anything or Dr. Moyer, anything on your end from committee reports? All right. Uh so that brings us to program reports. Anything additional, Dr. P? Yeah, just as Dr. Matner alluded to, we've we've hit the uh the part of the season of standardized testing. So um we have a couple, you know, weeks of PSSA testing and then that runs into a couple of weeks of of Keystone uh testing. and then we graduate a bunch of seniors. So that's basically there there's testing from now through like May
08523rd for someone. Um but that's where that's where we are in the year. We're not unique. It's not a Gettysburg thing. That's statewide. Um so uh you have lots of lots more data to plug into the website and and thank you and good luck to all of the teachers involved in that. It's uh no simple task. The buildings definitely do a good job supporting kids through that process. All right. Thank you. That brings us to our calendar of board events. Our next board meeting will be scheduled for May 5th at 700 p.m. in the administration building. And with that, may I get a motion to adjourn, please? to move.