001Good evening. I would like to call this December 4th, 2025 board work session to order. Can we start by having board members read the district mission and goals? The mission of the school district of Hford Township is to educate and to inspire a community of lifelong learners who become well-rounded global citizens. Our district goals are academic excellence in an evolving world. Prepare future ready learners who persevere, adapt, problem solve, think critically, and are supported by engaging learning experiences and intentional use of technology. Belonging. Honor every individual's inherent dignity through equitable, inclusive, and diverse practices. Social and emotional growth. Build a learning community that prioritizes social emotional wellness as a foundation for academic success, resilience, and strong relationships. And community pride, and civic engagement empower students to be active, responsible, and contributing citizens through shared responsibility
002and community partnerships. Thank you. Um the next we'll have the roll call. Mr. Ta, >> Mr. Flaggler >> here. >> Miss Lee >> here. >> Dr. McKay >> here. >> Mr. Schwarz >> here. >> Miss Sn >> here. >> Miss Snder >> here. >> Miss Weedman. >> Dr. Shelton >> here. >> Dr. King >> present. Thank you Mr. Tessa. We have no one signed up for section two of public comment. We'll continue on for section three. Approval of minutes. Can I have a motion to approve the minutes from the November 20th, 2025 regular board meeting? >> Okay. Moved. >> Second. >> Moved and seconded. Any discussion? All in favor? >> Any opposed? The motion passes. We'll continue with 3B, the bill list. Can I have a motion to approve the bill list in the amount
003of 1,37,839.99? >> Moved and seconded. Any discussion? All in favor? >> I. >> Any oppose? The motion passes. 3C for change orders. Can I have a motion to approve change orders as a credit of $5,38921 as listed below? >> Moved and seconded. Any discussion? All in favor? >> I. >> Any opposed? The motion passes. 3D. The Chattam Park Elementary Solar Array Bid Award. Can I have a motion to award the con the contract for the Chattam Park Elementary Solar Away project to the lowest responsive and responsible bidder, Terasol Energies Incorporated, with a base bid of $693,228 for a 400 kilowatt solar PV system subject to submission of properly executed payment and performance bonds and contract documents as well as any other post bid submission requirements and subject to review by the solicitor. McKay moved. >>
004Second. >> Moved and seconded. Any discussion? >> Just for a quick clarification here. So, we are just for the benefit of the watching. We're approving M. And um Mr. Mr. Ta, I'll probably just look to you to verify these things. We're approving $700,000 this evening. The total cost of the array though I believe is closer to it's 900 and change. It's close to $2 million. Correct. >> That was the projection. So this would actually be lower than that initial project. >> Yeah. Please >> Mr. Santano was also on hand as well. So he did our site assessments for the solar applications. >> All right. Good evening everyone. Uh so yeah, the initial estimate was a little over a million dollars for the array, but the actual bids came in uh we had a bid just
005over 900,000, another a little over 800,000 and Terasol came in for the full cost of the system at 693,000. >> Okay. And and so this is not so this is not including the uh solar for schools bid and not including the potential IRS rebate as well. >> Right. >> Okay. So basically this is we're approving this right now. However, I guess the overall cost of of of this array for us is going to be somewhere in the neighborhood. It's going to be 60% less, give or take. >> Yeah, it'll be Well, actually, um yeah, uh 60% less, correct? Okay. Because it's 30% with the federal tax credit and then there's 30% because well, it's it's stacked from the uh solo schools program >> and we're paying for this outright. We are not binding this out
006or anything like that. So, Just to just kind of continue that train of thought. I believe you mentioned in previous budget updates and we'll see one again this evening. One of the higher cost drivers lately at least had been electric bills. We've been paying a lot in electricity. So once this is installed and not a switch that's flicked, it's more of just like happens. When it happened in my house, I didn't even know it happened and then they said, "Hey, you're in you're now solar." And I'm like, "Oh, great." Uh kind of anticlimatic actually. Um, bottom line though is that this will help to control our utility costs. So, it's less than we thought, which is nice. We still get we still get roughly systems off of this thing. So, we're paying the rough math
007here and I'm engineer, which is dangerous to do rough math. It's 270 83. It's somewhere in that neighborhood probably of of of what our cost is going to be for a system. That's for a system that's $300,000, give or take. So >> yeah. Um >> yeah, right. >> Trying to make the numbers very rounded, >> very it's less than like taking those two um the tax credit and that grant, it's going to be Yeah. Well under $300,000. >> We're paying less than half the price of what the actual array cost and we'll be saving money like day one. >> It's important to mention you said this is cost avoidance savings to keep it in mind that >> want to make sure that that's clear for everybody. Thank you. >> And um solar was something that
008this district looked at this way and that way and different projects and different configurations. So with this one, the 400 kilowatt DC solar PV system, can you just uh is there a way for us to see how what um what this plan is compared to like the financial models we had seen and um do you know how much of the energy at Chadam this array will provide? >> Yeah. So when I originally did that the assessment um it was it was actually a little bit larger. I think it was 430 uh KW um and we and I had to project with the new construction for the site what that additional usage would be. um doing that. Um it was really that was really an oversized system. This one at 400 really kind of pretty much
009matches at least to the best that I know of the annual energy usage. It may come down to that we may have to make this a little smaller for certain reasons. And so it'll you know just be you know maybe uh whatever 90% or something like that of of the total usage. >> So for the purpose of going to bid we had to have everybody bid apples to apples. So we had a 400KW and a 300KW. The final design may fluctuate. It may be 360 or you know whatever the number is. But so there's some roof areas we can't put it on. Some shading issues. So now that design will get finalized and then we'll come back and be able to present what the actual number is. >> If it goes down from 400 KW,
010would the cost go down? Um likewise >> the absolute cost will go down. Yeah. We tend to look at these at least I tend to look at these with unit costs like you know dollars per watt you know when we kind of like look at all that and that's that's that's the number that kind of stays somewhat constant. Maybe it'll go up a little bit because of economies of scale as it gets smaller but the total dollars absolutely will go down. >> Yeah. This is roughly what a $160 something a kilowatt >> I think it's right around there. So if it ends up being you know 30,000 less than that then we take that unit cost and that would be taken off their contract value. Thank you. Um I it was actually let's say I
011I could tend to think of it as when the cash flow turns positive you know and in the ballpark let me See if I'm gonna get the I didn't have the exact number, but it was sort of like uh let me see. >> Yeah, I think it was about Yeah, sure. My glasses on. >> I believe it was in the four to five year range. It came down pretty good because of all the grants. >> We We'll get you the exact number. >> Yeah. So, part of it part of why it was we wanted to get it approved at this meeting is we have to p have them purchase 5% of the material by the end of this month. So, we'll be coming back to you with an invoice at the December 18th meeting for
012uh you know, approximately a little more than 5% to make sure we're covered of that uh 693,000 materials to order. Then the material has to be on site within what? 105 days. >> 105 days. Yeah. >> Uh so that's part of what will be back for invoice to approve >> on. Yeah. No, no problem at all. We spoken to the terasol, the contractor. Not an issue. >> Yeah. And just to point out, so yeah, it it turned out to be roughly like four years, four 4.2 years, something like that. But we did some sensitivity analysis or I did this earlier as requested and even if you didn't get the 30% federal tax credit for whatever reason, it still is like under seven years. So it's still not like forget it, it's not really going to
013make it. You're still well within >> and the expected lifespan is 25 30 years. >> Yeah, that's that's typically it. There's reasons why you'll you'll usually don't see solar systems last that long, but the inverters are are the weak point and 10 years is a typical warranty for those. They get replaced over time. Um it's and but the panels themselves will they have a 20 25 year warranty. Yeah. >> Okay, great. Thank you. I was just going to say that for um at work we're doing projects to finance uh solar projects to take advantage of the um ITC and trying to get safe harbored equipment and that 5% threshold. We are advising on those projects to um do at least 7%. >> Like you said that margin just so there is that >> room in
014case anything is disqualified or changes that you lock in. >> Absolutely. Yeah. That's that's the last thing you want to do is like 5% what oh the price went up $2. Oh no. And he just lose it all. So yeah absolutely 7% is is the industry standard that's looked at right now. >> I had one just one last question briefly. I know we discussed as educational component to have some kind of reporting system. I know like I have a little app on my phone I can click on to see how much was used or being anything like that available to students and parents. they can see. >> Yeah, that and that was that's actually some of the um one of the requirements of the solar grant program. Uh the details of that have yet to
015be worked out, but it'll definitely be accessible for anyone to to see or access. >> I like there you go. >> Little little bar charts and everything showing you use them. Okay. Why don't you produce? Okay. All in favor? >> I. >> Any oppose? >> The motion passes. Thank you. >> We'll continue on to personnel actions. Can I have a motion to approve the personal actions as listed below? >> Second. >> Moved and seconded. Any discussion? All in favor? Any oppose? The motion passes. So, we've now concluded the action portion of the meeting and we are moving into the working portion of the meeting in which items are being provided for information and discussion purposes only. None of the items discussed are being considered for official action at this time. We'll continue on to section
016four, which is committee reports. We will start with the finance. Dr. Shelton. >> Thank you, Dr. King. And uh we have a a pretty full agenda on the finance and the first item will be a 2425 audit presentation. Um and uh this will be again for information purposes for annual for action at the December 18th meeting. >> So tonight we have Jeff Kowaltic from Barbara King Thornton and he'll present the audit results for the 2425 fiscal year. Barbara King Thornton is new to the district this year for a new audit. >> Great. Thank you. >> Yes. Thank you for that introduction, Tony, and thank you so much for having me out tonight. I am delighted to be here presenting the results of our audit for the year ended June 30, 2025. As Tony mentioned, this
017is our first year working with your district. Uh we currently work with about 20 districts and about 40 other educational uh entities throughout southeastern Pennsylvania. Um, so while we're familiar with sort of the overall uh market, it's been wonderful to get to know your district and its intricacies. Um, the I believe Tony provided a draft of the financial statements in your packets and I know it's a lot of financial data. So for tonight, I'll just hit a couple highlights just just a couple talking points and then open it up to questions. Um, and one of the places I actually like to start when we talk about the audit, um, is actually at the back of the document. Uh we can leave this up um on the stage, but if page 77 of the uh of
018the report, because your district expends more than $750,000, you're required not only to have a financial audit, but also an audit of compliance with major federal programs, uh which is also called the single audit. And one of the nice things about that is it mandates that we have a summary of audit results and findings. Um so on this page you'll see a summary result that fortunately has a lot of nos and a lot of unmodified. Um and that is because we are issuing an unmodified or clean opinion on the financial statements as well as on compliance with your major federal programs. Additionally, you'll see there are nos because uh we did not identify any material weaknesses, significant deficiencies, non-compliance, or other reportable matters uh to bring to the board. And you know, it's easy for
019me to stand here and and say, "Hey, clean audit." Um but really it is a testament uh especially in a first year with us coming in to the work that your your finance team Tony and his team do uh to keep the books and records throughout the year to keep them updated to to manage the new and and often complex rules that the government accounting standards board puts out. Um, and this year, um, just as a sneak peek of some of the numbers, there was a new rule, um, regarding compensated absences, which is sick and vacation time that's been earned by employees but hasn't been used yet. Historically, the rule was you had to um basically record a liability on your entitywide financial statements for the portion of earned but unused sick and vacation time
020that was vested to be paid out if an employee left the district. And it would be p it would be acred at their vesting rate. So if a teacher is eligible to get $40 per day for sick time that they hadn't used, you would record their number of days times $40. Under the new standard, the district is required to make a best guess estimate of how much of their acred time, each employees acred time is going to be used while they still work with the district, how much will be paid out when they leave the district, and how much will be lost. And obviously the amount that's lost, you record no liability for the amount that's estimated to be paid out. That percentage is continued to be at the payout rate. But the percentage that
021the district estimates employees have earned and will use before they leave the district is now required to be recognized as an entitywide liability at their current pay rate. Um so as you can imagine for your district as well as as almost every district um in the state this resulted in an increase in compensated absence liabilities and for your district that increase on the entitywide basis uh was about $5.7 million. The important thing is this does not impact cash flow in any way. It doesn't impact your budgetary basis. You have since the district was founded paid sick time that had been acred when it was used when it was used. So you've been doing all the things as far as paying the sick time when it was used. This is just a measurement difference that was
022required to try to bring some consistency in the way that government entities are tracking their compensated absences. To get on my soap box a little, it didn't quite work. So probably to 10 years from now, we'll have another standard. Um, but that is not an official part of my presentation. Um, jumping in, the the document that's up on the screen starts on page one, and that is our independent auditor's report. Goes from pages one through four. And this is the report just describing what it is that we do because management's responsible throughout the year for keeping the books and records and having a system of internal controls. And we're responsible to come in, evaluate the internal controls and develop testing which is a combination of transactional testing, control process testing, and analytical testing. All for
023the purpose of issuing our opinion, which as I said, we're issuing an unmodified or clean audit opinion. After the report, pages 5 through 18 are management's discussion and analysis. And this provides a high-level overview of the district's uh result financial results for the year as well as a comparison to the prior year. Um astute readers will note that at the top it says that this section is unawudited and it's unudited for the same reason that it's really the best place to look for quick information about the district. Because as auditors, we're allowed to give an opinion on the numbers themselves, but the management's discussion and analysis goes a step beyond that and it explains why there were differences in certain areas and also at the end of the document talks about future factors that are
024anticipated to have an impact on the district. and we're not permitted under professional standards to issue an opinion, especially on that forwardlooking um guidance, but I think it's really helpful for a user to to read to really understand what the district's looking at. Um, and especially as I know you are getting into the budgeting process. Um, it's it's sort of the only hint we can have in the financial document about what the future looks like. So, wanted to to draw attention to that. But then the financial numbers themselves, all those wonderful pages start on page 19. And pages 19 and 20 are the entitywide financial statements. And that is the best way to look at them. Just kind of blurry. Um, but the uh because it's a ton of data. I'm sorry. It's it's a
025ton of financial data, but this is the entitywide financial statements. It looks at the district like it was a business. Um, so all of your buildings and equipment are recognized as assets. All of your long-term debt, your compensated absences, and also the district's proportionate share of the peaser's net pension and net other post-employment benefit liabilities are reflected as liabilities. And for that reason, your district, like all districts in Pennsylvania, uh, that I'm aware of, continues to show a net deficit on the entitywide level. The good news is we are starting to see some traction from peasers with the changes that they've made in the last five years to the defined contribution model where if you uh look at the net pension liability which is about threearters of the way down the page it did decrease
026about $8 million this year. Um so it went from about 61 a.5% funded to about 64 and a half% funded. And this still um pasers provides information on a 12-month lookback period. So this still hasn't factored in the positive investment results since June 30, 2024. Um so we're hopeful that that's going to keep um to keep coming down, especially as we're seeing pasers still project high contribution rates into the future, but start to stabilize them more. Um >> can you just explain that line item more? Like I think looking at the financial statements like people understand accounts payable like those are actual invoices and things that we need to pay um bonds payable like those are obligations that we have. >> Can you describe the net pension liability? >> Yes, absolutely. So about 12 years
027ago, well going back f further to keep it simpler, uh the district like all districts in Pennsylvania participates in the Pennsylvania school employees retirement system uh retirement program. And that program um requires the district and employees to pay in contributions into a statewide trust um that is used to fund retirey pensions. About 12 years ago, there was a requirement that all governments that participate in plans like this start to show a net asset or net liability based on the funded status of those plans. So, Pasers um currently has actuarily projected that it has about 64% of the funds that it needs to pay future projected bene projected benefits. So the shortfall within that is the net pension liability and that gets carved up and sliced and diced and each district is told by the state,
028hey here's what your proportionate share of that is uh to record on the financial statements. >> Yeah, essentially if if for some reason there was a requirement that Yeah. that all the districts had to make the Pasers plan and its participants whole. That's in theory what the district would have to pay. Now, in practice, the district receives a 50% reimbursement from the state on all the contributions the district makes to the plan, but because of the way Gazsby created its rules, if the money went right from the state to the plan, it would cut your liability in half. But because it comes to you and then you send it to the state, we don't get to take credit for that. So even if the district had you make this payment, in theory, the state covers
02950% of the district's contributions. Uh but we can't give credit for that. So I always like to it's described in the notes, but um I always like to highlight that because I think it is key um to understanding sort of the flow of that plan. And that's why we look so carefully at the funded status and as that's coming up because the new participants are not eligible for some of the um most generous benefits that the plan historically offered that were really driving the the underfunded status of the plan. Um and to tell you you know isn't the best funded state plan but it's not the worst either. Um, so when we look at bond markets and I know you have PFM here, um, one of the things to know is that this liability has
030for years been been baked into the rates and the the ratings. So, but but knowing that you have a lot on your agenda, I want to make sure I hit a few key things. Um, so the next thing I want to draw attention to is page 21, which is where we are your fund level statements. These are more your budgetary basis numbers. Um, and this is where we show your your general fund as well as your capital projects fund. Um, and there's a one item listed that's a non- major fund and that is your elementary school student activity funds. Um, but really the key here, the big areas are the general fund and the capital projects fund. um which you'll see that as of June 30, 2025, the capital projects fund had about $18.1 million
031in it. Um now that was largely because there was a $25 million um debt taken out during the year. So a new bond issuance and the fund the proceeds from that are sitting in the the capital projects fund. The general fund ended the year with about $17 million in it of which $8 million or seven seven to eight million was restricted for certain budgetary balancing and capital projects. Um and most of the remainder is available for the future use of the district if say the state is four months late in passing a budget and sending funds. um which I think this has really been a year that it's it's been recognized the importance that that the June 30 balance is before tax money comes in before state funds come in and it's really what carries
032the district through the summer months. Um and we've seen that probably more acutely and I know some districts that that haven't been as prepared have have been in the news. Um although fortunately now the the state pass the budget and funding's flowing and and those uh districts are not arriving at what the worst case scenario was. But the last the last important thing to hit page 25 is your budget, your general fund budget versus actual. Um, and you'll see for the year, the district had a budget uh that called for revenues of about 151 million and expenditures of 152 plus transfers to other funds of $2 million to keep your capital projects fund adequately funded for those projects that aren't large enough to require bond issuance, but are still imperative to keep the district going.
033and and um so the budget called for a decrease in overall fund balance of 4.1 million. Um the actual results were that the revenues were right right in line with budget. Um the budget was 151.0 million, the actual was 150.7 million. Um so you were right in line. On the expenditure side, you'll see that expenditures were about $2.3 million below budgeted expenditures as the district um worked to find savings throughout the year to to help with the obviously as I said with the budget there was an anticipated shortfall. And what you ended up with was an operating surplus of 589,000 um which then allowed the district to make the anticipated transfer of 2 million but also transfer it about an additional 500,000 and end up only decreasing the general fund fund balance by about $1.7
034million. Um so revenues right in line, expenditures under able to continue making those transfers to the capital projects fund. um to to keep the the moderate to long-term health of the district and its buildings. It's a lot of financial data. Um and I thank those who asked questions during I'm going to open it up to to general questions now about anything that I might be able to touch on. Um yeah, that last part that you said, I just think that's worth underlying that despite um 1.7 million decrease in our fund balance that you think your conclusion was, we're still maintaining the health the financial health of the district. Um just say a little bit more about that. I think most people would say, oh, like there's negative 1.7 million and that's going the wrong way.
035Like um how interpret that that is that we are still in like a healthy financial condition. >> Yeah, absolutely. So, so one thing I look at is does your fund balance still support the district through the summer months until tax revenue comes and and it does. And the other thing I look at is um how did you do rel was your budget reasonable and it was and how did you do relative to it? um because this was the first year in a long time that there wasn't a lot of esser money flowing in. And while we still had pretty good investment returns, they're starting to come down a little. Um you know, investment income's never been a huge part of a school district's uh revenue sources because they're pretty restricted in what they can invest
036in. But but we were starting to see some of the levers pull back. And so this was a year where we really saw um some districts that were able to to keep in line and others that weren't. Um and so for your district, we saw that there was an operating surplus where you're before considering transfers. Um you you were in a positive and transfers aren't really a one-year thing. They're an investment in the long-term health of the district. and money you don't transfer now becomes a debt issuance five years from now with deferred maintenance. Um so that's the things that I look at. Um now I wouldn't say you you want to you know have a two or three million dollar deficit every year. Um but it it does not mean that there is a
037an issue or a concern um where it's managed and uh where you're seeing the positive steps taken to say hey this was a and use of fund balance. It's not we're just throwing money everywhere. And I think that's really the big difference. >> So it's safe to say then that the transfer of funds to summarize is the lion share of the the of the net loss in capital. >> Yeah, I think that's absolutely one way to look at it when we stop transferring will be a bit more stable. Well, and that's the the thing. There's always going to probably be a desire to to transfer to keep funds healthy. Um, it's it's one of the levers you can manage. Um, and this has been a time where where certainly costs have been going up at
038a level that's higher than we've seen in the school district environment in a while. Um, and so everyone's trying to figure out what levers do we pull to what degree. And I would encourage you to explore that lever, but don't uh where districts get in trouble is when they fully stop funding their capital. >> Oh, yeah. No, >> I didn't think you were suggesting that. Go back a little bit. >> I just wanted to make sure I said that. >> Yeah. I think it's important to have that kind of investment strategy, right? To the extent that there were years where the district did accumulate a surplus, >> right? We're not just stockpiling or hoarding a surplus, but thinking about how it can be proactively used to offset um bonds that we need to fund raise
039or other things like that, but to put that into use in >> our facilities or or other ways. >> Exactly. >> Hope I answered your question. Any other questions? >> Anything down there? I apologize. I've been Thank you to Barbara King and Thorton for >> Absolutely. Thank you so much for having us and I hope you have a great rest of your night everybody. >> Number two on the finance agenda is for county test to go through the preliminary 2627 budget presentation. Okay. So, tonight um a little bit earlier than we normally have had a chance to look at the budget, but we thought, um, with the timing of approval for this 2627 budget, it made sense to kind of, um, start the conversations early, um, so we can strategically plan for the next financial
040year. Um, so, as Jeff mentioned, we finally do have a state budget. So, I thought it was important to just touch on some of the items and how they impact our district as far as the final budget package that was released. So, for the basic ed subsidy, um our district received 134,000 in additional funding from what we had in the previous year. So, that's about a 2% increase um on basic ed subsidy. We had already accounted for 107,000 in our budget. Um that was the initial projection from the state. Um, so I felt comfortable with putting that number in that that it would not decrease. Um, so the additional increase we get in our budget is another $27,000 for a basic ed subsidy. Um, special education subsidy that actually went down by 65 just about
041$65,000. Um, and a lot of that's driven on student count and ACT 16 data. And that's act 16 um is basically the the cost for some of our higher level students in the different categories that PTE defines. So it really is a that's really a driver. So if we have any fluctuations in that data, it basically um could redistribute our share of the pie if you think of it that way. Um the special ed funding being a pie and all the the districts in Pennsylvania getting a share based on needs of those students that meet those categories. Um, as far as the cyber charter funding reforms, there has been some movement on that, which is a positive. Um, we, every school district calculates what tuition they pay for a charter school. So, it seems kind
042of odd that we don't all pay the same amount. It's driven by a form called the PTE 363. So, they're actually revising the form. They're still in the process. Um, it's not um available to the school district yet. So, we we're still working off the old form. But what this does, it adds some additional deductions which will help lower um the cost that we're going to pay to charter schools. There are certain items that basically it takes your your budget for the year and calculates a per student cost and there are certain categories that you're allowed to eliminate when you're doing that. This will add some additional um items that we can remove to help lower lower the cost. Um and it's important to note I have an item too that this is a cost
043avoidance. So, it's not that we're getting money back. It's just going to be a little bit less money that we have to spend hopefully um in that line item. What could change things is if your special ed population moves more into a cyber or charter school, um those costs are higher. So, the the rate will vary between regular ed and special ed for these institutions. So, that's important to know that that cost avoidance could actually go away depending on um the mix of students in the programs. facilities grants. So, they did put another round of school improvement grants uh with the DCEED. $100 million is put back into the program. There are no specifics at this time posted by DCED, but this would give the district a chance if we qualify and we certainly have
044projects that we could do this um you know, whether it's a heating program or a new roof program. Um so we'll you know certainly once that comes out we'll stay on top of it and see where we can utilize and some additional grant money to make those um facilities improvements and not necessarily rely on our capital reserves. Um and again there's a continued plan con moratorum. So in the past districts would receive a certain reimbursement based on relative wealth and um the scope of the construction program that they've done and that has gone that's been gone for a while. So any new any new monies that we're going out for or projects we're doing, we don't get reimbursement from the state, but we still have some bonds where we are getting reimbursement. Um but as
045this says, there is no plan to kind of bring that program back to help incentivize districts to do renovations. Ready to learn uh we received there were add adequacy changes for 2526. So the district most districts received about $50,000. Um and there's specific spending categories that we can use that on in that ready tolearn program. Um what it does do is it eliminates the district to go for act one exceptions. So whenever we receive that money through the adequacy channel um you are unable to go for an act one exception. So just kind of know that as we go forward in each of the fiscal years. >> So looking at the preliminary budget >> ask a quick question >> with the state budget passing. I know that some districts unfortunately ran out of money and
046they had to borrow. Yes. I think Philadelphia for example had to borrow over a billion dollars or something. >> And that incurred financing costs. Um >> did we have any impacts like that where we you know we had delay in the state funds coming? >> Um fortun for fortunately we did not. The the one thing they did do for the peasers expense um we were only required to make the paser's expense for our share. um the the fif the other 50% portion that we would get reimbured for they did not make us um pay on until the state budget was approved. So it kind of washed. So that you know that 50% was a was a savings for us. So that did help a lot of districts. Um we were fortunate in that we had
047you know a little over 90% of our taxes collected um over this period. We have a strong I feel like we have a strong base of tax collection. Um, so that helped with that um kind of mitigate that process so there was no no jeopardy um in having to go for bonds just to pay your bills or a loan. Excuse me. >> Okay. Thank you. >> Sure. >> So some of the revenue assumptions that I put in and and obviously some of this is going to change and this is just early on kind of what we can look at now. As far as local sources, we know that the act one index for our district and for all districts that don't have an adjusted index are is 3.5%. Um, so when we look at u
048the assessed values, the assessed values dropped slightly. Um, the county certifies them every January and that sets up, excuse me, the every December and it sets it up for the county bills that are issued in January and school district bills that are issued in July. So, we know that with that slight decrease, you would look at about a $21,000 decrease in uh property tax revenue just based on those assessed value changes. As far as state sources, I essentially for for this time kept the state subsidies equivalent to what we are receiving for the 2526 year just as a conservative until we know um what kind of estimates. I'm not sure when they're going to work on the next budget when they just approve this one, but we'll kind of use this as a placeholder for
049right now. Um as far as expenditure assumptions, we use the healthcare trust for our medical insurance and prescription. This is utilizing their first look projections. They'll come back to us in March to give us second look projections and usually they are the final projections for those costs and tend to decrease when we come at that point. Um they they do a block of I believe it's like an 18month um utilization. So that kind of gives them a broader idea of what our premiums could look like in the next fiscal year. Um items such as purchased property services, uh professional services I kept at about a 3% increase. Property and liability insurance, just looking at historical, I put in at a 5% increase. Um supplies I'm keeping at the 2526 budget level just for right now.
050Kind of going in with just being a little conservative on on spending. And then our natural gas and electric, we use Provident Energy. Um they are our um basically our third party um consultant for the energy. So as far as natural gas and electric and that goes through the IU. So it's a consortium um for those utilities. So we're kind of locked in for the next couple of years. Um so we did have that budget on hand. So we know that that is a fixed a fixed amount we can work with. And then our debt service um we're basically working with the debt service schedule that we have. So whatever summary um of the bonds that we have now is what we have in the budget. As far as expenditures for the next year, um
051this is basically just a highlight of where we are now. Um obviously this is going to change as we move forward. Um and as as you can see, salaries and and benefits as we've you know laid out before is is the majority of where your expenditures are. Um we are adding a little bit for debt service um as we complete the Coopertown project and that will kind of wrap up the Chestnut Wall um middle school cafeteria and Coopertown project. So it kind of just brings all of that to completion. Uh as far as when you look at revenues towards expenditures, this will just show basically um early projections. We're thinking that we um we would commit a thous a million dollars to the capital projects and then we would utilize almost four million in unreserved
052fund balance to kind of make up that shortfall. Um now there may be some changes to the um cost for the financing that we'll have in in this next bond. We there is capitalized interest. I don't have that bill in here. So that number is going to come down a little bit um because the capitalized interest um part of Jamie's presentation I don't I didn't have in here. So that will come down slightly. This just kind of shows where our fund balances. The 2425 year end would tie out to the presentation that Jeff gave us this evening. and then 2526. Um if you utilize the amount of fund balance that we project we may need your fund balance would come down your total would come down to 136 leaving you about 6 and a half%
053of fund balance and then in the next year for 2627 you can see it decreases further. So again we were fortunate in the 2425 year with conservative spending and really watching where we were that we did not need to use all of our fund balance that we had projected. So um kind of taking that same approach and giving that same message as we move into um the 26 27 year and what the needs are and um what we can um kind of do maybe do more with less or do more with the same that we've we've been utilizing. >> Will the will the decrease in the um percentage of um an assigned fund balance have any impact on a credit rating? it could for future ratings. Um the rating agencies like you to stay within
054a five to seven% range. So that's something we really have to kind of be mindful of as we're working towards that next budget to that we want to stay within that range. >> Right. >> We're looking at our capital projects. um seem to recall a recent meeting where JR laid out like many millions of dollars that he would prefer for the facilities and things that are coming up and uh you know near-term long-term. So is any of that built in here? >> So we have a million built in for capital projects, excuse me, for the capital projects reserve to work on some of those projects. um but without funding that more we have to kind of be selective in which ones we do. So it'll be a matter of sitting with JR um and and
055Dr. Hayes kind of really map out what we can afford and um you know prioritize the most important projects >> and then I guess thinking for some of those bigger ticket items whether we would need to have some other sort of source for um funding those. >> Right. And that's where I'm hoping when they come through with the facility improvement grants that that is something that we can utilize to really harness um making those repairs. >> Sure. >> Um so as far as next steps uh next week or excuse me on December 18th will be the audit acceptance based on the report that the board was given tonight. Um at the March 5th meeting we'll have a proposed budget presentation. And just kind of jumping ahead, uh, we're looking at approving your budget in May,
056a little earlier than we've done in previous years, just with the timing of the meetings in June and being able to issue tax bills and keep that cash flow um, moving productively. Um, we're kind of working back from that May 21st deadline. So, you'll have a final budget discussion on April 9th. Your proposed final budget um, adoption would be on March 19th. That's not your final final. It's just kind of a proposed saying this is where we're starting from and you have the ability to work down from there and then you have a final budget discussion on May 7th. We'll post a public notice of budget adoption on May 11th and then the final budget adoption would be on May 21st. And I just noted in the in the red boxes just what PTE's timelines
057are on some of the um deadlines working back from the May 21st date. we can expect at the March 5th meeting a detailed presentation of the budget and what's going into each specific number. I'm just thinking, you know, change we've talked about before like changes of staffing and usually um we get a list of what our building principles wanted and then maybe some things that we can give them and so that type of presentation we can expect. >> So myself and the assistant business manager are working on the budget worksheets for the administrators and the principles. Um, so they should have that next week and then we have meetings set up in early January to kind of go through and hear what the needs are and um, kind of talk through what what the best
058options are for the building. So definitely by that time we would have all of that data put together. >> Thanks. I ask some questions about the assumptions for our revenue growth. So I guess that's slide nine. When I looked at the audit, one thing that jumped out at me is that in the 2425 school year, despite a millage increase of 4%. Our tax revenues only went up 3.51%. And then this I'm looking at page 13 of the draft audit. And the real estate tax, the change from 24 to 25 was 3.44. So we raise taxes 4% and those numbers don't seem to indicate we get that kind of bang for our buck, >> right? So each each December we get the certified uh real estate assessment total assessed values from the county. So going from
0592324 to 2425 there was a decrease in the assessed values. So even though we took that millillage up by 4% it was offset by the decrease in the assessed values. >> Right? So then I'm looking at the on page nine of your presentation. Um the there's revenue and it doesn't show this one. It shows the change but not the percent. So I was playing with the percent and the revenue from local sources goes up 4.18%. How is that possible with a 3.5% act one? >> So that is also driven by um investment income. It's driven by interim taxes. It's also driven by delinquent taxes. So those line items increased as well. So they're all folded into that local sources. So I could actually break that out if that would be helpful for the group to
060see. >> Yeah, just looking at the audit where it said 4% tax increase and only realizing three and a half% >> increase and then this one looking to go the other way. I think it would be helpful to unpack it and just see how much confidence we have. Um I know one of the things that the finance and facility committee had talked about over the past year was what do we do? I mean it just it's still um does not compute that we live in a district where people look around and see appreciating home values and the real estate market and yet our tax base goes down. Um so like yeah just want to make sure that we're comfortable with the strategy and and kind of the assumptions that are in our budget because it's
061a constraint that we just have to deal with. >> Absolutely. Especially as the CL CLR rate changes because when they did the um taxes in the district when they looked at all the districts and and redid the taxes and it was supposed to be assessed value equal market value and then that changed within the next year. kind >> gap is growing. >> You think gap is growing? Definitely. >> I'm assuming we get the same breakdown for expenditures as well. Um what caught my what caught my eye was was it 5,000 there the other financing uses by 2.2 million see where they where the work >> and that will change as well too um as we look at the amount of um capitalized interest that we're going to use for that financing. So that may come
062down slightly. Any other questions from Mr. Mr. Test? Next on the agenda is a presentation for PFM and I see Jamie Schles in the audience for long-term budgeting approaches. This will be the first time I speak less than anyone else on the podium. Uh so uh tonight uh I'll be the MC. So it's actually very timely that we're here tonight because you've obviously seen a three separate two separate presentations. One about your past which was your audit, one about your one-year projection preliminarily for this budget. And what we're going to talk about tonight is the long-term planning side of what you can do uh as a district of your size, what we've done over the last decade or so with the amount of capital projects, you know, tax increases, things that are associated with building
063what we've done. You're sort of coming off, at least at this point in time, one of the major capital project uh phases. It may be a good time to take where we are, use the information that you have from other folks from your facilities, and use some long-term financial planning to strategically figure out what the next look of the school district will be. I do not do that because I'm not smart enough to do that, but Ian uh does. So Ian's going to talk about a service that we provide our clients that provides long-term financial forecasting among other things. So Ian's in a different practice, but he'll help you talk about what we can do and how we do it. >> Great. Thank you, Jamie. >> Do we have the Do we have the slides
064up? >> Okay. >> Sure. >> Um, so good evening everyone. My name is Ian Tyson. I am a director of public financial management. Um, I'm based out of our Philadelphia office, so not too far from here. We work with uh school districts all around the Commonwealth and all around the nation on financial planning. So, we look at operating budgets, capital budgets, efficiencies, um, and we um, and in Pennsylvania, we work with uh, many of the school districts around the Commonwealth on those issues. So, like Jamie had mentioned, um, one of the services that we provide is long-term planning. So, we take a look at your budget. We take a look at your audited results. Um, and we start to look at things line item by line item. Look at how your teachers contract is trending,
065your health care costs going into the charter school tuition costs. And we layer each of those things on top of each other to take your budget and look at it over typically a five-year period. Um, so this is a way to get a sense for your financial stability. Um, are you showing shortfalls today? Are you going to show them tomorrow? How long is that fund balance going to last? And then most importantly, what are the levers that you can pull to maintain that balance over time? So school districts in Pennsylvania and in most states are very limited in their ability to control their revenues. It's usually just real estate taxes and not much else. On the expenditure side, you're limited in a couple of different areas. Things like contracts you can really only change during
066the bargaining cycle. So this long-term planning is really helpful to see where you're at today and how you can sustain those investments over time. For operations, we will look at different departments and processes and make recommendations for improvement or savings. Um, on the capital planning side, we also do some work integrating that into the budget. Um, and then finally, um, on the workforce and consulting side, we will sometimes sit down side by side with school leaders and look at the cost of contracts, help them figure out what the cost of, um, uh, the proposals are, try and work that into the projections and find out what a um, what an affordable solution for the district might be. We don't have control. >> Okay. So, next slide. >> So, like I mentioned, we work with school
067districts all around the Commonwealth. We just have a couple of ones here from um in uh similar sizes. Hford Township um and then also in the in in the near area. That's a little bit small. There we go. Um so for the for the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, we work um through the Department of Education providing technical assistance to school districts that are in financial recovery and heading into challenges. So that's one of the areas that we work with, but then we also do direct work with um with school districts like the school district of Hav Township. Um next slide, please. This is just a little bit background on me. I've been doing this work for over 10 years now, so I may look young, but I've I've been around for a while. Um, so I'm
068the lead of our K to2 consulting team and I'm the lead for our work with the Pennsylvania Department of Education. Um, also do some work nationally um with the Government Financial Officers Association on best practices for budgeting and planning. Um, so I've been um I kind of bring that perspective to my work with school districts. Next slide, please. This is an example of the work that we do. Um we work in Excel for a lot of our financial analyses. This is uh the detail that we work with. So we take a lot of that information that comes out of your financial reporting system. We take a look at it on a detailed basis and then we project that out over time. And then for our analyses, we usually roll that up at a much higher
069level so that way it's a little bit more digestible for the board, the public. Um but for many of our clients, we will turn that back over to them so that they have that detail to work with in the future. >> Next slide, please. So that can uh take the form of a couple of different things. Um typically our financial model comes with an analysis that accompanies it. Um typically it's a presentation to the school board and the public where we look at trends. So we'll look at those major budget drivers. How's charter school tuition changing over time? How have your health care costs been changing over time? What has your tax base been looking like? How does that impact your stability over time? We also take a look at what the structural um uh
070what the structure of the budget looks like. Are you facing a structural deficit? So, do you have recurring expenditures that are greater than your revenues? And if so, what is impacting that? And how might you change that over time? Um and then finally, we may also include things for uh adding either enhancements to programs, looking at savings, looking at um new debt service um or new contracts or how those might impact the the budgets over time. So, we could do a little bit of scenario planning for you, looking at what if we have a base case where nothing changes today, what might we do to achieve some savings or grow revenues over time? And then what happens if we put some of those surpluses or savings towards new things? How might that change the budget?
071Next slide please. Um on the operational assessments um this could also take the form of many different things. It could take um the form of benchmarking. We could look at different functions like in the business office maintenance program, custodial services maintenance. Um we could look at the organizational structure of different departments and uh and functions and focus on efficiencies or processes. Um or service delivery alternatives. So what if we're looking at doing things with in-house staff versus contracted staff? Um those are the types of work that we do with uh with with this type of line of service. And that brings us to the end of our presentation. >> Mr. Tyson, any questions or comments for Mr. Tyson? >> Yes. Um a question for Mr. about how how would these services enhance tools that you
072have at your disposal or the kind of budgeting planning that you can do in house? >> I'm assum Yeah. Yeah, that would be one way. Um it's our work is usually over a longer time horizon. So Mr. Tester's work is on the budget for next year. We'll take a look at that over time. So what's what's the picture going to look like two years from now, three years, five years? What what pressures might you face over time? >> There's also importance for the internal and the external approach, right? So office does a phenomenal job in terms of internal practices uh with budgetary management and operations, all that, but also having that external lens looking at, you know, impacting factors um that maybe we may not be aware of down the line or could impact things
073down the line and how can we really be conscious of of what we're looking towards in alignment with our goals, our plans, um and be um intentional with with the decisions we're making to set us up for that future. Um, so really it is that combination of that paired workmanship between that internal piece that that Tony and his office and all of us do, but also having that external lens to add to that as well. >> And yeah, um, my job is in community development finance. I'm looking at long-term projections. I would hope that, you know, our borrowers would all be able to look at their current financial condition and then at least the loan that we're giving them, you know, consider their operations and the impact of the investments that we're helping them to
074make and and see how that models out. So, um would appreciate that our district had those same kinds of tools and just understanding of the key drivers and assumptions and opportunities within our our business model and and financials. >> I think as Dr. mentioned really having that outside lens as well because we're kind of focused on what we're doing but maybe they're seeing things in other districts have that experience about what what might work better inight >> I had a question I mean it sounds like what you know Mr. Tessa talked about like for example m building maintenance, you know, long-term uh plan for keeping our facilities in good shape. Is that's would that be incorporated in? >> Yeah. Yeah, that could be. So, your plan of um capital investments over time would get incorporated
075into it. Any other long-term commitments that you may have in terms of contracts or you know the savings that or the cost avoidance that might come from the the solar project would all get rolled into that analysis. questions. Thank you, Mr. Tyson. >> Thank you. >> All right. Those are the presentations in the finance. And now we're moving to uh some information items. And the first step on item number four, as we do annually, we're required to do a budget opt out. And so, Mr. Do you want to comment on this particular form? >> Sure. So, this form basically sets the district that they will not exceed the act one index, which we know is 3.5% for next year. Um, if the district were to not do this accelerated opt out, we would actually have
076to put a preliminary budget up in January and kind of start the process from there. So, this gives us a little extra time knowing that we're not going to exceed that index. doesn't mean you have to go to the index, but it basically says we would not exceed it. So, it just kind of gives that notification that that's the route that we're going to take. We're not doing a budget presentation. We're not going to adopt in January preliminary and start process. >> Okay, great. And that'll be for action December 18. >> Yes. >> Uh item number five, student activity fund report. I don't know have any comments on that. Uh basically just for the new board members, we have a policy on student activity funds. So now we provide the board with just basically an
077overview of what groups are out there for each of the schools and what balances that we're carrying. So just kind of gives you some transparency of what the many number of clubs that are offered in the schools. These are all student raised funds for student related purposes. So just kind of know that these are not district um supported funds. Not that not that the group is not supported as a group. just financially it's all student raised for that purpose. >> I think it's impressive the number of groups and the amount so it's nice to have the transparency. >> Okay. Um item number six robotics booster club registration uh which is up for approval at the December 18th meeting has any comments? just a formality to put this in front of the board so they can
078see what booster policy in place. >> This is the first one we've seen under this new policy. >> It looks like they were A+ on looking at the policy and the things they were supposed to report on. Appreciate that. >> And Mr. Dine is very helpful in this as well too. He was kind instrumental working policy. So that's >> and item number seven as we discussed previous or was mentioned previously the graduation was it June 4th. Uh and and so item number seven is will be the for the December 18th meeting will be approval. We would vote on approval for basically the invoice or the projection. I don't know if you have any additional comments. >> So, one of the things they looked at was how how did the graduation ceremony go last year? Was
079did it was it worth going back to St. Joe's? We had it pause for a year because I guess some renovations that they were doing. So, we didn't have that available to us. This was came in at a lower cost. it was less say less stressful for those for our staff members to get this ready because you're pulling maintenance, you're pulling administrators. So from a timing standpoint and a resource allocation was helpful state technology on bigger stage. >> Okay, that's really good to know. So they came in lower than what? I don't have the exact figure, but overall when you you pull everything together, all the pieces that go into that, >> I remember that. So, the district has twice in some recent years hosted graduation at our stadium. And the first time we did
080it, I remember being just kind of surprised that it cost more than the $23,000 to rent and utilize the the facility at St. Joe's. Item number eight is a food service equipment bid award for approval at the December 18th action meeting. And is this for Chattam? >> This I believe is for the high school. So based on the dollar amount and because it's with federal dollars through the food service program, we're required to do a bid and we have to use the most restrictive procurement. So whether the statement to be more restrictive. So the last item on the finance for the finance committee is the title one services agreement with Delaware County Intermediate Unit for the 2025 206 school year. This will be up for approval at the December 18th meeting. Sure, I can go
081through it. So each year, so originally you look at us approving the proposal that they gave us. The DCIU then takes it and goes back to their board to collecting all the information from all of the districts. That's why you see it so much later with also the budget passing later and us getting our information later. So now they're able to actually provide us with what our cost is. And so if we go back originally for our new board members, we get title one funds that are for intervention services and we are required a part of equitable shares to provide um funding based off of fund generators which are students who qualify for free and reduced lunch and parents submit the paperwork at our non-public schools which are any of the independent schools that our
082students in Hford Township go to. So we had two schools who had submitted to receive funding with a total of six students. And so our share that we would end up having to give over was around like $5,100 give or take. And so for the DCIU contract, you'll see that it's slightly above because what happens at the beginning of the year is we get a preliminary allocation and then January, February, maybe March, we never know. we'll get our finalized allocation and then that gives them some wiggle room so that they don't have to go through the long process of bringing it all the way back to the board to readjust or to have to write checks back and forth to each other which they have had to do in the past. So this is just
083to say that we are going to work with the IU to provide reading specialist services to the students who and I have to so we have fund generators and then service receivers. So to provide services to those who qualify for services. Now that does not always mean that our students who are fund generators are going to be the ones receiving the services, but it provides it so that a reading specialist is able to go in there about twice a week so that we don't have to use our staff to then go out and do those services. >> Questions or comments? >> And this is just for like5 or thousands this year. We we we made out really well this year with only two schools having um submitted for it to qualify for it. Now our
084title two services are a little different, more qualified for that. But this year, yes, every year when new students metriculate in it changes, but this year we actually made out pretty well with not having to give over too much. >> That concludes the finance committee and I'll turn it back to Dr. Thank you. Um a pretty light agenda for this section tonight. So um we have a couple um policies for first reading that we uh looked at previously made some changes to and um those changes have been made. So, uh, the 200 AR for enrollment of students, 202 eligibility of non-resident students, uh, the 202 AR, and the 706.1 disposal of district owned property, and the 706.1 AR, those are for first reading tonight. Um, so they, um, reflect any of the changes that we
085made before. Um, you can look through and the changes that were made to those, if any, would be in green. um I reviewed earlier and did not have any additional comments. I thought that the changes that were made um reflected the conversations that we had on these policies at the last meeting um in which they were discussed. Um but uh if it's okay with the board, I think I could just open up discussion on all of these uh first readings at once um since they um have actually pretty minimal changes. So, did anyone have anything on those policies for first reading? Um, additional changes or questions? >> I'll just add in specifically with 7061 the updates to the policy uh definitely help the AR guidelines uh especially as we look at um you know procurement
086and budgetary decisions and making sure that we're following through um on that administrative side that those changes in that policy really help guide us specifically. It's a much better alignment there. Question on 202. There's a paragraph that says former residents and a little confusing. I don't know if this came up before, but so this this is students that may or move out during the school year and the That that section is a little confusing because it says students whose parents or guardians have moved out of the district may be permitted to finish without paying their tuition. The second paragraph says students who move out of the district school year may remain as non-resident students upon payment of the necessary tuition. So it seems a little >> Yeah, I I I see the section. Um, can
087I add just another additional thing that I think might be a part of the conversation? I find in the next section, the waving tuition supposed to be about waving tuition. That third paragraph is about tuition income shall promptly be deposited. That doesn't feel like that belongs in that section. I know this is the AR, so like changes can be made pretty easily. Y um I just I find both of those sections to be just confusing. Um like that paragraph comes out of nowhere. So similar to like what Dr. Shelton's talking about too, like the wording of the one above just doesn't really flow well. I do recall with the former residents, um there was some discussion with the first paragraph being related to the the parents guardians may have moved out, but the child may
088still be in attendance. um whether that be housed with somebody else or something versus the second par if the student themsself physically has moved out but could remain as a non-resident student. So I don't know if that clarification helps and if maybe language specifying it could help. Um but that was previous discussion and the distinction between the two paragraphs for that section. >> Yeah actually that explains yeah the first paragraph says students whose parents move out. says, "Thank you." >> I kind of roughly remember us having this discussion about what other perhaps clarifying words could be used um what is meant by that by you know there's formerly their their parents and guards have moved the students living somewhere else with someone else. Is there a place where we can just add one or two
089words just to provide that clarification under the former residents section? in the AR. >> Uh, yes. >> Yeah. And again, with it being N, it's something we can obviously update to a lot of the policy for. And it almost seems with the waving tuition for senior class students that that's maybe not its own header, but it also belongs under former residents and is just another case um where the situation of the parents moving out but student can stay um seems like a another explanation or iteration of of that. So maybe it's just some of the formatting and headings could be clarified so that it reads more clearly. >> And then that third paragraph could be its own like what do you do with tuition? How do you pay tuition? That's that's just a separate topic.
090>> And even removing that heading waving tuition for senior class students, that paragraph on tuition makes more sense there because sometimes it will be paid by these former residents. Um, so yeah, just to rework it, >> we can do that. [clears throat] Um, so does the board want to strike the heading in entirety or do we want to unbold it? >> I think we should just strike it because it's it just all falls under the former residence. >> Okay. >> We want to make it clear because it was unclear before. We had two conflicting policies. So, I appreciate that we're bolding it so that it's easy to find. [laughter] Um, but probably this for organizational purposes, it's a little bit less necessary. Okay. Anything else on the policies and administrative regulations that are up for
091our first read. Um so then the um additional policy for review tonight uh would be before our first readings. This would just be for committee review um is 209.2 diabetes management. Um and this would be a new policy for the district. Um, so I had a couple items just for to help orient the board I think before we start discussing the specific language. Um, I noticed maybe other people noticed that we have a policy 209 in our book. Um, we don't have a policy 209.1. Um, and this is policy 209.2. So um, Justin, can you help us understand that a little bit? So, this is um based on PSBA's um recommended model language um that was actually released, I want to say two or three months ago um with uh section 1414.12 of the school
092code and some updates um that we were required to implement um effective in the 2526 school year. Um there's actually another uh 209 a 209.1 um that may be brought forward in the future. So that's why after consultation with the administrative team, we decided to leave this as a 20.2 for now. >> Okay. And my understanding is that we have a draft of of a 209.1 that we're working on and and that hasn't been brought to the board yet and that the border book will make more sense when um that one is also brought forward. >> Yes. >> Okay. Thank you. Um and so then that was helpful for my question as well which is you know this you know reading through this policy I think it will be very helpful and is good to
093have. Um but uh my question was going to be you know why now? Why sort of what prompted this? And it sounds like some code changes and PSBA recommendations. >> Yes. So um specifically like I said there was a an update within the school code. Um and in particular, one of the things that we're required to do is to um inform the student body about the type 1 diabetes um info sheet that's actually attached um to the bottom of the policy itself. Um and this was a policy that's kind of been out um in the PSBA realm for some time. the district hasn't moved forward with it, but with the requirement that that information sheet now be presented, um it seemed like the right time to move forward, particularly for a compliance issue. >> Um
094so looking through the policy itself, um I did have some specific language questions um and suggestions, but did anyone else have any general questions about the policy before we get started on the language? Um so the first thing that I have is actually in the first line. Um and it says the district recognizes that an effective program of diabetes management in school is crucial to um and then these two different um points. And [clears throat] I just wanted to maybe think about that word crucial um and and what that connotates um because we have the school district has gone a very long time without this policy and so um you know I would say it's something more like is helpful. Um I just worry about using the word crucial in a policy that we are
095only just implementing it in 2025. Any other thoughts on that? Okay. And then did anyone have anything else on the purpose section? >> I don't I don't want to word Smith, but would essential be just because I'm looking at the four bullet points and minimizing possibility of things helpful is definitely but it's there's a little more gravity to the essentiality. >> I agree. I don't I don't necessarily disagree. I just worry, like I said, about um putting the district in a place that for an argument that we should have been having with this policy a long time ago. >> Yeah. And I'm good with helpful. I'm just thinking through before bullet points. >> Thinking out loud. Um, yeah. I like >> So, could we just simply say recognizes the importance of an effective program? >>
096Yeah, I like that. >> I feel like that's what >> that's what it is. Yeah, it's important. I like that. Yeah, like I said, you know, I know I do this, but >> language can be used as a a shield and a sword, right? So um you know thinking about how how it sounds and and how it can be potentially used against the district. So and so with that um not for number two I am not sure that we are in a place to ensure that students with diabetes are ready to learn. I don't want to be nitpicky but I feel like that also how can an effective program sure that students are ready to learn. They could be, you know, perhaps in a better place to learn, better mindset to learn, better, but I
097I just I'm not sure that we can actually ensure that is my concern. >> Yeah, I I I share your concern about that. Um, and so I think we could say like assist in preparing students with diabetes. um getting ready to learn something like that. But like I is you're concerned with the word insure. >> I was and I also feel like you know diabetes and and and other medical conditions like you could have your medication, you could do all the things and you still not may not be in the best place where you're ready to learn. >> Yeah. >> And I think that is individualized and I would never want to have a policy determine how a student is feeling. >> Yeah. >> And so I just want to it's absolutely important but I
098necessarily think about the purpose of this policy and how we intend to use it to really support students, which I think is what our goal is. >> Yeah. >> That have that are diagnosed with diabetes. >> Um, yeah, I totally agree. I think language for that to support the conditions by which or something like Um all right, moving on. Um did anyone have anything about the authority section? Moving on to the definitions. Um I had a point about very last definition about trained diabetes personnel, but um if anyone else had one before that in order, you'll see uh I appreciate the definition section with all of the bolded terms and that's throughout. So, that was really helpful in being able to read the policy and and um you know, look back at at what these
099defined terms mean. it made it very accessible to me and so um hopefully everyone else shares that as well. Um so looking at the definition for trained diabetes personnel um when I first read it I mean obviously there's uh later on in the policy there's a trained diabetes personnel section um and uh but I I think we should just lay that out because it it didn't seem obvious to me um you know what the required training is and and who it's required by and and it's clearly out below. And so I would just add um as outlined in this policy. So training diabetes personnel means non-licensed school employees who have successfully completed the required training as outlined in this policy. Um all right, moving to the delegation of responsibility. Um I comment on the second
100paragraph. The superintendent or designate shall coordinate training for school employees. Um I think we mean certain school employees or do we mean all school employees? >> all school employ. Let's put that >> because later we talk about having like a specific employee who um is identified as as um being able to performed diabetes care and treatment. And so I when I read that I then got confused about that specific sentence. >> Sure. Anything else on delegation of responsibility? And how about general guidelines the first section because I did have comments on the train diabetes personnel. Um so looking at trained diabetes personnel, it says the superintendent or designate in consultation with the school nurse may identify at least one school employee. Um and so my question is um they may identify one. So is this
101something that we are that we want to happen in all of our schools that we would prefer to happen um that we're going to mandate to happen? I mean so what do we mean by that? I >> I can speak to that. So the the way that the school code provision is drafted um is that employees could be selected employees who are not nurses could potentially be identified or selected to function in this role. They're not required to do so and it's optional to them. Um, and we actually rephrase this based on feedback from the nursing staff um because it originally was drafted by in PSBA's model um and can be interpreted almost as if somebody was going to be selected and they had no choice. Yeah. >> To which the nurses said we're not
102able to do that. There would be an administrative um lead on that to to select an individual and then for that individual to be given the chance to opt out. Um so I don't know if that answers the question. I think the question is do we plan on having someone who is not a nurse in every building because it says that we may identify someone and so I guess it's just like but what are the circumstances under which we would do that and what are the circumstances under which we would not do that like how do we follow this policy with a may like a possibility of of something >> in the absence of a nursing building there should be a personnel who is trained >> in order to administer in an emergency situation Um
103so if that lengthy answer is the answer to your question then it would be the short answer is yes. >> Okay. So it's really a more if necessary. >> So if we don't have a plan to go into each school and a certain situation >> okay um that that makes more sense to me. Um, so maybe something like in consultation with the school nurse, um, you know, when necessary may identify at least one person. Um, just because that makes more like again, I was just trying to think, well, how are we following this? And if I'm a parent reading this and I know the only person in the building is the nurse, it's like, well, why didn't you have someone else in the building? >> You know what I mean? And so just figuring out
104what those scenarios are that this is a necessary condition if we think the nurse spends time outside the building or something like that or you know other scenarios want to have someone. >> Yeah. Okay. And is the goal then to if the nurse were to leave the building for two hours that there is somebody else who there like is it all day coverage whenever students are in the building like >> yeah I I think when or as necessary captures it best because um I don't know if we'd want to >> but we would have to be prepared all day coverage but we correct we would want to be prepared that >> there's training that has to happen to make than that person, right? So the we would >> we would have a trained diabetes personnel
105>> on standby. >> Yes. Correct. >> Yeah. >> Just to clarify as well too, we wouldn't have any of our buildings not with a certified school nurse or a staff nurse in the building at a time. We would ensure that there'd be coverage there as well. So somebody would be there. I know there's supposed to be someone just in case, but yeah, >> we would never have just someone leave the building. Just want to be clear on that. So it's is the thinking that um in case of an emergency even if the nurse is is there but perhaps the nurse is working with someone else we want to make sure that someone else can respond given the gravity of a of a true diabetic emergency that could potentially be life or death. So thinking that
106we're always going to have somebody I just want to make sure clearly we were not just leaving our buildings okay occupied with somebody there. Thank you. >> So then with that being said, there's always going to be someone trained every year. Is that the expectation? >> Well, the nurses will, >> but I mean, keeping with that in case of an emergency, we're not going to know it's an emergency until we have the emergency. >> The way that I'm the way that I'm thinking about it now, and correct me if I'm wrong, but it's like if there are potentially several students in the building like if we're seeing a population or something like that where it warrants having extra hands. um that could be a scenario where I would because that and that's what I was
107trying to get to is like well what are the scenarios where we would need another person you know and so like if necessary um like especially with the the context we don't just leave our school buildings with having no nurses in them um but if there is a scenario where we see you know maybe there are potentially several students who have um diabetes and and maybe we're thinking this is a potential issue that could come up I don't If I could >> were you thinking something else? >> If I could if I could just interject briefly. So >> I think one thing to think about is PSBA drafts these for the entire state. >> Right. And so there are districts out in parts of Pennsylvania where there are 7 to 12 buildings. Um there may
108be districts where under the nursing um quotas they they may be able to have um you know two nurses for an entire district so to speak. So, this is this is really to be um malleable to districts of all shapes and sizes. And I think it it is it's really just to give the district flexibility um not with any specific prescribed intent if that helps clarify the issue for >> very helpful. Yeah. >> Right. And so I think it's helpful to have it in here with the if necessary when necessary language, but with the understanding of we probably wouldn't need it. >> Okay. A question about the training. Um, do we know at this point if there is training that is developed by the state? Because it just says will complete training developed by the
109state or training offered by licensed health. Do we know has the state developed the training at this point in time? >> I think the nurses actually gave some feedback on that after they reviewed it. I don't know exactly what the content was. Um, but I don't I don't know if Dr. Hayes or Miss Sax. So, there there was some feedback from the nurses on there was a reference to some some specific training that I think that they've already completed. >> Okay. >> So, >> yeah, correct. Miss Padastelli worked with uh a number of nurses to review over this prior to coming. >> Okay. >> Um, I can get you more of the detail on what >> it's just more that I want. I mean, obviously with the policy itself, we don't need to name it,
110but like if there becomes an AR where we're a little more clear about what the training actually is. Does it cost money? Like what what that process is, I think would be helpful to have in case we do have a staff person who needs to be trained. >> Yes. And in that situation, the nurses will give that guidance to help, you know, as in all other policies and ours contribute to the drafting on. But yeah, they were conferred on this and they give that feedback regarding the training too. >> Those are my questions that I had about and comments about the policy. Um, does anyone else from the board have any questions, comments on any other section? I just have one question. Um, the very last paragraph that if the district prohibits a student from
111possessing and self-administering diabetes medication, um, would that be based upon safety like what might be an example of a district prohibiting a student from administering diabetes medication age is that I think yeah some of the prior paragraphs help with that too okay um you know sharing giving selling using uh the the diabetes medication that's what I was thinking about but I do think there might be an as well especially you get a very young student. Um but so I mentioned that because um just from personal and prior professional experience typically when patients are prescribed um medications aids as it relates to diabetes and others they go through some type of training and that provider can give guidance in terms of person is eligible to give that medication on their own. So I just want to
112make sure as a district that we um would not put us put ourselves in a position going against you know potential medical advice or how they've been um trained by their own provider to administer their own medication no different than like an inhaler or an epic etc. >> There's and I'll I'll defer to Justin or reference some of his uh the general for the state but also there could be a situation where themsself is physically unable to administer it. >> And then therefore in further sentences in that paragraph, >> if that is the case, um that may not necessarily qualify for the prohibiting, but if they are physically unable to hold or administer themselves, we then have an obligation to store it in that safe location and subsequent things within that paragraph. There is um
113proceeding language about self- administration and some of the requirements that would have to be satisfied in order for a student to be able to do that. It's not qualified by age or grade level though within the policy itself. >> Do we have to use the word if the district prohibits >> word prohibits? [laughter] my personal opinion, I I I would leave that because I do think there could be scenarios where you have misused the the item and therefore are not permitted to even though it's for a medical purpose, you're not permitted to self- administer or carry it on your person in the buildings. >> Are there other words that we can add there? I'm just I get really concerned about the district prohibiting someone from having access or administering their own medication. >> I think
114we do that with asthma with the inhalers too. I remember having a similar conversation. >> I had the same feelings about the >> and the come down to the district being able >> to um to stop that type of behavior and and have the flexibility to um to make sure that students are not misusing it, sharing it, giving it, selling it um on on on school property. >> Dr. Dr. King, would you feel more comfortable if we qualified it and referenced? >> I think that we should do that >> if upon or I'm just throwing words out for right now, but upon misuse as described here in >> and a student that help provide some context. >> Okay. >> Yeah, I think that is that's a great solution. In that same line, I have a
115question about the monitoring equipment because um I do believe some of that equipment can exist on smartphones and smart watches. >> Um and our school policy prohibits phones and devices like that. How are we addressing that policy? Wonder if that would be part um I I think it's by building Um and um my understanding from interactions um is that the students are allowed their cell phones when necessary if necessary. Um so I I'm I'm pretty sure or we don't have like a specific policy on cell phones that like they're banned or something like that. We have a policy 237 on electronic devices. >> Yeah. >> Um but it is not specific to cell phones um nor an associated are giving guidance on what to do across the board with them. >> Yeah. Right. So that
116type of thing is more um building based. I just want to throw out a comment that I think the legislation around I think it's a good point. It's one of the points that Chris and I or at least I when we talked with our legislature, you know, one of those fun, please don't make a, you know, statewide mandate on something that has nuanced issues, you know, um but go so far. Any other um comments or points for discussion on this policy? Justin, what do you think? You think we can make this ready for our first reading? >> I think that case. >> Yeah. >> Okay. Yeah, we'll get it done. >> Great. Thanks everybody. >> Uh we usually a little bit more time if you need it and we could do the first meeting in
117January or >> Yeah, >> absolutely then. >> Okay. Well, thank you everyone for the discussion and I will hand it back to Dr. Case. >> Thank you, Miss. All right, that takes us to facilities. >> All right, we have a capital project update from Ken Matthews from CB Development. Hello again. >> Uh it's all right. I it's not it's not huge. We have just a few pictures, but um it's pretty straightforward. You know, Chattam Park at this point is basically complete. Um 99% done with the punch list. >> Yeah. Sorry. Can Anna, can you pull up the PDF because it does have a couple of the pictures. >> Yeah. Thanks. >> Thank you. Um so while while they're doing that, so yes, that's for Chattam Park. Um so uh the good news is the gym
118opened October 20th. So that was one of the last things waiting to get done on the job. So really they've uh finished everything. They've been working uh diligently um at in the evenings and and weekends as needed to try and get all these last punch list items done. [snorts] Uh so we're really hoping to close out the job uh essentially this month, next month, uh at the latest. We finally this week have pretty much just have a little a few little thing nuances to deal with but closing out everybody's contract values uh so that I can really uh finalize the project budget. Um you know as everybody knows uh we had taken some of uh Coopertown's money uh to bump up the contingency to 1.9 million. So basically where we're at right now, there's about
119$14,000 left of that contingency which we as as we've talked about at previous meetings would expect to fully spend. So we'll get to a final number. Uh it's taking a little longer than I expected, but we are getting very close. Uh so and then all the contractors close out paperwork. Uh all those things are nearly complete as well. Uh and then you know now we're into really our warranty period, the warranty through the end of next summer on all the equipment and there are some other extended warranties. So, uh you know, the building looks great. It's uh just getting close to closing it out and get these last few items done. >> Any questions on Chadam? >> No, but I will add in um next Thursday uh Dr. Whitehead is uh going to be holding
120an open house for the entire community. Um I know Miss Deacon out some communication or will be sending out communication communitywide uh for next Thursday, December 11th from 6:00 to 7:30 for people to uh view classrooms, view the gymnasium, view the exterior, view uh all of the great updates. Um so hopefully everyone can come out and see the uh what is from what was um and my apologies. Also, the middle school cafeteria edition uh was completed at the same time that's been open. Uh so uh that was the other part of the project that was an ad alternate that is all of the costs of that are wrapped up into this full project budget. >> And I just had a question about that. Do you have a spreadsheet with the numbers, the contingency fund? >>
121Uh yes. >> Yeah. So it has so it lists everything, you know, change orders to date, approved to date, uh invoice to date. So you can see everybody's there's just a a few percentage points left to bill. Uh, I know it's hard to see here, but the yellow highlighted to the right is that contingency balance and at the left you have the total project contracts, total soft cost, and the pro total project budget of 31.7 million. >> Okay. Yeah. I just wanted to confirm that you would project it included the projected. >> Yes. So with anything you see of contingency spent, it always includes what you've approved to date and anything we've projected. So it is a it's pretty much our documents, a live document within a few days of anything we know of gets
122put into that project budget. The second we get a response from an engineer, hey, you have to add a piece of steel, right? That day or the next day, we're putting in, you know, $5,000 for added steel, uh, you know, whatever it is. so that you're always getting a a true budget cost uh with everything that we know of at the moment. [snorts] Um all right and then uh moving on to Coopertown, please if you could. Um so I'll just start you know generally speaking uh you can go to the uh next page of pictures. So you know the buildings are taking shape very quickly. Basically at this point all the steel well actually as of uh tomorrow all the steel will be done. The front edition steel has been done for weeks now. It's
123already getting enclosed. You can you see the purple board going on the exterior windows are going to start in about a week and a half. Uh you can go to the next slide please. Uh so they're progressing very well. Our next big goal this is the front entrance. The twotory lobby you can really see take shape now. Um so uh next slide please. Here's the rear additions. You know they're just masonry structure uh you know for the long term. Uh both of them the masonry is essentially complete. Uh the structure itself. Uh they're starting the brick the roof started this week. Uh so now our goal is over the next month to really get the building enclosed. Electricians are already blowing through the one addition. Uh you know you have two additions. one close to
124Coopertown Road, one close to the uh baseball field. Uh I mean the mechanical electrical roughin is probably 50 nearly 50% complete already. Uh so they're progressing very well. And these two rear editions, you know, need to open up over spring break. So that's why we're really pushing on them hard right now to get that done. Uh you can go to the next slide, please. when you say they need to open up over spring break. >> Uh so we are taking when you go into Coopertown the whole wing classroom wing to the right kindergarten and first grade they're all we're going to shift everybody move them into here so we can start that work earlier and relieve the stress of doing too much work over the summer. Uh you know it's only 10 weeks. It's just
125not enough to get it all done. So that was all part of that kind of rotation and we wanted to move everybody just one time not do you know musical chairs throughout the year. Uh so um this is the addition closer to Coopertown. So again the steel is basically getting getting done. So they're moving along well. um they're they're right about where they need to be, but you know, we always have to keep uh the pedal to the metal as they say because, you know, things that are supposed to show up don't. So, we just got to get the building and closed. So, that's our number one goal right now. If you can go to the next slide, please. So, here's the budget. Uh you approved the one deduct change order this evening. Uh but
126right now of the 900,000 contingency, uh we're down to about 770,000. You know, we're done with all the site work for the most part. Uh so the interior work, as we talked about the risk when we move the money from Coopertown to Chadam, Coopertown doesn't have many many of the things that happened at Chadam and they were all accounted for. So they're built into the project. So at this point, we feel very comfortable with where the contingencies at. uh for what for what's left to do. >> And when you say they're they're built into the project, are we talking about things like I know with Chadam, you know, one thing we realized when we're trying to, you know, create equity across the classrooms that the new classrooms and the old classrooms would have the same
127types of materials in them. Um and then we found I think it was like when you took away the blackboard or something, >> took away the blackboards, there was no wall behind it. So that was accounted for Cooper Town. Okay. And so, but those types of things are still planning on happening at Coopertown, like to upgrade the the classrooms that aren't brand new. Those are still going >> all all the existing classrooms. Everything is new in there. All all new white whiteboards, tack boards, all new flooring, all new case work. So, yes, it's all it is a replica of Chattam Park. >> Do we know if there's wall behind the >> Yes. Yes, we tore we tore some down to be sure. >> Okay. Um, and then the gymnasium at Cadam was somewhat of a
128catastrophe. Uh, I mean, just pulling it apart. You don't have that here. The gym's already there, and we're just building new walls on the inside. So, that was I mean, that was probably $200,000 of issues that came up uh in there. Uh, so that's a big part of and we had sent the list. It was probably $700,000 of change orders at Chattam that are not going to occur here. And it's good to hear the lessons learned being applied for Cooper. >> Yes, for sure. >> Um but yeah, that's it. So things are things are moving along well right now. Uh so just uh getting closed and hope for the weather to cooperate just for a little bit longer. >> So you're not cheering for snow days? No, they can't work tomorrow because the roofers can't
129work tomorrow because the glue will freeze because it'll be too cold. >> So, they do have to keep hot boxes. So, there are means and methods to do it, but there's a limit to that. So, uh without tenting in the building, which is cost prohibitive >> to a mild dry spell >> for for a few more weeks. Yes. Um and then the next item if there's nothing else on those capital project updates is the um solar project fee for service cell I don't know or >> oh I can yes I'm sorry his additional fee his original proposal was extremely modest and I don't think he you know fully expected the scope of work for going out to public bid and uh so he's had to spend spend a lot more time. So what he Excuse
130[clears throat] me if um uh so what he submitted is very reasonable uh for the additional cost he had uh extremely low additional original uh contract amount. So, um, again, I think he what he's asking for is very reasonable. >> And that's $28,000 >> up. It's up to $28,000, I believe. Right, Tony? I think. Yes. >> Uh, from the 10, not an additional. >> Okay. And it's for the RFP, the document assistance, and the solicit solicitation and selection. So, that work is done. >> That work is done. know what >> he should he should be able to finalize that and I'll ask him to do that but it was we there was a lot of time spent because you you have to have a very concise document for everybody to go out to bid a
131lot of information has to be there >> yes no other comments or discussion those were the two items on the facilities agenda So I can turn it back to Dr. King. >> Thank you. Have a good night. >> Thank you. >> All right. So for academic and people services, I will note that Miss Lee will now be serving as the committee leazison for academic and people services. And so I will turn it over to Miss Lee. >> Thank you. And I will turn it over to Miss Saxa. >> Thank you. We are very grateful of course to Dr. Larson for her leadership and we are really looking forward to working with you uh uh now as the liaison. So thank you for being willing to do that. Um this evening we really have uh two
132items. One is an information item. We don't even typically discuss an out of district contract with Green Tree that um our board should expect to see on the December 18th u agenda as you typically do. Um, the the real excitement this evening is a proposal of a new AP European history textbook. I'm going to pass this down like build up your muscles because it's a pretty heavy one, a hefty one. Um, this uh request is coming at the behest of our uh one our main AP European teacher uh Alex Host who spent some time evaluating several texts. uh our current text uh is out of print. We have more students wanting to take the class now. We went from like originally nine people requesting it to over 45 kids actually enrolled in it now. We
133can't get 45 copies of the old text because it's out of print. So it was time to start looking and seeing what else is out there. Um, and so he did look at um, not only evaluated what he liked about the old book, but also looked at um, at least two other versions of an AP European text. And what I really love is he had the students look at it as well and got their input about readability, uh, level of interest, what they thought uh, was clarity of the content. Um, and so that was sort of a new piece to it that we appreciate him adding in there. And so this was ultimately his uh, request is for us to have it's called History of Western Society 14th edition and uh we we are requesting
134to uh have approval of the textbook. We would order 45 copies of it. He'd like to start using it tomorrow. I told him more realistically. It's probably January. Uh but uh he he would be thrilled to to do that particularly because the portion of the text that this really um is more robust in is the 1990s forward. And so like he's got a little time to get there. Uh which is which is great. and um we just think it's it's going to be a good text. He used our our rubric which is attached for the board members where we asked uh teachers to take a look at all of the supports, how things are differentiated, how we can support students u with um you know various levels of need as well as extension. We ask
135for them to evaluate sort of the cultural literacy of the text as well. uh making sure that varying perspectives are represented and u you know as many potential stories are told as possible. And so this is our recommendation and uh we are of course just bringing it as an information item this evening and we hope to have it on December 18th's agenda for approval. That will be the same night that we're actually bringing the high school course selection guide for approval as well. >> I actually have a question. So is this is this a course that's being taught this semester? Mhm. Yeah. >> It's a year long. Okay. I guess I'm just thinking, you know, when did we know that this class was going to have 45 students and why did we think nine textbooks
136was going to be enough for them? >> Yeah. No, we have more than nine. We had that was the original number of students who were interested. We just don't have 45 of them. Um, but we knew we did know this and this process it just takes a while to get through all of these textbooks. So we knew probably in May of last year and then over by by the time we got copies of potential textbooks, found out what was, you know, um within our price ranges typically and then the time to actually go through and evaluate the text, it it just takes a long time. Um they probably could have had it to us at last time's um work session, but we wanted to make sure it was, you know, complete and had that student
137piece as well. >> Thanks. I appreciate that additional information and and it's a year-long course like you're saying. So, we're not like this isn't a course that's ending in three weeks, right? >> Exactly. >> Okay. >> And the students have the the materials, resources generally that they need to be keeping pace with the curriculum this year and be well positioned for the AP test in May. >> Exactly. Okay. Yes. >> Just piggybacking on the timeliness of it. just attached um for everyone's reference is a textbook evaluation tool, which I really appreciate um our teachers and our district uh doing their due diligence on. There's just some some comments that I also appreciate as a uh fan of instruction. And just the fact that it ties American history into the AP Euro framework with contextualization of
138prize formative and summitive assessment, highlights some uh previously and currently um marginalized our press groups like they really took their time um to look at the resource aligned with our curriculum, our values, our goals. Um so I just appreciate the diligence they did that with the students were involved in this too. I was looking at that's is that I I've seen that previous rubrics is that kind of newer. >> I'm telling you, Mr. Host is really good. And so now it's great. >> Now we're going to add it to the rubric. >> Okay. >> You know, like having a student review of it into the rubric and just getting their sense of of what is, you know, the things you can ask students. >> Love that. Now I I had I said I haven't seen
139it before. I'm thrilled it's being added in there. >> Mr. Host is actually one of the co-chairs of the community pride and civic engagement strategic plan goal. So you can see why, you know, that's a good fit for him. >> Perfect. >> Are students expected to bring this back and forth to school? >> Um, not necessarily every day. There's always an online component that that they will be able to use, but some they they use the actual text, but not every day. >> I'm sure you remember. >> No, I'm just They're gonna they're gonna be jacked. Yeah. >> Take more than one. So there is so that is available because I know one of the few rubrics that didn't score well was electronic format available >> at the time he didn't have access to it
140but it is available. Okay. Just want to make sure that's that's gives you the idea that too. That thing's >> I think monster. And if there are no other questions, um, of course we can have that book stay here if any board members are interested in taking a a longer look at it. We're welcome to take it home and read it. Uh but uh if there are no other questions, those are all of the items that we had in our portion of the agenda. So, thank you, Missy. >> Thank you. We'll give it back to Dr. King. >> Thank you. >> All right, let's continue on. You have nothing for section five, other items for section six, report on executive session. I will note that the board met before tonight's meeting um to receive information
141on a confidential student matter. Additionally, the board also met to receive and update information related to the negotiation of a collective bargaining agreement for section seven um public comment. Before we get to public comment, I also want to note um that the Habford School Board Negotiating Team and the Habford Teachers Education Association are pleased to announce that following a lengthy bargaining session on December 3rd, 2025, the parties have entered into tenative agreement to resolve their ongoing contract negotiations. The parties look forward to finalizing the terms of the successor agreement and anticipate formal ratification of a new agreement later this month. With that being said, we do have one person that signed up tonight for public comment >> and that is Rich Lori. >> If you could just I can do >> if you could just
142please state your name for the record. I note that you'll have three minutes to speak at the end of the timer. I do ask that you would conclude your remarks. >> I am Rich McGlory. I still live at 1246 D Road. They always save the best to last. Uh and thank you very much. It is so nice to see a textbook in our school system. Thank you very much. It was the thrill of my night and I really came tonight just to welcome our new board members, Nicole Snyder and John Flailer. Welcome to the school board. I hope you uh enjoy it and I am looking for great productivity out of you. Okay, I support you 2,000%. Okay. And I [clears throat] am Rich McGlo of course and I am the advocate for reading specialists
143for autistic children. Not just my grandson who cannot read and is in middle school and has not been supported with the reading specialist. But I didn't come here tonight to speak about that. I'll put that off. I want to speak about this about joy is the essential element of effective effective education and that's what I want to concentrate on now. It is the joy the time for joy the time for us to to be together. We have enough vitriol going on in the world today. We have to celebrate our our our community, our togetherness, our holidays and the meaning of what they are. I saw vitriol at the last meeting. I didn't like it. Okay. I don't like in our in our society. I don't like the tone of things. All right. With that also,
144so I just want to say joy is the number one issue should be in our curriculum. it is in Finland's curriculum and they have the highest test scores in the world. Okay, so with that I also want to say thank you Dr. Hayes for your meet and greet sessions although I could only attend one but that is important. Okay, as I said before, democracy doesn't end with schoolboard elections. It begins with schoolboard elections with engagement, listening to this the community, meeting with the community. It's not just Dr. Hayes's responsibility to do that. It's the school board's responsibility to do that, too. All right. As you know, with the election, the two biggest elections we had in New Jersey for governor and in Virginia for governor, the people who won were the were the candidates who
145went out to the people, met to the people, listened to the people, listened to their voices, and set their purported policies to what the teacher what the people wanted. That's what we need more in the governance of our schools, democracy and education. Okay. Uh and my final thing is about when you're elected, you don't just represent the Democratic Party. You represent everyone in our community. We elect you to represent all of us, Republicans, independents, and Democrats. And it's most important to understand that you represent our children, too. Even though they don't get to vote, they are your constituents. And when I speak about my grandson who cannot read and needs a reading specialist or he's never going to learn to read, you represent him and every other similarly situated student in our district. They need
146reading specialists. Everyone who scored below basic or basic should be re-evaluated with valid and reliable assessments. And if they are significantly below reading level, they should be provided for with a reading specialist fulltime. For those of you who don't know, I ran the the title one reading program for 20 years at University City High School. I taught high school students reading. They all can can progress a great amount with proper reading instruction five days a week for a full period a day. That is what I want from my grandson. And I will not stop until my grandson gets that. And with that, have a joyous have a joyous Christmas, whatever other holidays you celebrate. And remember, it's the joy of school because my grandson loves going to school. He loves his teachers. He loves his
147classmates. He's having a great education other than he's not learning to read because he doesn't have a reading specialist. Thank you very much. The next regular meeting of the board is an action meeting scheduled for December 18th, 2025 at 7:30 p.m. in the boardroom of the Oakmont Administration building. And with that, can I have a motion to adjourn the meeting?