04/24/25 School Board Meeting

001You okay? You guys know Good evening. I would like to call this Thursday, April 24th, 2025 regular board meeting to order. Can we all stand for the pledge? I aliance to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for which it stands. One nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. I'll ask members to read the district mission and goals. The mission statement. The mission of the school district of Habford Township is to educate and to inspire a community of lifelong learners who become well-rounded global citizens. The pillars of our educational system are our school environment is safe and nurturing. Excellence in education is a shared responsibility and partnership with all district and community members. Whole child development is vital to our educational system. Supports and conditions exist whereby

002all students have opportunities to grow and excel in the areas of academic, technical, and career and social and emotional learning. Our decision-making process is student centered and student voice is valued. The 2020 to 2025 district goals are social and emotional wellness to produce a community of empathetic and resilient learners with skills to socially and emotionally flourish. To prepare to to prepare contemporary citizens, modernize and expand learning experiences to prepare students as critical thinkers, problem solvers, innovators, and designers within a complex global society. and diversity and inclusion establish a culturally diverse and inclusive educational experience that develops socioultural proficiency. Thank you. Mr. Tesla, can you call the role, please? Yes. Miss Lee here. Dr. McCay here. Mr. Schwarz here. Dr. Shelton here. Miss Snogress. Miss Vitali here. Miss Weedman here. Dr. Larson. Dr. King present. Dr.

003Larson is out due to illness and Miss Snotrass is out due to travel. Continuing on with the approval of official minutes, I have a motion to approve the official minutes from the April 3rd, 2025 regular board meeting. Moved second. Moved and seconded. Any discussion? All in favor? I. The motion passes. Next up, we're going to hear a report from our students. We'll have Hford Middle School representative Sophia Kleti and Hford High School student representative Lucy Filin. Good evening everyone. My name is Sophia Kleti. I'm a seventh grader here at HMS and I'm excited to share some of the updates on what's been happening at Happy for Middle School. Yeah. So this week we're back in action after a refreshing spring bait. I hope everyone has had a chance to rest and recharge as we ease

004back into our routines. Um I have I have just a brief update to share this week since we've been settling in after this break. Our student athletes have returned with great momentum, embracing the competition, showing incredible teamwork and making the most of our beautiful spring weather. We've officially begun administrating the PSSA this week. We are officially off to a focused start and we appreciate everyone's support in helping them and feeling prepared and confident during this important assess assessment period. This week we're celebrating many amazing staff members who help make our middle school a great place to learn and grow. We're recognizing this incredible contributions of our school bus driver, administrative assistants, secondary building assistants, security staff, and support personnel. Their dedication and hard work has often happened behind the scenes, but their impact is felt

005every day, and we are deeply grateful for all they do. This wraps up my final update for this year. Thank you for the opportunity to share these m moments and highlights throughout the year. It's been a pleasure keeping you informed and connected, and we appreciate your continued support. Good evening, everyone, and thank you for the opportunity to speak tonight. My name is Lucy Filin and I'm a senior at Hford High School in the class of 2025. I've committed to the University of Vermont for fall of 2025. I'll be doing a double major in biology and environmental studies with a minor in wildlife biology. And I'm also planning to do an accelerated master's program. This week was the first week back from spring break. Students have jumped in ready to learn and are excited to continue

006the fourth and final quarter of the school year. This Friday is junior prom at Drexelbrook. I'm certain everyone is looking forward to getting dressed up. Senior prom is coming up on May 9th at the Franklin Institute. I'm really excited to hang out and enjoy the dance, but I'm especially excited for BLAST. I can't wait to see how it's decorated this year. Speaking of the Franklin Institute, my anatomy class is taking a field trip to go see the new Body Worlds exhibit next Monday. It's so cool that we get the opportunity to connect what we're learning in class to what we'll be seeing. Students are beginning to prepare for the AP test and KISSO exams as the year comes to a close. I have no doubt that Harvard students will continue to excel and impress. The

007spring sports season is in full swing. The regular season is ending soon and championship games will be starting in the next couple of weeks. My track season has been going really well. It's always fun to get the opportunity to get to go to so many meets. We've also gotten to host a lot of meets at Harford this year. Tomorrow we have a meet at Upper Derby, which is the last of our regular season meets. The baseball team is still undefeated and they currently are ranked number one in all of District 1. Boys volleyball, uh, sorry, volleyball, boys lacrosse, and girls softball are all ranked in the top 20. The drama club is putting on a student directed play on May 30th as the final drama club activity for the year. And Spongebob sold the most

008tickets tickets out of any musical in recent years. As the as the year starts to wrap up, there are lots of exciting activities coming up for all students, but especially seniors. I can't wait for graduation on the turf at the high school. Happy spring. I'm hoping for some warm weather in the next couple of weeks. Thank you for uh your time and the opportunity to share some Herford highlights. Thank you, Sophia and Lucy. Next up, we have the superintendence report from Miss Lata. Thank you so much, Dr. King. Uh we have lots of items in the superintendent's report this evening and I'm thrilled to begin with a presentation from Chestnutwald and uh Mrs. Leech, I believe, is going to begin our introductions or principal. Uh she is joined by several members of the staff and

009many members of the student community including Mrs. Maggie Beer, Mrs. Christy Merchel, Miss Lisa Nerie, Miss Christa Magdy, Miss Trish Campbell, Miss Jen Munch, and Miss Kelly Lucas. Heat. Heat. So, I might try to reel it in a little bit more next year. I know we have quite a crowd here. It's very hard to, you know, narrow it down. There's a lot of exciting things. So thanks guys. Good job. Okay. So I will start if you have the presentation or this is the presentation. Okay. Oh okay. So just click through. What do I do? Next. Oh okay. Great. Okay. Oh. I see. Okay. Got it. Got it now. All right. Thank you. Confusing you with two remotes. Okay. All right. Good evening, members of the school board, students, colleagues, families, and community partners. It's my

010honor to speak to you tonight um as the incredibly proud principal of Chestnut World Elementary School. Uh where something truly special is happening every single day. Each year, our one book, one Chestnut World committee chooses a book to be our theme for the year. This year, our theme is from the book Be a Bridge. Uh, and I can't think of a more fitting way to describe the spirit of connection, collaboration, and creativity that fills our school halls. At Chesnut World, we're building bridges in every sense of the word. Our teachers are bridging student learning with the real world by creating classroom environments where students think critically, and interact compassionately. Our students are building bridges to each other, learning how to collaborate, communicate, and celebrate each other's differences. and our families and community partners are a

011huge part of helping to create strong lasting connections that extend far beyond the classroom. Tonight, I'm excited to share with you just a few highlights of the incredible work our staff and students are doing to turn these bridges into meaningful journeys. And I invite you to celebrate with us as we continue to build something beautiful together. So, we start our year each year by including all teachers in a video recording of the book to share with students and families at the very beginning of the school year. We'll play just the beginning part so you can get the idea. Hi, Jess community. For those of you who I don't know yet, I'm Mrs. Leech, the proud principal of our amazing school. Each year we choose a book to guide our theme for the year. This year

012we're excited to share that our theme for the school year is Be a Bridge. This theme reflects our commitment to fostering belonging, perspective taking, and empathy within our school community. Be a bridge is a powerful book that teaches us about the importance of building connections between people, embracing diversity, and working together to create a supportive and inclusive environment. As we embark on this new school year, we believe this theme will guide us in creating a nurturing space where everyone feels valued and heard. Throughout the year, we will explore various aspects of this theme through lessons, activities, and school events. We encourage you to join us in this journey by discussing the ideas from the book at home and participating in all that we have planned. Together, let's build bridges of kindness, respect, and understanding that

013will make our school community stronger and more connected. Here's to another fantastic year ahead. Be a bridge by Irene Lam and Charles Walters, illustrated by Nibili Adi. When you wake up to a world of bad news, pack up your backpack and lace up your shoes. You've got a job to do. Be a bridge. So, you get the gist. We don't need to go through the whole book. Um, okay. Uh, our student presentations tonight start with how we are building bridges within our Chestnut World community. So, I'm going to turn it over to Mayay and Charlie to kick us off. Hi, I'm Mayay Shields and I'm Charlie Petroski. We're fifth grade lead delegates at Chestnut Wald. Chestnut Wald's book of the year is Be a Bridge by Irene Latham and Charles Walters. Our school delegates have

014worked hard to convey the theme of this book to the rest of our school community. As lead delegates, we meet with Miss Leech to plan the meeting in advance and have led the delegates to leadership by collaborating with teachers and staff to reach our goals. We have three committees: sustainability, schoolwide expectations, and school culture. These groups of classroom delegates have been finding many ways to communicate their creative ideas to the rest of the school. The sustainability committee focuses on helping the school learn about composting and helps us set up compost bins in the cafeteria. We have so far communicated this through morning announcements and posters. The schoolwide expectations committee dove deeper into our school check trees by trying to make our school rules more understandable for everyone from kindergarten to fifth grade. The delegates in

015this committee have been working on skits to demonstrate each of our six check traits: respect, responsibility, integrity, trustworthiness, empathy, and a positive attitude for the morning announcements. And finally, the school culture committee has been trying to encourage the school to fill out bridge slips, which are slips of paper that they fill out when they see someone building a bridge. This committee has focused as has communicated the idea by having an award that a home room gets if they fill out or receive the most bridge slips over the course of two weeks. All of the classrooms know about this because some students in this committee have filmed clips for their morning announcements that tell the school about the challenge. Thank you, May and Charlie. So, you heard them mention our bridge slips. We're going to have

016Kennedy come up and share about her experience. [Music] My name is Kennedy Swain and um I'm sharing because I picked a teacher for my bridge slip even though they were kind of meant for the kids. I picked a teacher for my bridge builder slip because Miss Ner always greets me each morning. She is always happy, energetic, and smiling in the morning, even if it's a Monday. She says she says hello to every single student that passes. So, I thought even though she's a teacher, she's a bridge builder, too. Awesome job, Kennedy. This is Mrs. Ner. So, you also heard Mayay and Charlie talk about um our sustainability committee. So, I'm going to let Charles speak um about the connection between our sustainability committee within the building and one of our after school clubs, Roots and

017Shoots. And this is just a picture of all of our um bridge builders that Kennedy mentioned. Every two weeks, excuse me, we call down, we randomly choose students from every grade, bring them down to take their picture. They get a magnet from our PTO um and their picture is displayed um in the hallway for the rest of the school year. All right, Charles, go ahead. Hi, my name is Charles. I'm a fifth grader at Chesn. Sorry, Charles. Sorry. Um I'm so excited to be here. I'm involved in both the sustainability committee and roots and shoots. In the sustainability committee, we started composting in all of the grades lunches 1st through 5th. We put posters around the school to remind you what to compost and what not to. We also put reminders in the morning announcements.

018In roots and shoots, we dug plots to plant veggies and herbs in. We plan to ask Miss Lorraine, the head of our lettuce, I mean cafeteria, if if she wants to use the food we grow in our lunches. We put posters all over the front of the school. Put all over the school. put stickers in the windows so birds don't fly into them. And just today I planted a red bud. This is just the beginning though cuz spring just started. Thank you. Go Phillies. Nice shot. And here are some images of the work that the Roots and Shoots Club has done outside the building. You can see we actually have a physical bridge in front of our building now too. I want to just go back. I did miss one thing. So, um, Maymay and

019Charlie had mentioned our morning announcements that were put on by some of our delegates to explain the challenge in classrooms. So, that's a quick video. It's very cute. I'm hearing the announcements from Ches Culture delegates Rosco and Alec. Good morning, Chestn World. I'm Rosco and I'm Alex. We're here to give you a message from the delegates. This is a challenge to see which home room can fill out or receive the most bridge slips. Throughout the next two weeks, we want your class to fill out as many bridge slips as you can because the end of every two weeks, people count your classes bridge slips. If everyone has either filled out or had their name written on one, then your class will get to vote on a reward. These rewards will consist of things like extra

020recess, buy a game days, or sit with anyone from a different class during lunch. If you get three rewards, there might be a bigger reward to choose from. Please do not just write slips for the prize. Try to make them meaningful or people will not count them towards your class reward. Have a great day, Chestnut World, and good luck with the challenge. just had to include that. This is amazing. All right. Okay. So, we started out with how we were building bridges at Chestnut Wald. So, now I'm going to turn it over to two of our first graders to talk more about how we are building bridges within the district. Oh, sorry guys. Sorry. Sorry. Camera behind you. Yeah, I'll go. Okay. Step up here. You guys be able to share this brothers. I think

021you can handle that, right? In twins. In twins. Exactly. to share space. Right. At sister, we have been busy building bridges within our community. Students in kindergarten, first grade, second grade, and some third graders have been pen become pen pals with students in our same grade level as Monoa Elementary School. Each class at touch was paired up with a class from Monoa. Our teachers thought this would be a fun way for us to get to know students in our district who go to school just a few miles away from us. We have had a great time writing letters back and forth to one another. It has been fun to see some of the things we are doing different differently and how some of the activities we do are the same. My favorite part about pen

022pals is when Miss Henry's class sent us to patch days of research. after we sent their class to the first big time and they're some of our favorite peeps. My favorite part about pen bells was when we colored fairly sports team papers for for them. I also liked when they get when Mr. O's class sent us gold coins for St. Patrick's Day. And here are some examples of the letters that they wrote back and forth. And then moving forward in our journey, we looked at how we are building bridges to our local community. So we have three more students to share about their experience. Conor, do you want to go first? My name is Connor Shei and I'm a fifth grade at Chester. In helping to build a bridge within our community, we chose a

023local menace and wrote a letter to them to show appreciation for how they help our community. Also, we were able to share what we like about their business. Some types of places that were chosen were restaurants, dance studios, the YMCA, and the Hford Township Police. I chose to write to Pika's restaurant. I chose this business because I like their pizza and it's my favorite restaurant. Picas wrote back to me. They said it was nice. I had sent them a kind note and they sent me a $50 gift card. My family used it for takeout. I'm glad that we were given opportunity to show appreciation for local businesses. Good job. You want to stand up here? Just move it down. There you go. Yeah. Hi, I'm Han Khill. And I'm Leila Rob. At Tester, we have

024been working on building bridges throughout the community. Around Thanksgiving time, we wrote notes to different businesses and companies, showing our support and appreciation. We both wrote to Carinos, which is a market and specialty grocery store. We both like their delicious foods, especially their pizzas, salads, and cakes. On pajama day, we headed down to the office and were surprised with Carino's gift cards. This is just one activity we did to show bridge building at Chestnut World. Okay. And last on our journey connecting and making building bridges to the rest of the world. Hello, my name is Zoe Fulo and my sister and I from Turkey and we're brand new to Chestnut World this past October. I spoke a little English, but my sister did not speak any. She could just say hello. I helped walk her

025to her second grade class every day because she was nervous and stressed. We used iPads to translate. After a few months, we stopped using iPads and I and now we can speak and communicate in English. My teachers, Miss and Miss McLolin, were so respectful and patient with me learning English. I want to say thank you to them. Now, I will let my sister tell you about her class writing letters to a second grade class in Turkey. That's thank you in Turkish. Come up here on the on the stove. Hi, I am IJ Gomez. I came to Chel in October from Turkey. I was excited to to meet new friends and my new teachers. I my new friends didn't know my language. Only my sister did. I really like learning English. In Mrs. Mag's class, we

026got letters from my old classmates in Turkey. They were writing in English so my class could read them. We all love reading uh the letters and we wanted to write back. The class thought about what to say and and I helped to turn it from English to Turkish. We mailed the letters back to Turkish so my old friends could read them. It was really fun. And here's a picture of Miss Maggie's class at Chester World. And here's a picture of AUJ's class in Turkey. Okay, so you heard a lot about we've already what we've already done and there's a little bit more to come. Mrs. Lucas, good evening everyone. My name is Kelly Lucas. I'm a fourth grade teacher at Chestnut World. Um, so each year we tie a STEM project into our theme for

027the year. So this year our STEM project is all about building not just bridges, but teamwork, creativity, and realworld skills. We're kicking this month off or the month of May with things um we're kicking things off with a special assembly featuring our township architect who shared insight who will share insights about the Pensy Trail Bridge and how it was brought to life. From there the challenge is on. Each home will work together to construct a smallcale bridge applying STEM principles and problem solving skills. Then in our final round, the top builders from each grade will make things will take things to the next level, creating a largecale bridge that represents their entire grade and shows the whole school what they're capable of. It's a hands-on, minds experience that connects what we learn in our classroom

028to the world around us. We are eager to see how the project can make a positive impact beyond the classroom. So, thank you for your time, your support, um, and interest in our work. Okay. Last but not least, there were two other items that didn't make it into the presentation that we wanted to share. Our Chestnutwald faculty uh, and staff also funded the restocking of classroom materials and supplies for Jones Elementary School in Asheville, North Carolina uh, when they experienced catastrophic flooding. Um, and we also, our fifth grade students also uh did a collection for Healthy Heart Day and made kindness kits filled with everyday supplies for local homeless shelters in Philadelphia. So, I want to thank the teachers that are here tonight along with our amazing students. Please give them a round of applause.

029Again, the teachers, the teachers who are here helped our students prepare what they were going to say and have been an integral part of all of this work. I also just want to thank all of the members of our one book one chestnut wald committee as well. Their names are listed. Without all of these teachers commitment and support, none of these things would be possible. So, thank you and thank you to all of you. Okay. I just wanted to say you guys were all very articulate, very well done. Thank you. Thank you. I'd love to just say sorry. Um, I'd love to just mention that I know when we have these different presentations coming in, like they make my night. Like I just love all of them so much. I also know that all of

030these projects behind all of the projects are devoted staff and family and community members along with our devoted students. And I just thank you for all the work that you all do to make things like this happen. Thank you. Thank you. Wow. So impressive. And I don't know about you, but I'm going to go check out via a bridge uh from the library. Thank you all so much for your time. We know that our students have uh they're actually I was going to say homework to do, but it's PSSA, so you just have good rest to get, a nice uh relaxing evening to have. We thank you all for being here. You're welcome to stay. I'm going to continue on with some remarks, and we're going to bring up our next presenter if you would

031like to take this moment to exit. Thank you all. You great job. Okay, as everyone's exiting, I'll just attempt to move on with some more comments or I'll let them go. I'll just give it a minute. And I'll also invite I think we have some high school folks. So come on uh students come on in and have a seat if you'd care to. You're welcome to. Um couple of announcements and then I'll introduce our next speaker. First, I'm excited to share uh that Leon Smith, who you all may know as our uh social studies teacher and one of our coaches and a a sort of renowned uh personality at our high school as well as our Pennsylvania teacher of the year. Uh is actually going to be featured along with some students on the Today

032Show on May 5th. Uh so they they were filming uh this week and as a part of their teacher appreciation recognitions, we will have interviews with our students and Mr. Smith. So we're excited about that. He continues to put his message out there and we're just so happy for him and and proud of him and our our students. So I wanted to share that. Um another really exciting thing happening at the high school is um they're hosting their first trades fair on August or sorry, April 29th. So, we've had lots of electives fairs and college fairs and reality fairs, and this is now a trades fair. It features over 26 local employers and union representatives. Our students will have the chance to connect with these professionals, explore career opportunities after high school, and learn about

033apprenticeship programs and training options. So, we're very excited to have that. Um, as I mentioned, uh, we also have PSSAs this week and the next coming weeks and Keystones will start sort of mid to to late May. So, I just wanted to say thank you to our students for all the hard work that they put into their entire uh, school year learning all of their standards and participating so actively in their classes. Um, I want to recognize the hard work of the families who, you know, help them stay calm and uh, just do their best, which is all we can ask of any of them. uh of course say thank you to the administrators who ensure that the testing environment is what it needs to be and our amazing teachers who work so hard to

034prepare our students for their learning right which is this is one of the culminating pieces of their learning. So just good good luck to everybody. You've got this. You know what you need to know and thank you to everyone who helps prepare for that important set of events. Um a couple more thank yous. Each year, school bus driver appreciation day falls on the fourth Tuesday in April, which was April 22nd this year. So, I wanted to take a moment to recognize all of our school bus drivers for caring for our precious cargo during the school year. Whether they're transporting our students to school, home, activities, or to sporting events, uh our school bus drivers deserve the recognition for the job they do. and and all of our schools made posters and brought them over to

035our uh transportation building and were able to share their appreciation with them that way. It is also administrative professionals recognition day yesterday uh where we said thank you to all of our administrative professionals for all they do to keep our buildings and departments running. And this month is also National Assistant Principles Week which was also celebrated. Uh so lots of people to say thank you to uh as we enter uh our and spring this year. Also at Giant recently uh Giant Food Stores recently delivered a big check both literally and figuratively. Uh once again we were the recipient of their feeding school kids initiative and it really is a big thank you to our community members because this is where they rounded up their purchases. um and they uh have gotten those rounding up of

036the purchases means that we will receive over $17,000 this year to assist our families from that program. So, a big thank you to our community for contributing to that. Um speaking of our community, the whole community is invited to our secondary art show on May 6th, 7th, and 8th from 6:00 to 8:00 p.m. in Jim D at the middle school. I'm telling you, it's museum quality. You really it's it's free go you get to see some amazing artwork. You will be shocked that it was produced by children in secondary schools and not professionals. They are really great. Uh so please if you have time uh come take a look and check out our students artwork. And speaking of art, Mrs. Quzac's seventh grade art class will be having an exhibition at the Brandy Wine Museum

037of Art in Chad's Ford. Uh it's an internationally recognized museum known for its collection of paintings by the Wyatt family. Um, and you will find 110 works of art, uh, student art in the Imagine Brandy Wine Gallery on the top floor. And that show actually runs from May through October. So, something fun to do over the summer, perhaps. Uh, finally, for this portion, uh, the district congratulates Dr. Tina Kaine, superintendent of the Marple New Town School District, who has been selected as the Pennsylvania Superintendent of the Year. Her name will be familiar to those of us who have been in the district for a little while because Dr. Kane served our community here as the principal of Coopertown Elementary School from 2014 to 2017. Uh Dr. Rushi is actually attending her recognition celebration this evening.

038So with that, I will now move on to the second presentation. Uh I'm going to welcome Mr. Tim Lambert to our uh podium here. Uh Mr. Lambert is going to present to us an update to our demographic report. So thank you for being with us this evening, Mr. Lambert. could almost use could almost use this to get over here. Good evening board members. Uh my name is actually Dr. Lambert now. I just got my um doctorate in education. So I'm very proud of that. Um but thank you. Um so this is actually the third time I'm coming uh to your school district to look at your enrollment projections. So, um I am going to look back at some of the old uh information just to kind of give a an analysis as we look forward

039towards the next 10 years for the projections. Um I guess I have a clicker here. All right, perfect. So, tonight we'll be going over um the how enrollment projections were generated. Um you know, what factors make up enrollment projections and um how your school district or how township plays into that. not just as the school but as a community. Oops, sorry. Um, I would like to give a thank you to uh Mr. Parker. He gave me a lot of data and has been very good at providing feedback back and forth. This is not a one-man team. Um, I have a team back at the office as well as, you know, working very closely with the school district to make sure that what we're producing is what they're seeing because if you're just looking at numbers,

040sometimes they don't represent what you're actually experiencing at the school district. So it's really important that you have that kind of feedback that you can establish what is, you know, actually happening as opposed to what's just on the on the piece of paper. So getting into the project itself, um what we'll be going through is the major factors that are affecting enrollment. um review what has happened in the past, what's currently happening, what we project out. Uh review the demographics of the area. Um as well as we're going to look at the entire area, not just the school district of Harvard Township. We're going to look at your surrounding school districts, the surrounding counties, because you don't work in isolation. If the school district next to you is dropping in enrollment, there might be a

041chance that you are going up, you might be going up. So there's not, you know, enroll um enrollment and demographics and residential communities don't always play by boundaries. Um crossing a street um is important to know what's happening on the other side. So let's start with how do we look at enrollment projections? Um what factors into it? So the the main things I I look on the left hand side, we look at live births as well and how they play into how many kids actually show up for kindergarten uh five or 6 years later as well as you know how the kids trend from one grade to the other and then how they transition from one school to the other because those different points provide keystones that might that trigger the a family to decide

042to do something else with their education for their for their students. Um but then you have a lot of other factors. Um the trending of the neighborhoods, uh the surrounding districts as I mentioned, the facilities, the education, uh environment that the students are in. Uh whether you have full half day kindergarten, special education, I could go on and on and on. It's really, um it's a it's a really combination of all these different factors which play into if they decide to come to the school district. This chart I'm showing right here provides, it's going to be a little hard to see, but the colored um ranges, if you look uh left to right, you'll kind of see this is the live bursts for the different school districts in the area. Um Harford is in the

043brown, but then the surrounding school districts are in yellow. Uh the yellow on top is actually Delaware County. So, you can see actually the the live births have been going down in recent years. There was a big drop right after the pandemic. It's starting to tick up again, but ultimately that drop in live births at the pandemic and subsequently is going to affect your kindergarten numbers which will affect your enrollment down the line. to give you an understanding of where you sit in uh Delaware County. Uh you're on the left hand side you can see Harford uh school district of Harford Township is in yellow and we're on the edge of Delaware County uh and then Bucks County is next to it. Uh I'm sorry, Montgomery County is next to it. Uh and Chester on

044the other on the north side is made up of one municipality. It kind of makes things a little bit difficult because live bursts are based around municipality. So you have one live birth number for your entire district. Some school districts have multiple municipalities which can allows us to break it up a little bit more, but we'll go at that into a little bit more detail later. So this is the actual numbers of your librar. Uh the numbers in the darker colors is the actuals. Uh the one in purple is where we're sitting right now. Those students um are the students that actually I think it's one two down. I'm sorry. Uh two down to the left of that is where we're sitting now with the kids that were born and the kids that are in

045kindergarten. The Pennsylvania Department of Education provides the statistics by municipality for lab births. Um they only have up to 2023 right now. So we have to project out the remainder of the lab births. Um the key item here to uh observe is that they've hovered around 600 over the last couple years. for the last 5 years or so, you'll see that one outlier in purple. Um so what we're doing is we're assuming that moving forward it's going to sit around the 600 number um staying consistent with what has happened in the last couple years. So what we'll see here is of the live births what percentage actually show up at the school district. This is a good indicator to understand how we should be looking at how many kids we should be getting in the

046future. So if you look down that first uh colored is the the first time we did projections and at that time you can see the percentages were going up up up meaning we're getting a lot more students coming into the school district that were born. So at that time the projections were saying okay this these numbers are going up we're going to continue to go up. Well that didn't necessarily happen because you'll see it went from 69% down to 62%. That was a big drop. So where we thought it was going to go up, it actually went down. Then the f next time we did projections, it started going back up again. We were at 65%. And then it we assumed it would stay stable, but it went down again. So it's very inconsistent like

047trying to figure out which how is this pattern work. Um and we also do the live births from not only kindergarten but also first grade. So on the right hand side you'll see the first grade. So this is the percentage of kids who were born and five years later show up as kindergarten. The other item, the other number we want to look there is of that what percentage come into first grade. So you can see this uh left to right through the timeline and there you can see the our projected numbers and they usually um right now it's bit consistently about 16% different meaning of the number of kids you have coming in at kindergarten around 16% more of those lab births are showing up in first grade the following year. So we want to

048stay consistent not just with how many are coming in but what that differential is between kindergarten and first grade. It provides another measure for us to make sure that the numbers we're projecting or the number the percentages we're using are accurate. So now I mentioned we have one town we have one municipality um Harford Township. So but we have five elementary schools. So we have to split up those live births into the different elementary schools. This shows the history of where those students land um in each elementary school by kind for kindergarten students, not where they went to school, but where they live, cuz sometimes students might be shifted around for special needs or or some other purpose. Um and then we look at the percentages that show what percentage of students arrive at those

049elementary schools and that allows us to pro provide numbers on how what percentage of future live births are going to go to the different elementary schools. How we do that um is we use spatial data. Um what that means is we take every student and we have it all the way back to uh 20078 and we plot those students on a map and then also on the on that map we have the elementary school catchments, we have neighborhoods. So it allows us to associate that student with different demographics or different geographic areas and then we can look at them individually and try to find patterns within those neighborhoods or within a certain area of the city. Um you can see that the majority of the student population is on the southern side um with a

050little bit more open space on the on the uh northern side of the of the school district. So I I talked a lot. We even gotten into projections. This is really just talking about that it's really important to understand that if you don't have a good base, if you don't understand what's coming into your district once they're in the district, that's actually a lot easier because you have a lot more metrics on that. So you really want to understand how are we getting to that point? How are we getting that kindergarten number, that first grade number? Um and I we just went through that and it was actually so back for 27 years we were getting around um it was around 640 live births and that dropped to around 600 in the last couple years.

051Um so that's kind of the number that we're looking at. So you're seeing less, but this is not just indicative of this area. You you you might have seen in the news lately that the whole entire United States has had a large um decrease in uh live births throughout the years. Uh I think it's down to like 11 um per thousand people. Um where I think like 16 years ago it was up around 14. Now, that might not mean a lot, but when you're looking at a thousand people and then you you move that up to like 300 million, that's a fair number of students who are not show are no longer there. So, the next thing we want to look at is the grade to grade. And when we look grade to grade, we

052don't just want to look at the aggregate number. Okay, you lost one student, you gained one student. What's the story behind that? So you'll see on this chart it kind of gives a breakdown of you start if we're moving from first grade to second grade that is in the right on the left hand side it says 420 students zero students were held 35 kids withdrew 26 kids entered the following year. So it's a difference of nine but it's actually 35 less plus 26 gives you that nine. So it's it's not just that nine number. We want to actually look at how those numbers play out. And what you'll see is if you scroll, if you start scrolling down, the colored columns show the new students. And you'll see there's a large increase in new students

053somewhere around 2017 18 that you'll see if you just look at like first grade say you see all those big green numbers. So we were getting a large number of new students at that time and then it scaled down again after that after the pandemic. So once you see that 2020 21 number you'll start seeing those numbers decreasing. Um the next thing we also look at is cohorts. Kids who stay together. Um and in some school districts you'll see a large number. In some school districts you won't. It really plays out to how good that school district is at maintaining relationships and people staying in the neighborhood and good grades. And to be quite honest, yours is one of the better percentages we've seen um easily. Uh going to kind on the left hand side,

054you'll see kindergarten to 12th grade, it's around a 30% loss. Remember, that's over 13 years. Um and then first grade to uh 12th grade is 28%. We've seen numbers in the 60s and and and six and and greater. Um so this is actually really telling on the people who come here who start here are like to stay here. Um that also plays into how we do our projections and how we look at the numbers. Then we look at the transitions from elementary school to middle school and middle school to high school. And you'll see these are the percentages for the different elementary schools and how and what percentage are going into the middle uh middle school. Now, there's not it's pretty consistent um for each of the schools what percentage decide to go. Um but

055on the right hand side, the one telling factor you'll see is middle school to high school. Uh in the recent years, there's been less percentage of kids who have chosen to go to the high school after graduating out of 8th grade. Um so we factor that in. Um but it's also I'm giving a lot of data because a lot of these things can be used as metrics for making decisions moving forward as well. Um but that that one item is is the one trigger that you'll see that we had make we would make an adjustment for. Then we also look at the average number of new students coming in. So it's not just we don't just use the percentage of kids graduating from one to the other. Um so reviewing just the the grade to

056grade and the school to school the one uh factor that we want to point out is that one exception the exceptionally large group of new students that arrived between 2016 and 2020 uh 2020 uh because that plays a factor into how the projections moving forward are going to look because you're going to see these what they call bubbles I'll just call them which are high increases in enrollment that are transitioning through the school district. Um, this slide is moreformational. Uh, it does play into projections, but doesn't have a s as much of a significant uh influence. This shows your uh special ed population. Um, your autistic support is on the upper left, your supplemental students. Uh, the ones in blue are the ones that are being uh have their IEPs being handled in in-house in

057your schools, where the other ones would be your APS or or uh intermediate unit uh programs. uh you're you're providing more special ed need you're providing more need the needs of more special ed students in house than you have in the past which is great because it it means your your school your school district is handling because autistic supports going up across the board. Every school district is seeing a rise in and you know whether it's diagnosis or or some other reason the fact is that that's something that school districts have to plan for. So, it's always good to see how that plays out throughout the years. So, I mentioned neighborhoods. Um, these are the neighborhoods that we're using as a reference. Uh, sometimes we split them up with north, south, east, west. um primarily

058because you know the large geographic area or the large number of students and we wanted to be able to use them in such a way that they're enough of a population that they're meaningful but not so large that we can't uh you know mix and match and subdivide them and get a better understanding of the data itself. This is this the neighborhoods and the kids the number of new kids. I actually have a lot more charts that show a number of different metrics on neighbors neighborhoods and you'll never be able to read these uh from where you're sitting. But the colors are really just to show cuz each line is independent for its own range of colors. It's so it's not holistically one green does not mean another green. The greens are associated with that

059specific neighborhood. And what you'll see is kind of near that 2000, you know, if you go maybe 60% to the right, you'll see a lot more green. And that's that influx of population that you were seeing. Additionally, where what neighborhood was seeing that population because it wasn't across the board. And when we get into the individual schools, you'll see that some schools were affected more by the influx of students of new students than others. But it just g kind of gives you an idea of um you know the level of detail that we try to go down to to make to understand the data in order to project out I you know correct information moving forward. These are the totals again where you see the green uh somewhere around mid and moving right and then

060how it's a lot less at the far right which is where we're s seeing now. And a new student is considered someone who was not at the the school district the previous year. So if a kid did return, they would be considered a new student um for that metric, not for the cohort. And the cohort, you had to be in that cohort the entire time. Um now, let's get into the actual enrollments for the counties. Um so at the you'll see the counties and then there's IU programs, uh CTC programs, um and and charter school. Uh so that whole top half is kind of like a metric. based on what type of school they go to and where the bottom are school districts and you can see where you know Havford started you know it's

061on the orange on the left and green on the right that doesn't necessarily tell the story because that's just looking at totals it's not looking at the individuals and when the we'll get into the actual you'll see you'll start seeing the patterns when you go into the individual grades and individual schools. Um so that was the neighborhoods and surrounding areas in enrollment. Um so what we're going to see is that as that large um group of new students that came in in 2020 as they start metriculating out and is it being followed up by lower birth rates the enrollment is going down. It it's just that's how it that you know you just can't if you're back filling large numbers with smaller numbers over time into the trickle effect it's going to continue to you

062know slowly eat away at the enrollment numbers which you'll see here which is the overall district enrollment over time. There is a gray line um probably around 70% down. That's where we're sitting now. And you can see there's two there's two things I really want to point out here. If you start at the top and you start and you look left, upper left and go kind of down lower right, that's kids moving grade to grade. So you can see the transition of students as they metriculate through the school district. Kindergarten has its own color range. So that's, you know, that's different than first through 12th has its own color range. That's to differentiate because if we kept the color range the same, that would all be really light colors. And I wanted to diff I

063wanted to show kindergarten specifically. So you would see how the number of kids coming into kindergarten has significant was significantly dropped last year or this year and last year. Um but you will see if you look at the 2017 year it's kind of like a ledge. If you look right it's all kind of green. That's that huge influx where it doesn't show the standard upper left to bottom right. It shows a lot more students coming in at that time. And as they metriculate out, as you see, going down all the way down to, you know, 20 2032, is that what that is? Yeah. Sorry, eyesight's going. Um that it's the enrollment overall is going to go down. So, how does that affect each of the different schools? Well, um starting with Chattam Park, we have

064it will continue a slight downhill downward trend. um it receives around 21% of the live bursts and you can see on the left there was uh an uptick that one year that the current fourth graders who will be fifth grade and that'll be a big drop and you'll see that in a lot of the schools where they have that one little bubble or a year or two and when that bubble hits fifth grade the following year you're going to see a big drop um because it's being you know you have 120 kids being replaced by 76. So right there you can see there's a difference of like you know 50 kids that's you know that's going to be dropping the the school district down a little and so the so you see Chestnut Wald who

065did an amazing presentation this evening um they if you look at you see that big bump in the in the darker blue that's the influx of new students and you can see on the left hand side similar like that ledge of green uh the the green population is there's new students coming in. But when you look at the current year, while they have a larger first grade, they're not following that up with a lot more students. So, the enrollment is going to continue to go down and then level out as the libraries level out. This is similar to Coopertown which had that big bump and then it's kind of leveling out and will continue and then you'll see in I guess four years from now there's the current second graders are going to metriculate out.

066That'll be a little bit of a dump uh drop in their enrollment, but then it'll it'll continue to trickle down. Moonwood uh has seen pretty um stable enrollment over time. It so it did not you know the neighborhoods did not see that as much of an influx of those new students back in uh 2017 to to 20. Uh but they do have a large uh third grade population which will drop the enrollment in two years. Uh but then it should you know rel it'll stay relatively the same uh moving forward after that. Uh Manila is probably one of the more um it didn't get hit a lot with that influx but does have a lot of students in those mid-grades that'll start metriculating out. You can already see it with the current kindergarten and first

067grade as they transition. You're going to see less students and again um starting to even out. We talked about how the students transition from the elementary schools to the middle schools. So, this is really a product of that. What you see in the elementary schools this year is what you're going to see in the middle school next year. Um, so there was a little bit of a drop, but as those we talked about those bubbles as they metriculate out of the elementary schools, they're metriculating into the middle school. So, that's why you'll see that bump going up a little. And then once that is done, they're going to start uh leveling off going down. And then the high school is where you'll see that um in about four or five years or I guess yeah

068four or five years you're going to see that number going continue to go up but in 8 years it's going to start going down um at the high school matching what's happening at the elementary schools now because the kids who are in first grade now are going to be the ninth graders in 8 years. Um, and I think that is that is all. Can I answer any questions? Is that a question on slide 17? Special ed review. I'm theformational thing. 17. Oh, you said 17. I thought it was seven. That's why I was going back that far. Yes. On the lower right, um, on this particular calendar year, you can see there's only for the multi- disability support, there's only it drops from 9 to one. That I can't answer why it's so um, PTE

069has a a program called PIMS where you have to submit data into the state. um they take student data on October 1st and they take um special ed data on December 1st. So when I get the data from the school district, they produce the reports that they submitted to the state. They give me that data. They give me the individual students that they submitted in that collection. So as per that collection, they submitted uh one MDS student. I have a question about maybe just a way to interpret some of this. So, we had been planning for and reacting to this growth in enrollment and finding ways to invest in our facilities so that uh there is more parody in amenities among the buildings. We're still looking at a Coopertown project tonight to do that. Um,

070one of the theories back when this capital project was rolling out was that when a school gets improved, um, a new Lynwood, uh, that, you know, Noah was the new school back in the day, that that causes some interest and people seek to move into that. looking at the patterns, I'm not seeing necessarily that um kind of the building projects and improvements then spurred changes in enrollment patterns. And I'm wondering if that's something that you considered or saw. Absolutely. Actually, what you might have noticed is almost every elementary school was continually going down except Lynwood. So, if you take into that's your your newest school, right? So if you take into the fact that that's a new school, maybe that's the reason it's not going down. So just because you know if if everything's going

071down, but then that school ends up being steady, it's actually it might be because the people are moving in and keeping the the population up as opposed to going down. Um which you inevitably, and this is just from experience, um it's just also common sense, I guess, if when you see a new shiny toy, people want to go there. And you know when you have a beautiful school you know we have a large this whole area has a large you know parochial um presence so and private too. So when you when you have a new school and you have a a a draw such as yourself then that becomes a much you know more attractive option for for families to go to. So, in my mind, I do believe you probably saw that. It just

072didn't show specifically because, you know, it it just didn't drop as much as the others. And that's probably what the difference was with people choosing to go there. At the same time, there's not been a lot of home movement. So, when that hopefully that starts up again, people are going to see that new school and they're going to move into the area. Um because there's not, you know, before the pandemic there was a lot more home movement than there was after. Um and even now that again today there was another study that showed that we're like down significantly for how many homes have been uh taken off the market who have been po you know who have been listed. Yeah, that was going to be a follow- on question in terms of how much does

073the data correlate with real estate markets. Um, you know, just in terms of for Herford, it's it's actually quite big. And this was actually done on the first study, not on this study where we went well in depth with uh home home sales. And that's because a lot of times you'll see a school district we work with might have a new residential development or multiple or they're there's a um paroial piece of land that got purchased and they're they're turning that into homes and and and commercial and that's where a lot of times you you need to have that kind of enrollment projection. What's going to happen to our schools and can they handle the capacity? Um but uh Habford is slightly different. Its capacity is more it's people moving in and out. Um, a

074lot of times even though we had that and that could have been that whole I keep talking about that that bump in 2017 to 2020 that's a lot of home turnover. Um, you know, obviously it's not a lot of new residential and the live births seem to be relatively consistent except for that that those couple years. Um, so there I would say Habford has a much more um relationship with homing homes than most districts to be quite honest. You don't have a lot of movement in and out and when you do you're you're getting a lot more new students. That's when it that happens. So that's that's kind of like a trigger you want to look for. Um when there's you know more home sales you can expect more students based on historically. Yeah. I

075recall at the time that in a stable housing market, we're looking at that live births and then five six years later there's but when there's active home market, people might be moving in with those students ready to enroll. Absolutely. Yeah. you that they're getting a lot of students and that's also be could be where the percentage of students who from live birth to um enrollment in kindergarten why you might see also a jump because that's including the kids kids who come in between zero and five who are not born here are not in the statistics for that live birth but do show up are being included in that percentage that answer your question I hope yeah I think That's good additional context and probably something people can relate to, right? Like we know what's going

076on in our neighborhoods and with houses for sale. Yeah, it to be quite honest, I mean, if you just drive the neighborhood and you start seeing, you know, the the big wheels out there back in my day, but uh you know, the the trampolines and stuff like that, um it it really gives you an understanding of, you know, what kind of people are moving in. Um you know, you know, cuz they place value on, you know, making sure that their kids are happy and have lots of stuff. So you'll usually see it out in the yards. So I just wanted to ask a clarifying question. I know that Dr. Shelton had um requested some clarification on slide 17. Um can you just repeat so this information that you receive is based upon numbers that submitted

077by Can you repeat your your So every school district in Pennsylvania is required to submit information to the state. Okay. Um, it happens throughout the year for lots of different metrics. The main metrics that we look at are your October 1st student submission and your December 1st special education submission. We can get we get the individual students from those submissions because it's important that whenever we do projections that we are consistent with the time of year that we're do that we're taking the data from. So that provides a great um keystone for every year. It's we're using the October one numbers. So we're the num the projections are all based on October one. If if a school ends up getting 50 new students every year by January, we wouldn't represent that. You might know that,

078but we would always represent that October projection every you know what what's going to happen in October because that's the date we that's the numbers we have in the past. So, it's like just taking measured steps instead of taking, you know, different length steps. Um, September 1 special ed is it's a little bit more um spec well obviously specific to special ed, but it includes a lot more information than your your typical name, gender, uh, race type thing. That includes your the amount of services you get, where where your services are, the type of service, things like that. That's how we can break it down into, okay, you're getting autistic support, um, itinerant or supplemental services. Um, and we know exactly if it's it's being handled by one of the schools within Havford or an

079approved private school um, or an an IU program. So, this is that's that's why I refer to this as kind of likeformational. It's information you already have. You just provide it to me. I put it on a chart so you you can use it to um you know use it with in comparison to other data that I'm providing you so you don't have to go search out that you can see your autistic support um numbers because some of these things if you're ever looking at like say capacity at schools capacity is not just your student enrollment it's your e population it's your special ed population you know what rooms do we need um and that will play into it you know you might have such a large special ed population you have to might have

080to convert to regular education classrooms to special ed and then that affects your your capacity um for your regular egg population. Okay. So before we continue there um because I do think it's important that we make sure we have the the accuracy of this number and so if we could follow up Miss Saxa just to get some clarification for the full board. It's helpful for us to make decisions going forth. And I also want to make sure that we are um counting the population of students that we do in fact have that require multi-isability support. Okay. Thank you on that. Thank you. I appreciate it. I think you were going to continue with the question. Oh yes. So I So that one number came from o December December 1st of last year. Correct. 2024 and

081it be October 1st of 2024. But this is no for when I go with the student data. I'm sorry. The student date I get is from October 1st of the school year and this is December 1st of the school year. December. Okay. Thank you. There was a question here. So at this time we actually don't take questions directly um from members of the community. when it comes time for public comment, if there is a question, you're more than welcome to ask a question at that time. Okay. All right. Thank you. Right. Thank you, Dr. Lambert. We appreciate your uh detailed analysis and and sharing it with us in a way that is digestible and we will follow up as requested. Uh up next in our agenda, we are uh in the superintendent's remarks section, uh

082we are going to get a construction update on uh Coopertown and the bids that we have collected. And for that, we welcome Ken Matthews, uh Jamie, and um Jeff, all from our architecture and our financial uh institution. [Music] All right. So, um, a little over a week ago or so, we received the the bids for the Coopertown Elementary renovation and addition project. Um, so what we've we sent, we did a little summary letter kind of walking through the bids. We did have a good number of bids for each of the trades, which is great uh great to see. Uh, the general contractor's numbers were a little bit all over the place. Uh, there were two numbers that were fairly consistent. Uh and you have obviously the low what you're seeing up here is are the

083low bidders. So there was uh from the mechanical, electrical and plumbing trades there was great representation five and six biders. Uh and those numbers were very consistent as far as you know being uh relatively close to each other. So, I think that just shows that uh Jeff and his team did a great job on the documents uh when when you see that uh because it it means the the drawings uh and the bid documents were clear and concise. Um so, that being said, um this evening, uh you know, you're going to be voting on moving forward with these each of these contracts. So, we there was a a handful of alternates that were recommended. So basically what you're seeing up here in green on the left are the base bids and then the green items

084uh are each of the ad alternates that are being recommended uh this evening. Uh and then you get your total uh contract amounts on the right far right side. Uh so basically right now um excuse me I'm just getting to our summary. Um, so basically with the alternates recommended, we're looking at a project uh hard construction costs of a little over $24 million. Uh, so the bids overall came in approximately 3% uh over uh what the project was estimated at with the third party cost estimator. Um, we were very concerned uh I know Jeff was very concerned uh about all the tariff uh talk and contractors. You know, this is a lump sum. they can't change, they can't come back for additional cost. If copper goes up 30%, they cannot come back and ask for

085that money. Uh so be it metal panels that come from Canada, um and and a lot of things uh from Mexico, etc. So, uh the project really coming in only 3% over was actually very good and well within what you would expect uh in a bidding situation. So, uh, that being said, with, um, you know, the total project cost, there are, excuse me, uh, a few other co co-star vendors, uh, things that are being purchased directly, which include, uh, Miller Flooring for all the gym flooring and and equipment. Uh, we're buying all the electrical, uh, main equipment and generator direct just because of lead time concerns. And there actually was a cost savings of approximately $70,000 there as compared to buying it through the electrical bid. Uh so that that was a great savings. Um

086and then there's a few other minor uh minor items that we need to take care of uh for 12,000 a little over $12,000 this summer with a district's fire alarm and PA vendor. So, that being said, uh the total project budget we're looking at with all the soft costs, uh the recommended contingency for the project, which is a little over, uh 5% brings the total project budget to 29, $151,000. Um now, that budget does not include solar, which we are will also be discussing this evening. Uh that was one of the alternates that was just left as a board decision alternate. Um, so that's kind of the highlight summary. Obviously Jeff's here to answer any questions and Jamie's going to be talking about the financing of it, but did you have any specific questions on

087the bids themselves? Um, I should I should say that all the contractors that bid we've worked with in the past with the exception of GM Mechanical, but have a lot of great recommendations from them. But uh us our company personally and I know Jeff as well has worked with the other uh contractors and they're all this is right in their wheelhouse for the size the scope you know and getting the project done. though. Just one thing I think I I like to to point out there cuz it's kind of hard to see it but up there on the screen. Um total cost is uh 29 million 151 the we we approved in in the act in the act 34 um uh budget 29,000 or or sorry 20500,000. So, so, so the the project is actually

088$400,000 a little more $45,000 under the money that that is approved. However, okay, that's correct. Put that Act 34 in context because I think I understood that that was never like the goal, right? Like it was an upper estimate and we're not allowed to exceed that, right? Correct. Um, the Act 34 setting an upper goal. Um and actually it's while we are looking at that $29 million number uh that you just mentioned really what Act 34 is at at the state level is concerned about is the new construction. Um but so we did set that upper limit. We've actually discuss had had some discussions about that. Um you're actually allowed to exceed that by 8%. Um, so with the bids it and it's depends on how you look at what was in and out because

089we've got some of these uh pieces that are being done through co-star, but we're we're ranging from about 1 to 3% within the budget. So that's why we Oh, yeah. Um, excuse me. I just if if the question is the uh legal impact of Act 34 on the project um and you'd want to have that opinion from us, I believe that that's agency business that if we were discussing public from our office would violate the attorney client privilege. So if that's the question as to the legal impact of Act 34, I would suggest um that the board go into recess for a brief executive session. Um, and I can provide that opinion there if the if that's what the board wishes. I was just trying to understand that um, we had an act 34 hearing

090that had a number in it and it was presented as a not to exceed it. That wasn't like the target of necessarily what we were trying to correct. U, but one of the challenges and as uh, Ken had mentioned was we the goal was not to exceed that. Um but the problem was we did the act 34 actually the booklet was put together November December final estimates was in January and the challenges as Ken mentioned I was very nervous coming on approaching bid day we we all watch the news right now uh but just to give you some very you know very uh direct information uh we've heard just in the last two months uh even before uh in February steel went up 8% in one month um and across Ross the board we were

091seeing cost increases for instance toilet partitions went up 50% in one week um so we were tracking all that information so that was the concern and we actually had some discussions with you know be prepared you could see you know 10% 15% on bid day and but I couldn't fright quite frankly give much detail to that because the tariffs are going up and down and so it's been very hard to track so coming within a few% we felt pretty comfortable but you're right the original goal was to stay under under that act 34 limit. Thank you. Okay. Yes. [Music] Just put the screen just put the Leave it like that too, not just [Music] So she had like special The alarm goat. on this meeting back to order. The board needed to meet uh for

092executive session with legal. So we were continuing with the there was you had another question I believe. Thank you. Yes. Um could we talk about the contingency a little? You spoke about the um volatile market that we're in in terms of pricing and supply chain and things like that. Um professionally I do community facility financing and uh I would say our recommendation now is for contingencies larger than 5.3%. Can you speak to your comfort with that number in in the Senate? Uh, so a lot of it, you know, um, Chattam Park being the same almost literally the same exact scope of work other than Chattam Park being a little bit larger project about $2 million larger. Um, and seeing what we've gone through there and where we are with contingency. Um, so Chattam Park was

093a $ 1.5 million contingency, which is 5 3 or 4% of the hard construction costs. So, with this project being very similar, um, a lot of Chattam Park's contingency that's been spent to date, probably a couple hundred thousand of it was due to a lot of early onsite changes, um, that were governmental uh, changes that happened after the bids went out where we did not have that here at Coopertown. Uh, so there's no risk of that on this project. uh and there was a lot more underground utility issues at Chattam which are not going to be the case here because we're doing all new uh utilities coming into the building. So based on that, so having that kind of historical data uh even going back and looking where we were Lynwood Lynwood's contingency was definitely

094higher. Uh but there was massive amounts of earth work there that were uh we were very concerned about. So I think you know uh and Jeff uh certainly weighing in their opinion as well. Uh we felt comfortable that that it's very reasonable. Uh so for example Chattam Park uh at the 1.5 million there's a little over $400,000 left and we probably have uh probably up to probably 60 70 different changes on that job and ads. So I think that gave us a very good comfort level for this. And it's it's not as complicated uh as Chadam either. The additions are simpler with the exception of the front, but um the two additions out back are very basic and the site work scope is probably a third uh or or less of what Chattam is. Okay,

095that's good context. Thank you. And can you um just again for the benefit of this process to speak about what a contingent contingency is for versus like you made reference to like oh if the what's in these contract bids is for copper and the price of copper goes up what you know what can be passed on and used by contingency or what's the contractor's responsibility. Um, so as great as I talked about how good Jeff's drawings and his teams are, they're not perfect. And so the drawings are not perfect. And so it's industry standard that you're going to have, uh, as much as 2% in change orders just due to, uh, you know, little missing things here and there in the drawings, uh, which is standard. It's completely standard across the industry. You're going to

096have, uh, we're working in an old existing school. We're going to come across issues. uh we're going to open up a wall and blocks falling apart and we have to fix it. Uh so there'll be unforeseen conditions like that. That's what you use uh for contingency. Um so that's really, you know, the biggest thing. And then as we go through it, you know, uh there was a lot of time spent on going through with the different district staff and administration and maintenance. Hey, you know, um we need blinds in this room or or or that room, things like that that you may come across that um are missing in the plans because it's so hard to go through those thousands of details on a job. So, there might be owner generated changes, you know, something

097that they need. Oh, hey, this door isn't wide enough uh for the uh walkbehind machine. Let's get a bigger door. So, you know, now you have to pay $3,000 to order a new door. So, it's meant for those type of things. Uh so it is uh we do feel it's a healthy contingency for the project. Thank you. And then Jamie of course is here to talk about the financing part of it. Do you guys have that one? We don't. Okay. Well, I can be brief cuz you've seen these type of things, but So what I was asked to do of course is with the change in the bids coming in at a higher number than we were estimating when we borrowed the funds on the on the last step the uh total amount of what

098we were going to project went up more than we had in our original anticipated financing schedule. So we re reran the numbers with the new amount of 29.5 million I should point out which includes a potential thought of adding the solar. So that has that inet number. So between the addition of the construction cost and potentially considering funding solar with bond proceeds our last transaction that would fund the balance of the debt would occur in 2026 early January February range. So, we have not borrowed that money yet, but we've cleaned up the balance. So, in this case, our borrowing amount would go up to about $19 million or so based on our estimate. Based on that, the total millage impact that we've been projecting has been under a half mil for the whole set of

099projects. We're going to remain there. So, that's the good news here. despite the increased cost and if you assumed that you were going to borrow for the uh solar project itself. And that's just a combination of uh we did have some conservative estimates in our interest rates that we were planning for when we originally started doing this several years ago and then we had conserv conservative interest rates in our funding of the 2026 transaction. Although interest rates have gone up since we last did a financing, all those things put together still puts us within uh a range of under a half mil for everything. I would add though, I guess we may come to this conversation about the solar, you don't have to fund the solar project through debt. One of the considerations can be

100is utilizing uh if you do decide to do this using internal funds to cover that and that is a conversation we could certainly have when you want to talk about it but that is also an alternative but we wanted to make the assumption that if you did fund it this is what it would look like. Anyone have questions? Oh good. All right. Thanks. And the page we want is the color that colored sheet. Yeah, that's page six. Could you you have a yield rate on slide um I don't know what slide it is. Uh the yields jumped up and how you know we don't know what the yields are going to do in the future but can you comment on what how that would affect the funding? Yeah, so uh that good question. Uh we

101obviously saw an increase during some of the volatile periods that we had over the last month. Uh uh frankly the you know there wasn't much being sold in the bond market uh during that period of time. Uh so when we we did actually do about six bond issues within the last week uh Central Buck School District being the first one in Pennsylvania uh for about a week. Uh they locked in a rate of 4 and a.5% for uh about 25 years. Uh they're a little higher rated than this district but very strong. Uh I assumed that the interest rate on this new debt would be uh over 5%. So we have uh I believe conservative numbers, knock on wood. Uh and if we uh built into this model as well, that's for the 2026 26.

102Everything else is locked up, right? We did close the one in 2025 before if we're looking at we did that in January two. Yep. Um slide two. The peak is more like you said in this past month, but when we closed on the initial bond for this project, it was in a more stable period of pricing. Correct. Yep. The part of the reasons why we did this in phases was uh for this exact reason. One, we didn't have all the bids completed and we were funding this through uh you know, phased in almost like dollar cost averaging for people that invest their money. Uh so we wanted to make sure we phased it in in that capacity. one and then two after we got the bids back we would do essentially a cleanup issue in

1032026. So that has been the plan from day one. Uh and that's what we're expecting to do. So we believe uh based on how things are going on the spend you know we should we should have enough money to get through the year. I'll be probably you'll see me back at the uh Novemberish range uh having this similar conversation and we'll you know obviously see what the market looks like at that time uh and make some uh suggestions but ultimately uh you know we'll fund what we need to fund uh when the time comes. Mhm. So and for everyone that's can see the screen um I got my eyes checked last week so can't see it as well but you can see on all the way to the right hand side number 17 uh that

104is the you know estimated dedicated millage necessary to cover the incremental debt service meaning principal and interest associated with all of the debt tied to to the all the projects we've been working on Chattam Park the cafeteria for middle school and then Coopertown and then potentially the solar project. So again, not a dramatic difference in what our estimate was back in February range. Yeah, I think one of the things that comes through hopefully from these presentations are the constraints with which the district um needs to manage for considering these projects, the phasing in the trying to find the economies. I don't think that was mentioned tonight, but with the um the project for Coopertown, adding in some work at this Oakmont building that makes that more effective like we did with Chadam and the middle

105school cafeteria doing those. So, considerations for how the project is scoped and phased and then the financial consideration. Um, I think it's, you never great news to hear costs are going up, the world's getting more volatile, you know, the construction sector is getting more challenging in some ways. But, um, I would look to the importance of this project in fulfilling a a plan that the district had to make the elementary schools all have similar amenities. We had goals related to getting rid of the modulars and bringing all the classrooms in under one roof, right sizing the amenity spaces and um didn't want to lose sight of the the purpose and intent of of setting out on this significant capital improvement project and and getting to the point where we can consider all our elementary schools

106to have the same set of amenities. No, I I can, you know, being here for the last gosh, 20-ish years, uh, this district and the board, uh, administration over the years has always done a very thoughtful consideration of its capital needs and thinking through the projects in a in a good way. Uh, which is always, you know, good for the residents, but but ultimately we've, you know, been able to take advantage of, you know, the good financial uh, attributes that the school district has being as strongly rated as as it is. Uh you might note I did uh put some snapshots of some financial information on one of the pages here that just shows that the district has you know maintained you know strong reserves over the years and has grown those uh which has

107you know provided some additional you know value for the for our project itself and getting us lower interest rates. So you know making the decisions that you make are important but understanding that uh you know it is it's tough in this world right now to get it all done in a reasonable manner. Quick question for Ken actually. Um sorry Ken. One thing I've noticed um now with contractors in our current time a lot of times what what they will do is they will even though we have not much clarity on tariffs or not tariffs or whatever it from from what I've seen there is a tendency to kind of add a little bit of a cushion in in there for some of those prices. I'm just curious, you obviously look at the prices. Did you

108did you notice that in the um that came back? Uh so we don't we don't see the details of how they get to their numbers. Um I think you know the numbers ranged from a little over 13 million to uh the high bidder was 17 million. Uh so I think some of them probably were hedging their bets. I mean that's the difficulty of low bid award. How much do you cushion to your point uh within their bid? So in either case they can't go over like what what is once this is lump sum they're lock lock lock lock lock locked into this. So other than change orders and which you know we evaluate every single one and negotiate uh they cannot come back for additional money. Um um the one thing I did want to

109mention thank you uh Bridget for pointing out Oakmont uh was the one additional scope of work. Um I came in a little over $200,000 to you know redo the front entrance that we had spoken about. And then there was also after going through uh the scope of Coopertown in a little more detail uh part of the money uh that Jamie was talking about, we are going to add uh a little bit of money back into Chattam Park's budget for some additional furniture. So both Chattam and Coopertown don't get all brand new furniture, but uh the original thought at Chadam was most of the furniture was going to stay, but really after a detailed evaluation uh with Jeff's team and the furniture uh uh vendor, Co-Star vendor, we are going to add a little bit of

110money back, about $200,000, but that is all within what was discussed. All right. Thank you all for your uh information you've shared this evening to help better inform the board and its decision-m. Yes. And and that presentation concludes the uh superintendent's report. All right. Thank you. That takes us to uh section four for public comment for items on the agenda. The board values public comment. There are two opportunities on the agenda for members of the community to provide public comment during the meeting. The first opportunity on the agenda for public comment is to allow members of the community to speak on action items listed on the agenda for a board vote. The second opportunity on the agenda is towards the end of the meeting which allows members of the community to speak on any topic.

111Public comment allows for residents of the township to speak for 3 minutes. A timer will be set at the start of your comment and alarm will sound indicating that your time has been completed. Should you have any materials for members of the board, please leave them at the end of the table with Mr. Ta for later distribution to the board. Please note that if appropriate, a member of the administration may follow up with you at a later date. We do have several people that have signed up for this section of public comments. I'm going to start uh with Steve Clark. Dr. King, may I make a request? Can we just make sure that everyone speaks into the microphone? I'm having a hard time hearing. Okay. Thank you. Thank you. if you would just state your

112name, confirm the residency, and then the timer will start for your allowed 3 minutes. Sure. Uh my name is Steve Clark. I live uh right across from the high school, and thank you for um giving me this opportunity. I'd like to uh speak in support of the solar uh edition at for the Cooperaton uh for a very specific reason. Um, we all know about the social importance of clean energy, etc., but I'd like to talk about energy prices. Uh, for my day job, I'm a energy expert for New York State utilities, and we usually don't like to predict energy trends. Um, to get you often wrong, but I think there's some pretty important trends in front of us. We all know that if electricity is more expensive, solar is more attractive. You save a lot

113more. It's a better investment. And um we have uh we know that electricity has been increasing if you look at your pico bill. But we also know that AI is growing incredibly fast. Um AI crypto building electrification consumes enormous amount of electricity and it's putting enormous amount of pressure on the grid. Um, for instance, we probably you probably heard that Meta and Facebook is building is recommissioning the 3M island reactors. That's pretty dramatic. Uh, Amazon is investing hundred billion dollars into AI data centers just this year. This is all going to come online within the next 2 years, putting a lot of stress on the grid. Um, and there estimates that by 2028, electricity prices in our area are going to rise by 28%. 68% by 2050. All of this makes solar that much more

114attractive. Um, and as well as energy conservation, other things you can do for your school to save electricity. So, I'd just like to point that out and thank you for your attention. Next up, I have Jason Baxter. Hello, I'm Jason Baxter. I live in Maryland Park and I'm the parent of two Hford High School students who are Coopertown alums. Uh so I'm here to uh to advocate for saying yes to the Coopertown renovations. I think this is going to be great for the for the school and the district. Uh and also to advocate uh for the solar add-on to that project. uh for for three quick reasons. So first, as Steve just said, uh the capital investment that you put into solar now is going to save you on operating expenses for the next 30

115years. Second, uh choosing to get your electricity from solar reduces the carbon pollution that is associated with electricity uh so you can help to mitigate climate change uh and set a great example for your students and for the community. Uh and finally, solar panels can provide a great learning opportunity for students. Uh so I'm a professor at Drexel University. I'm currently working with teams of undergraduates uh to build uh educational solar kits. Uh and we've actually been working with your high school teachers, including Dr. Thomaseski, uh to get their input on what they would want in these kits. Uh and one of the things that they really wanted uh was a solar panel on the roof that they can track how much electricity is being generated over days and over seasons that the students could

116then analyze that data. So what's better than a single used solar panel with a data collection system designed by college freshmen? a fully operational solar installation that powers half the school and uh that has professional software that any student can download the data uh from their device. I think you guys have really great science teachers and they're going to come up with really creative ways to make use of this system for educational purposes. Uh, of course I'm still happy to provide the solar kit, too, so that the students have something hands-on inside the school that they can associate with what is happening up on the rooftop. Uh, so we're also currently making lesson plans for high schoolers as well as middle school and for elementary school. And I'm happy to help to, you know, set

117up a display inside or outside of Coopertown so that the students and the community can connect, you know, what is happening uh with the great things that are are going on up there on the rooftop. Uh and finally, I wanted to thank you for your time and dedication uh for your work on the schoolboard. I know it's a lot. Uh and I encourage you to do, you know, one more good thing by saying yes for the Coopertown renovation project and for solar. Thank you. Next up, I have Evelyn Depatri. Did I pronounce your last name correct? Yes. Thank you. Hi, my name is Evelyn Apatry. Um, I'm talking to you today to ask you to vote in favor of installing solar panels on Coopertown. I went to Coopertown for elementary school and now I'm in

118eighth grade at Hford Middle School. Um, I was looking at the Coopertown plans and they look beautiful and having been in the trailers, I think it's probably a good idea to get rid of them. Uh, when I was at Coopertown, I was part of an eco action team that sorted and waited trash and we planted a garden in the courtyard. We are capable as a community of taking these actions against climate change. But in middle school, we don't. There are practically no efforts towards anything climate related. Middle schoolers have even less interest than elementary kids do in saving our earth. No planting, no composting food waste. We all need to do better and Coopertown can help lead the way towards a more renewable future for schools like mine. Back in March 2019, when I was

119in second grade, I was part of a worldwide protest against climate change. I made a sign with a drawing of our world and the words, "This can't wait till I'm bigger. I'm bigger now." And the nature I get to enjoy is not guaranteed to still be there for my children when they get bigger. Solar panels reduce greenhouse gas emissions and help to mitigate the effects of climate change. They have the power to lead us into a more sustainable energy future. They they will lower electricity bills and create a learning opportunity for kids. This improvement will be worth every cent. The students will have above their heads the cheapest source of electricity in history. We can solve nothing without learning first. When my family got a new roof, we took the opportunity to install solar panels

120as well. We've had them for about 8 years now, and we never looked back. If Coupeton doesn't take the chance now, it likely never will. Thank you. Next up, I have Joy Baxter. Hi, my name is Joy Baxter. Um, I live in Hovertown. And in front of you is a science fair project that my son, who's now a ninth grader, did with uh when he was in fourth grade at Coopertown with two other boys. And they looked at doing solar on Coopertown. And I've been talking to you um for several putting solar on Lynwood. I've been talking about putting solar on Chattam. Um I'm pleased that now we're talking about putting solar on Coopertown and I hope this time around you vote yes. Um there are many reasons to do it. Um there is nothing

121in that you would be investing in for these projects. nothing else that actually pays for itself. Imagine if you built a building and it generated money. You'd build that building. Why wouldn't you build solar if it's generating money? Um so please, we're we know these buildings are going to be around for a long time. let's make some money and um do the investment. Now um also I wanted to talk a little bit about why not just purchasing renewable. So imagine we have all these chairs in this room, right? That's like the amount of solar that's out there. And if we just if if we borrow some of those chairs by buying renewable electricity, the people who own those chairs are going to benefit a little bit, but there's still the same amount of renewable electricity

122out there. We want to not pay more. We want to invest and make money from it and expand the amount of renewable electricity. Thank you. And the last person that I have signed up is Victor Don. Thank you. I'm Victor Don. I live in the Coopertown area of town and my um boys both went to Coopertown Elementary School. Um my students and I have talked to you in the past about solar. Um Chris Pasia and Pria Peterson gave a presentation to the finance committee based on their study of a costbenefit analysis for Kooper Town in Lynwood. Um they couldn't be here tonight cuz they're busy finishing their semester. Um but the work they did was really wonderful as a learning opportunity for them as an example of how solar can be an educational tool. Um,

123they went on from the report they gave you to give a presentation at the National Math Conference in Seattle about this idea of college students working with school districts to analyze solar systems. And what they found was for Kooper Town, it's such a perfect place for solar. You have south facing roofs. There are no implements, no trees in the way. So, it's really a great place to do solar. And I encourage you to vote for that. The other thing I'd like to offer in the spring next year, I'll be teaching a course in new approaches in math and science education. And the students in that course all have placements with teachers or after school programs helping teachers and seeing what happens in real world education. And I'd love to have some students working with your

124science teachers and math teachers figuring out how to make use of the solar systems in the classroom and supporting the teachers as they try these new approaches. So, I hope the solar will happen and I hope my students can continue having wonderful opportunities working with Havford. Thank you. There's no one else that uh has signed up for the first section of public comment. Is there anyone that wishes to speak about a topic related to the agenda listed for a vote? Can you state your name? Confirm your residency. Uh yeah. Uh my name is River and I live at 321 Davis Road. That's just your resency. Yeah. Um I have been here many times before to talk about solar on Cadam. And um I'm here again to talk about putting solar on Coopertown. Um, a lot

125of you here talked already about like the finance and like the electricity. Um, and I just wanted to mention uh more so a uh student standpoint on it. Um, all the kids that are currently in the school district K through 12 were born into a climate crisis that they had no say in and no power over. And it as a student feels very uh hard to see the school board not acting um appropriately and to the same way that I personally would wish you to act. Um, solar panels are a great way to help the environment and to mitigate the release of carbon dioxide and other such um greenhouse gases and [Music] um uh it's just it's a great way to help the environment. And you've already voted against uh solar panels many times before.

126Uh or at least once before, I should say, not many times. And I just want to ask you to not mess up this time and to vote yes. We'll continue with uh section five, board reports. So for 5A Delaware County Community College, Dr. McKay, no report for the DCIU, Miss Lee, uh very brief report. Um as we are all aware of the closing of Croer Health. Uh the DCIU has already made plans to transition students from the technical program that were training in those facilities um at Croer Chester and at Taylor Hospital. They're going to bring them on site into DCIU uh facilities, the Aston campus and the Falcroft campus. Um it is something the IU has been planning for and so that's expected to be a smooth but unhappy um transition. speaking for myself

127and not the IU. Feel free to call a governor or a senator or a congressperson and tell them how disgusted we are. Okay. Um the the DCIU board went to the National School Board Association conference in Atlanta. Um I do look forward to spamming my own board members with some of the information that was shared there. Um, lots of talk about funding and funding changes and how things are are rolling out all over the country. Um, I can't help but feel like we're in good shape based on the choices that we make. So, I do thank my board very much for for that. Um, and then finally, since we're talking about the DCIU and I do get support from the DCIU and there are so many good things happening, we're talking about building bridges. I'm

128going to talk about the 13th annual Making a Difference Awards. Now, if you know me, you've already been hearing about this ad nauseium. No apologies being issued tonight. The making a difference awards are and awards put on by the local task force with support from the Delaware County Intermediate Unit and they support students who are in special education that are overcoming obstacles. They reward professionals that are supporting them, students that practice inclusion, and it is very much a feel-good event. It is an event that was started by a Havford parent over 13 years ago. So I'm very fortunate to be able to participate in it. And this year we have Mr. Smith is going to be our host. Mr. Leon Smith because he is the Pennsylvania teacher of the year and he is just very

129dynamic and and and so he will bring um the right tenor to our awards. So please feel free to build a bridge, come to the making a difference awards. great nominations from from Havford. Um, and then I'll close out by saying there has been a lot of conversation about ESSER funding and what may have been lost by the DCIU. There will be more details coming out about that at a later date. There was something in the patch that said maybe $4 million in ESR funding was lost. This is a very dynamic situation. The most important thing that we would like to close with in Hford is that we were not impacted by this. It's not our money that was lost. We're not paying more for services that we get from the DCIU. So, as we

130wait for additional information, there's nothing for us to see here. That's it. Thank you. Thank you. Um, from the legislative council, Dr. Shton. Yeah, I'll try to be quick. Um most of the discussion at the legislative council were uh changes at the federal level uh which um are very dynamic as Latana mentioned and she mentioned the ESER funding. Um it's not clear what the impact will be for many many of the changes and and it fluctuates from day to day. So uh there's really nothing yet to report there. Uh at the state level, there have been five bills that have uh moved out of committee that concern education. HB354 encourages students to tell their Pennsylvania story and social studies curriculum. That passed the House. Uh House Bill 8/19 expands access to rigorous coursework like AP

131courses by providing um uh some financial support and that's under second consideration by the House. Senate Bill 9 restricts female sports to students assigned female at birth. Second consideration by the Senate. Senate Bill 315 requires the most recent data for CTE equipment grant funding formulas. Pass the Senate. And then finally, Senate Bill 470 establishes a firefighter training program for high school students under second consideration by the Senate. Um there's going to be a legislative breakfast. Um sorry, I'm blanking on the date. It's in May 16th. May 16th. Yeah, you're right. May 16th. So, legislative practice breakfast May 16th. Um there the topic um is under discussion. It may either be AI or if there's some substantial something substantial report at the state and federal level as far as legislation that may be a topic. So,

132I'll provide uh I think we have a board meeting before that next uh before the breakfast and I can report on that. So, that's my report. Thank you. Uh for PSBA and finance and facilities, Miss Weedman. Yes. First for um the Pennsylvania School Boards Association, uh there are several training and um other opportunities that uh PSBA is featuring. One is a foundational AI course for school leaders. It is a series that will run from uh mid June through August and that is available for board members and administrators to sign up for. Uh they are reintroducing a board officer exchange so for our president and vice president can connect with uh school leaders across Pennsylvania and interact and share insights. Um you can sign up again on my PSBA. Uh PSBA is continuing the cyber charter

133funding reform campaign and there's uh resources and tips there on how school boards and members of the community can speak out on that. Uh the PSBA advocacy day in Harrisburg is May 13th. I am um going to be at a graduation out of state so won't be able to attend that but hopefully other Hford representative board members can represent our district in interest. Um and in starting in May, uh PSBA is rolling out a new webinar series called building board bridges on theme with our chestnut world presentation tonight. And this is a uh set of workshops um hour-long uh at noon um May to September October uh to help uh train board leaders for productive dialogue and civil discourse in a respective empathetic and engaged school community. And that's a free resource. And um finally,

134the school board uh leadership conference with Pennsylvania school board and then the um administrators is October 19th and 21st. Something to keep in mind. Um and hopefully we could get some representatives there. Um also bringing that up because for the first time they are combining the conference with the delegate assembly and in the past we have had several representatives go to the delegate assembly. you said that's now going to be um in midocctober at the conference. Um and that is also a reminder that we can uh submit our delegate names to PSBA for that official representation. So if board members are interested, let's uh get that in and voted on. And then for the finance committee moving on, our meeting is on Monday the 28th at 6:30. Thank you. Uh for curriculum and people services,

135I will just note in Dr. Larson's absence that the next curriculum and people service meeting is scheduled for May the 29th at 7 6:30, I'm sorry, at 6:30 p.m. Um for policy in the Snotgrass absence, I will note that we do have several policies that are coming up for a vote for adoption um towards the end of the meeting. board president's report. Are there any board members that wish us to share any event or activity they may have attended? Looks like no. Uh I do. Okay. Oh, I'm sorry. Go ahead. Um I attended a webinar by PA schoolworks um designed for schoolboard members to talk about Governor Shapiro's proposed budget. Um I will be sharing the slides and things with um our school board here. Um the PA schoolworks is a nonpartisan um organization and

136basically it just talked about um ways that we can advocate as a community for funding. Um as we know federal funding may or may not be in jeopardy depending on whose version you believe. Um and Governor Shapiro has made some lofty promises, but under the current funding formula, we may need to be more aggressive and direct about advocating for um what we need because needless to say, Havford gets the least. Uh that's my version and I'm sticking to it. Uh the webinar is out there. There are lots of sources that parents can go to and we just need your help advocating for our dollars. Thank you. And um I almost said no and then forgot that Mr. Schwarz and I were at the PTO meeting last night at Monoa and it was really great just

137to talk with parents and I again just said to them as well as at other PTO meetings how grateful we are for the volunteer time of parents to help make our schools run. In addition to last night with Dr. Kay, I I also was at Lynwood PTO meeting on the 9th. Uh one of the things that were that brought up by a number of parents there was the uh cell phone policy and that's one thing that I want to explore moving forward. Our last policy on electronic devices I believe was written in the '90s referred to laser pens and pagers. I believe there was a passing reference to cellular devices. So I know you know one thing that that came out with this meeting and this is why I think it's valuable for us to

138go to PTO meetings. A lot of teachers in high school for example have different ways of managing so your your cell phone usage. Obviously in elementary schools and and and middle schools it's in the bag. Don't touch, don't do anything. High school, it's a little bit more squishy, if you will. I know that I I I heard one teacher um do this. I thought it was brilliant. Every every day when the kids come in, they had a little cubby. Put your cell phone in the cubby. If you do it every day, you get extra credit points. So, I thought it was kind of a neat thing. One thing I like to do is look at that policy some point in the future, maybe get some input from um teachers and from parents and try to

139get a policy that's still as flexible, but that makes sense. that's some kind of guiding principle for um for our our staff. But that was one thing that I think was great to hear. It's one of the reasons why I think it's good for us to go to these meetings and really get some um intel on the ground, if you will. So, there's more to come on that topic. All right. Um I will only add that we do have a community conversation scheduled for April the 30th. Yes. at 7 p.m. Thank you. All right, that concludes the board president's report. Let's continue. Section six, finance and facilities. Um item 6A, bill list. Can I have a motion to approve dispersements for payment totaling 3,89897, excuse me, $481.58. Okay, moved. The tally second. Moved and seconded.

140Any discussion? All in favor? I. Any oppose? The motion passes. Item 6B, change orders. Can I have a motion to accept the recommendation of owners representative? You can come up if you'd like. Question. We might. You can. Can I have a motion to accept the recommendation of owner's representative CB Development Services Incorporated and authorize the change orders totaling $14,717.98 as listed? May moved. Second. Moved and seconded. Any discussions or questions? Look like none. All in favor? Any oppose? The motion passes. Thank you. 6C, Coopertown Elementary additions and renovations project general construction bid award. Can I have a motion to award the bid for Coopertown Elementary School general construction to er thank you suener incorporated of writing Pennsylvania in the amount of 13,427,000 which includes alternates for GC1 26 7 and 10 moved Shelton second moved

141and seconded any discussion all in favor I. Any oppose? The motion passes. Item 60, Coopertown Elementary additions and renovations project for HVAC bid award. Can I have a motion to award the bid for Coopertown Elementary School HVAC Construction to Die M. Cooper Incorporated of Will Grove, Pennsylvania in the amount of two is that correct? in the amount of $2,995,000. Fatality moved. Second. Moved and seconded. Any discussion? All in favor? I. Any oppose? The motion passes. Item 6E, Copertown Elementary additions and renovations project plumbing bid award. Can I have a motion to a award the bid for Coopertown Elementary School plumbing construction to GM Mechanical of Alden, Pennsylvania in the amount of $2,278,800? Okay, moved. Shelton second. Moved and seconded. Any discussion? All in favor? I. Any opposed? The motion passes. Item 6F, Coopertown Elementary additions

142and renovations project electrical bid award. Can I have a motion to award the bid for Coopertown Elementary School electrical construction to borrow construction of Kingia, Pennsylvania in the amount of 5,322,000 which includes alternates EC1? Shelton moved. Read and second. Moved and seconded. Any discussion? All in favor? I. Any opposed? The motion passes. Item 6G, Copertown Elementary additions and renovations project electrical equipment purchase. Have a motion to approve Denny Electric as a co-star vendor to provide the main electrical equipment for Coopertown Elementary additions and renovations project to include the generator and transfer switches in the amount of $325,900. Also moved second. Moved and seconded. Any discussion? All in favor? I. Any oppose? The motion passes. Item 6H, Copertown Elementary additions and renovations project solar electrical bid award. Can I have a motion to award the bid

143for Coopertown Elementary School electrical construction to borrow construction of Kingasha, Pennsylvania in the amount of 395,000 for alternate EC3 129.6 Six roof mounted photo voltaic that works. Okay. Moved. Second. Moved and second. Any discussion? Yes. I think this one warrants some additional discussion. I have a question on the sizing of this the 129.6 kilowatt or is that what KW is the sizing? is that um have we seen the economic analysis and the return? Um Coopertown has been presented uh as possible solar projects in in different reports. Um, I'm looking at the one from a fall um or I guess this is the April 24 and it's been presented at other times that had much larger arrays that were modeled out and I'm just curious about the size of this one. Is it um how was

144the size of this one determined and do we know the economic model for it? [Music] Emergency. Hello again. Um, we did not spec so I think there's two questions. Uh, the economic component of it and then the size of the array. uh the size of the array. Um you are correct. I I sat through even some presentations on much larger arrays essentially uh looking at the entire building. Um and uh in this case we went with a smaller array 129 kW. It's still a very large array. Um but uh partly we did that because uh we were looking at the economics of do you have an array that's roughly $400,000 $500,000 uh $1 million and really we were trying to fit into the overall budget uh and what worked just economically for the district. So

145that's how we ended up on the 129 kilowatt array. Um essentially that will be on part of the existing uh building on the back side of the building. Um, and then the economics, you're looking at about a 10 to 12 12 year payback right now for the array. Um, that you do have to also factor in uh the potential of IRA funding uh which is still with everything that we're seeing in the news is still in place at this time. However, um that funding would not be activated until the array was was finally completed in that fiscal year. So, you just need to be aware that that uh things could be could change. uh uh politically. Um so that that would affect uh the 10 to 12 year payback. And then some of the information

146that was provided even tonight by the public just on uh obviously cost of uh electrical rates are going up and down right now. Uh so uh but that's not factored. We're trying to be conservative on the 10 to 12 year payback at this time. Okay. Okay. Um, we also had a consultant that was engaged to do a feasibility study of solar and had ruled out Coopertown because of the slope of the roof. Um, can you speak to how it's it's feasible in this? Yeah, I want to be careful of you sort of got one one professional versus another. Uh, we have installed uh solar on sloped roofs uh quite often in the past. Don't see any concerns with that. Um, so, um, you do have some modest slope. You do have some slope on Coopertown,

147but it's very modest. So, and we were able to accommodate that. One clarification, by the way, you said that 10 to 12 payback period or 10 to 10 to 12 uh payback period, that's if it's bonded, correct? Um, I think we were I I don't have that, you know, that specific information uh before me this evening. Okay. Um I think we were just more looking at the straight up economics of uh what would be the payback versus the cost. Something I believe Jamie indicated earlier that we could do it just with our capital funds. However, decision by all of you in which case there would not be a a payback that term I think is has to be clarified. It would be installed via capital funds and we and we we realize savings then on

148on day one in electrical costs and Mr. TUSA has shown a couple times in the past at looking at our budgets. One of the largest increases in non salary um uh budget non-sary budgetary increases is electric has been electric and that this is something that would directly take that head on take that cost head on. We have some very um you know challenging financial times ahead of us and anything I think that can be done to reduce some of our costs like solar panels I think are it would be a huge benefit to the district financially and also obviously I think as educational program for our kids if if somebody came and offered us widgets that would save us money and improve educational um you know opportunities for our children. I think this I think

149it's be a no-brainer. In this case, the widget is solar panels, our solar panels. So, I do think this is a extremely valuable uh thing to do for a number of reasons. As schoolboard members, we are, you know, tasked with handling taxpayer dollars appropriately and responsibly and um offering educational opportunities for our kids. This does both of those things. And we've heard this evening and throughout the past several months a lot of support for solar in the community. We just saw a presentation again this evening from Chestnut World where they're doing composting. So I think that this is something that our kids want to see as well. We've heard that time and time again. We were a couple students this evening talk about that. So um yeah, I mean I I see I see this

150as a win-winwin. I I I cannot fathom a a um a a downside. I I do have one quick question. I'm just wondering one thing I noticed with the solar array um the the new additions don't include arrays on them currently. Correct. Correct. Would would those be in the event that we wanted to I understand that the solar for for schools grant program through the state may be renewed if in the future we wanted to pursue that to expand the array. Would that be something that would be possible or is that one of the issues with slopes that we had to that we had? No, that's something that you could submit in the future. Okay, wonderful. Thank you. And just to follow up on on that, I um I do see benefits to solar. I

151would suggest that an additional $400,000 cost does not get that much um in uh educational return when we are also looking at solar on other schools and that benefit would already be in in the district on other roofs. Um so wouldn't necessarily say that it it has that kind of a bang for the buck. I also um would point out from our consideration of Chadam at that time it was also a smaller array considered on Chadam as an ad alternate and um it didn't get the vote to go on um in that forum but then as a separate project that could consider the um a larger size that uh had more of an economic return and the opportunity then to apply for some of the grant programs. it became a more feasible and approved project.

152Um, so I guess my question is for Coopertown, like this is a size that fits within the margin we have in the act one budget to include it on that, but is this is this the right time and the right scope of a project for Coopertown? It is um the one that in like looking at the roofs has one of the largest roof footprints to work with, but this isn't really fully utilizing um you know the opportunity that we had seen in some of the earlier presentations. I would suggest that if we did show some commitment to solar and installed the array as it currently is, if we were to go for a grant to install additional panels, this would show commitment. This would demonstrate commitment from the school, from the board, from district that

153this is a priority and it would probably no guarantee but would probably um improve the chances of obtaining a future grant. They want to give grants to entities that will use the grant funding. Well, that is one thing that all grant um all all grant reviewers like to to do. So, so I do think this is an appropriate size. It's not a million-dollar, you know, array, but it is a great start, I think, and and and and it would definitely show a major commitment to um our students, to our community, and really address many of their concerns. So, I am for educational reasons, for financial reasons, I'm a strong yes. Um given that it is 5 to 10, could we move forward on a vote? Is that possible? there any um additional questions? I just

154want to comment that, you know, let's not let the perfect be the enemy of the good, right? So, you know, this is a proven technology. We hear about the payback, the educational opportunity, and our community has expressed strong support. So, I I would say I'm I'm a supporter. So, sorry I had to get that in. I will add that I was more comfortable with it being considered as part of the bond financing because uh as we saw in the last budget presentation. Our set aside for capital funds is earmarked and dwindling. We were um if with the upcoming uh awards hopefully for the C uh Minwood and Cadam Solar that is a $600,000 commitment that we are making from um those funds that the district uses to do regular maintenance and upkeep. So, um having

155this in the bond and not further depleting those capital reserves was something that um did make me more comfortable with it. Chat Monday about that. Okay. All in favor? I I. Any opposed? The motion passes. Item 6 I, which is the 2025 2026 intergovernmental agreement for shared services. Have a motion to approve the 2025 2026 intergovernmental agreement for shared services with the McGomery County Intermediate Unit in the amount of $49,500. Okay, moved. Shelton second. Moved and seconded. Any discussion? All in favor? I. Any oppose? The motion passes. Item 6J, tax assessment appeal resolutions. Can I have a motion to approve the settlement and stipulation of council and tax assessment appeals pending in the court of common please of Delaware County and authorize council and proper officers of the board to execute necessary documents. Okay, moved.

156Short second. Moved and seconded. Any discussion? All in favor? I. Any opposed? The motion passes. Item 6K, 2025 2026 proposed final general budget. And I have a motion to adopt the 2026 proposed final general fund budget totaling 159,339,961 at a millage rate of 19.6509. Shelter moved. for a second. I would suggest we call for the motion again. I believe the dollar amount that was read may not have been correct. Yeah, I think you can just read the mo call for the motion again. Have a motion to adopt the 2025 2026 proposed final general fund budget totaling 159. Is that right? Okay. 159,331 uh 9606 606 61 at a millillage of millage rate of 19.6509 moved towards second again moved and seconded any discussion could we ask Mr. Ta just to give us an update of

157where this um budget and this presentation if there's any changes from what had been previously shared with the board and community. So at this time um the budget that was presented uh back in April, it still remains the budget that's being proposed for the proposed final adoption. Um the uh governor's budget is still as it stands from what we had initially put in this budget. So there's no change in the revenue dollars um and the expenditure dollars are are remain where they were as well. And can you walk through the process to ultimately finalize? The proposed final is not the final final. Could you just walk us through what the process is? Correct. So we um have this as the proposed final budget for this evening. Um once it is adopted this evening, it'll go

158up for public inspection. So we'll put it on our website. It'll be available for the public to view. Um it's a requirement at PTE to have that done. Uh 10 days before we approve the final budget at that first meeting in June. Um we will advertise that we are the board will make that motion at their u June meeting and then we will file that budget for final approval with the state. All in favor? I. Any oppose? The motion passes. Section seven takes us to human resources. 7A, retirement and resignation. Can have a motion to accept the following retirement and resignations as listed. Okay. Moved second. Moved and second. Any discussion? Long years of service here including our librarian assistant at Chattton Park 18 years. And of course uh Mr. Mr. Trey custodian for for

159for more than 20 years. So happy retirement. All in favor? I. Any opposed? The motion passes. 7B. Appointment. Can I have a motion to approve the following appointments as listed below contingent upon receipt of all necessary clearances including act 168 of 2014? Vitali moved. Second. Moved and second. Any discussion? All in favor? I. Any oppose? The motion passes. Miss. Thank you, Dr. King. Uh, I'd just like to take a moment to congratulate Mrs. Heather Panero, who uh will be joining us uh as she shifts from her current role as an assistant principal at the high school to be our new K12 humanities supervisor. Uh, just a little background. Uh in her current role, she has been working very closely with both the English and the social studies departments as they look at their curriculum assessment

160and resources. Um she also has a wealth of administrative and classroom experiences. She's held roles in the McKini Independent School District as an elementary interim principal, elementary assistant principal, instructional coach, coordinator of MTSS, at risk coordinator, curriculum designer, lead teacher, and fourth and fifth grade teacher. Uh so we will be very happy to welcome her aboard in her new position as of July 1. Uh she still has much to do in her current position. Uh but we will work together to transition her to that. So I want to offer her congratulations and thank the board for its approval. Congratulations. I wanted to know if there's a swag bag and I see it happening over there. So she might not be able to. It's a very heavy swag bag. So now it has a lot of

161curriculum books in it. There's Yes. And lots of post-it notes. So thank you. Thank you. Continuing with item 7C, leave of absence. I have a motion to approve the following leave requests. Shelton moved for a second. Moved and seconded. Any discussion? All in favor? I. Any opposed? The motion passes. Section 8, people services 8A, service contract. Have a motion to approve the following service contracts for services provided to students as listed. Okay, moved. Second. Moved and second. Any discussion? All in favor? I. Any oppose? The motion passes. We have nothing for section 9, curriculum and instruction. We'll continue section 10 for policy 10 A is policy 246 wellness. Can I have a motion to ex to accept um the I'm sorry. Can I have a motion to accept the to adopt the policy for 246

162wellness? Okay. Moved second. Moved and seconded. Any discussion? Alex to give us a little Sure. Uh this is the only policy on our agenda tonight where there has been any update since our uh last meet reading also at the last meeting. Uh upon the board's request there was the addition of language uh just clarifying that physical activity cannot be used as a punishment in school. We wanted that uh in there explicitly. It now appears there and that is the only change. Um, so I do be the broken record, but I just want to voice my opposition again to this policy, specifically uh the part about not being able to take away recess. I recognize more than anyone the importance of recess. I do not believe recess should ever be taken away lightly, but I do

163not agree with putting it in policy that no teacher can ever take away recess ever under any circumstance. I think sometimes it can be a powerful consequence. Um, you know, I've mentioned, you know, I know people on the board have had objections to some of the things I said. I know I mentioned at my son, my fifth grade son's school, they have a simple um polic, they have a simple metric that they use that I've been asking around that seems quite common, you know, three calendar signs in a month, you have to stay after school. It hardly ever happens. It's happened once in my um child's class all year because every month it resets. I know there was some objection from the board that that could lead to shame. And I I countered, you know,

16411 and 12 year olds should be able to accept consequences for their actions, but I think I'm going to even double down a little bit. I think it's okay when kids sometimes feel bad about what they do. I think feeling bad about something you did or something that you shouldn't you should have done is a powerful learning tool. I mentioned in the past um that I've talked to teachers, staff in our elementary staff in our district um who are kind of frustrated about a lack of consequences and um since our last meeting I've talked to four other elementary staff members in our district and you know they all echo the same thing. They think what we're doing a lot of the time works most of the time, the vast majority of the time. You know,

165teaching logical consequences, uh, problem solving, coping skills, that works. But there's sometimes that it doesn't. And what's interesting to me, I had two of these four people say the exact same phrase that one person had echoed in the past, and that phrase was Groundhog Day. They said there's sometimes that when those logical consequences, those coping skills don't work, they have some kids who realize that there there are no meaningful consequences for repetitive infractions. And that stuck with me. And so what I would love to know, and I know the answer, but I want to put it out there. Has anyone asked our elementary staff in our district their opinions on this policy? Um, I mean, I know the answer is no, and we're making a policy for them. We're and I think it's important even

166if you disagree with my thoughts on this, I think it's important that they should we should hear their voices on this. I mean, I know now we're going to take a vote. Everyone's going to vote for the policy. I'll vote no. It will pass. But I do reserve the right to bring this up in the future cuz many times it'll come up sometime in the next couple months about teacher shortages. It comes up every so often as everyone knows. that comes up to the board and it and you know we always look here there and everywhere for why this is happening and we're blaming outside factors and I'm sure I I know that outside factors do play a role but I think sometimes we have to look inward at sometimes things that we're doing in

167the district how we're treating our teachers things we're how we're if we're listening to our teachers because that contributes to and that's my only comment um can I sorry can I just I would ask um Miss Batiselli to come up I know that you um work with the wellness committee along with Dr. McCay. And so I would just like to hear from from both of you just to offer a brief perspective as to how we came to this policy as well as the discussions involved and feedback that was received. I think it's important for the board as well as the public to hear. Sure. So um during our wellness committee, this was one of the things that came up during the trienal assessment that we don't want to take um recess away from students. the

168initial language was um unless it was part of logical consequences or a safety risk um a lot of times what we're saying uh a logical consequence would be because it's a safety risk. So um with the board's feedback from that that was changed. Um but that came from the elementary initially the elementary administration and uh staff. They didn't want to um make sure the uh policy reflected that it's their goal to not take recess away from students. And just to clarify, the wellness committee is composed of so there's um it depends on how nice the weather is that day, but um there's a representative from the elementary level, middle school, high school level. Uh there's teachers, nurse, um parent, community member, um board member. Okay. Yeah. So, it's I just wanted to be clear that

169it's a a a well-rounded diverse committee of both teachers, administration, board members. Did you hear did did you say parents? Yes. Yes. So, it we're there's feedback coming from from all sources. And then Dr. McKay, if you have anything else? Well, I just would would mention like I I take one offense to to assume that we didn't involve people because you've presented at the policy meeting about this originally. So, there was a lengthy multiple lengthy conversations that we've had in policy committee meeting that are viewable by anyone to watch um that involved the input. We've had it read now. This is the third reading. It's not brand new. It's absolutely included involvement. So, you've done a great job presenting it originally and um yes, I mean I know it's yes, it's been this is the

170third time I've said these same injections the other two times. So, that's my objections are nothing new tonight. I do think you know I understand you have a committee from all levels. It just seems to me what I'm hearing isn't maybe you have like an echo chamber in there because it's telling to me that of the four staff people that came to me, three came to me to talk to me getting my number. didn't want to put anything in email. Like that bothers me a little bit. That that they shouldn't have to do like, "Oh, I got your number from I hope this is okay." And that is unsettling to me that they don't want to use my schoolboard email. Only one of the four did. And that bothers me. And so I I'm just,

171you know, yeah, you're getting your opinions, but I I don't my from what I'm hearing it seems like a little bit of an echo chamber. we're not getting the diversity of opinions or maybe people are a little scared about saying I I at this point I'll you know I'm comfortable saying what I'm I'm not employed by the district I'm not getting paid by the district you can't fire me and um you know I'm happy to be their voice but I just maybe they're just not comfortable saying and that's the sense I'm getting but that's it we can vote it's fine. Have we ever done any surveys about how many teachers have not taken jobs in Havford because of school recess? I just want to make sure that we are capturing reasons why there are teacher

172shortages. Um and so I'll just leave that for for um later. I I mean I'm just going to I think that's melodramatic. I don't think I think that's I think it's melodramatic to assert that there would not be other reasons that people would not feel comfortable emailing you. We don't have to work out all of the angst. Um, you know, at this point, we are going to make a vote on this policy. We're very fortunate, you are very fortunate that your children in the private school that they attend have the policy that you approve of. Um, I just would like to see us move forward. So, I think it's a good time for us to call for a vote. All in favor? I. Any opposed? I The motion passes. 10B takes us to policy 317,

173disciplinary procedures. I'll accept a motion to adopt policy 317, disciplinary procedures. Was moved? Moved and seconded. Any discussion? All in favor? Any oppose? The motion passes. 10 C policy 619 district audit public I'll accept a motion to adopt policy 619 district audit May second moved and seconded any discussion all in favor I any oppose the motion passes policy 620 fund balance I'll accept a motion to adopt policy 620 fund balance Shelton second. Moved and seconded. Any discussion? All in favor? I. Any opposed? The motion passes. Policy 804, school days. I'll accept a motion to adopt policy 804, school days. Shelton moved. Okay. Second. Moved and seconded. Any discussion? All in favor? I I Any oppose? The motion passes. Mr. Caster, will you just note the attendance, please? Thank you. Policy 8:16, social media. I'll accept

174a motion to adopt policy 8:16, social media. Al moved. May second. Moved and seconded. Any discussion? All in favor? I. Any opposed? The motion passes. Section 12 um is a section for public comments for other items that are not listed on the agenda. We did not have anyone that signed up for this section of public comment. Is there anyone that wishes to speak? Please come to the podium. State your name. Confirm your residency. You will have 3 minutes. Um if there's anything to hand out, you can give it to Mr. Ta. The timer will start. No, it'll be quick. Hi, Alexis Pastor Neck Htown. Um, I sent you all an email about two months ago and I just want to make sure you all got it and I'd like a response. I'll resend it when

175I leave. I would just appreciate a response and if I have to pay for the solicitor to respond to me, I will reimburse the the district. I'm happy to. Thank you. Section 13, report on executive session. The board met for executive session during tonight's meeting to discuss agency business that if discussed in public would violate a lawful [Music] privilege. The next regular board meeting is scheduled to be held on May 8th, 2025 at 7:30 p.m. in the boardroom of the Oakmont Administration building. That brings us to the end of our meeting. I have a motion to adjourn the meeting. So moved. moved and stuck at it.