001e e good evening I call to order this March 6th 2025 regular school board meeting of the school board of the school district of haford Township would everyone please rise for the pledge I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the Republic for it stands one nation under God indivisible with liy and justice for all um could I have a volunteer from the board read the district Mission please I can I can read it um the mission of the school district of haford Township is to educate and to inspire a community of lifelong Learners excuse me who become well-rounded Global Citizens thank you and our district goals thank hord's 2020 2025 District goals are social emotional Wellness to produce a community of empathetic and resilient Learners with skills to
002socially and emotionally flourish prepare contemporary citizens modernize and expand learning experiences to prepare students as critical thinkers problem solvers innovators and designers within a complex Global Society diversity and inclusion establish a culturally diverse and inclusive educational experience that developed sociocultural proficiency thank you Mr Tesa would you please call the role Miss Lee here Dr McKay here Mr Schwarz here Dr Shelton here miss Snodgrass here miss Vitali here miss Weedman here Dr lson here Dr King Dr King is traveling for work okay um I will accept a motion to approve the official minutes from the February 20th 20 we that to say 2025 regular board meeting Shelton moved second any discussion okay all those in favor I I motion passes okay we'll move now to section two our report from students we have our um haford
003Middle School student representative tan day good evening my name is tan day and I'm in eighth grader here at HMS I'm excited to share some updates on what's happening in haford middle school we are celebrating women's History Month in March by recognizing the achievements and contributions of women the project lit Club will be presenting to the school board in May has several initiatives planned for this month this week is National social social worker week miss quer our school social worker is an important part of our support team we are incredibly grateful to have for helping us we celebrated read Across America week this this week our librarian Miss sigor sponsored a bookmark contest a checkout initiative an incentive based activities to encourage the return of overdue and lost books tomorrow is our Employee Appreciation Day
004and maintenance worker Appreciation Day Appreciation Day a big thank you to all employees in the district with a special shout out to our m m our head maintenance worker Mr Salomon next week will be busy for us our student leg conferences are SCH scheduled for Wednesday Thursday and F Friday we will be dismissed at 10:50 a.m. each day each grade will participate in the Hope Olympics on either Wednesday Thursday or Friday depending on the grade and this is a fun event to celebrate our annual fundraiser which supports local community members battling through cancer lastly our spring Sports meeting for 7th and 8th grade student athletes is scheduled for Monday after school in the auditorium that's all for my update this will be my final report as I will be moving to the high school next
005year thank you for the opportunity to present to you over the last three [Applause] years good evening everyone my name is beus Cox I am currently a sophomore and a new representative for the high school I'm so pleased to be here tonight to share with you all some recent and upcoming events at HHS a little bit about myself I been in this District since I was in kindergarten for starting in Chestnut world I have been dancing ballet at the Pennsylvania Academy since I was five I'm involved in clubs like debate world affairs and student Senate right now my favorite class is criminal justice a very interesting course and I'm so grateful that our school offers such a wide range of classes to appeal to so many different interests moving on to academics students are finally
006settled in to their second semester classes and are continuing to push through these next few weeks before we we reach spring break we have just recently started our scheduling for the next school year and while this can bring out anxiety it is also an exciting moment that helps students prepare and look forward to the years ahead on March 25th our 11th grade students and their families are invited to a College Planning night at 6m in the auditorium this event aims to provide valuable information and guidance for the college application process our spring sports are underway with bear with me baseball boys and girls lacrosse Boys Tennis softball outdoor back girls flag football boys volleyball and wrestling kicking off their new season we continue to support our student athletes as they as they begin another season
007of competition teamwork and overall Excellence good luck to all the athletes trying out and to all the teams this new season on April 4th the Jazz student assembly will set the stage for their 44th annual evening of jazz this event will be held in the auditorium with the evening concert starting at 6:30 from March 20th to March 22nd our talaan students will present our spring music School SpongeBob a production that promises to Showcase their creativity and hard work I know our students and drama Department have been dedicating so much time and I'm so excited to attend and show my support our world affairs Club is currently preparing for this year's global economic Forum taking place at drexell University this High School simulation program focuses on the creation presentation and marketing of policy solutions to oppressing
008issues facing the global Community it is an amazing opportunity and I'm so excited to be involved yesterday our best buddies Club promoted inclusion by selling pretzels and asking students to sign a pledge to take a stance against derogatory language targeted at individuals with intellectual disabilities by signing this pledge students at haford can create a society where everyone is valued celebrated and free from the impact of harmful stereotypes our highq team will have their championship match on the 12th they have done a phenomenal job so far and have made haford very proud our Frost freshman and sophomore dance will be taking place on the 28th this is this tonight will provide some much-needed fun for our underclassmen um thank you all for your time tonight and let's keep supporting our amazing students clubs and teams go
009forwards thank you so much tan Beatrice um tan thank you for your reporting and we wish you all the best in high school maybe we'll see you back here at some point okay moving on now to section three our superintendent report I'm going to hand it over to assistant superintendent Miss saxa thank you so much Dr lson uh so we as you heard mentioned by beatric we are very excited to welcome this evening several of our high school performers for the the musical SpongeBob the musical I'd like to ask to come up to the microphone we have Charlotte who will play SpongeBob Mike who is playing Patrick and Jing who is playing Sandy and they're going to give us a little performance this evening thank you so much for introducing us m saxa we are
010so excited to be here our show SpongeBob the musical follows SpongeBob Charlotte as he tries to save Bikini Bottom from a dangerous volcano we'll be singing Hero is my middle name for you all where SpongeBob and Patrick realize they must save the town and now have to convince Sandy as well and Patrick is sorry about his hair if the world is going to end tomorrow wallowing in sorrow isn't where I want to be cuz there isn't a catastrophe oh hello that could ever measure up to me Sandy just try it and see come on try what hero is my middle name fixing trouble is my game it's a good game just give it the old KN how there's no better time than now don't give up and don't give in yeah if you're thinking sink
011or swim the correct answer is swim courage is your claim to fame cuz hero is your middle name and hero is our middle name well that's nice boys but mine's Jennifer and No One Believes my science is even real your machines they made a real prediction it's not science fiction but no one wants to listen at all when the rotten's on that old sea wall but your friends need you to hear the call all for one and one for all come on hero is your middle name wait no it's not we just went over this fixing trouble is your game just give it the old no how there's no better time than now you know what boys I say we give this idea a shot three Heroes to the Rescue Team a trace to the
012top us go so come on hero is my middle name fixing trouble is our I'm up and I won back down and we're going to save this town I'm Sandy here miror won't be playing sweet no more courage is my claim to fame cuz hero is my middle name and hero is our middle name her is our middle well that what a great uh advertisement for your performances remind us of the dates of your performances our performance will be March 20th to 27 March 20th to I'm repeating so it's in the microphone March 20th to 22nd 7 p.m. on all days and a mat and a matina on the 22nd as well as I'd like to advertise once again uh the the students in the musical will be putting on a sensory friendly performance on
013Monday March 17th doors will open at 6:30 and the play will start promptly at 7 and will last until 9:00 M there is no charge for this performance and we're always thankful to our students and the the produ production team who always consider how to make their plays more inclusive and available to students of all kinds in our community so thank you for that before you run out I just want to say that that was so wonderful and um I was a kid when I was watching SpongeBob and I just want to say that SpongeBob has gotten a lot better in the last 30 years so um I just like this was just wonderful and I don't know how you there is a musical about SpongeBob but you guys really made it come alive so
014thank you that was such a treat wonderful thank you so much a couple more items and the uh my remarks this evening first of all I just wanted to share that as indicated in a message that was sent from our board of directors on Tuesday members of the community are invited to uh meet Dr Matthew C Hayes the finalist candidate for the position of super superintendent of schools at a community Forum on March 11th from 700 p.m. to 8:00 P.M in the haford Middle School auditorium the community can still submit questions until midnight tonight to be addressed during the Forum and the link for the doing so can be found on our website and in the email that was sent to All Families on March 4th uh a little bit of an advertisement as you
015may have watched in our 60 seconds with the superintendent due to ongoing teacher shortage uh in our state and Across the Nation our elementary schools urgently need substitute teachers so we're reaching out to our families for help if you or someone you know has any availability in your schedule even part-time uh and are interested in becoming a substitute teacher we would love to have you uh so even committing just one day a week could make a meaningful impact if that's something you or someone you know is interested in we direct you to our district website and uh you can find information information there about how to join us in those efforts uh also I'm very excited to report that among the many fairs that occur at the high school uh we are having the haford
016high school spring student Job Fair coming up uh and we are encouraging registration from uh Community employers so uh that registration is now open for the haford high school spring student job fair that takes place on uh Tuesday April 1st 2025 in the school gym and the event offers a really great opportunity for employers to connect with motivated students uh it's an opportunity to showcase your organization and discuss some summer employment opportunities uh I would also like to thank I don't know if we can um show the the pictures here I'd like to thank Mr art schuba who has uh donated for us two photographic depictions of the middle school you can see um they're standing up over here for those of us who are in the room uh you may remember Mr Shuba from
017previous presentations he's made to the board uh he keeps volumes of journals of athletic records from decades uh uh in the past all kinds of athletic records and he cataloges those um meticulously and so we thank him not only for those but for these uh new additions to our um our photographs that we can we can hang in our building so thank you to Mr Shuba for that uh and finally I'm going and in my remarks anyway I'm going to turn it over to Mr Testa who is going to share with us some information regarding our budget I can guarantee will be not be as exciting as a SpongeBob I apologize in so tonight I'm going to present the preliminary budget this is just as we a working copy as we get closer to the
018end of the fiscal year um some things that we will walk through in the budget of the revenues the Act One index eight ratios and how they impact our revenues cost drivers and expenditures and then current and projected fund balances abely yeah Tony can you start can you start from the beginning because I don't think it went on to the live stream okay so absolutely we'll do okay okay so tonight I'm going to present the preliminary budget um this is just a working copy as we get closer to the end of the fiscal year and get ready to adopt the final budget um tonight's budget we'll go over revenues the Act One index Aid ratios and how they impact our revenues um expenditure cost drivers and then fund balance current and projected so the Act
019One index uh for next fiscal year is projected to is certified to be 4 4% um and then for the fiscal years 27 through 30 I've just shown here what that Trend will look like and that's provided by um the Pennsylvania independent fiscal office um so this is just the um calculations that they go through based on historical numbers um and showing that it's made up of your Statewide average weekly wage and your employment cost index to come to that Blended uh base rate that all districts will start with as they um prepare their budgets Aid ratios um thought this is something that that I would add into the presentation from when we had one at our finance and Facilities meeting um Aid ratios are important to a couple of our subsidies made up of
020three different components we have a market value a personal income and then what's ratio Blended of those two your market value personal income Aid ratio um your market value a lower market value generally leads to a higher Aid ratio indicating greater need for State funding um as you can see with our market value um it actually has um gone down so that would then lead to a higher Aid ratio um for that component um your personal income ratio typically results in a higher Aid ratio again suggesting a greater need on state assistance ours has actually gone up slightly so you see that in that middle column um and then the market value personal income um actually went a little bit lower so that lower market value personal aid ratio shows less dependency on State funding
021because it actually shows we are um improving the blend of those two ratios so how does this impact our funding so your basic education funding relies heavily on the market value Aid rate personal income Aid ratio um with funds being directed towards districts with the greatest need based on their relative wealth and ability to generate local tax revenue um your special education funding utilizes that same ratio to determine the level of funding each district needs um again districts with lower property values and personal income levels receive a higher proportion of State funding to support special ed programs so we were kind of high on one and low on the other so necessarily would not get the greatest impact from the special education funding for your transportation subsidy that's looking primarily at your market value Aid
022ratio to determine the level of reimbursement each district receives um that just ensures again that the districts with lower property values receive a higher portion of State funding for those costs recognizing their potential limited liab ability to raise local tax revenue and then your Authority rentals and syncing funds so this category is the reimbursement that we get on bonds that when planc con was available to school districts um which we still have Pro we still have bonds that are um in that category um there are no new sources of plan conon for school districts going through construction um but we do get uh funds back for The Debt Service that we do pay so that is a portion of our Revenue as well this is the proposed Revenue so this has not uh has only
023changed slightly maybe moving some uh money in the categories um so we're looking at a total increase over the current fiscal year of about 4.5 million and again with your largest portion coming from your local Revenue um and your school district taxes this I know it's it's a little bit hard to read up there but what I wanted to show here was the assessed values and how that can change even though um The District in this proposal shows uh taxes increasing at the Act One index of 4% it doesn't necessarily equate to that because the assessed values have decreased from what we had to prepare the 2425 budget year so this just kind of shows that in that top portion um the portion of Revenue that you lose with um assessed values decreasing from one
024year to the next and then the bottom portion of this just shows the um income resources that you have for each percent in tax revenue so each millage um not sorry each percent increase in the millage um what that does to the resources available to support the expenditures of the district proposed revenues again local revenue is about 80% of the total revenue new budget and as I highlighted previously um your millage increase at 4% really only equates to about a 3.73% because of that decrease um in assessed values and that can change for several reasons it could be um you know if there are appeals on properties if properties go from taxable to exempt for um various reasons that can change that number um your state revenue which is your basic Ed funding um the
025initial budget from the governor is about the lowest increase in the last 10 years as far as basic Ed funding is concerned um so the 107,000 projected that we could get additional is in this budget um special ed funding we're looking at a possible reduction of a little over $4,000 I don't have that buildin um they said special ed is really still a work in progress as far as the student data that they use to kind of calculate everybody's portion of the pie of special ed so that one um kind of is is on hold where it's at Federal revenues um you know that's that's a Hot Topic right now what what makes up our federal revenues what do we have to be concerned about uh maybe not now but in the future um that
026is made up of your idea fund so that comes through it flows through the Delaware County IU for our special education programs um we have access funds which are generated through the Medicaid services that are provided um your title programs and then food services so even though um that's a separate fund it's not in the general fund it's still um a source of federal revenue that we receive for stud students um receiving lunch and breakfast in our buildings so proposed expenditures um over all the expenditures are going to increase approximately 3.57% um again your your highest drivers are your salaries and your benefits that absorbs about 70% of your budget so your expenditure overview um this budget maintains all Cur current programs with no Cuts or reductions um with this version um it maintains all
027contractual obligations um the only item that I would need to revise is just that third item um we do actually this does reflect our final look for medical and prescription Insurance um initially when I had this done it was just our um first look so those numbers are reflected in here for final look so that should be uh pretty set at this point um usually the first look um is about I think a an 18-month look back and this one expands the number of months of utilization that they have to calculate our rates to go into the next year so it gives them a broader um scope and then increases in categories um for your non-salary categories can be your IU services tuitions to non-public schools electricity cost um supplies and then Debt Service associated
028with your renovation projects so for the proposed budget um when we look at revenues and expenditures net of capital projects transfers the deficit is approximately 3 1 million um and then showing the tax increase so you would go from at 4% you'd go from [Music] 18.89% July 1 2024 it was about 10.8 million um to support the budget for 2526 we would utilize 2.6 million of that bringing it down to 8265 million or uh 5.18% and we do know that the the cap that we're allowed to carry is 8% of fund balance of unassigned fund balance um your committed fund balance we had a portion of that assigned for the current budget that we're in for 2425 so that's reflected in the center and in the capital projects um after we completed the summer projects
029for summer of 24 we were down to 4.2 million and then if we allocate another million for projects and also um draw 500,000 on that to help support the 25 26 budget would leave us in Capital reserves of 2.7 million and the capital reserves are different than your bond funds so these are funds that were set aside when there were Surplus revenues over expenditures allowing for these annual uh summer projects to help um kind of offset the deferral of Maintenance and then a three-year projection so kind of what does this look like if we were to take the current budget um and move everything forward I put some assumptions in that our tax revenue would increase by the Act One index for each of those years expenditures if they increased by 3% and um some
030expenditures we do know what they are as far as Debt Service so I can put that in with our debt service schedules and this just shows where the budget shortfall will be would be in each of those years um just with everything kind of staying as it is now with that 3% increase on expenditures and then what does that do to fund balance uh this just shows what the ending fund balance would be in each of those years um given those shortfalls for those years um so not anything that's set in stone obviously can be worked on but this just gives a um a high level projection of where it could be and the um State funding levels that I had put in we're flat because it's kind of hard to um you want to
031be a little conservative on what the state funding could be with the uncertainty and then these are just our next steps so this just shows where um we will need to be in order to get to that final budget adoption on June 5th and then I'll open it up for any questions a question on slide 17 the projected ending fund balance bance um and you had some I think the last year you had the fund balance at 2.1 million in red and 1.26 in red yes is there a significance of that color no just showing that the um I guess just showing how much it has dropped from the 23 24 just kind of highlighting um what that could mean at the end of that three-year per projection so we're looking at a projected draw
032down over the next few years yes and you know projected that's not putting any increases on your state funding which potentially you could have um any increases in assessed values of properties which could help on the resource side and does that impact our bond raing if you were to go out for future bonds it could um generally Financial experts like to see between 5 and 8% for stability and that's what the investors like to see it's not to say that they would not take the investment it's just that kind of you know looks more appealing to them to see between five and eight per. okay thank you sure now and final budget adoption are there moving pieces in this budget or things that we may see get tightened or improved yeah so we'll definitely start
033to take a look um looking at actuals from prior years and then as we move through the remainder of this fiscal year I'll start doing kind of a year-to day projection to see where where we are maybe if there is some um Surplus that's not going to be expended by that by that point um we do put a c spending in place in the middle of February so hopefully um item unless an item was needed to complete the instructional year or it was Grant funded and we need to spend those funds by the end of the year most of the spending should be stabilized other than repairs or um technology that needs to be replaced but so for the most part um this will give us an idea of now where we can start to
034look at if there are any areas that are um have some Surplus and is it I'm trying to think back over the budgets that I've I've seen so in Prior years maybe going back two three years um there was a practice to budget so that there was uh a cushion or um there was maybe a budgeted loss but then in actual performance it ended up that there was a surplus um can you speak to the budget here is this um a shortfall that is being built in as a a cushion as a kind of U just a conservative budgeting strategy or um are we in a period now where the deficits are kind of more likely to be realized than they were in the past I would say they're more realized I think the expenditures
035are now catching up um to maybe a smaller increase in revenues we do have a contingency reserve that we put in um there's a line item for 800,000 so that does um give you some room for um onetime expenditures that may pop up during the year so truly that would probably be the only area where there is any surplus build in to work to move around I appreciate that um you stated here that the the budget as presented maintains all current programs no C reductions and maintains all contractual obligations in the past I think we've heard from building principles and other um leaders of their uh specific areas about like what they would want in a budget maybe something that's new like an added teacher here and there or um you know I know we've
036we've added some counselors and things like that over the past few years and made um made strides I think in in taking um positions that were not that were temporary and made them permanent um and so I just wanted wanted to know if there were any of those kinds of ads that this budget got or if it was just only able to maintain so this budget was just maintaining current staff so we didn't do any as we we listened to you know if there were any ads but there are none currently in this I'll just add that there were requests yeah there were requests from administrators of additional supports and and positions and we do not include those in this SP okay and so I guess I would love to hear about like what those
037requests are and um I know you know um the budget is what it is and and we can only um we only have the revenue sources that we have um but certainly would be interested to know sort of like what the needs are and maybe um the Strategic or creative thinking that's working around that um if possible and because especially because I know that we do get those every year um about like what what more is needed and uh looking at the the the coming years that are potentially also going to see shortfalls my um inclination is that we wouldn't be able to add in those years either and those would also be maintaining and so thinking about that um because I think the ones are it's going to be you know the same as
038this year plus right and that's what we're going to be feeling and so you know just trying to understand um what can be done and what of Creative Solutions you know can work through to that end where you say the budget is the budget um the district does seek opportunities for Grant funds where available for um our transportation Fleet or capital projects and programmatic um safety enhancements and things like that but um it may also this this budget and budget forecast may also indicate a period where some creativity and pursuit of sources maybe that we haven't tapped before or other creative thinking about ways to um bring additional resources when we're at the Act One index um but you know what else might we do to bring resources into the district okay gu I'm concerned
039that this does look like a structural um issue and I I just just one point of clarification I I'm the future year budgets I assume that those still include the federal I mean it's not much but the federal funding that we get it's not they do it's and it's flat just kept it flat so if that were to potentially not be available anymore that would exacerbate our problems yes pretty significantly it would is I guess it seems like the it seems like one of the bigger issues here is that the assessed values got I mean were from from the county um the county reassessment several years ago the keep on going down mhm so so if we tax a certain percent we don't see that much increase in Revenue because we don't have the same
040assessed values right so that seems to be something that has been an ongoing issue now for the past five years four years maybe probably since the reassessment yes okay okay um I have a question um and I think it's the same question I asked last year and I'm going to preface it I I know we're not exceeding the Act One index um I know we have 70 plus% of our budget that are fixed costs that we absolutely cannot change and I also know the reality of where we live we don't have a lot of business income coming in um but I'm just wondering in all um have there been talks about things that we possibly can cut I know we're not exceeding the act one but something that I always think about that I was
041warned when I was running for my predecessor Susan Mii was you know the higher taxes and their effect on a lot of people in this town particularly senior citizens and you know I met a couple of those four years ago when I was knocking doors and we've had what two or three senior citizens come in here and speak and it's not just senior citizens but I am focusing on that group we're pricing you know taxes are going up and we're pricing them out and and I don't mean to say take things away from the kids but taking added cost doesn't necessarily mean added success our cost have went up and our our rankings have gone down so I'm just wondering if there's ever any conversations about things that can be cut I mean there's not
042a lot I know we have like I said 70% or so fixed but are those conversations that we're having I would like to know that we're at least having them trying to you know keep our tax taxpayers in mind particularly senior citizens yes so some of some of our operational departments technology has come back um they did decrease their budget by about 200,000 um we had maintenance and operations there's some uh vehicles that they're going to put off another year um to kind of help just defay that cost so yeah so definitely we are having those conversations it's not as easy at the elementary buildings their budgets are not as large it really comes from the operational areas and um the U secondary buildings thank you I appreciate hearing that just to follow up on
043the last year we had a discussion about the property tax and rent rebate program that yes the state and I believe you put that information for low-income seniors and uh qualified individuals on our website yes um we also you were going to monitor that to see how much how how many of our residents actually take advantage of that program do you have any information no I can actually um put that pull that together for you I know that the uh the Department of Treasury usually puts a um information out for us um for each School District in Pennsylvania so I can get that okay thank you sure I I say one more question on again on the federal funding I'm just looking at slide me it's slide 10 are all those funds through the Department
044of Education are all the revenue streams or which ones the idea funds are they flow through the IU um access funds come from the Medicaid Program so they are federal and same thing with tital they're Federal and then Food Services comes from the um Department of food and nutrition okay I'm wondering if it's worth putting together a second proposed budget um if federal funds were to zero out okay just as a precautionary measure so we are prepared if that's okay direction we go yeah we can do that okay thank you okay thank you Mr Testa and thank you Miss zaxa we'll move now on to section four of our agenda um for public comment for this first section of public comment we do not have anyone who signed up this is for items on the
045agenda this evening we'll move on to board reports um our first report is from the Delaware County Community College Dr McKay um yeah there are two items um for us to vote on tonight so I'll save my comments till then no other report okay thank you dciu Miss Lee okay um the regular business meeting of the dciu was yesterday uh first we have some good news 15 Cooperative positions were added to the dciu uh Cooperative positions are Cooperative education positions that are paid jobs that students can take while they're in school the co-op positions can be found in every field of training currently offered at the technical school everything from HVAC to Medical to Commercial Art and advertising the positions are for students that are currently in the technical programs they actually go out and
046get jobs with employers out in the community they gain work experience and that work experience is actually paid for by those employers um that's where those wages come from the supervision is provided by teachers at the IU and basically the teachers are already there supporting these students anyway um some of the students at the end of their co-ops are actually hired by those employers um other students get to walk away and say that I had this experience this is available to all of the member districts um including the students in haford so do look for those positions to apply uh yesterday we also approved the budget for the IU um equally as painful as the budget we just talked about the total General operating budget for the IU is 11, 91278 and while this is
047an 8.44 per increase over the current year that increase is funded entirely by external dciu funding sources that increase is not borne or funded by us haford or any of the member districts this is the 26th straight year where the contributions have not increased and so I think that's the good news that I'll just repeat we're not incurring any additional cost um the IU does have a very complex budget process that includes a lot of Revenue like things that we talked about here they include grants indirect contributions from programs like prek Head Start early intervention there is a whole list of programs and these programs serve many families um also the families in haford because we're a member district but they also help to cover the administrative cost um finally since since we're talking about
048money and it's already awkward I'm just going to give a reminder that the IU the existence of the IU is mandated by state law it's not something that we can get around or get away with it just so happens that we have a great IU in my humble opinion um the key services that are provided by the IU that maybe we don't see behind the scenes are curriculum development instructional Improvement educational planning professional development pupil personnel management services and they liaison services with state and federal agencies that haford directly benefits from uh the next meeting of the IU is a committee meeting on March 12th so I'll be doing double duty hopefully I will see you all at our community Forum um at the middle school at 7:30 thank you okay thank you uh legislative
049councel Dr McKay sorry Dr Shelton that's good we haven't met since the last Schoolboard meeting and our next meeting is next week on March 12th um so no report thank you Dr Shelton um next we have our psba liaison report Miss Weedman yes thank you um two things to note one is psba is hosting the 2025 AI Symposium on Tuesday April 1st it's a virtual and no cost event um scheduled from 8:30 to 12:30 uh looking at AI in education and its impact on teaching learning and operations uh considering the Practical integration of preparing for an AI world after graduation and security and legal issues which may be of interest to school board members and members of our school administration uh and then there is a statement that psba issued um on February 20th Republican
050auditor general Timothy defor released a performance audit that identifies and analyzes Revenue sources expenditures and the financial position of five Pennsylvania Cyber Charter Schools we commend we psba commend the auditor general for conducting a thorough and insightful audit the findings underscore the need for a comprehensive review and reform of the current cyber charter school funding system psba believes that public education should not be a profit-making Enterprise it is essential that taxpayer dollars are used effec L to enhance the quality of education for all students welcome the opportunity to engage in constructive dialogue with Cyber Charter Schools and other stakeholders it is crucial that we work together to develop a fair and transparent funding formula that reflects the actual cost of providing a quality public education we call on the general assembly to implement a Statewide
051tuition rate that ensures consistency and fairness across all school districts uh that report is available on the psba website and um um it's encouraged of members of the board and public to view the audit report uh this district has in the past um signed on to resolutions and efforts to get fairness in cyber funding and this auditor general report assist in that thank you Miss Weedman and next finan and Facilities uh finance and Facilities meeting um I'll just note that tonight there was the ACT 34 hearing tonight which is a step in preparing for the Cooper Town project and uh the next finance and facility meeting is Monday April 28th thank you for curriculum and pupil services our next meeting will be held on next Thursday um here in the Oakmont building that is uh
052March 13th okay um an update on our policy meeting Miss nagr yeah absolutely um we had a very productive policy committee meeting on uh last Thursday where reviewed um many different policies including um chances to consolidate different policies um where possible so uh the first policy we reviewed was for 816 social media that one had previously been reviewed at the December committee but there were some changes that were requested and um the committee requested further changes is I'm not sure that one's going to be able to come to the board next or if it's going to have to go back to committee um because we we did make some some more substantive changes to to that one the next policy we request was or that we reviewed was um policy 246 for wellness um this
053one came to us from an update uh or suggested updates from our Wellness committee um so again this was a really productive discussion about some um additions additions and Chang ches that were made to the policy suggested and um I believe that that one was pretty straightforward the the revision so we should be able to bring that one to the board um in the next few meetings uh the next one was for uh 352 353 and 351 which are all um around alcohol and testing requirements for alcohol and Controlled Substances um so the recommendation from our solicitor is to create a new policy which would be 350 one and combining the drug and alcohol prohibitions we would expand it to make a statement for drug and alcohol free workplace and rolled out um to the
054employees to sign at the beginning of the next school year um there will also be an AR attached to 350 um and we would have uh 353 and 81.1 um combined so they were all around the same subject matter and um one of the goals of the policy commit is to consolidate some of our policies that really touch on some of the same issues um but are found in different places and sometimes differ slightly but um can be kind of confusing at how they differ and who they apply to and so we are looking to um to really centralize them and make sure that that uh anyone who's looking at them can understand what the policy is um and how it's uniform and and how it's applied so that one uh is going to come
055back to the committee uh we we needed a different version from our solicitor and so we'll be bringing that one back um at our next meeting the next one is also a consolidation of policies so uh it consolidates 317 417 uh 517 which are all disciplinary procedures they had been previously um in different sections of our policy book based on the employee group that they would apply to uh but again we're we're really moving to have things uniformly applied and make sure that our policies Are all uh using the same language and so that you can find subtle differences between them and so we're going to consolidate them uh that one will be moved forward for a first read in the next few meetings um next was policy 47.1 for um educator misconduct and um
056we're going to be having an AR with that one uh including educator misconduct reporting requirements and there were a couple other um uh Minor Adjustments that we had requested to make but nothing so um drastic that uh we didn't think that it could be moved forward so we'll we'll be bringing that one for first read as well the next one we discussed was 804 for the school day um that one was brought forward because it was from 2010 and it actually listed times that were inconsistent with the current times that our buildings start and our and our students are expected to be in the building and in their seats so so um what we decided was since the the times can change and for different reasons it really makes sense for us to have a
057policy around the school day but to have those specific times within the administrative regulation so um that one is pretty straightforward and we should be able to bring it for a first read but what was exciting about that one is that it did just spur a discussion of Healthy Start times for our students and sort of if the district was interested in moving toward that what that would look like and the different steps that would to be taken um anyone who studied uh anything about school and school start times knows that for our secondary students they um they need more sleep later in the evening morning um and it's actually a lot healthier for schools to start after 8:00 a.m. uh which neither one of our middle school or high school does right now so
058um we just talked about if this was a project the district wanted to start how would it start and um um I think because we have a new superintendent coming in that um uh is obviously being introduced to the to the community next week um we were uh thinking that we would have discussions uh with the new superintendent um when they joined us and then further discussions could be had about whether a consulant was needed or other kinds of studies um I know districts around us that have moved towards healthy school start times of which there are many um this process would take years and there was a lot done um around the process so again just a discussion on how to get started on that type of um tackling that type of issue uh
059the next topic uh the next policy was 619 um for district audit uh there was uh minor revisions there and so we're moving that one forward for a first read next was policy 620 for fund balance um which was a proposed new policy and I'm actually sure that we had very many revisions to that one um but I think it's a a good um it was a best practice to have a policy uh for fund balance and so we will be moving that one forward for a first read as well and finally um although obviously the discussion is available for viewing um for anyone who wants more details but the last policy that we discussed was policy um uh or it was actually an AR so it was um the 204 AR and there was
060a a that was just an information item uh to add a definition for written notice and I don't have that exact policy in front of me um get it really quick so that everyone understands what that information item is okay it's about in attendance thank you um so this is our attendance AR which is um uh 204 and it had a a minor revision to it our administrative regulations don't need to go through the rigorous process of our policies where they are um go through a first and second reading and then an adoption uh but rather the district um because these are not policies but they're how to implement our policies the district informs the board uh when these changes are made and so the change that has been made um is within the policy
061committee agenda and um this is providing the notice to the board and the community that those changes have been made and that is uh the policy committee like I said very productive okay thank you next we have our board president's report um I just want to reiterate what others have said um Miss saxa Miss Lee Miss sass um reminding the community about our upcoming Forum where the community can meet our finalist candidate for the position of superintendent of schools Dr Matthew C Hayes that Forum will take place on March 11th from 7:00 to 8:00 p.m. m in haford Middle School auditorium um as Miss Saxon mentioned uh the public can submit questions through this through midnight tonight um and the the portal to submit those questions is Ava available on the district's website if you
062go to superintendent search you'll find the link there um also just a quick overview and reminder um that the board went through a very rigorous process to identify the finalist candidate um the dciu in collaboration with dciu there were um stakeholders forums held there were surveys that were sent out and a leadership profile was created from that um so this leadership profile which came to the conclusion and I'll read it the the leadership profile very much drove the interview process and got us to this point where we've identified um our successful candidates I'll just read that conclusion for you again again based um on community input the next superintendant of the school district of haford Township will be a Visionary leader who values Community engagement academic rigor and inclusivity by embracing the district's Traditions while
063driving meaningful progress the superintendent will ensure a future of continued excellence and shared success this leader will Empower stakeholders Foster trust and Champion every student's potential shaping a legacy of achievement and collaboration and again this leadership profile is available publicly on the district's website again under superintendent search so we're very excited for the community to meet Dr Hayes next week um now I will open it up um to my fellow my colleagues on the board to report on any activities that you participated in in your official capacity as a board member um so I've had a bit of a busy week in the in the district um last Friday I had the opportunity to go into to monoa to celebrate the read Across America um I had so much fun with a a classroom of
064first graders um to be able to read one of my favorite books and I really appreciate their continual inviting of the board members into the school um last night I attended the chestnut wall PTO meeting I was the only board member at that particular meeting we had several meetings happening at the same time um but we had a great conversation um I really appreciate all the time and effort that the pto's and our parents put into making our schools even better um there were two third grade teachers there that um presented a math problem and help parents through the math problem I learned something so I appreciated that it was a different way of solving the problem um but I was most pleased to hear from the teachers as they described um the wit and
065wisdom curricul and what is happening right now in their classrooms and as board members we hear about curriculum we vote on curriculum um but it's really fun to hear how the teachers are experiencing the curriculum and this is a particular um one that they seem to really be enjoying and they were reporting how much the students are loving the books so that was that was great to hear um tonight I got the opportunity to go to the Cooper Town science fair um timing wise I wasn't able to stay as long because I needed to come here um and because of the big gusts of wind and I volunteered to be the person to open the door um but that was really fun cuz I could watch all of the kids coming in with their projects
066and their enthusiasm to show them off so it's been a great week in the district thank you anyone else yeah um Dave Schwarz and I uh were at the chadam park home and School Association um on Wednesday last night and uh we we uh provided an update on the superintendent uh announcement we we also talked about construction I don't see Ken Matthews but um we and uh we talked a little bit about the proposal that was put in for solar for schools for chadam uh the the parents were interested in you know of course a lot of the changes at the federal level and and what we thought about the superintendent um I don't know if Dave you want yeah um the the the parents who were there um also have some questions about our
067are you know they they acknowledged our reaffirm of welcoming schools um resolution that we did at the last meeting and the school was decked out with the um their their reading program that we heard about at the last meeting with construction stuff all over the place and um you do not C you know the the the the yellow tape and the construction signs and everything else it looked very very cool so um hope the kids had you know I'm I'm sure the kids had a blast doing that had a reading um activity there and um yeah it was a overall nice impr the construction was impressive the the the Second Story being added over the lobby very the back of the school the back of the of the building now has also been been added
068now all the um all the uh Cinder and walls are not put in place so it's really looking like you know you really see what what's to look like I guess as we um as we come into the summer and the last bit hopefully of a of a you know rapid construction looking forward to it and my third grader who goes there is very much looking forward to it as well he can't wait thank you any other reports on activities okay we will move now to section six of our agenda finance and Facilities um item a is our bill list I'll accept a motion to approve dispersements for payment totaling 1,147 2779 Shelton moved CH second any discussion just had a question uh requested some information on the IR uh sorry the US Treasury um
069payment and I don't know if Mr tester Miss saxo would provide and what what why are we incurring the liability U the US Treasury liability so I believe that was distributed um to the board the whole board but what happens with um when you go out for bonds um you have to spend the funds within a certain period of time and you're only allowed to earn so much interest on those bonds so what was calculated was basically our rebate to pay that liability had to go back we earned about 89,000 um in interest earnings on those bonds and our liability was 35 and that was just based on the length of time it took to spend those funds there's certain cap there's certain um periods that you have to make in that timeline where you
070have to spend 25% 50% and 100% so it was just in that uh period that it was not spent in enough time so we made more money in the interest from the bond than the penalty is that yes that is correct right so it shows up as a a line item but not what's not shown is is that that's just a consequence that we earned interest correct we earned too much interest right thank you sure any other discussion okay all those in favor I any opposed motion motion passes okay moving on to Item B I'll accept an approval to solicit bids for the coopertown elementary school renovation and additions project second mov in second a discussion so I do see Ken Matthews here if we wanted to have um an update on what this process
071entails oh sorry no no okay sorry he was here earlier but um uh then if uh maybe Mr Testa if you could talk about the bid solicitation and just what this timeline uh prepares for so this evening the ACT 34 hearing took place so that booklet was approved that kind of that lays out the budget for the project um the bids the notice for advertisement will go out um probably in the middle of next week that's advertised for two uh for three consecutive weeks and two Publications um giving bids the opportunity um to see that information um there would be a bid opening on April 8th so they would have up until I believe uh 2 p.m. on that day to submit their bids um we'll go through the bids read off the uh amount
072of the bid if there was an alternate we'll read that as well and then make sure that each of the um submitted bids has the uh information that was requested as far as bid bonds and the different items that they criteria they have to meet in order to be considered for what they've submitted and so this would position us well for the desired timeline to get started with a Cooper Town project in the summer yes so the intention is at the April 24th meeting to um get authorization from the board um to proceed based on the successful biders that they would submit any further discussion all those in favor any opposed motion passes moving on now to C I'll accept a motion to approve the settlement and stipulation of Council in tax assessment appeals pending
073in the court of common pleas of Delaware County and authorize councel and proper officers of the board to execute the necessary documents shelter moved okay second move in second any discussion hearing none all those in favor I I any opposed motion passes okay moving on now to um to section D item D I'll accept a motion to approve the Delaware County Community College proportionate share from the school district of haford Township um for the fiscal year 2526 in the amount of 1,434 792 Shelton second m in second any discussion can we just get a summary for the public on the types of um uh advantages we get or or otherwise Services we get from the DCCC for our proportionate share here sure so what happens with um off of you know the Delaware County website
074you can you can read that what happens when you are a sponsoring School District it provides reduced admissions for college um for any Resident of the area so it means that tuition um per credit most most courses are more than one credit but per credit um non-s sponsoring schools would be 272 but sponsoring School District areas is 136 um so it gives a reduction of tuition costs um we currently um have uh 321 um enrolled um people from our residential area and then We additionally currently have 30 dual degree students meaning our high school students are here at our high school but are also taking courses at the college thank you any other discussion I'll just note uh that this is a slight increase over what was what we contributed as our proportionate share last
075year it looked like an increase of about $14,000 any other discussion okay all those in favor I any opposed motion passes moving on now to section seven Human Resources uh retirements and resignations I'll accept a motion um sorry I accept a motion to accept the following retirement and resignations as listed below Shelton moved okay second M second any discussion I see you Jerry Marino on here who has served the district in different capacities announcing his retirement any other discussion all in favor I any opposed okay motion passes moving on now to Item B appointments I'll accept a motion to approve the following appointments as listed below contingent upon receipt of all necessary clearances including act 168 of 2014 Mass moved Shelt in second moved in second any discussion hearing none all those in favor I
076any opposed motion passes okay item C leave of absences I will accept a motion to approve the following leave requests Shelton moved second second movement second I discussion all those in favor I any opposed motion passes okay in um Section 8 pupil Services we don't have any items moving on to section 9 curriculum and instruction item a student educational Excursion I'll accept a motion to approve the student educational excursions listed below Vali moved second moved in second any discussion good luck to the volleyballs uh players absolutely all those in favor I any opposed motion passes section 10 policy there are no items moving on to section 11 other items we have the Delaware County Community College trustee reappointment I'll accept a motion to approve the reappointment and corresponding resolution for the following list of people
077to serve as trustees to the Delaware County Community College for terms ending June 30th 2031 McKay moved Shelton second moved in second any discussion um I'll just mention that all four of these individuals are currently serving as trustees so this is a re reappointment for each of them you and this would also be a roll call vote thank you um Mr Testa would you please call the rooll Miss Lee Yes Dr McKay yes Mr Schwarz yes Dr Shelton yes Miss Snodgrass yes Miss Vitali yes Miss Weedman yes Dr Larson yes thank you okay motion passes moving on now to section 12 public comments for items not on the agenda um we did not have anyone signed up in advance but if you would like to come to the podium now would be your time okay
078seeing none we will now move on to section 13 report on Executive session the board met an executive session on February 25th 2025 to discuss Personnel matters related to the superintendent search okay section 14 item a um this is an announcement for our upcoming special public board meeting there will be a special public board meeting held on March 12th 2025 at 7:30 p.m. in the boardroom of the Oakmont administration building for the specific purpose of appointing the new superintendent a new superintendent of schools okay and this um next um our next regular public board meeting is scheduled to be held on March 20th 2025 at 7:30 p.m. in the boardroom of the Oakmont administration building and with that I will accept a motion to adjourn the meeting moved second okay