001That's all it takes. Years ago today, March 24, 2020. the um picture for um [Music] That's right. insurance like everything so many years. You know what? debate healthare in the United States for a long time. Hey, we're better off in Canada. Oh, I don't dispute just too much money. [Music] Yeah. All rise for the pledge. introduce our Oh, like to introduce our our student pledge leaders. We have Norabel Halden, Lucas Haw, and Farah. Thank you so much for joining us tonight. You ready? We'll follow you. Okay. stands for it stands and justice for all. Please remain standing for a brief moment of silence. Thank you so much. Now if you want to stay for the entire meeting otherwise you may feel free to call the meeting to order at 7:01 Again, item 143, meeting announcements.
002An executive session was held on February 24th at 6:30 p.m. for personnel discussions. Board meeting was held on February 24th at 700 p.m. in the boardroom. Special meeting was held on March 10th at 700 p.m. Workshop meeting was held on March 10th after the special board meeting in the boardroom. An executive session was held along the 24th at 6:30 for personnel and legal discussions. Their board meeting is being held now March 24th at 700 p.m. 1.4 roll call. Mr. President, Mr. Richard, Miss Barbs here. Mr. Mr. Dwayne Deliver here. Mr. Jeremy GL present. Mr. Sean Williams here. Miss Heather Nash here. Mrs. Karen Sler present. Miss April Walker. Thank you. Item 1.5 presentations. Science Olympia. Science Olympia Junior. Hello everyone. Thank you for having us here this evening representing the LHS science team. My name
003is Natalie Blair and I'm a senior at LHS. I have been the life science team leader on the team for the last two years and I have been a member of the science Olympia team all four years of my high school career. Throughout my time on the team, I have created countless lifelong memories and found an incredible sense of community with my peers who are with me here today. Science Olympiad is a science-based extracurricular involving both testing and building events. Competitions take place throughout the entire day. We leave very early in the morning, oftent times to travel to competitions and spend the next several hours after we compete. At the conclusion of the day, an awards ceremony is held. Here you find out if you meddle in any events in a team place overall. My
004peers Nicholas Thommer and CJ Scroll will present one of their engineering projects to you a little later on. To build these kinds of engineering fees, students must utilize their creativity along with science and technical skills. In order to produce these amazing projects, it takes them months of preparation and collaboration in order to forge their final products. Our team does notoriously well in building competitions, often meddling in these events. They regularly beat bigger schools with larger programs due to their tenacity and hard work. Testing events are also a large portion of the competition as my teammate Kaylee will elaborate on later on. I compete in several of these including anatomy and physiology, micro mission, chemistry lab, forensics, and disease detectives. Many of these require laboratory portions of the exams as well. Many of my other peers
005compete in events such as geologic mapping, material science, fossils, astronomy, entomology, and more. These events are difficult to master as there is a plethora of information to learn about very specific topics. This year is the second consecutive year our team has qualified for the state competition. We have placed fourth in the region both last year and again this year. This represents more than anything the dedication and hard work that my teammates have devoted into being the best that they possibly can be. We attend weekly practices and sometimes come in on the weekends as well. Many of my teammates have spent countless hours preparing for the regional competition and focusing on reaching their potential. Clearly, it has paid off as they have been very successful. I'm involved in many extracurriculars activities at my school such as
006marching, concert, jazz and county bands, national honor society, scholastic scrimmage, FLA and varsity field hockey to name a few. Science Olympiad is very different from many of the other clubs that I am involved in mainly because of its strong sense of community. We are a small, close-knit team with 15 competing members. My teammates practice not only because they want to do well and push their limits, but because they do not want to disappoint as a whole. This is incredibly special about this group. Every single year I've been on the team, I've been made to feel like an integral part of the operation. Regardless of my limited knowledge as underassman, I have always felt equally as important as everybody else. Now, as a team leader, I strive to continue that sense of vitality and inclusion. We
007are not only teammates but friends. We support each other when we're not meeting our goals. And most importantly, we push each other to be better than we previously were. I know that my team is very excited about our trip to states this April. For many of us is likely to be our last ever competition, including myself. I'm certain we will have even more fun than we did last year, if that's even possible. I thank you for the opportunity to educate you tonight about Science Olympiad, and I feel honored to represent this one-of-akind group at LHS. Thank you for your time and I now yield the microphone to my teammate Julia M. Good evening. My name is Julie May and I'm a senior at Early High School. Despite me being a senior, this year is my
008only year interacting with the competitive science event. I have prepared a speech based on my perspective of science Olympia as a first year member. Science Olympia has taught me three things. One, it has allowed me to grow my ability of independent study. This skill can only benefit me as I finish my high school career at Stark College. Two, the importance of time management. In addition to science Olympiad, I also participate in our drama club, our chemist, and honors band program. And I take a myriad of AP and honors classes at school. This program has upped my level of time management to the extreme, having to balance my current school home with learning the college level curriculum information needed to compete earnestly at introverted competitions. Three, science Olympia has reinvigorated my love for learning and understanding.
009Being a first year competitor, I have had to learn a great deal of information on my own with the pressure of not letting down the rest of my team. This self-study method has introduced me to new and different types of information not readily available during my school. I have learned about astronomy, project detecting, physical chemistry, concrete structures, and more. All of this information has allowed me to find new interests in the field of science and steam. With this information, I would like to thank you for listening and for your time. And I would like to welcome Kaylee Higson to this uh to the mic in order to speak. Good evening. My name is Kaylee. I am a junior at Leary High School and a freshman at LC for the college program. I'm a member of
010I have been a member of Science Olympiad since my freshman year. I'd mainly focus on what we call a test events. For these events, you have a time 60-minute test with usually somewhere around 80 questions. All these events are done in pairs or groups of three. Tests can be extremely spe sorry specific and specialized but also very broad. We were saying in the club that at least 10% of each test only need structure instructors and got the answers to. As you can imagine, these tests require lots of studying and collaborating. During these event during these events has allowed me to take everything I've learned classes both at least deeper. It required to not just look at a topic but to truly study it inside out. Not only just that but it also requires you to
011know how to delegate between the members of the event. As a soccer player and as a wrestler as well I can say there's nothing else quite like this team. I would like to thank you for listening for the time to listen and I would also like to introduce Nicholas Gler and CJ Stroll who will be talking about the I'm sure the thing you're most interested in is Hello, my name is Claire Stroll and I'm a junior who has been a part of the team for three years I'm here today to explain a little bit about the building of engineering events and why this is important to me. Since middle school, I have wanted to design and build contraptions and mechanisms, but never really saw a way. Science Olympiad has allowed me to explore this passion
012and build devices for competition. The devices in front of you is for an event called air trajectory. The rules of the competition state to build a device to launch a ball onto a target that is somewhere between 2 and away and a score on accuracy. device has to fit within a 75 cm box and must use a pollen weight to compress air which then launches the ball. Nick is going to explain a little more in detail about how the device works and then I'll discuss some of the challenges we face today. Hello, my name is Nicholas and this is my second year on the science on the science team. In science, there are events for which we must build a device such as our air trajectory. In the construction of our air trajectory, we use
013various skills such as metal working, welding, CAD design, and 3D printing. The air tube you see [Music] here is an old engine cylinder which has a piston inside to keep an airtight seal and has a tube in the bottom leading to a 3D printed elbow that we designed and 3D printed. And here we have our site so that we can aim the barrel and get accurate spots. Our device has gone through many iterations with barrel size and projectile site to find the best combination. The challenge of air trajectory and other events have taught me many valuable skills that I will certainly use in the future. One of the things about a student is problem solving. A good example is when we went to test after the first competition and it was launching the ball. We
014immediately went to diagnose the problem. Thinking it was an air leak, we sealed the main launch and set the weight down on the plunger. This confirmed that it was an air and the weight dropped the plunger even though it should have been sealed. We slowly worked backwards from the end of the barrel to the plunger sealing it and then putting the weight on the plunger until we found in the base that was significant amount of air for it size. As you may have noticed, this process is nearly identical to the process of scientific inquiry. We formed an hypothesis, tested it, made observations, and made a conclusion. This process of professionals go through every day from computer programs to mechanics to astronauts on the ISS. And through we going through that process, too. Thank you for
015your time. Next All right. Introduce yourself to your name and then pull up. Hello everybody. I am G. I'm in seventh grade and this is my first year. I'm Melania Rafa. I'm in seventh grade and this is my birthday. I'm running in seventh grade and this is my first year. I'm deal. I'm in seventh grade and this is also my first year in science and I am Joshua Bington. I'm in seventh grade and this is Science Olympia has been pretty stressful but yeah okay we don't know that we do 23 competitions for level and that's six building events such as tower and air trajectory which we will talk about and 17 written We have to work together as a team to understand how these things work. So, I'm looking at helicopters and what you have
016to do is you make um you make propellers and you attach them to a battery and then you wind the rubber band up. So, and then you attach it to two posts on the helicopter and then you let it go and Introductory is where so introductory is as clamsh and it was explained it's where you have to use a falling mass to compress air and you fire a ball at the target and the target varies in distance and height as the first target that we fire at could has to be sorry has to be elevated in the air and the Second target is off center. So you have to be able to adjust and adapt to that. Yeah. Sorry, we don't have anybody here. Scrambler, but scrambler is basically where have a car that has
017an egg on the front of it and it's only and you have to get the wheels that are on the bottom of the car to stop before the egg on the front of the car hits it and the closest distance splits. Um, so we have Mission Possible and this is for you to build a Goldberg machine and you have to score the most points as possible. We actually are in second place in Mission Impossible here. Um, I event and it's where you have to put a you build this structure where and you have to put it on a table with a hole a big hole in it and you have to see how much sand it can hold. The maximum capacity that it can hold is 15 kg and um ours did hold 15 kg
018but um it wasn't light enough so we got fifth place and I would like to thank Mr. um for helping me with this and I would not have even gotten my tower to qualify for. We competed against 13 other schools and still placed seventh. This did get us in states and would definitely help us won second place in Michigan possible. We got fifth place in also fifth place in Olympics which my Optics is pretty much where you have a written test about how mirrors and reflection works and you have to answer depending on pretty much what it talks about and then you start going about the object. The second part of it is doing a laser shoot where you have this box and you have a barrier. Now you have a little target on one
019side of the box and you want to angle the mirrors to to hit the target and as close as you can get. It depends on how many points you can get. We did get really close to it. So, honestly, I'm really proud to do this. In regionals, there are 14 teams competing in division B. In total, at states, you go against 36 teams. There is more to learn at states. For example, events like anatomy and physiology and disease detectives. You can have a 8.5 by 11 in paper that can be double that can be double sized but they may not be able to fit the actual information on the paper which can make states more difficult is going to be difficult as it is. Um and yeah It's not like a full video scrambler. It's
020just kind of Yeah. So that was curious motion. Um uh we need your help and support. Science Olympia is a way for students to challenge themselves in an academic way. You may be thinking well they could just challenge themselves at school. Now this is true but science olympiad also gives us a way to represent life. Science Olympia is something that students can feel included and get different perspectives on topics. It can also help students figure out their career and opportunity in science. Thanks to our supporters, our team, our school and Miss Conway especially for encouraging us to to do our best the whole way. Great. That was one of the funnest presentation I think you had. Just Yeah, definitely want to say congratulations to both the high school and middle school teams and good luck
021and represent us well. Thank you so much for coming out there. Took a lot. All right. Item 1.6. Do we have any public comment on the proposed approval of the agenda? Okay. No public comment. item 1.7. Do I hear a motion to approve the agenda as presented? Second. Those are questions from the board. All those in favor? I opposed abstensions. The eyes have it. Moving on to item 108, regular public comment. Item 8.4 8.1 I am not here to discuss specifically the individual that I believe that this involves but more the cause of how we got here. Like in 2021, there was an election that was won and a hope in the community that things would change from uh the past. And in early 2022, it became very apparent to myself that that was not
022going to be the case and that there was an agenda and I felt it was best for me and my family to resign from the board. Um there have been continuations of an agenda that has not only um angered many people on the board through the way things have been done. Um I know there's lots of accusations against each other. I know involves many people on the board today. Um I just believe the cause for the anger on the board today with 8.1 started back in 2022. And I just hope that that gets changed. That's all I have to say. Thank you. At the end. Okay. Public comment. We're moving on reports. Are student board representatives here? Can I ask you a question? Is this payback because he was by himself last? Honestly, it's fair
023though. He had a baseball game today, so it balances out. So, not that. Okay. So, to start off, I'll start with spring sports. safely draw at the beginning of March and for probably like the first time ever we had great weather. Um all of our athletes were also recognized at Spring Music Tribe on March 12th at the elementary center and our teams recently kicked off their games this p last week. So far baseball is 2 and0 and they have four games this week which is tennis is two and one. They also have four matches this week. track has had one meet so far against J for both our boys and girls lunch and they have a meet tomorrow and northern behind and softball's own two but they do have three games coming up this week.
024Next up is a unique opportunity that one of our students has received. We currently have a high school sophomore Ian who spent the past few months training in Vermont at a ski school. So it's really incredible that our students have this opportunity to learn and pursue their passions in the supportive environment. So, here's a little bit about him. Ian Frabel won a scholarship to attend the prestigious Killington Mountain School for Alpine Downhill Ski. Trained and competed to ultimately secure his spot with one of 10 competition spots. Attending such a specialized school requires a strong commitment to the sport and school. A typical day starts at 6:00 a.m. with a morning workout, either cardio, strength, or flexibility, followed closely by a quick breakfast to boot up and be on the slopes at 8 a.m. for training.
025After four hours of training, the student returns to school and a quick lunch with four hours of class work. Afternoon education ends with another 1-hour workout session followed by dinner and homework and lights are up at 9:00. The schedule is maintained Monday through Saturday. Weekend Sunday, the weekend Sunday can be much looked forward to as it is the only day off for students at the school and on the days taken up of the race, all school work must be filed along by the end of the week. Otherwise, the student is withdrawn from the competition and program. Each sport has these types of camps to help young athletes pursue their dreams. So we cheer on Ian as the season comes to a close at Kington. Um next up is Scholastic Herbage. On March 6th, our Scholastic
026SCish team competed in competition with all of the high schools in carbon tax. This competition took place at Scholastic. Okay. So as classics students are asked facts and knowledge based questions and they can earn points by answering quickly and correctly. So it's sort of similar together. Our team from Texas took first place and this was a really big deal for our team as they have multiple participants and they worked really hard for it and local politicians like Royal Hy were there to watch some students and I'm sure that our school made a really good impression on Next up um our economic classes in the high school have just wrapped up their Shark Tank projects. I'm currently in econ and I can definitely say that this was definitely the most exciting few weeks that we've had
027of the course as it is really interactive for the students. So students pair up with the partners to create an original business pitch to the Sharks and the Sharks are the panel of students in the class. All students create a business plan where they analyze their target market, customers, expenses, and projected sales. They must also compare how much of investment they are asking for. This is a way for students to understand what is needed to start and fund the business. And it's also a really neat experience for students to act as sharks and challen challenge their fellow classmates. Next up, on February 26th, Chris Harren spoke to our high school and middle school. He shared his battle with addiction and the long road to recovery. He emphasized his impact, the impact drug and alcohol use
028had on him and everyone around him. It was extremely moving and he was able to speak about his addiction and addiction in general in a way that I had never heard before. I think many of our students were very impacted by these words. It's really important for students to understand how once in a while actions can lead to a life ruining problem. During Chris was definitely beneficial for our student body. Next up is our agricultural club. This past few weeks, our agricultural club students have been super busy in the school. On Friday and earlier this week, students had the ability to participate in two events. On Friday, students shared hands-on learning with cattle. The Myers family brought in their cattle and provided information about raising livestock. In addition, the agricultural club hosted a maple syrup
029making event after school. Teachers Mr. Shay and Mr. Durga brought their maple syrup tools and demonstrated the finishing step stages where sap was boiled down over fire to make syrup. Students were also able to try topic for sap and tasted samples of the syrup that they were able to make. Students in our lead club, the leaden engineering arts department club holded are holding their first fundraiser. They are selling mini wheelbarrows constructed out of wooden metal. Each decorative piece is $15 and they will be available in in time for Mother's Day and orders may be placed until March 28th. This fundraising is an opportunity for the students in metal and wood shop to collaborate. I think Jake is in this club and she's probably making um the wheelbarrows. Next up is a really busy week. An
030important week for our drama club as the production of Mamma Mia is this Thursday, Friday, and Saturday. Doors open at 6:30 p.m. and performances begin at 7. Ticket prices are $5 for students, $10 for seniors, and $15 for adults. So, please come out and support the arts. I've heard them practicing recently, and they sound really good. Additionally, prom tickets went on sale today as the prom will be held on May 2nd at Woodstone Country Club, and the theme is under the lanterns. Um it was really successful among tickets. Mrs. Hartney, the senior bus advisor, actually rates it with a record high for a ticket sold first day. We sold about 96. Um so tickets are $80 for students for seniors and juniors to purchase and they must have a guest form filled out to bring
031guests from outside of the district. Lastly, county band took place last two weeks ago. Several of our band students participated in the 64th annual Carbon County band concert on March 14th. This event was also held at Colton High School and the top musicians from six local schools practiced together for three days to prepare for this concert. Also, Jake and I would like to thank Mr. Bowser and Mrs. Lavallette for conducting the interviews with the senior class for the Harris Marshall scholarship. Thank you. Any questions for students? Good evening. Be fairly brief this evening. Um, as we move into the spring here, I wanted to just touch base on a lot of these things were already mentioned, but uh, extracurricular activities that are kind of going on or upcoming uh, kind of highlights across the district
032in the next couple of weeks. First of all, as as it was said, spring sports are in full swing. Uh please check out the events listed on the district calendar uh under the athletics tab. Uh the high school musical production of Mamavia as was just mentioned. Uh I'm looking forward to that. Uh I'll be attending Thursday evening. I I I love going to high school musicals. Uh please generally do a great job and I caught a glimpse of them practicing but I I didn't want to ruin it for myself. So please go out and support them all after that. Also, uh the middle school show choir performance uh where we'll be performing at Coca-Cola Park on April 9th and once again science one of April 25th and 26. Best of luck to all of our
033students who are going and competing and representing the district. Uh just some updates elementary RFP. We did receive four proposals. We'll be reviewing RFPs and looking to make a recommendation uh coming up in April. So at the April workshop meeting, we would have the the first conversation around what our recommendation is and why. Preliminary budget projections. Um you know, we kind of got a late start on this uh just kind of starting in December myself and and Matt being in transition as well. Uh but after a preliminary budget review, we're currently projecting uh revenues of approximately $49.2 million. And we do believe at this point in time that we will have a balanced budget uh without a without a tax increase. Um of course this is kind of 30,000 foot view at this point in
034time. It starts getting closer and closer and closer both on the expenditure side and on the revenue side. um there is no there there is no chance that you can be 100% accurate at this this far out because so much depends upon what happens at different in different entities. Um just so that the board is aware and the public is aware we are approaching revenue projections very conservatively. So the governor has propo for instance the governor has proposed numbers out there for what allocations would be to school districts in in terms of new funding. Um right now our projections we're going in around 50% of that that new funding proposal. So in what what is 50%? What is Matt? Do you remember the number off hand? 50% is of the new money. I believe it's
035about 600. Yeah, it's about 540,000. So rarely will the budget land at 100% of what is proposed right now. Although there is that fair foundation gates that the state is making attempts to to navigate and fulfill which means we probably have a better chance than most years of hitting that new funding that new funding mark. So as we get closer you start reading the tees a little bit better. Um things become a lot more clear. committee meetings happen in Harrisburg and we continue to fine-tune and feel like we can get more and more accurate as we get closer, but we're pretty far out at this point in time to really nail that down. On the expenditure side, we continue to drill down into details. And so, you know, we look and you always have a
036preliminary and okay, what can we what can we do without that is not going to be 200 kids. um what do we need that's going to make a certain area increase potentially that is the best value for kids? All those sorts of all those sorts of conversations. We've had a lot of those across the district in the past few months. Uh they they continue to get even more and more detailed and more granular with all of those meetings. Uh on the revenue side, biggest unknowns at this time as I said are around new state funding. um will will that proposal come through or will it get shipped away out and negotiated in Harrisburg through those committee committee meetings and budget meetings throughout the throughout the spring here. Um you know, again, I'll say what every
037business manager and superintendent in in the state probably has either said out loud publicly or they have definitely said it privately. It would be really nice if the state could actually tell us what that funding looked like for sure before we had to put together and pass a final budget. Um unfortunately we that sometimes doesn't even come until September or October. So um you know we are we are playing that game of of trying to get as close as we possibly can with the knowledge that we have and that we can glean. Another unknown is the potential for changes in federal funding. I know this is a topic of conversation in a lot of a lot of districts right now. Um we are not anticipating uh any kind of significant impact uh in in next
038year's budget to be quite honest. Uh if there were going to be any significant changes, it probably would take at least a year before we started to see those. um we're right around $600,000 in in federal federal title money um that we receive from the federal government. That's not to even speak of the IDA. Um but it is certainly something that in the future we'll have to take into consideration as we make decisions, but we don't know where it's at or or where it's going to be at at this point in time. So there we're not worried about it for next year. I I think he we need to continue to keep an eye on how that evolves in in Washington DC before we can really make any sort of decisions. Uh on the expenditure
039side, the biggest unknowns as they always do lie in special education and charter school tuitions. Um you know special education expenditures. It's you know it's very early. We just have information, you know, we're starting to look through information of early intervention services that are coming into the district uh from, you know, into kindergarten and so forth. Um, but these are the these those numbers in the entire expenditure side, I would think. uh I I personally believe they're the hardest to actually nail down what you're going to spend because student moves in, student moves out, all those sorts of things can have a major impact uh in making sure that we, you know, accommodate faith to to give students a free and appropriate quality education. So, that's that's an unknown right now that I know Matt
040is working through with Sandy. They met as recently as today to discuss this. But overall, good good perspective. But from 30,000 foot view, I would say at this point in time, we're comfortable saying that we are looking at a yearly, if not balanced, budget or better. Any questions about that? Um, as we look ahead here, what we would like to do is in during next month's workshop meeting have a comp more comprehensive detailed review of a preliminary budget so that we can actually start diving into some of the details. Um, we don't expect it to be one and done and no conversation and and rubber stamp. We expect to do some work here, present what we have so far and get some feedback in terms of what we're looking at. So we'll review in the
041workshop and voting and then again revisions in the voting meeting in April uh and then cycle that back and propose revisions at the May workshop and then ask for a vote on the preliminary budget at May voting meeting um and then finally vote on that final budget in June. So, it is a cyclical process with a lot of revisions along the way, but we feel like we are at a spot where we're going to be able to pretty easily hit those deadlines, those timelines, um, and and provide more and more information as it evolves. I'll end with upcoming administrative initiatives as as the spring as the spring turns here. Um, you know, two thing two big things that that I'm really kind of eyeing in terms of what work do we need to do administratively?
042um and in collaboration with with faculty and staff. Um and the first is the completion of the district strategic plan for the 2526 school year. And when I say a strategic plan on a one-year basis, it will look more like a three-year basis, but this is, you know, in an effort to align administrator goals, district goals, professional development topics for our teachers, uh, and action steps that we're going to take in order to meet those goals and move forward as a district in the areas where we say we need to get this done, this done, this done. We want to make improvements in specific areas, all those sorts of things. Um, my goal and I will hold to this is to deliver this publicly by late June uh or early July because it drives a
043lot of the summer work for us as an administrative team so that we can be well prepared to be able to help our teachers do the same thing when they come back in in mid to late August so that there is a clear plan of here's what we're setting out to do. Here's what we're going to do to get there. here at how we're going to support it along the way. Hand in hand with that would be a professional development plan for the 2526 school year. Um this is something that you know I have some experience in in working on in prior districts. Um to me as a teacher one of the most frustrating things about professional development and I'm not saying that was the case here. I'm just being very upfront. Um, one of
044the things that frustrated me as a classroom teacher was you felt like every every week you turned around and there was a new initiative or a new training. Um, I really want us to avoid that. I want us to set out, have a course, have a plan, and follow that. doesn't mean that you can't pivot, but quite frankly, the big initiatives that that we're going to work through throughout the course of the year should be known by everybody in the district by the time teachers come back in August. Now, if the state rolls something out, we have to we have to jump because it's a state mandate. Well, that's different story, but we can at least communicate that. The the idea would be if we're working on fine-tuning our assessment system. We're going to lay
045that out and talk about steps that we plan to take throughout the course of the year, we line up trainings that that are all aligned to those sort of major goals and major initiatives. Um and and obviously there are state mandated trainings as well, but we will deliver this plan publicly by late July or early August. Any questions about that one? Last one. This year I believe there was 15.1 50.2 million. You're showing 49. So is that taking out the buyers that were never hired? Is that part or the 49 compared to that? Is that budgeted? Yeah, that was budgeted. Is that a loss of federal correct extra funds no longer a part of the overall revenue budget those ended in se at the end of September of this year 49 is the revenue so
046it's what we state yeah the expenditures are really quite vague right now it's not a crisp number the the other thing about the 492 quite frankly that could end up being 50.1 one because of how conservatively we're budgeting right now. You just there are so many unknowns that you know you kind of look at your tax collection tax collection rates. You look at what what has the state proposed where were they? So like you we do a lot of work in terms of lining it up. And again if anything I would say our revenue is is low that it definitely and probably will come up. Right now the revenues are easier to predict than the expenditures because you have more data for the revenues than you have the expenditure side to some degree. I I
047think expenditures the one thing that you can lock down is your 70 70 approximately 70% of your personnel that is made up of personnel cost salaries and benefits. And if we just play, we did this a couple weeks ago. If you remember, if you just play currently, how we're currently staff everybody what they make and what raises they're in line for next year, you can pretty much lock down 70% of your expenditures. The rest of it is kind of that area where do we need this program? Do we need this program? Those sorts of things. Trying to make an educated guess at this point. You are. and and you're also looking at, you know, one of the things that I I've always been a believer of is that your budget reflects your your priorities as
048a district. Other questions for Jason? Thank you. No longer have an assistance in that going forward. business administrator. Just um building on um the budget update to continue to work on the budget for um next year um which involves looking at revenues and expenditures um also we are um undergoing an annual monitoring of our food service program that will take place um over the the next month um and seem to be in good shape for that. Thank you. touch base with the administration. Sandy, good evening. Um to respond on Mr. Moser's reference to earlier mention in his report, we did start our kindergarten transition meetings which every um wager. We do have meetings to review our early intervention students and to anticipate their programmatical needs. Uh the IU does organize that historically and it's worked
049well for many years. uh this year just they decided to change up their format kind of have an open house type of model um virtual and it was very ill attended. We didn't have a lot of parent participation. So I asked our school psychologists um to have our own meetings and they went very very well. Our school psychologists and our speech therapist were champs during this meeting. We extracted a lot of good information. Um but our issue is we only know half of our students so far. because we can't even know their identification or even their needs until they sign the intent to register for kindergarten. So, we're trying to draw them out and get these meetings happening so that we can plan accordingly. Um on February 28th, Mrs. Christine Gervado, the special ed facilitator
050of CCTI, invited us to the annual um intake lunchon where she describes the intake process for CCTI and gives all of the carbon specialized supervisors any updates on that and it it's a nice showcase of um the food services department there. So, that's a very nice time. It's a nice way to collaborate. This month was school social worker week. Um, so I really do want to have a shout out to our breed social workers. We have Carrie Kenny, Mary J, um, Brih Hoffer, Mary Joe Puh Hoffer, and also Emma Statler, and they're top shelf, and I they're indispensable to me. Um, we also are immersed in BHA quarterly. Um, students in BHA programs do have quarterly meetings so that we really keep an eye on their progress and, uh, their needs. And we were immersed
051in those. that take quite a long time when they happen. And one last thing, um I also enjoyed the science Olympia presentation this evening and it is referenced in the gifted assurance section of the comprehensive plan. So it all ties together. Thank you Sandy. I agree with you and social workers very important work that they do here. Good evening everyone. Um just a couple of big events that are coming up at the elementary center. Um tomorrow night we are having our family uh book fair at the the gymnasium that be held from 5 to 7:00 p.m. That's kind of the culminating activity. We've had the book fair going on for the last week and a half kids as they go to the library able to uh you know peruse through the Scholastic book fair. But
052tomorrow we'll be encouraging all students, parents and guardians to come out to the book fair which will be held in the gym and we ask people to come into the main day uh uh couple other big events that are coming up. So we're bringing folk swap back to the elementary center. So the teachers are going to be running swap uh from 5:00 to 7:00 p.m. on April 10th. Um, and because that does bring in a lot of people to our building, we're also um going to be hosting them our spring title parenting night um to kind of make sure the collaboration in order that we get a a large crowd. So that'll also be held from 5:00 to 7:00 p.m. a little bit earlier in that night. We'll have our prek open house and we'll
053be hosting um our our prek program. will be highlighting um the classroom, the parents perspective students and parents can come in, meet the teacher, see the program um so that they can make a decision if they want to start their their children their prek program next week next year. Um also the daddy daughter dance which is always a very big event is going to be happening at the center on April 11th. So a lot of opportunities for people to come into the school highlighter building highlight programs that be for our kids. you know, it's hard to believe that the end of the third marking period is this week and we're into the the final 45 days of the of the school year. So, um you know, we do appreciate all the the help and support
054that we'll have for our building and our elementary center. And um remember, if you ever have any questions about programs or things going on at the elementary center, I encourage you to reach out to Dr. [Music] Steve presented on behalf of the um assessment coordinator role that I do as well. Um testing season is coming, but it's even more um unique this year because the whole district transitioning to all online for PSSAs and for keystones. So it comes with a few more tasks working with the tech department and Gretchen and and um her texts. Um, so we've been doing a lot of teacher training, a lot of student training, a lot of checking our devices and we did kind of a mock PSSA where we kind of tried to mimic a day of testing where
055middle school got on and then an hour later the elementary school got on and everything worked well and we have confidence that everything will be successful when we do that starting April 23rd. Thank you. So, one of the things we've really been focused on with middle school the last couple weeks um as we know we're going to be having to reassignment of staff members to help balance the numbers at the elementary center. So, the way that we're uh progressing with this is we created six different schedules that we were able to present to our staff. Uh it's been very unique trying to find ways that we can still offer all the programs at the middle of the school with less teaching staff. Uh also we're trying to include the staff as much as possible. We
056have seven or we had 15 members of our staff volunteer to be on the scheduling committee. We have pair of professionals. We have uh secretaries, teachers, creative art teachers. So, we feel that we have a good group of people that are going to see things from different perspectives. Uh, Mrs. Straberger and I have made it a priority to meet one-on-one with all of our teaching staff because we want to make sure that they can give us their feelings and their opinions on how to best present and handle the new schedules for students. So, we want to make sure that our students are getting everything that they currently have. It's just a way of manip manipulating schedules in order to do that. Um I feel very confident we have a scheduling committee meeting tomorrow. Um when
057we met last with our committee, our goal was to narrow it from six different schedules scale up to two and we put out a survey for everyone in the building to take and I feel that by tomorrow after school when we meet we'll be able to have two schedules to work with and then the next meeting we'll narrow them down as far as time schedule by tweaking different things. Um as of right now there's not going to be any loss programs for our students. We're finding ways to make sure that we can still offer everything. Uh open communication is something that both Mr. Ster and I believe in and that's why we're doing the one-on-one meetings with our teaching staff. That way they can feel like they have some ownership of what the new schedule
058is going to look like at the middle school. So hopefully when we meet again at the uh next workshop meeting, I'll be able to give you an update. And you know it is a priority because we've got to get that schedule created to start putting kids into classes for next year. Thank you Steve for the special effort there. Sounds like a lot of work. Oh, and I must say good news. uh we did need that I meet with the nutrition group and our head book let them look at the the six different schedules and they're fine with all of them because obviously you know that's something we need to look at it it's something we can't leave out but we've got to feed those kids and based on the contract with the nutrition group we
059wanted to make sure that they're going to be able to handle all the schedules that we presented uh so we did meet with them last week and it's a go they they said definitely manipulate their staff to cover every schedule we could. That's great. Good evening. Um, as mentioned earlier, I'd like to give a big shout out to our school social workers. Um, I have the luxury of working really closely with Mr. Ghart on a daily basis and the interventions and um, collab approaches that she puts in place every day for our students is spectacular. So kudos to the rest of them as well. I'm sure they're equally as spectacular as she is. I decided to actually work with Mary Joe. Before I get any further, I just want to introduce Don Benner is here
060with the hang ambulance in case you're wondering why. Um our student ambassadors though did speak at the last workshop meeting discussing the qual promise activity that we are planning for Thursday May 1st with coordination of Dawn and our student forum group um through her help. They have also applied for the highway safety grant response promise which is the thousand dollars we've asked for which would allow us to have resources for that day which is sticker bracelets and if you have any questions for Don while she is here um regarding it it's the opportunity to I didn't know if anyone had any questions about that students went over all the details of setting up an accident scene they are going to then you know be victims for the day it's very scripted um we possibly could
061have a helicopter landing here on site. So there'll be a lot of action going on school grounds technical that activity obviously we put it district out just telling people we make sure to avoid as we originally spoke with Don she like oh let's do 8:30 at that time we're obviously going to time it perfectly too so it's not impacting the rest of the schools but does anyone have any specific questions for Don um something that previously had been done here years ago and we're trying to bring that back just as a you know precursor with our students and really educate them and be preventative about no questions, but I'd like to say thank you for participating in this. That's great. Can can the students actually get any sort of certifications for like CPR or anything
062from this? So, we have been hosting CPR and first aid classes periodically. Um, this year we're working with two of them. And then the senior class, we do a non-certification class. We do hands only CPR or stop the bleed and narcan administration um which we do again in a year for them as part of the graduation requirement that times uh several years ago. Yeah. So when they think they're done with this after finals we bring them back and that's one of the things we'll do all the CPR but actually see the CPR certification Wednesday after school for students who have signed up for it. Sounds great. So so that's what's going on there. Obviously, thank you all. So, you're you're going you want to save just let you know. Um and and also just in
063regards to as everyone's kind of mentioned, scheduling time is is occurring. So, the high school um has completed course selection. Um guidance counselors actually went down to the middle school, worked with our eighth grade students um and then 9th, 10th and 11th grade or in 11th grade. Um we implemented a hybrid model this year uh with our eighth grade students coming up and that was partially going back to you know really looking at data. We do a lot of data collection here at school district but starting to use that wisely and make um better growth decisions for our students. So that data um has been used to kind of help guide students as they're coming into the high school to pre-populate your core classes. Um obviously there's always going to be questions and concerns regarding
064that and it is you know we do have some flexibility to that and students have and parents have the ability to meet with us and you may drop um and add form to alter recommendations but again that is based off requirements and criteria uh test results. So that has worked out well. Uh sections are kind of produced and we're going to start building the schedule moving forward for next year with our guidance team on that. Um, as uh Anna mentioned, the scholarship process is underway. Mr. Brown and I have recused ourselves from the scholarship committee this year um due to the fact that we both have um either a child or relative in senior class. So, we are not involved in that process. I will just be there on April 26. So, warning the students
065um when I find out as they do that day as well. Um so, that is going on. We thank Gretchen and Mr. Moser for for helping um here take care of that with Mrs. Cnu later. Um bunch of activities as we mentioned are going on. So mama mia is starting this Thursday as well as well as mamia going on Friday into Saturday against the Daniel basketball tournament. So they will be setting up Friday evening and then the tournament will take place on Saturday all day. Um with that tournament they have also um host a scholarship and that scholarship has grown and they've increased the funding for that scholarship this year. So we thank them and as well to support the Diane basketball tournament. The travel is going on for a lot of our students. As
066mentioned, science Olympia is at the end of April, but the veterary high school band will be traveling to Nashville um the beginning of April. So April 4th through 7th, we'll be sending over 100 students to Nashville, Tennessee on planes. So that will be occurring and coinciding with that stage will also take place uh April 6th through 9. So, our students will be traveling um out to Hershey to compete in the EPA state competition science day at the end of the month. There's a lot of stuff going on and then we're we're cranking last year. It's pretty much over high school. It's it's testing. I know it's it's finals, it's AP testing, it's Keystone testing, it's prom, it's scripts. There's not really a free. Um so, we're pretty busy right now. Thank you. LRC gave press
067an email to Jason and I. He doesn't have any updates right now. So we will move on to the uh this month we had a presentation and a video. The video is actually linked. Yeah, you can put a video there. program and project search. It's about as a person becoming more independent, waking up on my own, setting alarms when I needed also about the community of friends and relationships, about being a VIP. I went up I played all these other classics online that went different that I did. It's not just another school program. It is a literal life for many adults that are going through it approach. Jamie for VIP says we aim to turn these students into contributing members of society when they graduate. are set up with adult services to ensure they succeed
068after they leave. We're not employees 100% of the time, but people know we are employees. And so to try and help them transition from I'm a student to I'm just an adult in the world is the biggest adjustment I think that it goes for. Jim Bever also from VIP says these skills will then lead a child to become a more productive family member at home as they learn to take and become self around the house here to help with cooking a meal once or twice a week as they learn these programs. We've seen students make sure their fellow classmates are not left behind has seen her project search intern each other and help each other. It's really neat to see. I feel like there builds a confidence in the person that is helping them and
069then there's that comfort level because they are peers and when you can master something and teach somebody else you know that's when you know that you really know something and I feel like since they are peers they're playing to learn their ears. When all of these new skills attributes experiences and memories come together we see pride and confidence in our students. I am very proud if you would have asked me few years ago I would be doing it right now. I would have said no I outside totally changed your life for the better. So it's great to see all the programs that the IU provides um you know being the representative for the last couple of years. This was an interesting one because it takes place after student leaves the halls of the IU. Um
070we got to see a presentation by Nathan to Elandro uh who basically you know he told us how it was going with his life and how you know people at the IU were helping him transition into the real. So that that was a great very positive experience. I also want to talk about this uh Carbon Lehigh Children's Golf Tournament that will be held Tuesday June 17 2025 at the old Homestead Golf Course in New Tripoli. Uh you can visit www.clsnc clsncf.org for all signups opportunities and different updates. And I believe Janine, you have attended a program over the last week at the web, correct? Yes, I did. Sure. I don't normally have a report. I do today. So, um I did write something this week. Um, so at the end of last school year, I
071was contacted by Michael Heater and the coordinator of the CLI to be one of a handful of veteran executive assistants around Carvin and Lehigh counties to spearhead an initiative of planning a professional development for administrative assistants that are served throughout the CLIU area. The planning committee met virtually to nail down a date in March of 2025, create an agenda with topics tailored to the needs of admin assistance and uh for enhancing productivity and efficiency and to allocate an appropriate need for the event. So on Thursday, March 20th, along with six district administrative assistants, I attended the heart of the school elevating and empowering administrative assistance professional development which was held at the LRYC community service center. So we started off with a gather activity where people who were in similar positions uh grouped together and
072created a collective resume. So um it was really nice to see that almost every group had a um like a combined experience of at least a hundred years. Yeah, pretty good. Um Kim Talipan the CLA who's an assistant to the executive director was the keynote speaker and I'm going to share something about that in a minute. Um we then broke out into choose your own breakout sessions. So there was a choice between the basics Monica where you can learn how to create flyers, invitations and newsletters or Microsoft speak basics with Melissa. I missed that little one. Um where you could create, edit and collaborate on documents using Word, Excel or PowerPoint. Then the next breakout session was my choice of Google Drive basics with Kelly where you could learn how to use Google Workspace with
073any basic functions of Google Docs, Sheets, and Slides. Or you could go to the Google Drive intermediate skills with which was meant for those who already had the basic skills and wanted to learn more advanced tips and tricks um to stream to streamline your workflow and boost productivity. So after lunch, the afternoon sessions included AI for administrative assistance with Melissa. This was definitely a fan favorite. Everybody loved the AI. Um it was tips and tricks on enhancing productivity by revolutionizing daily tasks. Um we concluded with a wellness session with Michael Heer and the CNI crew. The wellness session helped us to be mindful of the importance of mental and emotional health and how an intentional five minutes of mindful rest can actually make a really big difference in productivity. So we then created wellness art
074together like as a group and then head back to the district. So that was our day. I just wanted to play something for you originally. Janine also drove up the van. I passed everybody out. We were the only one that showed up in today. We're deep on something, you know, pretty crucial. Um especially source for this keynote by kid called hearts and it's straight in the sentence by and I got to say this whole idea of the smallest body the administr that's a really powerful image. Yeah it is and you know what really hits home with that analogy is just how much the heart puts it connects every single part of the whole system. Correct. Taliban makes this point that any issues popping up in one area, whether it's student services or testing, HR, special
075ed, it all impacts the whole system. And for school board members or people in the community, that interconnectedness, I think it really underscores how important the well-being of those administrative assistants is for well, the entire school, for everybody. Yeah. And she really breaks down, you know, how these folks are constantly pumping all this information and services throughout the entire system. Yeah. Think about it. Managing student records, that's got to be a massive amount of data. Oh, absolutely. And that directly ties into it all. And they're that central point for communication between departments, families, keeping everything flowing. Yeah. And building on that, there's also this huge role they play in regulating the pressure, you know, of a school. Just by managing deadlines effectively and thinking ahead, they prevented these small things from snowballing into these big
076crises. That's so that was just a little um so that podcast was actually completely created with AI. Um, we learned about an AI research assistant tool called Notebook LM. And this online tool utilizes AI to synthesize documents to prepare briefing documents and to create podcasts. So that entire deep dive was researched, drafted, and generated by AI. So those voices were not even actual people. They were completely computerated. So, it kind of blew our minds that like they aren't even. So, it actually will take um bits and pieces of things that you put in there. It will research it. It will take your notes. Um you can put in key notes, things that you're interested in, research everything all at once, and then draft things according to whatever you're So, I thought that was really So,
077just wanted to share that with you. A little scary, a little cool, a little boat. Thank you, Jane. I think you have highlighted perfectly that the IU doesn't just help the children, it helps our staff as well. So, thank you very much for uh sharing your experience with us. You're welcome. And that concludes my report. Good to hear. CC National Honor Society induction was held this past Tuesday evening. 10 students were inducted. This is the largest number of inductees they've had in the last eight years. Lee Heighten now has five current members in the National Technical Honor Society. LRC advanced mobile manufacturing lab will be arriving at CCTI the first week of April to provide 15 students 16 hours of practical and hands-on training in various aspects of manufacturing and industrial automation. Um, CCTI is
078putting on holding a summer math camp for two weeks beginning June 16th to the 19th and then the 23rd and the 26th from 9 to 12 Monday through Thursday to campus for 9th through 12th grade students. Transportation will be provided um and with regret at the last meeting we accepted the reservation of principal Mrs. Allen. This concludes our report. Thank you. I don't have much. Um, we basically talked about budget and fundraising and that concludes. All right. Moving on to item 1.10 to either a motion to approve the minutes of the revised February 24th board meeting, March 10th special board meeting, and the March 10th workshop meeting. So moved. Second. Any comments or questions on this item? Yeah, I have a comment. Um I don't know how many directors actually read the minutes. Um I
079really don't. I was lucky enough to catch a mistake that went throughout the document. It was if you made the mistake in one place, it was going to follow down. um thankfully carry caught others, but it is really important since the minutes are a permanent record of what occurs here. So if you're not reading them, you really should be because we're not going to catch everything because I miss stuff and Harry caught it. My goodness. So it's something that directors need to understand. It is important to read the minutes and not just for the content. Yeah. I mean, not just make sure everything was in there that said, um, but to look at the just the way it's structured, too. Thanks, Mark. Other comments? All those in favor? I opposed. Extensions. The eyes have it.
080Moving on to item part two, item 2.1, which is the consent agenda. Do I hear a motion to approve items 2.2 through 2.9? So motion comments or questions on these items? All those in favor? I opposed abstensions. Nice have it. Moving on to item 2.10, the crossing bar agreement. So I hear a motion to approve the attached agreement between the Lee Heighten area school district of Lehigh regarding the payment uh for the supply crossing guards effective March 1st uh 2025 through April 1st 2028 was a three-year contract. I'll make that motion. Second. Thomas, your questions on this? We've been bullying it for some time. I think the burrow's already taken a step in this direction. All those in favor? I have a question for the burrow. Are they going to they're going to be saving,
081you know, a certain amount of money on this? Are they going to be able to in some way give that back to the taxpayers? Michael in such I mean I I would offer a suggestion that perhaps drop on their own occupation tax that's going to happen. Just any other comments or questions have to be a roll call contract. Oh you are correct. Other comments or questions roll Miss Barbara Bose, I'm going to abstain because I asked for information that I never got, so I can't make an educated decision. Mr. Dwayne Deler, yes. Mr. Shan Le, yes. Mr. Jeremy GL, yes. Miss, yes. Mrs. Carrie Sidler, yes. And Mr. Peters, yes. Success plan on item 211. Do I hear a motion to make the following transfer from the general fund to the food service fund as
082per second? All those in favor? Opposed abstensions item 212 a motion to approve $4,500 to be paid by the district for science Olympia junior to attend state competition in Altuna April 25th through the 27th. So second any comments or questions? All those in favor? Opposed abstensions. The eyes have it. Good luck to them. Item 213. Do I hear a motion to approve the following exemptions from per capita andor occupation tax? Comments or questions from the board? Just have a quick question. Can um items 2.13 and 2.14 can they be moved to consent agenda at some point in time because I mean unless there's a stupid reason that somebody has uh for getting an exemption say no every now and then someone has to abstain if it's close family oh I see it happens it happens
083occasionally my dad was on there time had a family member in the last couple years Okay. Other comments or questions? All those in favor? I opposed extensions. The eyes have it. Item 214. Do I hear a motion to approve the following refunds of per capita andor occupational tax? Second. Comments or questions? All those in favor? Opposed abstensions. The eyes have it. Moving on to item 215. Do I hear a motion to approve the Huntful Area High School and the High Area Middle School activities funds for February? So move second. Comments or questions? All those in favor? I oppose. No extensions. The eyes have it. plan 216. Do I hear a motion to approve the following reports for February? The condensed board summary, expenditure report, revenue report, treasures report, and the new fund summary. So moved.
084Second. Comments or questions from the board? All those in favor? I oppose abstensions. Item number 217 payment bills. Do I hear a motion to approve the following payment bills for March? 3,465,395.73. So comments or questions? Yes, I have a comment. Um and a concern actually um there was because of the way something was scanned. I had questioned something on this and um I was sent it today. You know, I questioned it this morning. I got it like within a half hour. Um but the concern was the it was invoiced on in September 4th and 10th and we're paying it six months late. I don't know what happened. I mean, sometimes invoices don't get to us. Um, and I'm going to go through that with Becky um to see if she can find out why. Um,
085and it could be it got, we've had this happen before where something got in the slate, it didn't get turned over, but whatever process that we need to put in place. So, that doesn't happen and it could have nothing to do with that. Um, but the way it was scanned in, it had been enlarged and you couldn't see any. You just saw like the center of the page. So, I mean, and apparently that's how it was sent over from the school that sent it. So, it occurred there. Um, but anyway, I once I got the actual invoice um that was sent to us, I was like September, September 4th and September 10th. We weren't charged extra, but that just bothers me that, you know, we it and it's happened in the past and it's been
086for different reasons. Sometimes the bills just don't get to us. We don't receive them. So, um, that's happened, too. You also want to talk about the blue bill. Oh, yeah. Um, I was hoping Justin Yeah. Um, I believe it was MLK Enterprises or something. Um, I don't know why TMCO, unless they are a subcontractor, TMCO maybe, because it was built as a roof loop and it was on the EC. What concerns me is that there's a brick missing. And we're all sensitive over. Yeah, you got that right. And lentils, too. But I mean, you know, not lentils. Lentils. Thank you. Um, and I did have a question for you on that actually. Is that a structural problem or just So, um, so brick no longer in new construction is part of the superructure. So, it's
087technically not. So, the steel was actually connected to steel. No, those um lintils within brick facads are called loose lintils because they're not connected to anything. They're completely So if the brick deteriorates then the lintil could I mean certainly steel happens tends to rust. Usually you want to keep water out. Correct. Usually loose are galvanized, but galvanizing is expensive and sometimes it gets old. All I know is it's been steel. That's what I've heard. So um even galvanized rust. So yeah, I know because my galvanized gate just rusted down. So yes, 20 years of setting a corner and whatnot. Great. So I think the issue just is is are these things been tracked? Is the relationship? Yeah. Is there someone tracking these things especially with the say since it's seven years old? Not even um
088I think Jason will probably have to get back to us. I will have to certainly get back to continue even beyond December to be watching for those bills because I mean there's nothing we can do about it at this point as far as I know but I do remember hearing a lot of when it was being built a lot of issues around the concrete brick work. So yeah. Um other comments or questions on the bills? All those in favor? I opposed abstensions. The eyes had it. Moving on to part three, personnel item 3.1. Do I hear a motion to approve items 3.2 through 6.6? Second. Comments or questions? Is there a list of and maybe I'm missing it in the giant packet here of the candidates for athletic coaching? Was that included in Jane? Did
089you bring it up on the screen? What do you mean the candidate? It's it's Todd Coler, track worker. Ron Leopold, volunteer middle school's soccer coach. Jenna Duboski, volunteer volleyball coach, spring game managers Renee Maranti, Ron Ravenold and Diane Brown Miller and extracurricular activities Douglas Bowman, spring weight training advisor and Guy Pototts, sorry, Dots, spring weight training advisor. Thank you so much. Depends on the French pronunciation. Is there a reason? Is there a reason 3.6 and 3.11 are not combined? Probably because 3.6 we had that before the workshop and 3.11 popped up since then. Yeah. Other questions? All those in favor? Opposed? Abstensions? The eyes have it. Moving on item 3.7. Do I hear a motion to approve the following? Do I hear a motion to accept the memorandum of agreement between the Lehigh Area School
090District and the Lehigh Area Education Support Professional Association for the BHA program in the elementary center in the 24 to 25 school year? So move second. Any comments or questions? Does that have to be a telephone call? Probably. Yeah, it's contractual. So I would hear on the side of the caution. [Music] There are no questions. J roll call. Miss Barose. Yes. Mr. Delica. Yes. Mr. Shan Lee. Yes. Mr. Jeremy Gloss, yes. Miss Heather Knack, yes. Mrs. Karen Settler, yes. And Mr. Be item 3.8. Very similar. Do I hear a motion to accept the memorandum of agreement between the Lehigh uh school district and the Leehigh Education Association for the BHA program and the elementary center for the 24 to 25 school year? Senator M. Yes. Mr. Dwayne Deler. Yes. Mr. Shan Lee. Yes. Mr. Jeremy
091Blow. Yes. Miss Heather Net. Yes. Mrs. Carrie Ser. Yes. And Mr. Yes. Thank you. It 3.9. I hear a motion to approve the following candidates for employment in accordance with the respective contract. So comments or questions from the board? All those in favor? Opposed? Abstensions? You guys have it? I believe Miss is here. I welcome aboard. Item 310. So I hear a motion to approve the following list of requested candidates for the 2425 substitute list pending any necessary paperwork. Comments or questions? All those in favor? I opposed extensions. The eyes have it. Item 311. So I hear a motion to approve Gerald Hagener as Georgia's transportation company additional school bus driver for the 24 to 25 school year. Second comments or questions? All those in favor? Opposed? Extensions. The eyes have it. Item 312. Do
092I hear a motion to approve the network opportunities to approve? I'll second it. Comments or questions? All those in favor? Opposed? Abstensions? The eyes have it. Item 33. Do I hear a motion to approve the following requests for pre-approval of courses and programs of study for employee continuing education? Three of them. Comments, questions. All those in favor? I opposed extensions. The audience have it. Item 314. Do I hear a motion to acknowledge FMLA leave for the following employees not to exceed 12 weeks? Three amendment. Comments or questions? All those in favor? [Music] Opposed? Part four programs item 4.1 consent agenda. Do I hear a motion to approve items 4.2 through 4.6? So moved. Second, comments or questions? Just want to thank Jason for the change to that one policy that we were looking at last
093meeting. Social walls that was perfect actually just very easy wording and cannot be too in any way. Thank you. Did anyone else um offer any other changes other than what was discussed? Okay. Nothing heard. No, I didn't hear anything else either except for what was discussed. Yeah, I just wanted to make sure that nobody contacted anybody. I didn't have a contact. Other questions? All those in favor? Opposed? extensions. The eyes have it. Moving on to the next item. A motion to approve the extended school year for students at all with the program specifics. Uh share below. So comments or questions from the board? Just want to remind the board that this is uh something Sandy presented. She she discussed and presented audit the extended school year is exactly so this is just the formal approval
094questions. All those in favor I oppose abstensions. The eyes have it for either a motion to approve the following jury requests items 1 through seven. So move second. Comments or questions? All those in favor? Opposed? Abstensions? The eyes have it. Do I hear a motion to approve on use of school property for the following request? Items one through three move. I'll answer questions. Well, let's see. Trevor Miller didn't get it every day, but I'm not going to. No, I think we're making it clear. Well, it's also boys basketball, so it's you know, right? Other comments? All those in favor? Opposed? Abstensions? The audience have it. Moving on to part five. Do I hear a motion to approve the use of YouTube to stream any and all meetings of the May area school district board of
095directors that are recorded for the reasons mentioned in Gretchen's email from February 26? So moved second comments or questions on this item? I know we checked with our current contract comes out in September. There was an issue with the owl with the last meeting, but she thought it was because nobody was logged in to watch the meeting. So, we have till September work out any glitches and get it down. But I I can say six months. That's good. I can Well, hopefully it'll get done too soon. But um I can say that the uh quality of um the audio is you actually have to turn it down. So that's nice. That's good. And and there's a little bit here and there, but other than that, and probably you wouldn't even have to do that once
096we're not using microphones. So, I think it works better when the microphones are not on and you hear better and it focuses better. Yeah, I I like that that it turns around and it looks at who's speaking. But it needs Are you listening out? That it's not looking at you. I know. And I'm talking. It's looking at Carrie. Oh, wait. It's making its way over. Yeah. But that's why I said yes. No, I was looking at Jeremy. Sorry. So, will the comment section be open? That's my only concern. And if I can you hear me, Janine? [Music] Any comments or question? Other comments or questions? All those in favor? I opposed extensions and all eyes have it on six business. Um Jason 6.1 I do not have any updates at this time and I have
097put some I put a request out. So I hopefully in April we'll have more of an update there traffic light. though uh there is a multimodal brain opportunity. Um so Janine set up a meeting I forget the date April 10th I believe it is April 10th with uh with with Royal Hefty. So looking to gain some traction in terms of working with working with other governmental entities to try to line up some grant funding for that and maybe also start moving it quick more quickly through uh the pendot system for the plan. I said it with a spark. I said it with a spark. But but you know, we are trying to make some progress in in not only lining up funding, but also potentially getting some support and help in ushering it through a
098little bit more expediently. We'll see where it goes. Okay. 6.3 long range facilities planning. Um, as I I I mentioned at the last meeting, I had a meeting with with a company. Um, prior to that meeting I had and then since then I've had another meeting with a company that does, but it it's really an asset inventory. Um, and I got a quote from them as well. Uh, I'm still looking to get at least one more company that deals in the same realm of what we're looking at, which is, you know, getting information provided to us so that we can make an educated forecast for capital improvement projects along the way so we're not deferring maintenance costs so that they then end up piling up and costing for they need to in the long run.
099Um, so it's really, you know, looking for something that, uh, provides the database for us to be able to really run reports as far as what's what in our equipment all the way from lights to, uh, boilers and roofs and everything in between. Um, what's coming up on its end of warranty, what's coming up at the end of life expectancy. Um, so I, you know, two so far. What I will be doing is trying to get a third and then put together essentially a comparison chart to with with pros and cons of all and costs included but also services included um for for all for all three that we we try to look at. I have to be honest, um the third is not necessarily all that easy to find because I what I'm finding
100is that there aren't a lot of companies. Um it's a very specific it's very niche uh thing, but I I will get a third from somewhere before I bring anything further to the board. I'm hoping to have that done by the workshop meeting in April. Great. 6.4 before the clean should uh still have you know we had a long list of details that we that we would need to work through. We started to get some some guidance on those things and get some more information. Um it is pretty clear that obviously it will not that we've missed the deadline participate this spring but I think on the positive side if we are going to move forward with this we're doing it in a way that is is thoughtful careful and and uh making sure that
101we have everything in a row and we're not we're not kind of rushing towards a budget something that's been of interest to reflect on my grant writer option Yeah. So, I did reach out to a company uh that's fairly local out of Lern County um to try to set up a meeting um I'm hopeful that I will have that within the next week um to really kind of take a look at what kinds of options could we do for some of those competitive grants or or non-standard grants. Um certainly not something I would I would recommend partnering with a with anybody to do on a commission based the grants that we know are guaranteed. We talked about that before the non-competitive the ones that we're going to get. Yeah. Why give out money? We're not
102give out. So, um I really want to focus the conversation on on competitive grants externally and then um I will report back when I find out more information as far as what do they take. One of the good things is is they are local. So, that could that could definitely be an advantage to work with somebody who is local because um they tend to want to be more responsive in most cases. um evidence. Yeah. With certain judges and whatnot. Yeah. So, I got 6.6. So, I wasn't at the workshop, but I had put this on the agenda. This had come from a community member. They had asked if it were possible if the district could warn taxpayers that they're soon going to be referred to collections. I don't know whether discussion was late or what
103you guys are planning. So, well, my my thoughts were um that we need to be careful for legal reasons like what was said. Um, I was thinking more along the lines of a phone call and whatnot, but um, I mean, if you're not if you don't pay your taxes by 12:31, you get referred for a lean. I mean, that's but and but I do understand, but we also have a contract with Burkheim. So, I just don't know. I mean that would all need to be just don't want us to get in trouble. Correct. I think Jason had mentioned something about form letter. Yes. Yes. Yeah. If we were doing that down this road, we wanted you know write write a form letter that got through by our solicitor so that we were that we were
104staying inbound. Um and then it's the same communication that goes out to anybody who receives such communication. I would be hesitant of a phone call because yeah, that that was my biggest thing. You have to make sure whoever's making the phone call says the same thing stays on script and doesn't go beyond that and that you're actually talking to the person is say yes, but they're not. Um yeah, so I you know we can we can work on letters if the board would like me to work on something. Um, and you know, Matt, I think Matt and I can come up with something that was pretty, you know, pretty effective for what we're looking at. You also have to put in the caveat. If you don't send in your taxes, please disregard. Yeah. So, so
105Matt, you seem like you were going to say something. You have some experience in another district. Well, I was just going to clarify. So, Porto does before they do a leave, they do send a letter. Sorry. Cornov does give you a letter uh before they go to and so they actually when we turn over they'll send out the letter provided you they charge for that though I think it's $25 they do for the processing for for the file set they give you um but they do that which is cheaper than a lean right because there's a cost with with mailing the volume of it and if you get that letter and you call them and you say it was a mistake they have paid it, then they resolve it. There's no fee to either of
106us. If you get a letter, you say, "Yeah, I fell behind. Here's my situation." They'll start to work with you to avoid those more costs in the um expenses. I'll pull the board. I'll start with you, Dwayne. You think the district should send out a form letter to call or what's your thoughts? Well, I I think it's a good idea to give everybody every opportunity to, you know, pay those taxes if at all possible before going to leave. It sounds like Matt explained that there is a procedure that's already followed. But you look at the tax claim list in the newspaper and year after year there's a bunch of those are the same people. So, I mean, for the odd fellow who actually misplaces their tax bill and doesn't get there till the end of
107the year till they get a notice from Port Knocker or whoever, they're already subjected to that 10% penalty. What's another $25 because somebody mailed them a notice and it, hey, you forgot to pay this. So, I mean, I really don't care one way or another. I I like the idea of giving the residents one last opportunity before I I personally am against property taxes. I I think you I think you're you're preaching to the you don't ruin anything anymore. You're renting it from government. Yeah, that's not that's not part of what we're debating. I know you said so. I'd like to say yes for making sure that they have every opportunity before they incur charges. Of course, sometimes incur more charges for us. So, you know, mailing and such. So, I'm that that's where I
108don't really like the idea. Um, so could try it and see how burden burden some it is in one year. We could I mean well we go back and look historically how long those lists are and how much do we think it's going to cost us and post them alone and then and envelopes and everything that we're sending. And perhaps we should do a dive into it to find out what it's been in this store. Yeah. Matt, do you recall off hand what our collection rate was was like 97%. Yeah, I know it went up from 95. Correct. The other thing is that um some tax collectors as you see on the reports they record everything by hand. So we would need to take from those lists, create a list to do a mail merge
109to then send out those letters as well. So that would be it would just be as clean as like a download file from for some of the tax collectors didn't want the software. So then it becomes cumbersome upon one of the employees in the district to help to go back and do all that when I mean where where does it end and how much do we spend? That's the key. But don't we have to collect that information called port? No, the tax collectors send it in don't they? The tax collector send it in and then Port does that data entry for you as part of their services. So the district's not involved in the workflow at all. Uh just the reconciliation. We make sure that if the tax collector, the record that we bring to
110the board is correct. There's no inaccuracies on it, but that record gets a hand off to off the district doesn't get involved in. That brings another complication into it. Does it get lost when it comes back to us? And then who gets blamed for that? And then you know what I mean? Does the taxpayer then have to pay a fee because we screwed up? I mean, no, I had thought that we were collecting the names of pushing it to board, right? Well, that's what this discussion is about. I just finding out all the pitfalls. So, I appreciate Matt being here tonight to be able to answer that. My thoughts are how much is it going to cost the district? I mean, somebody's going to do it. How many hours is it going to take? How
111much are we paying that person an hour? And then use Prices, stamps are going up more and more and more every seems like six months, but I could be wrong. Um, envelopes and then you got to pay the envelopes. I think it's to the post office. It's just Okay. Um, what is the uh postal service ripping us off per letter? I bought I bought stamps long ago and I'm still using those. So, I think they it was 43 cents back then. I just I think it it could end up being a lot of work. And um I don't I don't know if I was here when the stuff from with the tax collectors came [Music] through, but if you look under final reports, it'll say how many were turned over or lean. And some of
112them don't have anything there. Certainly the one handwritten one that stands out did not. So I don't know how that works. I did not realize my concern was the legal aspect. Yeah. And because we do have a contract with Portal that would, you know, um I mean it would be nice if you could go knock on their door and say, "Hey, can I help?" But you can't do that. I agree with very I have a lot of opinions myself. Is this debating whether or not we are property taxes? This is not occupational tax. This is property tax. These are property taxes. People don't pay their property taxes. And then maybe I referred to Portoff. I did not understand that that didn't happen within our office. I didn't realize that it was happening outside of us
113and that we weren't, you know, handling the names ourselves. So, I'm starting to fall in with Carrie and Heather on this matter that it's sounding like an expensive endeavor, but right. So, what's the alternative? to continue doing what we're doing. You know, this community member wanted to just add another step in the process and it's more than just adding a single step in the process. Well, it's labor intensive apparently and we don't have the extra labor. You know, these people have enough to do. Yeah. I think the misunderstanding was if we were collecting the names and then forwarding names and addresses to ordinal, it would have been easy to have extra. We're not doing that. So, we don't actually have the names before that. Matt, do you know uh I believe Amanda had mentioned Amanda
114Kilbra that the tax collector send out a letter before it goes. Oh, yeah. They did. Okay. Okay. Well, that's they let you know that it's coming. It's coming up. I think it's like the end of November. I know. I've gotten them in the past. to they do to their their interest to collect because they get paid based on how they collect. Yeah. So then it sounds to me like we don't need to do anything. No, I think we're moving away from this issue. I was just going to say that. Is everyone ready to move on to the next item? Yes, sounds good to me. Um 6 6.7 before and after school care programs. Um, this got onto the agenda because April Walker and I had been chatting with Aaron this free form talk when the
115board was doing walk through and and Karen had that other districts had something like this that was, you know, improving the lives of children and and and families and how could we have something like that here? Yeah. Yes. I had a follow-up conversation with with Mr. Sman. Um I I think one of the things and and I've reached out to somebody who is a regional regional representative of the YMCA. Um I know we don't have a local YMCA, but they do stretch out into because they they cover an entire region and they can stretch out even if there's not a physical location present. Um you know, I I think one of the things one of the most common is is white. It's called Y Care. Literally, it's before and after school care. Um, and what
116they do is they keep cost down. They they do a lot of obviously the YMCA does a lot of fundraising. Um, a lot of community based programs that keep cost relatively low or free for some students depending upon need. I think that's a great avenue to start. So, I've at least initiated that. Um and and we'll you know as we as we get gain more information maybe it's bringing other maybe it's bringing other uh entities to the table as well. Um but I I I think we can at least learn a lot about how they by getting some information from that if we don't end up partnering with Sean's board meeting. He's been thinking about he might need to leave at 9:00 and we're good. All right, great. So part seven, item 7.1 actually Sean
117was something you had brought up I think actually to Jeremy last year when he'd been collecting thoughts from board members and um yeah I don't actually have a whole lot prepared with this. The whole conversation came up uh due to the hurricane that hit North Carolina last year and the whole mindset was how would we as a community respond to an event such as that. Um and we really haven't talked about it much beyond that. Um I I think my my thoughts were how will we respond in the event of a natural disaster or something worse than that. um like where is it to the point where people can come to for food or supplies? Um you know, how are we going to communicate if cell phones don't work? You know, get radio communications, things
118like that. Um I thought this might be a good place to have the conversation. Um get community involved, get churches involved. Um maybe the gymnasium could be like a rende point for people to come if they need food or shelter, things of that nature. So, um, more or less just want to start a conversation about it. Um, didn't we just, um, partner with, um, I can't remember the name of it for a disaster plan where our facilities are used for disaster. I remember there was Yeah, that was something recently. If I may, the Carbon County Emergency Management Agency is generally who oversees all of that stuff and the development of emergency management plans. They also have a group called the local emergency planning committee and they actually stage usually two planned events a year where
119a whole group of people sit around the tables and they figure out how they're going to deal with everything from transportation to getting services up and running. Right. So, and I know the school district has an emergency management plan because the book is up there in Nescoon at the emergency management center. And we just voted on that. Um January maybe I it wasn't that long ago as I remember reading it. That's really all I have at the moment. Yeah. I I would like to explore this further and this is some good information that others have not aware of. So in that group come talk to us and maybe give a presentation and I suppose okay yeah I mean all of these hypotheticals I mean you just go for the district to be part of solving
120supporting the community correct could be you know an event like a hurricane or whatever we're closer to the shore than where that happened in as a client and condition. So, I mean, whatever is possible, it could be three, four days. We've had some pretty bad flooding events. Not necessarily right here. My basement being one of them on numerous occasions. Well, I wasn't. Thankfully, I was not here then. I was in New Jersey and it kind of just missed us, right? A killing. I was out in Pennsylvania and they are right on the the Susana and I saw the water lines in the houses 10 10 12 feet up. It was right there can be a wildfire. We had some scares not that long ago actually all around us. So um basically it's how do we
121communicate to people and how do we get food and shelter and supplies to people and what's the plan? And um these plans are are great but you also need to practice like a big believer in scenario training. um actually, you know, practice these things. You know, do you have your radios charged and programmed and things of that nature? It's just, you know, make sure Well, isn't the county now working on getting radio communications to where everybody's on the same frequency, the same type of radio? I know it's going to cost millions. Yeah. The entire town. They are working towards it but they are well I watched the commissioner's meeting but we haven't we have not gotten a specific time frame I don't believe matter if you recall it's I think it was maybe three years
122out or two two years out along those lines because we're going to actually have to invest it in right right I think our first step is to obviously review that plan that we do have on file take a look at that see you know for the trustes your concerns and then meet with people at the best way we're talking about should be attached to whatever agenda and we could definitely work on it at workshop and discuss where we could improve it or if there's no need to improve it but I mean we you know should know who who is coordinating all it and I'm sure that's in our plan but again as long what's that it's the county it's jump so in the past the public health preparedness coordinator from Parisburg we coordinate with our
123district to work with in case of emergency to use our site. Um so I just ordered the email from actually back in 2020 when Carbon County and the department of health set up that we had a massive um flu um shot clinic which was just in preparation coming out of CO and what we use. They also have four facilities. We used to have a plan and agreement where they with co working with St. lose stress time because that was clear hospital. We look at our elementary centers for areas if needed unfortunately in case of disaster for warms and overflow and all those kind of things. So I just contact I think he has retired since then contact because they come on site toward the high school that could also be something we could address in
124our agreements with Lehigh Valley Health or St. Luke's just something to keep in mind when we're going through that. Any progress on that by the way? RFPs are out. So, I would think was the deadline April. Oh, I didn't know what the deadline was. Were they online or were they just sent to the two hospitals posted? Okay. It was probably in your update and I missed that date. So, I apologize if it was. I I don't I actually don't think that was it. I have to check the um just just a word of caution on on the pandemic stuff. go. Five years ago, a pandemic was announced to the world. Fast forward five years and we find out that half of the information that was distributed to the American people was not true. Three quarters.
125Okay, I would have gone further, but and I think we need to be very careful that we don't just blindly follow. We've got a ton of intelligent people around this table. We've got a ton of intelligent people working in the school district. To blindly follow is not a good idea. We should be at the top of our game at all times. Does anybody else have any comments on this item before we move on? Great. Let's see. We're moving on to part eight, item uh 8.1. Um, so I was fairly ill two weeks ago. It was the workshop meeting. I was not here, but I watched the workshop video and I've been thinking about how to strike this issue. Obviously, I reached out to Dwayne because some of his comments uh generated some concern and questions.
126And before I ask Dwayne, I want to ask Carrie, do you want to make any comments before Wayne makes a statement? You want to ask her any questions? I want your statement first. Okay. You know, we're all volunteers. We don't get paid to sit around this table. We do a lot of research every month for the meetings that we attend. I'm going to preface my remarks though with we have a lot of dedicated staff here, a lot of experience and they do a really great job. But I will not participate in social media making mountains out of molehill and creating more drama because of some keyboard warriors running around out there. At the last board meeting, when I was speaking about some less than ideal student behavior outside of the school regarding political activism, I
127used a figure of speech, nailed him to a wall. Over the last several weeks, a member of this board has chosen to make a big deal out of this figure of speech, even calling for my resignation. So, I decided, let's do a little bit of education being as we're in a school district. What exactly is a figure of speech? It's a word or phrase used in a nonliteral sense for rhetorical or vivid effect. A figure of speech is language that isn't meant to be taken literally using words in a nonliteral way to create a specific effect or meaning like a metaphor or assimilated or even figurative language. Of course, no one was actually nailed to a wall as anyone with common sense would know. What I find truly amazing is that some would choose to
128make a big deal out of a figure of speech all over social media rather than dealing with the potential issue of an employee of Lakean Area School District engaging in politics on the job and potentially encouraging kids to commit illegal acts if this political behavior is to continue. and and I've heard from members of the community outside since this came public after the last board meeting. Perhaps it's time that I put out a reward for information because I for one am not going to tolerate that behavior. In addition to the four figures of speech that I've used in this dirine. I would like to share with you one of my favorite figure of speeches and it actually comes from Martin Luther King. We must all learn to live together as brothers or we will perish
129together as fools. And that's all I have to say on the matter. We need to have thick skin as board members. Thank you, Dwayne. I don't want to beat too much of this to death. Um, Carrie, do you want to make a revolve? And I just have a motion. When you said you nailed him to the wall and you made that motion with your arm, that was a figure of speech. It was most certainly a figure of speech. I don't think anybody took it as a figure of speech. Of course you would 100% figure it. I know Dwayne. He's a colorful person. He uses color from color. We're going to end this discussion. Moving on to 8.2. Director's concerns. Do we have any new items that directors wish to bring up at this time? Not
130not that I want to drag on the meeting, but I actually have a more of a question and this actually gets back to the audit and looking at the financial statements and stuff. In looking back in the last three years, this board has been phenomenal. They have not raised property taxes, but yet you see the fund balance grow every year. If the fund balance is growing and we're not raising taxes, to me that says we're overt taxing. I'd love to see if we can come up with some kind of reduction in property taxes through this budget cycle. Thank you. So anyway, I agree with that and I have discussed it with Jason, but right now today Jason and Matt still don't have precise enough numbers to be able to have that type of discussion. Um,
131I thought we might talk about it today, but in talking with Jason, they're still trying to figure out the special ed numbers and things like that. Now, I have some stuff to say on that. We were using grant money to pay. I think it was either 11 or 13 positions. That's a lot of money that we were able to leave in the fund balance because we were using grant money. That grant money is gone. I'm not saying at all that we should raise taxes this upcoming budget, but all that federal money coming in and other money, I mean, we just got an extra million dollars out of the state. Who knows if that's going to be again, you know, next year. things are going to go back to normal and funding is going to look
132more normal after this cycle. Um, what I can say, and I didn't believe it when Bradley said it, but we actually have a higher collection rate for our taxes when we don't raise them. And it's true. You look over the last time it was raised, I think it was 94%. Might have been 95, but we haven't raised them. Now we're at 97. Now there's a lot of factors involved in that. When people sell their property, any back taxes have to get paid. That gets paid at closing. And that's anywhere. That's not just in Pennsylvania. Um, so I don't know how much that figures into it. But we're we're getting back to normal again and we're going to see normal um state and federal influx of funds. Um one of the things I mean I'm concerned
133about not necessarily losing the department of education but losing funding. Um, our our lunch is free. That comes from the Department of Agriculture. Yes, I know that. But it's it's all tied in. And they just cut a whole bunch of people out of the Department of Agriculture. They were just talking about how they were going to start splitting stuff off to different departments, right? And I understand that, but I'm just saying, look, it's things are in flux right now. We don't know. Agree. What I'm interested in seeing is that our fund balance has grown grown faster than those grants. I grant that we received funds. Um we received plans on the fund balance grew faster than that and and Jason has already admitted that he and and Matt had burned off $1.2 2 million in
134previous budgets that was not actually used and that's three mills which is why I would wait to see the numbers. We need to see where the change and that's what I'm saying. We need to see the numbers because the expenditures when you when you build a budget for expenditures we have two different healthare plans. So you have to figure a high percentage of people are going to take the more expensive one because you don't know. So, you have to kind of figure that it um we have we're gonna have to replace turf here coming pretty soon. Uh we're going to have and we're going to have some pretty more than likely large expenses cuz we're going to find wrong with buildings and various other things. I mean, rather than that, one of the things I
135would like to see, um, because it's not going to come back to a lot of money per person. I don't need 20 or 30 bucks back. What I'd like to see is insulate the fieldhouse, the new one, which has no insulation. I would like to see, let's get it heated with gas instead of electric, and save money there. It It's like when they're talking about this Doge thing and everybody can get a check for five grand. I'd rather they pay off 70 uh $36 trillion in debt and give me five grand. And I could use five grand, but I want there still to be a country when I'm sitting in a nursing home. But part of what Jason's doing by um investigating these companies that assist with capital planning is plan and know what we're
136doing and not just fearfully making decisions. But that's why I'm saying we shouldn't make a decision. Oh gee, we can cut taxes and everybody gets or whatever it is. I I think we could we could also, you know, once we get more more clarification and and crystallization of where our numbers are going to land right now in this process for next year, I think an important thing to do is also that's just that's just next year. And so I think when you're having this conversation about about capital, you got to think about it in five year, you know, one year, three year, five year 10. Um, and I think one of the things we do have, we have tools at our disposal. I think once we get past once we get to a spot where
137we feel more comfortable with where our budget is looking at here, we run a forecast five and run that through some scenarios. If we were to reduce if we were to reduce the tax burden and how would things look in three years, five years, given what our anticipated costs are for employment, we'll have a better understanding of what our maintenance costs are actually going to be instead of responding when something comes up. We'll have a better sense that we know three years from now we have to do that or else it's going to cost us 10 times as much when we go to do it. We're waiting on a a traffic light downtown, all those sorts of things. You can make re reactions whether you're looking at raising or reducing taxes. Don't get stuck in
138I would encourage the board not to get stuck in thinking about just next year. I I think a long-term plan and having the soundest information of the impact that's going to have over a longer span of time is the responsible way because unfortunately I have seen where taxes were never raised in a district and all of a sudden got smacked in the face with some ex exorbitant costs that they could not afford and then they county did that many years ago 48 and likewise I've also seen it where districts just apply the act one index without even considering do you actually need that? So, you know, at the end of the day, I think let's let's let's think about all the options on the table and do the forecasting and make the best decision we
139possibly can. I do have a file at home and I just sent it to you recently. Yeah, I didn't get a chance to look at it. 2001 2002 they dropped the millillage. I think total millillage came to somewhere around half a mil over two years. They dropped it a little bit and then they dropped it a little bit more and the next year they raised it two and a half mills. So I I don't want to see that happen. Oh, I agree, Barb. I don't want to see that happen, but I don't want to see us have a huge fund balance and then a newborn comes in and decides to engage in another stupid building project. Totally agree. Well, we need to get the data and then ways to stop that. We'll make decisions. I
140think we're stopped last time figuratively beating a dead horse here until we get the the correct correct. So, let's just um please let's move on. I just I just want to say just really quick um sorry I just look forward to possibly seeing those combative grants for I mean all over the last couple years we've reached for the ones that were already there. I'd love to see what we can get. Yeah. With that. That's all I want to say. We've been asking for that for a few years actually. Um okay let's see the publisher comments. First, I want to thank you for answering one of my questions before I even answered it all. I have the owl right here. Wait, I can hear the owl streams to YouTube. That streams to that thing back there.
141I want to have everybody be able to hear this all. Brian, thank you for addressing the question that I was going to ask regarding forecasting out budgets. Um, I know we always look at one year and we don't really look at three or five years out which is shortsighted in my eyes. So, I appreciate that. Um, it's a move point at this point in time since you voted on the contract area with the burrow for the crossing guards. I missed this. I should have asked the question first. So what happens if the burrow cannot provide the crossing guard coverage that is required for those nine corners? What is the backup plan? The police still if and when available as per the contract. What if they are not available? What is the plan is my question
142for students to get to school safely. Right now it falls in the bureau's responsibility. We're only providing funding and we don't have any managerial responsibility over it. I think when they don't have the personnel, there's literally not a crossing guard at that intersection and the cruise line something happens to the child the burrow or actually my understanding from state code is that it is the bur. Okay, great. Because the state code assigns the responsibility should the district say we need to have crossing guards if the responsibility falls in the burrow. Um, and then there there's even parameters for who pays what if there's no agreement. Great. Thank you so much. I appreciate [Music] that. Also, I want to apologize before when I brought up the not being I was looking in the wrong spot. I
143was looking at the big packet. There's a tiny agenda. So, thank you for that. They are in there. And then the last thing I just want to address is uh the unfortunate uh statement from Mr. Deicker here. I did have a question for you, sir, based upon the video that I watched. I apologize that was intact last meeting, but I was curious since you are responsible for shaping the curriculum of my child. I'm all for reading, writing, arithmetic, and science, but what exactly are you getting rid of when you get rid of all the woke nonsense going on out there? Putting litter boxes in classrooms. We don't have Do we have litter boxes in classrooms? No. Not at my right. So then what specifically are we going to be getting rid of? What's that? Jeremy,
144I wasn't addressing you, but if you have a statement, I'm talking to So your question is what woke nonsense? Nonsense. And what exactly is that? indoctrination indoctrination of our kids. The indoctrination of our children. Okay. I want them to be taught how to think, not what to think. Can I ask a more precise question? Sure. Dwayne, do you detect that there is any of this nonsense in our district presently that you're wishing to remove? I don't have any specific instances. All I know is what you read on the national level coming out of more especially the cities and right. So you're hearing things happening in other districts that you just don't wish them to come here. I want to make sure it stays out of the I don't believe it was perceived. I'm not going
145to speak for the public. I'm going to speak for myself um when it comes to that. And just remind you you're a professional setting an example for the children that go to this school. Your words matter. act that please sir. Thank you. Starting on the top microphone on the floor they can't hear me. I just want to from my personal point of view on the tax on the money building up rather than $100 check in the mail or $200 check after a purchase is pay down the debt. There's tons of debt. Let's pay down the debt so we don't have to worry about a tax increase later on. Um and then on the it's very disappointing to hear that this alleged to be the most transparent board and I thought there were many first amendment
146supporters up here. They are going to turn off the comment. I don't I don't understand that paper as a tax. We can't use it. We don't know. We don't have commenting on our stream now. I know. But they said they're turning it off, right? Because then we would have if if we allowed it, we would have to hire somebody to watch the comments. So nothing is inappropriate. There be something you put in there that would detect that and automatically delete. No, not on YouTube. I would think that there would be something somebody should call up. I can't believe that like a telemarketer calls and assume it's your curse. I hang up on you just cuts that off. Bart Yeah, Bart was the one who first brought that up as a as a concern because I
147I was all on YouTube and she it was Jeremy that brought the commenting up for myself on that and it's more so that I think it would be very distracting to the overall meeting and then here in person you have to fill out a form to do public comment. There's no way to do that as it is now with the YouTube platform. Oh, we use it with Zoom. Remember that? Raise the comments. Yes, but you you had a microphone that was turned on so you could make your comment. Remember the superintendent used to sit there. You would raise your hand. Yeah. And then um there's also comments on the side of that. The only comment. No, I I'll have I'll go back and watch the meetings. Okay. I'll go back and watch the meetings. It's
148a develop. It's been five years while I am. How do you manage that and monitor that during a meeting? I'm not really sure that this is necessary. the microphone. Um, but I come here as the vice president of LAA, which is your local professional organization or association. Uh, that is my uh reason for speaking tonight. I just want to remind the board that contractually it it is written that we hold quarterly meetings. I know last one was canceled due to illness, but that is a responsibility that you have to adhere to. Um, so I'm here to ask for that in advance again at your schedule. I understand it's difficult for you to schedule everything that goes on in your lives and you're not paid and I understand that. I just want to be able to
149get all of us in a room so that we don't have so we're open and honest with each other so we don't have situations where um maybe there are uh faceless nameless victims in our professional association that are accused of doing things and I I'd hate to see that happen and I'd hate to see our our profession accused of of things without a due process. Um, and and that's what I would like to see happen. I I say I hate to see a meeting like this and people watch it and view it and uh kind of make their own conclusions about our professional staff and their conduct uh inside the classroom. what they tell students, what they believe and what actually occurs in the classroom compared to other towns, other cities, other locations, and what
150does and does not happen in the heightened school district classrooms. I hate to see people overreact and build up this idea of what occurs when it differs from what really occurs. That is hyperbole, which is figurative language, which is dangerous sometimes in in the eyes of people that aren't invested in the true education of our students. And I believe everybody that's in this room is invested in our education. I just hate to see people um for lack of a better term uh be treated in a negative manner because of a story that occurred without due process. Thank you. My dad say that last year when I was president um you know Joe had come up to me and the president would come up to me and he said um that if there was anything that
151I needed anything that I heard anything you know that that was going on to go right to him. And the good thing is that I never heard anything that any teachers were accused of anything um on becoming a teacher. So I never had to go to him. So, I appreciate you, you know, bringing back up the meeting thing and I hope that we can meet next month. Um, being able to discuss whatever it is we need to discuss, but I still haven't heard anything. So, I'm just saying you guys have always been open to us meeting with you if we ever needed to. Unfortunately, I have the last two meetings that I've been here. And we have always as your administrators, we have always said and stated that if someone is doing that something they
152shouldn't have, they shouldn't be doing, we want to see the disciplinary process begin and we want it to be fair. We want it to be open and we want things to be taken care of and that still exists. So if that occurs in the future, there is a a way to conduct business and we expect as our association that we conduct that business. Not if you want to conduct it publicly, we can certainly do that as well. But um we can first start off with sitting down in a room and talking about issues that that we may or may not have. Roll it to Now the scientists hooked the and you speak into one the edge of the starting there on top but nobody paid attention. That's where I put it in the beginning. So
153that's end of public comment forward. I hear a motion to move. All those in favor Iens meeting