MTSD School Board - Work Session - 5/14/2026

001Yeah. Good evening. I'd like to officially call this meeting of the Mayan Township School Board to order. Welcome to everyone here in person and those joining us online. Our district's mission, nurture and challenge for success, is a reminder of our intent to enable every student to learn, grow, and thrive. Now please join me for the pledge of >> allegiance of the stands one nation indivisible liberty and justice for all. We have a fair amount of announcements, lots of things happening this May. Uh I'll start by saying Dr. Hudax is not here tonight. That he had a pre-approved absence. He told us about that before he even took the job. Uh so we will look forward to having him back with us next week. Uh second, thank you Dr. Ryman for sitting in the the big

002chair. Um uh next, members of our community are encouraged to participate in board meetings in person or to view them online in support of both transparency and community engagement. Recordings of meetings can now also be watched afterwards on the district's YouTube channel. This month is Asian-American Pacific Islander Heritage Month. API month was initially set in May to commemorate the arrival of the first Japanese immigrants to the United States and the completion of the transcontinental railroad, but expanded in 2021 to celebrate the full diaspora. Today, Asian-Americans are a diverse racialized group across ethnicity, class, gender, identity, ability, and more. This month, we honor and uplift our Asian and Asian-American ancestors, leaders, and community members striving to make this world and Mainheim Township a better place. May is also Jewish American Jewish American Heritage Month, and we

003take time to pay tribute to the generations of Jewish Americans who helped form the fabric of American history, culture, and society. As a school community, recognizing this month is an opportunity to celebrate diversity and to deepen our understanding of one another. We remain committed to fostering a welcoming and respectful environment where students of all faiths and backgrounds feel valued, supported, and empowered to learn and grow. May is also mental health awareness month. Now more than ever, we recognize that a student's mental health is just as important as their physical health or their academic performance. This month is about breaking the stigma that often surrounds mental health struggles. It is a reminder to our students, our staff, and families that is okay to not be okay and that asking for help is a sign of strength,

004not weakness. We are proud of our school counselors, psychologists, and social workers who work daily to ensure that no one in our district has to walk through those challenges unsupported. And next uh next Monday, excuse me, May 18th, is National Speech Pathologist Day. Our speech language pathologists play a vital role in our special educ special education and literacy efforts. They help our students find their voices, improve their communi communication skills, and overcome barriers to learning. We are so grateful for the specialized expertise that they bring to Mannheim Township. And finally, you can see some signs around our boardroom that this weekend, this Saturday, is the district art show. Join us in the high school to celebrate the incredible creativity and talent of our students from across the district. And we hope to see everyone there.

005Told you there's a lot of announcements, lots of things happening. But now we are on to item two on our agenda, our action for voting meeting. First up is item A, a recommendation to approve the final project scope for the maintenance facility building in the campus master plan phase two. Welcome Mr. Charles, our director of facilities and Mr. from JPD Architects. Thank you. >> Good evening everyone. I hope you all are well. Um, as you all are well aware, the site work for the Landis Run Drive and maintenance and food service facility is in the beginning stages with groundbreaking expected to start the week after school ends. Um, as our district continues to grow, this facility represents a critical investment in our operational infrastructure, ensuring that both our maintenance and food service departments have the

006specialized space required to support our students and staff efficiently. Um it is the administration's recommendation to approve the final scope of the uh maintenance and food service facility in the campus master plan. Uh this evening I have Mr. here with me. He will be presenting the building portion of this project and how it dovtales in with the site work that's about to begin. >> Thanks Jay. Thank you. Good evening everybody. Um, so we've finished the we completed the construction document phase of the building project and thought this would be a good time to basically come to the board, present everything so everybody can see it. Uh, so as we ask them to move on to the bidding process if anybody has any comments, questions or concerns, this is a great opportunity to do that because

007things can still be changed if they would need to be for any reason. So with that being said, I'd like to talk a little bit about the site and I'm sure Mr. Gurgley from Harbor Engineering back I think a month ago, maybe a little over a month ago, went through the site portion of this. We had chosen to separate the site from the building so we could get a head start on especially the the Landis Landis run access drive work so they could get those uh skids greased so to speak and uh then sort of sink in the building portion of it. very similar to what we did with the middle school project which was a very successful approach to sort of bring it in when we brought in the GC in the building portion

008of the project. So just quickly reviewing some of the site amenities uh in relationship to this building project. Um you can see that it's it it's right off of uh Landis Valley Road and Blue Street Boulevard. The main entrance to the building or to this facility is going to be off of Blue Street Boulevard to the east uh with parking, van parking for transportation, salt bin to the north, as well as dumpster enclosures up to the north of it as well. The east side of the building um was where the main visitor entrance will be and we'll get to the plan in a few minutes here and go over that in a little more detail. Um and then with with basically um uh five garage bays to the north of the building and along Atlantis

009Valley Road, sort of the the the front of the building. Just going over some of the exterior elements. We have a couple of renderings for you to take a look at. Our approach really was to look at this with a barn aesthetic with regard to the Landis Valley Museum at the end of the Landis Valley Road. Wanted to sort of give it pay homage to that a little bit. Um, there's going to be a stone veneer three- foot high wall that surrounds the facility, greystone, similar to what you're going to see in a lot of Langster County uh bank barns. Um, the metal uh siding will be a a board and batten look. Uh, it's insulated metal panel which is highly efficient and has spray foam insulation in it. It's the most efficient you could

010get, especially for insulation, not only heating and cooling. a metal roof with transparent um light panels above each bay so we can get some utilize some natural light without having to use electricity all the time in the facility and then some uh ventilation coupoopas at the end to sort of um emulate what you're seeing on a lot of barns in that area. Um you'll see on the main entrance on the east side, it's sort of the shed portion of the barn um that you see typically and that's the main entrance to the facility. On the side that's along Valley Road, we have a bump out with all the the u the Greystone on that which will have the Manheim Township School District logo or symbol on that um to sort of go along with that

011aesthetic as well. As far as the the building plan goes, um the entire uh footprint is 80 80 feet by 190 feet, which gives us 15,200 square feet for the total envelope or footprint of the building. Um just kind of going through uh some of the uh you can kind of break this into three different elements. Uh the blue element on the you can see on the screen is the maintenance office. um the which is which is a little over 2,000 square feet. As I said before, the main entrance, you come into a lobby and you have access to both the food service office as well as the maintenance office in that area along with a unisex toilet area that can be shared. That's mostly for the visitors entrance. Uh the blue area to the

012south is the maintenance office. Um that includes um Mr. Charles's office. Um, a larger uh group or gang toilet area and then a bullpin area for the rest of the maintenance staff to to do their work. Adjacent to that is a work area as well as a drawing storage, a document um storage area to the south of their work area. The the garage area to the to the uh west um is approximately 9,800 square feet. It has four bays. The bay, each bay is 12 feet wide by 14 inches high um to allow larger vehicles. The wash bay is on the bay number four at the very end to the furthest to the west so they can rinse down and and clean up equipment without getting everything else wet in the building. And then there's

013a mezzanine that's over where them the office is. So the stairwell will be or stair accesses in the in the garage area and has access above where the the maintenance office is. and that will be not only include storage but will also include a lot of the mechanical systems up there so they can all be within the building inside the building. The food service area is 22,800 square feet. Um there's a large dry storage area that's adjacent to a bay window that's that goes directly out for deliveries. The intent of this is to have heavyduty uh storage u that will run around the perimeter or shelving that run around perimeter at least three levels high very similar to what you'd see in like a Home Depot so they can load skids of of material and

014food and things like that on there to get high volumes in there. The freezer is not is not intended to be part of this contract that you're going to see in June or it's going to be bid right now. that will be bid separately through a co-stars or purchasing agency. However, we have worked with with the um the manufacturers of the freezers to make sure that that the electric is going to be there for that. The infrastructure as well as the the the foundation under it will have the um insulation required for a freezer to be on top of it. And then there's a small office. Um no frrills really, just some seating area for staff of the of the food service that they can set up a computer. um receive deliveries, things like that

015in the building. We're still comfortable with the the building cost estimate. We're at 4,200,000 at this point. Um we're it's really difficult to estimate this. We're seeing a lot of labor costs are really are really hard to tie down right now just because they can't find it. So, you're see we're seeing an increase in labor when you can even find it. Um, and also in the last six months, we've seen a spike up in materials for things right now. So, we feel that's a conservative number. We're obviously going to try to get that down as as much as possible or as low as as possible. I think we have a good chance to do that, but we want we want to make sure that we're we're being as conservative as possible with that. As far

016as the schedule goes, obviously in April, um, Harbor opened the bids for the site work. Um [snorts] really pleased to see who we got for that as the contractor who was the low bid. That was that was great for the school district in my opinion. Um they have already um had their pre-construction meeting just to give you a quick update. I talked to Steve today. Um they're getting this thes are actually flowing right now uh really very nicely so they can they can get the the skids greased as well. Um they are we are waiting for the the MPDEES permit from the state. Um that that is uh Harbor made a resubmission to that last Friday based on initial comments. So once they receive that back that will sort of flow into all the other

017permitting that's going to be required for grading for retaining walls all those types of things the township mandates that that they that we have all permits in place. Once we receive that, uh, we'll be able to record the plans or harbor will be able to record the plans and then the site work can begin. Uh we're looking to bid this project since we're done with construction documents um by the end of next week which will give us about a three-w weekek period two and a half to three week period for bidding which which should be which should suffice um which will allow us to open the bids June 10th and get all the information to the board on the 11th which is what the intent and the schedule shows right now. the building pad um

018hoist uh in hoist excavation has already put together a proposed construction plan or schedule. They have the building pad portion of this being completed by mid June which works out really nicely. They're going to actually work on this simultaneously as they're working on the land run drive and then we're looking at getting the building contract work beginning on site by the end of July. That gives us a little over half a month, close to a month to be able to get all the submittals going, contracts executed, all of that type of work prior to them starting and mobilizing for that building project. The land drive run is is scheduled to complete start of August 2026. They have the schedule for the events that are going to occur over the summer to coordinate with. Of course,

019they're very good at doing that work. So, that should that should flow well there. then they're aware of when parent night begins in August as as well as not only the start of school but all the events that occur on the leadup to the start of school. Um then the maintenance in the food service facility we're we're putting a date on that a substantial completion date on that of March 2027. If everything holds true to this schedule that we're we're looking at right now we should be able to beat that by a couple of months in my opinion. But we wanted we wanted to in the contract make that a March 27, 2027 completion date. Sort of what the contractors are tied to. But we're going to shoot to have that done sooner than that.

020With that, um I open it up to uh questions, comments, or anything else that I can answer about the project. >> Uh thank you, Mr. Dark. Glad to see this coming together to even more of a visual for us to to start to to imagine. So really helpful. I appreciate that. Does anyone have questions for Go ahead, Mrs. Hints. >> Would the work on Landis Run Drive running right up to the beginning of school affect teacher access to the building? >> No. So, that's that's been built into the pre-construction. Uh, and we even have some different plan B's should something delay or push back as far as where we can have that. But, um, the contractor is going to work with the district. They have the schedule. The transportation folks have given them information. and

021the administration's given them information so they understand that they're going to have to keep one lane open to allow access things like that. We're just going to have to communicate with everyone between the contractors and the people that are going to be utilizing the building during the summer just so they understand that, you know, every day may not be the same as far as how they access the building >> because I know in construction that sometimes that comes up when it's the last minute. >> Absolutely. And if if I'm looking [clears throat] at this now, this is pushed back further than I thought from the entrance. So there will be I'm just saying aesthetically landscaped entrance from from Vandis Road and we won't be hit in the face with man maintenance building. No, >> we

022cleared some space there and that the project includes completing that. >> That was part of what we presented actually to the zoning. There's some trees along that that line to sort of soften that look along the uh Lis Valley Road. >> Thank you. >> You're welcome. >> Miss Lane, >> um so we all know that the student population keeps growing and so food service needs will keep growing. Would you say that this plan is sufficient and will be aligned with that growth and continue to serve the school district in the next 30 plus years with this? >> Great question. Um yeah, so I mean this has been something that the schools and at least the food service directors previous um have always wanted a separate building, a separate space to be able to to put

023these things in. So we've worked really closely with the food service director um as far as and and that's why I was talking about the shelving and things like that that have we have expandability because that's going to be basically a two-story area that you could expand for storage. So, um, yeah, I think everybody's kind of excited with with this and it's going to actually lessen up and help out some of the other facilities where they've been storing some things like in the middle school where they store it in the in the corridors and things like that. So, um, you know, it's it's hard to say what the what completely what the future is, but you're absolutely right. We are a growing district and we're trying to accommodate for that. Dr. McCardle, >> thank you.

024Thank you so much for the presentation and alorough. Um my question is about the proximity of Landis Run Drive and the entrance to that maintenance facility. Anybody who's ever tried to enter campus near the start of the Landis run school day, it's very busy there. I don't know. Do you anticipate not being a lot of traffic into the maintenance area at that time of day? Is that because I can imagine if there were it could be an issue, but I'm >> absolutely no. I mean that's a great question too. So because it does line up. So I mean that's something that the maintenance staff and and food services they they're going to coordinate deliveries things like that to make sure it doesn't conflict with those critical times especially you know at the end of the

025day when pickup is happening. So that's going to be something that's going to have to be ongoing coordinated. >> Okay. Thank you. >> You're welcome. >> Go ahead Miss Lane. >> One last question actually. It's are we voting on June 11th at the facilities meeting or the voting meeting on June 25th? So that's like an internal board question. We like I I just because we're not here in July. I just am curious if anything gets pushed, will we have to approve anything in July? I just want to be mindful of the timeline. >> Yeah, we don't want to have that happen. So, uh, I see no reason that we wouldn't be able to move everything forward that we need to in June. >> But thanks for that click. >> If if I could just clarify

026one what our intent when we were looking at the scheduling was was that that would be presented to everyone on the 11th and then voted on at the voting meeting. That was the intent at least. >> Yeah, thanks for clarifying that. Thanks for that question. >> Uh, I have a question if no one else does. So, I mean, I'm imagining that freezer uh at the very least maybe a few other um issues in or uh maintenance tools or you know, some some sort of driver of heavy use of electricity on the in the building. Um I'm thinking about the update that we got from Mr. Charles last month. I'm seeing the solar panels getting ready to staged on the middle school roof. Um, have we thought about putting solar on this building? >> I I

027think very early on there was a design that that Mccclure did um to potentially look at putting solar panels on in the future onto the building. So, it's a possibility. It's a big area of roof um obviously with some of the translucent panels on that side, it might affect some of those, but um it's always an option to put those on. >> Yeah. just in terms of having set utility prices that we can control and forecast without having to be subject to global instability that we can't manage. I think that's just a long-term prospect that I'm increasingly um finding attractive and I think lots of other school districts are doing so too. So I >> I'd appreciate some sort of consideration of that. Um I'm not sure Mr. Charles that's you or you Mr. are

028yet again on how we could see that. >> The way the way I'd like that to work is if as we go to bid um we can work with Mccclure to actually put together a package that of of solar that could actually go into that. I think they've already worked on it a little bit. I know Alyssa did. Um that and that's something that we can sort of feather into that then as an option at least in the future so we can have the capability to do that >> because we do have to look at structure for the the roof and all that kind of stuff. >> Yeah, I know. I know it's not that simple. So, I wanted to make sure. Yeah. Okay. No, I I just I'd appreciate more information next time we

029hear something about this to uh to then be able to incorporate that into our plan. Thank you, Mr. D. >> Absolutely. >> Does anyone else have thoughts or questions? >> Okay. Thank you very much. >> Thank you all. Have a great evening. >> Okay. We are on to item B. uh a recommendation to approve the contract of phase five of the capital improvement plan with Mccclure comp company in the amount of 1,623 937,000 for LED lighting and control upgrades at Landis Run Intermediate School. Mr. Charles, you're right back. Uh along with some of our friends from the clue who might come up. >> Yes. Uh good evening again. Um tonight we're joined by representatives from McLar Company to discuss the next phase of our ongoing commitment to facility excellence and energy efficiency with the Landis

030Run intermediate school lighting and controls upgrade which is a part of our district-wide capital improvement plan that was presented in January. Um as some of you may know, Mccclure has been a trusted partner with the Manheim Township School District for over six years. To date, they have helped us navigate three successful phases of energy conservation uh projects with the middle school solar project in the works right now. Um the three energy conservation projects include HVAC upgrades, building automation upgrades, and electrical upgrades, uh which are projected to save the district over $4.2 million in energy and operational cost over the next 20 years. Uh the proposal before you tonight focuses on a full conversion to modern LED lighting and advanced controls at Landis Run. Uh this project will help improve the learning environment for our staff

031and students and enhance safety in and around the building. Um, it is the administration's recommendation to approve phase five of this plan with our ESCO provider McCclure uh company in the amount of 1,623,937. Um, I'm joined tonight by Will and Ryan from McLar and they will be going through a presentation for you all. Did anybody want hard copies for taking notes? You guys have the digital, so good. All right. Well, thanks, Zach. [clears throat] Good evening. Thank you for letting us speak here tonight. Um, like you said, I'm Will. That's Ryan, if you couldn't tell by our matching uniforms. That was unplanned tonight. Um, we're with Mccclure Company and there we go. Um, for those of you who don't know about Mccclure, we are an ESCO or an energy saving company. uh we work that

032means we work a lot with Giza or guaranteed energy savings agreements and so what that is is just a avenue or procurement tool for design bid build under one company um it's not like it's anything's hidden there it's a transparent process it is something that I would like to focus on like the G part of it everything's guaranteed meaning the uh the price of the project is guaranteed maximum price and then you have guaranteed savings so there's no change orders there like traditional construction and then you also reap the savings We do measurement and verification with that process. And so you actually get to realize those savings and reports that we give to you. And so we started out in 1953 as a mechanical contractor, but as we move forward and you can see in

0331998, we've completed more than 350 K12 projects with over 100 PA districts. So something that we are very familiar with and very seasoned with. So part of that Giza process are amendments. And so this district, like Zach was saying, is very familiar with the amendments. So here I kind of have a summary of what we've been working on with you guys. And so what I want to highlight here are two things that this is can be treated as I know it just looks like a table, but I see two things. I see an investment and I see a partnership. So when you see the [clears throat] district has invested at let's say $14 million and you've reached $4.25 million in over the 20 years of savings. And so that helps with the facilities, that helps

034with capital planning and that helps with the partnership, the second aspect. And so as Mccclure spends more time with the district admin, we get a clearer view of your goals and what you're working towards. We're not just a fresh space kind of understanding how the district functions. We are somebody who's been with you the steps of the way here to help you out for the future to come. And so like I said, what's happening right now is the middle school rooftop PPA, power purchase agreement. And so that's under construction. I think it started about last week. And that is something that works very well actually in tandem with what I'm going to propose right now. how the PPA will help you reduce in cost that you pay for the for the electricity. This will help

035you reduce the cost in the usage of electricity and in turn what you pay for. So when we looked at Landis run, we noticed a lot of fluorescent tubing there for lighting and also a control system that was out of date and would cost a lot of money if it were to be updated with LED lighting. So we saw it as a prime suspect for facility upgrades. And so starting this year, we went into the district. We were helping out with capital planning. So we came to you guys for the planning budget. Got our number from our subs that we worked with before. And so they provided you guys with a number. The number was approved. We moved to the next step in the Giza process. This is called the investment grade audit. That's the

036GC card. This is the hard pricing. This is the guaranteed pricing. And so there's no once that's locked in, there's no backing out. There's no change orders like I said. And so when we got this IGA pricing, we noticed what Jay was mentioning before. It was a labor hike. Um, so it was something that we immediately talked to the admin about, wanted to discuss, be transparent, say, "Hey, like you, this is something that it is a little bit out of our control, but we will do everything to mitigate it and do value engineering to to help lower that cost." And so, like I said, you know, what is necessarily value engineering? Value engineering in this aspect is looking through all avenues. And I'm sure Ryan can attest to it, he's put in a lot of

037hours to it, but all avenues to help reduce this cost. That includes looking at different manufacturers for the lighting. It includes looking at different subs like who's available to have labor, who's not. It includes looking through existing infrastructure, electrical infrastructure. Okay? You know, like is it after we've proposed the project, can we reuse some of this conduit here? And so we found that we could and Ryan worked towards developing a drawing that's close to uh permit so that our con such contractors can actually get a very accurate reading of what we're looking for. So everything we could do we tried our best to to lower this cost for the district. And along the while we were talking with the admin very transparent making sure that we had their input we can give our input and

038show our due diligence. And so what we proposed was obviously LED lighting for the anything that's fluorescent there. But we also and you'll see in the next slide here, we also included dedux. This is the value engineering aspect. Parts that can be reused, parts that will give you brief the same benefit, reap the same results with the same energy savings yet save you more money on in the process. And so what you'll be looking at here are retrofits in the main corridors and the vestibials architectural appendants. You'll have new fixtures in the library and the cafeteria and the LED flat panels in the band and orchestra area. There's also new parking LED lighting and then a new control system like I said that was actually adapted to this LED lighting. And so the best part

039about this and we call them energy conservation measures the line item for the scope with lighting. It is just instantaneous. You instantly see a new brightness in the atmosphere. You instantly saving see savings from like say like 20 watts to 15 watts is it's immediate. So that is definitely one of our favorite things to install because you can the owner can see it immediately. And so like I said, lower operating costs, there's reduced maintenance. We are trying to keep all fixtures the same across the district. There's improved uh and learning environment. And then there's also improved safety, especially for the exterior in the parking lot. So now we can get to the financials here. Just to explain it, the line item that says that's label one, that is that is the ECM itself. Just there

040you go. 1.6 669 and then you have uh A and B there. Those are our deducts. And so both those together total up to 60,000 to take away from what we're looking at. So that's our value engineering. We looked at retaining existing poles in the parking lot. We know that it could be retrofitted. They didn't didn't need to necessarily put in new poles. We can reuse those. Same same lighting, same lumens, same benefit. And so then also on top of that, we did notice that the wall packs and the canopies that are in the exterior lighting are also LED. So, we figured if they're LED right now, they're in good condition, we're going to hold them for now. Um, so we're just trying to look at what's best for the district here. So, then that

041total out to 1.623 and you see realized savings of 487,000. And so, like I said in the beginning with all these phases, this is just yet another stack onto the addition onto that those phasings onto this partnership, something that you can keep on adding to that investment. And so we see it as a beneficial um project for the district. And as you can see, once you realize those savings, it comes down to 1.1 million. So as we move forward, right now is May 14th, we're presenting to the committees as a whole and then as you guys discuss and think about it, then we will vote on May 21st. And so whether or not you guys proceed to go with it, uh if you do, then we will start immediately and there will be no effect

042to the school year. So it'll go from May to September. With that being said, I'll open up to any discussions and questions. >> Thank you. Does anyone have any thoughts or questions? Go ahead. >> Thank you for your presentation. Um just a really small thing. I see if you're um for the next steps number three, you have May to September. Um but the school year does start in August. So just putting that out there. >> That that is correct. And yes, we we understand that. We actually wanted to put that there to show that um it's with our with our PMs they they're like I said very well seasoned with this the planning of the the schedule the Gant chart goes to show that if there were to be any ECM that that were to

043extend into that year it would be something that is non-disruptive. So it would be something along the lines of let's just say the exterior or something that would happen within an electrical room something along those lines so that it wouldn't be so disruptive to the classrooms. But yes we we work a lot with the K through 12 so this is something that we that we know very well. Thank you. >> Y >> my question for you and doing my research for tonight, I did forget to look up the age of Landis Run. I'm just curious. I see Dr. Gillis here too, so maybe he can help us out with the the age of uh Landis Run. Just I'm curious if this is the outdated lighting, if this is a typical life expectancy that we would

044anticipate for, you know, moving to a new lighting from fluorescent to LED and is this something we keep an eye on in future construction? So now we're implementing LED. Will this be a factor in 10 years or whatever the life expectancy was in this that we might be changing again? >> Uh yes. So I'll turn to Ryan for this. I mean like it's as we move towards >> Yeah. So it's all depend on >> Oh. Can you come to the mic? >> So it's it's all really dependent on you know how often you're using the lighting, you know, how heavy you're using it and things like that. So the control system in tandem with this works very well to maintain a schedule for you guys as well as fluorescents have much lower burn hours or

045life usage than LEDs. So some LEDs just give a range of 50,000 hours to 100,000 hours. So obviously that varies you know fixture to fixture lamp to lamp. uh but you know a typical you know burn cycle for an LED might be you know 12 to 16 years. So as long as that keeps up with that you have the control system to help manage it uh all those aspects in in the in the new system kind of they work well with each other to to help maintain that life cycle. So >> thank you very much. Appreciate that. >> Miss Lane, go ahead. Um, this might be a question for Mrs. Robbins. I'm just curious, do we know how which buildings still remain that need to update its lighting? >> I see that there's other buildings

046that have done the lighting updates. I >> Yeah, Mr. Charles, I was wondering that might be you. >> Oh, Mr. Yeah, just uh Nitra Elementary which we have a project coming up here soon. So, >> yep. And just to add on to the uh control system. So, we're doing an incilium system which the other projects that they have done in the past for us uh Booker the high school um they'll all dovetail in together. So, it's not three different or two different control. It's all in one system moving forward. >> Appreciate that, Mr. Charles. >> Anyone else? >> Mr. McKenna, >> thank you for the detailed presentation. You noted in the the background that there are some existing LED fixtures. Were those ones that we are able to preserve as part of that value engineering

047process? >> Yeah. So, that's what you see there with the um the retaining the wall packs and the canopies that were the existing LEDs. So, yes. Yep. >> Thank you, >> Mr. >> Along along same lines, you're reusing those poles. Is there a life expectancy for those poles? Are we >> Yeah, right. >> We putting new lights on the pole that will need to be replaced regardless. >> Yeah, understood. The way that we the way he went around it, it was something that was valued there and and looked at and it was something that he was confident in that it more so as kind of an aesthetic thing, I would say. So that's something that we realized that looking at it just black and white for the lifespan it would align with the LED. >>

048Okay. Oh, Mr. McKenna, one more. >> Yeah. Um since you said the guarantee works both on the the cost as well as on the saving side, looks like our oldest project uh with this arrangement would be the the conservation measures that were completed in 2021. Um so far in that first fiveyear period have we seen that the monitoring of the savings levels has matched expectations? >> Yep. >> Okay. >> Yep. That's correct. >> Thank you. >> So yeah it is done through an NMB measurement verification report and we usually do it during the construction period and then a year after to show that this is very predictable, very reliable. Okay. >> So yes, that is correct. >> Thank you. And I should mention that if that isn't reached, then it's either paid out of Mccllor's

049check or we do any service to make up for. So, for example, like if there's a valve that's that's leaking and it's showing that there's the energy savings are just not being met, we would either pay out to fix that or that would kind of just put a band-aid over it. So, we would actually fix the keystone issue, the valve itself, and then that then get right back measurement and verification, make sure it's on track and then it's back to normal. That's the benefit of a a lasting relationship. So, yeah, that makes sense. Okay. >> All right. Well, thank you very much. Appreciate you coming here tonight. >> You're welcome. Thank you. Have a good evening. >> Okay, Mr. Charles, one more for you. We're on to item C. Recommendation to approve Martin's Excavating the

050firm with the low bid in the amount of $224,965 for the Ryenbball Elementary School parking lot paving project. >> Good evening. Uh this evening I'm seeking the board's approval for the Rydenball Elementary School parking lot paving project. Uh this project is scheduled component of our multi-year capital plan aimed at maintaining our district infrastructure and ensuring the safety of our school grounds. Uh to ensure we receive the best value for the district, we released this project for public bid and extended the invitation to eight different contractors. Uh on April 21st, we received three formal bids. Uh after thorough review of the results, we are recommending that the contract be awarded to Martins's Excavating. They provided the lowest bid that met all of our required specifications coming in at $224,000 or $224,965. I have provided a bid

051result tally sheet in your packets for a more detailed look at the competitive results. Um and yeah is our uh the administration's recommendation to approve the contract. Um I'll happy to answer any questions regarding the scope of work or the bidding process but I would like to uh just comment on references. Um in the past we have worked with BR Krider a lot with uh paving projects. Martins came in with a competitive bid. Um [clears throat] all the references that I reached out to I knew that they were you know very professional company but the references from uh Ephroda Lebanon Palmyra Warwick they do uh work for all those school districts and I got their workmanship scheduling and cleanliness is all spot on and they are great people to deal with on site. So I

052did do a little background just because we haven't worked with them in the past. >> That was my that was my first question because I didn't recognize that from previous work. So thank you for that. Okay. Does anyone else have questions for Mr. Charles? >> Comment. All of these projects we've looked at, these are in the plan and in the budget. >> They're already part of a capital project. Yes. >> Yep. >> This is just finalizing. Thank you for that thoroughess in looking into the >> absolutely. >> Thank you, Mrs. HS. Anyone else? Yeah, that's good. >> Okay, Miss Charles. Thank you. >> Thank you. Okay, now we're on to item D, a recommendation to approve the flexible instructional plan for 2826 through 2029 for submission to the Pennsylvania Department of Education. Dr. Ryman and

053Dr. Gillis, welcome. >> Okay. Thank you, Mr. Grer. Good evening, school board. Uh we are presently concluding the third and final year of our existing FID plan. Uh and over the current and previous months, our team has worked on assembling a new three-year fit plan for approval by the board and then submission to the state for approval as well. Uh so the plan includes the consideration of um some survey data that we collected uh last month from uh various constituents and uh this evening uh Dr. Gillis will share plan highlights with the board and we'll seek your support uh for this plan a week from this tonight in in a voting meeting. Uh when with the board's approval we would then submit the plan to PTE uh for their review and approval by the June

0541st deadline and then we would await their feedback uh um if they should have any obviously we would respond to that and uh with that I'll pass to Dr. Gillis so that we can share some information with you about our proposed fit plan. Dr. Gillis. >> All right. Thank you everybody for having me this evening. Uh hopefully we don't have to worry about that right now. Weather outside is you know obviously on the upswing now run just for clarification 14th year. This is it 14th year of school building. So near and dear to my heart we're talking all run things tonight. Uh so to talk to you about fit we actually had put out two different surveys. Uh we put one out to our community so our families and got their feedback from parents. It's

055really important to know what they're experiencing at home. We also sent this out to our teachers. We had over 370 responses from teachers and staff within the districts as well as over a thousand responses from our community. This is something that they are very much invested in. And as you can see there, we started to crunch some of the numbers to show you what we see is really working well. But then also hearing from our families, what are the areas that we we can look to build on and continue to improve in? Uh and one of those big areas was the student engagement side. I know we've had those conversations back and forth. As a parent of three kids myself, there are those days where you're trying to work, they're trying to work, internet's not

056working, they don't understand an assignment, and you're trying to figure out how to make it to lunch. Uh, so there's a lot that goes on with that and we are very well aware of what that looks like. And I think just hearing that from our families as one of the key highlights there. Um, that's something we're going to continue to take a look at. And as we go through this presentation, we already have some ideas on how we can be able to share that information with our staff, but then also making sure that we're communicating to our families. Hey, these days are not meant to be an extra stressor to your lives. And we have some other contingencies built into it that we can still work with your students those next two days after they

057get back from the weather to be able to then work through their schoolwork and still have those days counted as present for attendance. So, as you can take a look here, and I talked a little bit about that, that student engagement side was the one area that was really highlighted by our families through their uh responses and specifically the interest in the assignments that they're getting from their students. Are they able to be independent with it? And then how are they managing their time? I've heard so many of these conversations too that a family might reach out then to me and say, "Dr. Gillis, it took us six hours to get through this and if it took us that long, we need you to stop." And that is completely fine to be able to reach

058out to the teacher and say, "We've tried today. We need to put a stop to this because we don't have any more time to get to this assignment." Our teachers have that build-in time where they have office hours that they are available and ready to help. But additionally, it is not meant to be an extra stressor, which is why they can then work on those things when they come back to school. Talk a little bit more about that in just a minute. Um, some of the things that are going really well. Uh, so the highlights here, technology, material access is a great one. We talked about being one to one obviously and how our students are able to access that information. Very clear instructions. Uh we have workload that overall felt pretty reasonable, but there

059are some outliers from time to time as well as district communication being another strength of ours. As far as the growth opportunities, that top one's still there with that student engagement side of things. And as we look at this, we then say, how do we then take that to our teachers, our curriculum coordinators, our department heads, and our teachers in general, faculty meetings. How do we work this into their planning process? we have resources they work at um through their committees as well as in their individual departments. Okay, what can we be doing then to help those those those assignments then feel like they're really meaningful to our kids. We don't want them to feel as if this is just a box they have to check. We know it's not a great replacement for the

060instruction that we are able to deliver them on a day-to-day basis. That is always going to be best when we have them with us in our buildings working with them daily like that. But this is one of those we're going to get them through a day. We're going to keep things moving along. We're going to keep that continuity. Um, but we know that there's still room for us to be able to improve and that's what our families were saying to us and that's what we'll be working on. So, as far as the FID plan components themselves, uh, the FID plan itself, as Dr. Ryman had already mentioned, it is a three-year plan. So, it is something that we do have to submit back to the state in order for us to be able to offer

061FID as a, you know, a potential opportunity for our students should it be inclement weather, there be uh, some sort of, I don't even want to talk about disease epidemic kind of stuff right now in the news. uh but that's a possibility or there's some sort of building or maintenance issue that would also require us not to be able to have school because of a safety concern. We would be able to operate with five up to five fit days for the course of the school year. So each plan of this or component of this plan then has to address each one of those different topics there. As far as what a flexible instruction day is is exactly what we just talked about. Again that's under Pennsylvania section 1506. We are able to offer up to

062five of those days over the course of a school year. Um we are one towoman technology obviously here in Manheim Township. So it is something that it would align for us. We are able to send devices home with our students. They would have access to the instruction that would be happening on those days. They would not be with us in session in the buildings themselves. And again, it is submitted to PTE for approval for us to be able to offer that as an option. As far as the notification process, you can see here that is one area that we feel we have done very well in and it's something that our families are also saying is very strong and our teachers also said the same thing. We want to make sure that we are as

063clear and transparent as possible. Weather does not always go as planned, but we'd like to be able to be ahead of that and letting families know that it is a potential. It's an option that may come up and to be able to plan accordingly should we have to call a fit day on any given day where there's an emergency like that. Uh we do have those district communication uh systems that are already in place both on our website, through local media channels, uh the the Sapphire system that we also send out. So, it is robust in terms of how we get that information out there. I can also tell you from talking to teachers in my own building. They're pushing things out through Schoolagy as well and other forms of communication. So, we don't want

064that to ever be one of those confusion type ideas where they don't know what's coming. We want our families and our teachers to also be prepared for it. As far as the platform itself, uh for those of you that have our younger students up through the K to4 level, they are still going to be using Seesaw and in 5 through 12 we are in Schooly. So the assignments are posted asynchronously through there. And as we talked before, our teachers are available for two hours per day on those days for office hours. That's for a student to be able to hop in, be able to work with the teacher to be able to ask questions. They may not need to, and that's completely fine as well, but it is an option and it is very clearly

065uh communicated to all of our students and families so that they know this is how you access that information. As far as the timelines, you can see there as well. Uh those uh deadlines um are are pretty strict for a reason. We want to make sure that our students know that, hey, they should expect to see their assignments posted by a certain time. I'll speak with my own kids at home. They're already chomping at the bit to get it done because as my son was words, he wants it done and out of the way as soon as possible so he can go and hang out and play and do the snow thing. Like that's fine. You do you, buddy. Uh, but you can see there as far as our deadlines go, they are posted by

0669:00 a.m. at the grades five and six. I'm due by 3:15, but again, they still have those two days additionally after they come back from that event to work through. So again, I go back to if they were really struggling on an assignment or they just didn't have time or maybe for whatever reason parents had to work that day, they couldn't get their kid access for whatever reason, they didn't have internet access, they still can then work with their teachers and support staff when they get back to school and work through those assignments and still have a count as a day. However, parents could still say, "My child was too sick that day. They didn't want them to be able to work on anything." And that's absolutely fine as well. they can still send an

067excuse note just the same as they would any other day and they would be excused as long as we're following their attendance guidelines. As far as the assignment submission, like we just talked about, that does equal attendance. So, we do need to have a checks and balances system in place as part of this plan that we submit to PE so that we can track attendance and see the success um of our plan. So, we do make sure that there is a gradebook deadline as well. So teachers have up until 11:59 p.m. on that second day to be able to put all their attendance in. Teachers also do this along the way. So if students are completing assignments and they're finishing them, they're able to take attendance as this is happening. But if it is a

068family and a student that's working through it two days later, teachers still have up to that college deadline at the 11:59 p.m. to make sure that it's all submitted. Uh missing work again, as we talked about, is absent. And there is tech support available. So that number that is there, that 519-1500, that is available for assistance during a fit. If everything else is failing, they can't get a hold of teachers for whatever reason, you can also reach out to that number as well and we can help to troubleshoot maybe some of the tech issues that are happening for our families. So talking through uh some of the different u areas here that we've also addressed through this plan as far as students with IEPs. Uh, so I know speaking from my own building and the

069teachers and how they communicate with families, oftentimes they're reaching out ahead of time to say, "Hey, we're going to be online during these hours. We're going to be working on this, this, and this. Oh, by the way, my support staff, my parent educator, will also be there to work in a breakout room with your student to make sure that their IEP needs are being met during those days where they're not with us physically in person. Same thing with our L's for English language learners. Um, so it's also great to be able to have that flexibility as well as knowing ahead of time that there is a plan in place that they're able to then work in a lot of times in those small groups in those breakout rooms with those students to make sure that

070they're able to work through their assignments they have. As far as the technology barriers we just discussed about that's something we don't want it to be uh an issue for any of our families, though it may come up uh but we want to make sure that there are those uh the supports in place to be able to help and guide them through those issues. As far as contingency plans go, I think one of the things that we saw as we were crafting this plan, if there was major outages, power outages that we had an entire county blackout, I think those go down that route of maybe we would have to look at then canceling the fit and having it just be a snow day. Those are very rare circumstances, but it's there. Uh we wanted

071to make sure though that if our plans do fail, that would sort of be a last resort. We are able to send home paper copies of things and materials to our families. So, if we know that maybe a student is traveling and they're not going to be able to have access to their iPad that night for whatever the reason was, we can also ahead of time send out those paper copies so that they can be able to work on that information. But again, if all else fails, they still are able to finish that when they get back to school over those next two school days as well. As far as attendance policies go, it is strictly enforced. So, we do need to make sure that all those attendance policies are still followed for that work

072completion itself. Uh we do have all of our cyber safety uh procedures and protocols in place. So again, our students are still governed by that when they're still using our district devices. And again, we do have those conversations with them. District devices are used for schoolwork. That's the purpose. Um, and then again for FID, it's only being used under those qualifying reasons. We want to make sure that that's it's obviously a last resort for us, but it does help to keep things continuous and moving along. So again, that's just kind of a summary of everything that I just talked through. Um, again, the plan that we had was a strong plan. It's just a matter of we had to tweak some things and there are some things that we obviously are learning from our families

073and the feedback that we're able to gather from them and we want to make sure that we're taking that information and ultimately improving what we're able to offer on those days. Again, it's five days potentially up to five days over the course of an entire school year. But it's important that we get it as right as we can to make sure that things move along as smoothly as possible for our families and students. >> Questions? >> Dr. Gillis, thank you. >> Absolutely. >> Yeah, super thorough. I imagine there's some questions. Uh, go ahead, >> Miss Kayie. I'll go, Miss Kayley, and I'll go. Yeah, >> thank you so much. Um, on page 14, I just had a question. If you could explain a little more with the contingency plan, the last bullet says IEP, GI

074services continue per plan regardless of delivery method. Could you explain more what that means? because I do know some folks, my young children included, >> um, who have had IEPs, GIPs, and I've been curious about how those are actually being met. It would be great to hear more about that. Yeah, >> thank you. >> And I think it's also important too that as we are working through that plan to ensure that their needs are being met, that we're including our people services department, um, our teachers oftentimes will be reaching out. So if we have like for instance a case manager, I would be reaching out to be able to say, "Hey, on this specific day, in order for you to be able to get your um support in English language arts, let's say for the

075sake of argument, that these are the tasks that we're going to work through together." And a lot of times that I'll have this, they will stagger their times then as well. So for instance, if I have a case manager that is working with my sixhawks team, they're going to have their ELA teachers work at one time. they're going to separate their office hours to a different time so that those students that may need to receive those IEP supports are not going to have to feel like they have to choose between two different places. So, there's a lot of communication that happens then inwardly. I speak for my building specifically with that. Um, but that's the intent of it so that they're able to then communicate this is how those needs are going to be met

076on these specific days. But I always encourage families that if you feel that that's a question and it's not happening, reach out to that case manager, reach out to the people that are that are entrusted with delivering those services so that you can ask those questions and really feel as a parent that okay, I I know what's happening for my child now. I don't feel as if this is being kind of left out of what the expectation is. >> Yeah. >> Um this my question is um Oh, thank you so much for the presentation. My question is about the family communications on bid days. Are phone calls being translated into different languages when the call is being made? >> That's a good I don't have that information off hand. I don't believe so. Mr. Lines

077might be able to answer that. >> Thank you. >> Uh the answer is yes. if uh two conditions are met. One that the family has told us of the language that they need to translate it to uh and that it is one of the languages that we can do the translation. It's growing constantly. We're up to about 40 languages that we can translate. Uh with a voice call, we can translate into over 200 languages in written communication, but the voice calls we we have a smaller pool of those. Um two years ago, we had about 16 languages that we could do with voice calls. We're up to about 40. it's growing over time as the technology improves. Um so those are the two conditions. One that the family has specified the language that they that

078they want to receive that communication in and two that it's a language that we can accommodate with the existing technology. >> Yes. >> Thanks Mr. L. Appreciate that. >> Miss Woodbury, >> thank you so much for the presentation. I had a curiosity question that sort of was embedded in in your presentation a little bit. Do we have f do we have families that don't have internet access? And if they don't have internet access um fid days and beyond, how does that how does that impact them from a from an access to our educa? Oh, sorry Dan. >> Mr. Lions is springing up. it does happen that we do have some families that'll talk about that which again goes back to some of those can we give them something that doesn't require the internet side of

079things because again one of the things that we want to make sure of is that it's not so dependent on the iPads again we send them homework things like that but if we do know that specifically that's can be something we can work around as well but to speak to the internet access side of things >> yeah we um as part of the first day forms that each family fills out each year there's a technology questionnaire just like I think there's I think it's three total questions um on there. One of them seeks for us to ascertain if students do or don't have internet access um at home because it can inform our fid plans. It can allow us to proactively take steps to say like, oh, we know this student, as Dr. Gill said,

080we know this student doesn't have internet service. We've already prepared to to we know that there's a potential for a fit. we're prepared to give them a paper copy of the assignment um that's going to be done on that day etc. So it allows us to be proactive but it also allows us to um gauge that fewer that's it uh the total population that has answered in that is under 1% of our total population. Uh and that is largely due to the proliferation of smartphone smartphones um because virtually every smartphone now can act as a hotspot. So even in a pinch, families are saying like, "Hey, it's two hours and and they're they're doing that." So they may tell us that they have internet and that be all that they have. Uh or they they

081can specify that they have, you know, cable, DSL, whatever the high-speed internet provider that they have, but it's less than 1% of our district that actively reports that they don't have it. Uh, and we we try to work with those families, let them know about uh, discounted internet options. Comcast Essentials is $10 a month for any student um, through the age of um, any student that's enrolled in a public school. So, technically it can go through age 21 um, but under age under age of 18 for that as long as they're in a Comcast area, which all all of our district is served by Comcast in some way. >> Thank you for that detail. I really feel a lot more apprised of the situation. Thank you so much. I really wondered about that because it's

082an equity issue and and an access issue. So really appreciate that. >> Mr. Rivera, >> exactly how and when is that information communic I mean I like if you ask me which of my students don't have internet I don't know that I' you know I would need to know that and how is that communicated? >> I think that goes back to what you heard from Mr. Lines there too. when we get that information back at the beginning of the school year, that's information that we can be able to take then and then share with our teachers. Um, so again, that's that's really at the beginning of the school year, something like that would be happening is once we get that information from them, we can then disseminate that. And the other part is too, there's

083a lot of conversation that happens between our students and our teachers then as well because they may not always fill out a form or they may not always um get back to us through an email, but they may say like, "Hey, something's going on at home and I I can't do this." Our teachers are listening to that and they're saying they're trying to be proactive as well just the same as as you would in your class. >> Sure. Yeah. But that's more incidental. I I want to make sure that there's a system in place that teachers know that these students would need a paper copy at the time as opposed to just relying on the student having to tell them. >> Yeah. And I think that to to your point then as well is just

084making sure that once we receive that same information at the beginning of the school year for any of those surveys that have been filled out for us is being able to disseminate all that information to our teachers whether it's through a sheet or something like that that they have it based on their classes then as well so they can be able to have a quick checkbox and say yep got it or no they don't. And then they can be able to plan accordingly. Thank you. Yeah. >> Yeah. Thanks Mr. Rivera and Dr. Gillis. I I'm looking at the polling data and I didn't hear you overreact to this. I just want to make sure and and I'm glad for that. In terms of the areas for growth, I'm just I mean to me that slide

085reflects uh I think you know maybe some education that we need to do with our families in terms of what is actually achievable in this format, right? And like are we asking the teachers to do the impossible in terms of replicating the classroom experience in this way? It's it's just certainly I don't think it's it's going to be a different experience. I think communicating that on the front end is something that's going to be critical so that we can you know have the appropriate set of expectations for for families of of what is achievable in this way because you know I I I look at these numbers and I don't think this is any sort of reflection on I mean I'm sure there's proven available on the margins just like there is for any anything

086that we do but um I I I I look at this and I see a uh you know asking the impossible of of many of our educators to it to to replicate that experience in the same way. >> Yeah. And I wholeheartedly agree with just not only just that side of the communication, but also it shouldn't turn into a day of of frustration and fighting and anger. It's meant to be a convenience that they're able to then work through this at their own pace, but then also it's okay to wait for the white flag, too, and just say, "Hey, we're not up to it today, and this is why." And they can work on it when they get back to school as well. But I I absolutely agree with that, >> Mr. McKenna. >> Thank

087you. Uh thank you to you and the team uh for the thorough presentation. Um love to see a good survey. Um did we when we look at 145 responses? How would that compare to other district-wide surveys that we've done? Is this a a solid response rate? Is do we not have a big enough sample to know? That's a good I don't have that off top hand. I'd have to I'd have to do a little bit more digging on that to see if that's when I look at that and I just look at my own rates that I get from from Landis Run. So, that's a pretty decent response rate. I mean, it's always could be better when you talk about 6,000 or so students that we have in the district, but again, how many does

088that also answer for multiple students in the district as well? Um, when I took the survey, I don't recall any identifiers and I always like a um anonymous survey to get the most honest feedback, but I wonder if in the future we do this, we want to have respondents self-report certain demographic data so that we can do some additional segmentation. One of the things I'm looking for in in both the the areas that we're doing really well and the opportunities to improve, it's possible that there are patterns of sub populations in our school communities who are finding this disproportionately harder than others. Um so I would suggest we're looking at the age of the students perhaps household income, demographic data, the the use of IEPs or GIPS. So, um, I think this was really well

089done, but I would say as a as an opportunity to strengthen the survey for the the next FIT cycle, and honestly, we can continue to receive this feedback whether PD is requesting a new report or not. Um, I think that could be worthwhile. Um, and I would just ask a suggestion for the report itself. I really appreciate the discussion around uh the ability uh that our technology and our systems allow for communicating with families in many different languages. It's highlighted specifically on the homepage, but it's not referenced uh in our communication with families or students. So, if we just since we are doing it, if we could just be explicit that that's something that's happening, I think that would strengthen that the plan as well. >> Absolutely. Thank you. >> I just want to comment

090that I found encouraging every time you said there's another way for the child to get the work done. there's another way for it to be accounted. Um, so because family dynamics go crazy on on a snow day if the child ends up at Aunt Suz's and there's not internet there. You I just appreciate every time you came back and said it's not dependent on the computer. >> Correct. >> So, thank you for that, >> Dr. McCartle. >> Thank you, Dr. Gillis. Um, and thank you, Mr. McKenna, for your comments. I was having similar um thoughts over here. So, I'm looking at uh I'm looking at page three, excuse [clears throat] me, with the overall um uh the question about if the fit effectively supports my child's education. And there's 20% who disagree. And again, there's

091no like obviously there's no identifying information. [clears throat] It's anonymous. But I'd be really curious why what's going on with that particular family or that particular situation and what can we do to help that? There's a lot of things built in like Mrs. Hens just mentioned. There's other ways around things, but clearly this doesn't work for some people. The majority of people are are fine, but it just I just wondered if there's a way to to find out what we can do better for those families that this doesn't serve. >> Yeah, I think that's I think it's a great question. And then the other part is to you know going back to what Mr. Grer was saying before just about the definition of what that means to that family. You know what I mean? So

092then what what is their expectation for that day and maybe that doesn't align with what they were thinking and that's how they're answering that as well. But I think it's a great point and to uh go back to what Mr. McKenna was saying before. I believe I have a breakdown by the grade level. So I get great spans so I can be able to see elementary, middle school, lannis run, high school like those types of green bands as well. So you can see maybe some things that are popping up in those areas so we at least have a better idea. Um but that helps for us then to be able to inform that information then give to our teachers and say, "Hey, in our band, this is what our families are saying. This is what

093they're struggling with. How can we then look at the engagement side of things? What can we be doing with these activities, the information that we're putting out to our families and for our students to complete on that day?" >> Yeah, Miss Woodberry. So I a a definition of problem just popped into my head which is that it's the gap between what we expect and what actually happens. And that's like the definition of a problem in my professional world. The messaging that you just gave us all which was really nuanced and really great about um fid days and what they can do, what they can't do, how how it all goes, how we how we mean for it to go for families. Um, I know the district does a really good job at like beginning of

094cold weather season, like, hey, here's some things to expect that are going to come up and it's mostly procedural and really good and really clear procedural in my recollection. Um, but some, um, maybe consider some of this wonderful nuanced communication that you just gave to all of us and anyone who's listening and wants to watch it now or later um, on YouTube. Um, I really think that might be a helpful thing to consider incorporating into that seasonal messaging y'all do at the beginning of the season. >> I think as I think it's and as you were talking about that, one of the ideas that popped into my head is you start to get into like newsletter mode and when you start to put that information out to our families, well, how could we do that

095as building leaders then to be able to then and we can operate off something where it's very consistent the messaging so it doesn't feel like you're getting nine different responses, right? But we can be able to work together to make sure that it's, you know, even if it's something we pop in there and kind of do like a video at some point, something very, again, something that's accessible, something families can see, but then it also kind of sets that expectation for them as well. >> Yeah. I'm I'm now imagining Dr. Ryman in a snowstorm like uh Yeah. delivering the message. >> Would be good. >> Exactly. Something like Anderson Cooper from a uh Yeah. Okay. Any other uh thoughts or questions, Miss Kaylor? >> I know the intent of a flexible instruction day focuses around

096instruction, but I wonder also we could have up to five days of school year where children who receive free lunch aren't receiving free lunch. I wondered if there was any idea or responsibility with food services with anticipated fit days and trying to help support that need because that matters to children. >> Absolutely. I think that's also something we can be taken back to our food services department and looking at what some of those options may be, especially if you're looking at an extended absence. So, we haven't had one of those really great snowstorms in a while. But at the same time, if you're also talking multiple days, and again, we look at even the numbers, again, speaking very much from Landis Run, we hit 400 students served breakfast for the first time, it's it's important

097like our students need access to those, you know, to those needs being met. Um, so it is something that we can be taking back to those teams and saying, "What other options do we potentially have?" Obviously, making sure everybody is safe and they're able to to accomplish those things once it's safe to do so. Um, but what options do we have? I think that's a great thought, too. >> Thank you. >> Yeah. And I'll just add to that quickly as well. I think a lot of what Dr. Gillis has shared and even comes through in the questions that the board is asking is that the state is willing to give permission for these kind of days to happen as long as they are under the scrutiny of all the kind of things you're asking about

098and all the rules that are attached to what these days need to look like and they express a five-day limit because they don't want this to be the standard. As a public school, we do best with our kids when they're right here in front of us. This is a five-day sort of allowance. As long as we can make certain asurances that we're going to do our best to deliver on the IEP and give kids grace in terms of attendance and making up work and if there's technology issues, all that gets stirred into what this plan ultimately looks like and we can do it up to five times if we need to. [laughter] >> Yeah. Take one. Yeah, exactly. Okay. Anyone else or we're gonna let Dr. Gillis go? Okay, Dr. Gillis, thank you. This has

099been very helpful. Appreciate it. Thank you everybody. Have a good evening. >> I am not Mrs. Robbins, by the way. >> Okay. Well, that's a little preview though because we're on to our 2026 2027 budget update. And over to you, Mrs. Robbins. Thank you. >> Thank you. U I'm here this evening to present to you the proposed final budget. Um the first slide here, I'm not going to go into too much detail here because you've seen this in April and May. These are just the major budget assumptions. Um I will tell you that obviously the budget has not been approved yet, but I'm not hearing anything negative. So I'm taking that as a positive. So we're hoping that this um budget goes through on time and it goes through um with how we we plan

100for it to go through. So there you can see there the basic funding that we had anticipated along with the adequacy money. Um we did pick up an additional $878,000 this year because we didn't um budget forward the 100% um in planning for this budget. Um we did agree that we were going to put 100% of the possible allocation for the adacy supplement into next year's budget which helps us tremendously. And then you can see all the other areas that we've reviewed um the last two months there um in preparation for the proposed final budget. Um, as far as um any changes between today and the final budget, the only two items I do anticipate we will have to adjust for is we do not have the special education IU costs yet. We have the

101number of students we're planning on spending, but we do not have the unit cost yet. And that's about a $3 million line item for us. So hopefully we have a we have a good handle on um estimating. We worked with the pupil services department and Mr. Brewbaker to try to get as accurate number as we can at this point. Um the second item is um we are going to ask the county for another assessment check before the final budget approval to make sure we have real estate revenue as close as possible since that's a very very large item for us. Um so the changes from last month to this month. Um I'm happy to report that we are about $680,000 to the good um just in refining some expenditures um some salary and benefits um

102some tuition special education and also utilities. We really sharpen our pencils there. Um and the biggest piece is the continued refinement to the increased assessments that we have enjoyed and also the adequacy funds. Um mainly the money that we didn't budget for um in the current year we were able to add that into the budget for next year. So that has really really helped us um for next year's budget. So first I'll take you through looking at this at a 0% tax increase. You'll see with all the different refinements we're up to about $138.5 million in expenses. That's the first line there. The second line is revenues at 134.9ish million which leaves us with an estimated shortfall at a 0% tax increase of about 3.5 million. You may recall that we presented safety and security

103upgrades and also curriculum instruction um expenses all both onetime expenses which we like to use our fund balance or savings account to intentionally draw out those funds we've been saving for and that equates about 943,000. If we take those two items off, we're sitting at a deficit of 2.5ish million um at a 0% tax increase. So, if we weren't to raise any taxes, those would have to come from our um our fund balance number there. So, this chart gives different um real estate tax scenarios. I'll start at the top with our starting deficit of 3.48 million and then you take um away the 943,000 of intended fund balance use. And then you'll see each tax scenario starting from 0% um all the way over to 3.5% which is the maximum we can um raise taxes.

104Um even at 0% we are able to pick up about $493,000 in real estate revenue just due to increased assessments. Um so you'll see there we have the tax increase um scenarios across the top. Um the next line is the corresponding millage rates for each one of those scenarios. And then the additional um tax resulting from each one of those scenarios for an ending deficit ranging from $2 million um to a surplus of $317,000 at 3.5%. Um and then the bottom two lines, we like to look at our um median. Um so you'll see each one of these tax scenarios and what those impacts are. Um the box there is what we're going to be recommending for the 2627 fiscal year which would essentially um balance our budget. We'll be a little bit um of

105a deficit of $172,000 but at 2.9% we're very confident that we would be able to balance our budget and um also um um the annual impact for the median assessment would be about $17 per year or $9.77 per month. So again, that same chart that I had gone over um two slides ago, just showing you with the 2.9% tax increase um what that looks like. Again, we're starting at 138.5 million, revenues of 134.9 with a shortfall of about 3.5 million. Um and then the recommended 2.9 increase would in would um allow us to have $2.36 million of additional tax revenue. And then taking away that intended fund balance usage of $943,000 would um give us an ending um deficit of $172,000. And again in that box I had already reviewed that um the 2.9% tax

106increase equates to a millage rate of 18.1421 which would impact the median assessed residential property um about $17 per year or $9.77 per month. And again, we will make some slight budget changes just based on the IU costs and the hopefully some additional assessments um prior to June approval. And then finally, you'll see listed there um we're hoping to approve the proposed final budget in May on May 21st. And then you'll see the a couple of actions the board will have to take in June relating to the budget. I'm happy to answer any questions the board may have regarding the proposed final budget. >> Okay. Thank you, Mrs. Robin. So then, uh, just to be clear, we would vote to approve this budget next week. >> That is correct. >> Okay. Who has thoughts or

107questions? Mrs. H. >> If we what you just said would be accepting the 2.9. And of course, we have the option of accepting one of those other >> I I I I >> What I meant to just say is that we're going to vote to approve a budget next week. Yeah. >> What it looks like? >> Absolutely. >> Yes. Absolutely. Thank you, Mrs. Hunts. Okay. Are there no questions for Mrs. Robbins? You've been you've been leading us to this point. I mean, this been months in the development, so I really appreciate you narrowing down on this and providing updated numbers as we get more information. And uh you know, this is what you do every year. So, appreciate that. If there's no questions, we can move on. Oh, Mr. McKenna, >> just a comment. Just

108wanted to affirm the work of you and your team. You said based on refining some of our expense line items, we are now 687,000 into the good. So, that's quite a big pickup in one month. So, I'm sure that took a lot of analysis. So, just wanted to acknowledge that. >> Judger has some sharp pencils in his office. [laughter] U do have a question about the 172 that would be absorbed by the fund balance. Are there other elements in the budget that we might want to consider one time so that we sort of continue to meet that rationale? >> Do you mean to add expenses or you mean >> no within the expenses that we'd be approving out of the the 138? Like are there a few items that would add up to 172? Yeah,

109I would say the probably the interest earnings. Steve and I went back and forth on we do three, 3.15, 3.2. I think interest we probably could pick up a little bit there and we might be able to pick up some assessments between now and June. So, we're off to and and obviously throughout the year we look at saving money as we go on the expense side. >> Okay. >> So, I'm confident in that deficit number. >> Thank you, Miss Lyn. >> I'm just curious what what would bring it down to zero deficit? U we would either have to reduce expenses by that or >> um like the same tax rate increase. >> Oh, you mean to get to zero? >> Um >> I don't have that exact number. It would probably be close to because

110every 1%'s about 840,000. >> Um I can certainly share that as share that next next month, but I'd say probably about another 2%. We all have iPads. >> Yeah. I'm just curious. >> 3.1ish would probably guess completely balance. >> Okay. That's >> Thank you. Oh, Miss Wood, >> I just wanted to say thank you for the presentation, but also um just to note, I find it very handy that you can calculate your annual tax bill and that you provided the formula for us. Um, so for anyone in our community to be able to do that and anticipate what that means and um, if we if we have people that want to share their thoughts and about that um, with that knowledge, I think that's really helpful and I appreciate that transparency. >> Yep. Thank you,

111>> Dr. McCart. >> Thank you, Mrs. Robbins, very much. Um, I just wanted to make a comment. For me, when I look at these things, I always need context. So, I just went back and actually looked at um the uh minutes or the I'm sorry, the agendas from schoolboard meetings the last several years to see what was what the what was going on. And this increase is very reasonable to where we've been. Um so, it's not, you know, oh my goodness, what's going on. Um, and as far as the military, it's also um, from what I was able to uh, figure out looks pretty good compared to other areas uh, nearby. So, um, just wanted to put that out there for anyone else who is a context person. In in light of that, uh, kudos

112to Mrs. Robinson, everyone on her team that we're building a building, putting in a large campus project and and we're doing that because we've had the foresight of savings and how we spend and how we um have saved over um our our budget over the years. Um to do all we're doing and be only talking about that increase is really good. >> Yeah, I agree. I mean this is the product of years of planning and steady management. Um through ups and downs we are remain steady and that is an invaluable resource to this school district and this community. So I know you just make it look easy. Uh but thank you to uh to you and your team. Anyone else have thoughts or questions? Okay. So then Mrs. Robbins uh our next item is F.

113So then I'll just read that out and we kind of just talked about that but I'll just >> Yeah. I'll just make one note up to you if >> Yeah. Then next on the agenda is item F. It's a recommendation to approve the 2026 2027 proposed final general fund budget in the amount of $138,469,472 and a and a millage rate of 18.1421 as presented on form PDE-2028. And Mrs. And the only thing I'll add here is upon approval of the um proposed final budget on May 21st um we will publish notice of intent to adopt the final budget and we'll allow um it will be the budget will be available for the public for 20 days to view. >> Okay, Miss Zimmerman, >> that's available on our website. >> Yes. Thank you. >> Okay, anyone

114else? All right, we are moving along back to you Mrs. Robbins for item G. a recommendation to approve the 2026 2027 salary matrix for support staff employees. >> Thank you. So this evening we're presenting uh the support staff increase guidelines. Um these increases would take effect for the 2627 fiscal year and that's based on the 2526 evaluation uh ratings for support staff and they're attached to your agenda. >> Thank you Mrs. Robbins. Does anyone have thoughts or questions on this agenda item? Mr. McKenna, I'm wondering if you might have something to say. >> I do. I do. Uh, can you speak to these uh rates and how they compare to previous years? So last year the rating for um exemplary was 6%. Uh excellent was 5% good was 4% and below average was zero and

115this year we're recommending 5% for exemplary 4.25 for excellent and 3.5 for good. uh to what degree is uh economic indicators like inflation factored into these recommendations? >> So we look at two major um indicators. We look at our PSBA recommended market movement um which went down 1.1% um for this year and we also look at the Aquin index which which went down from 4% to 3.5%. The Aquin index looks at the weekly wage and the federal cost index for elementary and secondary schools. So those are the two indexes we looked at. Thank you. Um I would say uh I would like to see that we land uh closer to where we were for 2526 for a number of reasons uh both economic as well as operational. Uh the uh first is is inflation. I

116think we all feel it um dayto day, monthto month, but this is a pattern that has been um really impacting uh people's uh budgets since the pandemic and hasn't really abaded. So um looking at the consumer price index changes, we see that there was over a four-year period 2022 2026 an increase of 13.79%. Um and most recently seeing wages. So uh starting to see the impact on real purchasing power for for families for individuals. Um I think particularly with the salary ranges, the wage ranges uh for the support staff um that additional uh percentage increase uh would actually be meaningful. Um and uh speaking to the operational point, um as we uh recently celebrated um our previous HR director's long tenure here, we will have a new HR director starting um and I think we

117can uh provide them with some guidance to really analyze uh the ways that we're we're doing the matrix, but until they've had a chance to to get settled in, I'd like to sort of stay where we are. >> Thanks, Mr. McKenna. Does anyone else have anything to add to that? >> Mrs. Hence, >> I'd actually um suggest amendment to the chart to be brought back to us next week. That um under support stats, the increase for this year would be the 6% the same as last and the 5% the same as last in those first two categories. >> Can I slow you down, Mr. S? So 6% for exemplary >> returning it to what it was in those two first two categories that under support staff >> and then for excellent or exceeds expectations you

118said 5%. >> Right. >> Okay. >> And we cannot balance the budget on that those dollars um and but we can absorb those dollars. A 1% change in increase for a top level salary is one thing. Losing that 1% when you are making um just an hourly wage or part-time wage that is a significant drop and I feel it does not represent how much we appreciate the support staff. So I would like that to come back to us as six and five as it was last year. >> Okay, I hear that. Miss Woodbury, I think you wanted to respond. >> Yes, please. Um [clears throat] I really appreciate um the appointments of my colleagues of taking a comprehensive look and bringing in metrics we haven't considered before and uh understand the a need to really

119evolve in our strategy and work together uh as a board and with the administration and with our um new incoming um director of HR. But I wonder if uh changing switching gears on decision-making criteria on one vote that's one part of the full full compensation strategy is wise. I would um I would like to take a more holistic view so that we can do that holistically and not just for one category of staff or one um not even for that entire um scale of performance. So it it seems to me that it's the right um idea and maybe the wrong time or way of going about it um since we have other opportunities to take a look more holistically at the compensation strategy evolving. >> Okay, Miss Keller. >> Um I just wanted to echo

120that I appreciate the need data driven decision. Um and also um echoing what Mr. McKenna said how other metrics can be used. Um I appreciate what you're saying, Miss Woodbury, but also our professional staff have the support of collective bargaining and our parents do not. Um our classrooms run due to those top-notch professionals, but our schools run due to the incredible dedicated support staff. Um we need to make sure that our district is exceptional. We know our district is ex exceptional. Um, and I want our support staff to feel like they have exceptional support as well. >> Thank you, Mrs. Kaylor. Does anyone else want to weigh in on this? >> Miss Zimmerman, >> I apologize, Mrs. Rollins. The PSBA market movement, why would that have gone down? And I apologize if you said this.

121My brain, I feel like I'm I'm operating a little bit slowly this evening. Um can you just help me understand like in the time especially with you know what Mr. McKenna brought forward with inflation rates. Why would the PSBA market movement have gone down and when did they make that? >> So they made the chart or what whatever the you know tabulation is on the back end. >> Yeah, I I'd have to get back to you on that goes into that specific calculation. I had to check with PSBO and I think it comes in I want to say like four months ago is when they actually and that and then we move that market movement is what we move the entire range. So the starting rate, the midpoint and the max all moves by that

122amount. >> Okay. Um, so I can get I can certainly get the board specifically what that index is made of. >> Okay. Thank you. >> Yeah, >> Mr. I mean I'm not really saying anything new that has been said, but I think we really should marry the idea is like Mr. McKenna said and what you said, Mrs. Woodbury, in that I think the support staff are foundational to our district and we really need to to show them we value them, but also we need to have systems in place moving forward. So I I think uh we really need to to to come up with some system coming forward. It's it's a little more holistic as you mentioned. Uh but I think at this point in time given the conditions that we have I think to

123and again the impact on on a salaried employee would be great. I I think we definitely need to keep it at that six at least for this year so we can reassess moving forward what the what it should look like. Thank you, Mr. V. Does anyone else want to weigh in? I might sum up this a little bit. So, seems like we definitely have movement here towards uh amending the the salary increase guidelines that were presented to us this evening to have the exemplary dash just sort of distinguish exceptional to a 6% performance level increase. excellent or exceeds expectations to 5%. We're not amending three, which is good or meets expectations, we're not going to amend number four, which is below average or needs improvement or inadequ or inadequate. Um, something else I think is

124important to say and I want to reflect it in the minutes is like we should not be bound to this moving forward. I think this is a one-time decision. uh and want that, you know, out loud that because I think part of what is important part of this is to to ground this type of decision in an overall compensation strategy for the district that is led by an HR director. And we didn't get to this without the presence of an HR director. We've had someone previously that. But we also I think given the feedback that this board is giving, given the re, you know, the the the opportunity or interest in perhaps in incorporating other sources of data uh to to reach what we think is an appropriate level of of salary compensate or compensation

125or or uh movement um based on performance. Um, you know, I I want to be really clear that this is a one-time decision um and that, you know, next year we're going to revisit that decision um freshly again. Does that seem fair? Miss Woodbury, go ahead. >> I just had a process question. So, um, as a board member, if I'm in support of the recommendation as it's presented, but other other folks feel like we they want to amend and vote on on an amended chart. if the amended chart comes to us uh if the if it was voted down because it doesn't look like it would be but uh what would it revert to or what would it what would happen if the if a recommendation that was brought forward was voted down what's the

126impact >> so if the if the board would not support a recommended action they I would ask for direction from the board on what you would like us to do next in terms in terms of managing that agenda item like would you ask us to amend end it come back with something different. So >> what you're >> okay >> saying conceivable it could be voted down and then the next step would be what would you like us to do next whether that dies and then we would have to you'd have to give us direction on what you want to happen next. >> Thank you. That was really just a point of process about how as a parliamentary procedure question more than anything else and I appreciate it and all my colleagues and all the administration

127>> but something that Mrs. Marshall just exceptionally clear is the feedback that I read in and from Mrs. Hence um then appropriate enough for us to have this updated for the voting agenda for next week. >> Correct. >> Okay. >> Correct. >> Does everyone clear? Does anyone else have thoughts or questions to add? >> I would just ask from the perspective of the administration, would you are you asking us to go ahead and make those amendments as Mrs. and outline them for next week. >> Yes. >> Okay, we will do that. Happy to do that. I I just also wanted to just Did you want to say anything else, Mr. Granter? >> No, please go ahead. >> I just want to make it sure it's clear too from the perspective of the administration that the

128the the genesis of those numbers come from an analysis of data. I I don't I don't want the board and the administration to be separated on well, there was support here on this side and not on this side. I just want to make sure that it's understood that we also greatly value our our support staff and and the compensation package that that they get and deserve and I just don't want us to be perceived as split on that. >> I've never once felt anything other than incredible support for all of our staff from the administration and so I uh endorse and and support what you said Dr. Ryman with with everything I have done nothing that's been said here should be interpreted to be anything other than that. Please, >> can I just say one

129thing? Um, so just to be clear, I'm changing the chart to um 6% for exemplary, 5% for the excellent, and I'm not amending three or four. Those percentages are going to stay the same. >> That is correct. >> Can I ask a question about how that compares to the So, Mrs. Hence, you're lining up Mrs. Hence proposal was to line up category number one and number two with the with the percentages from last year. So exemplary and excellent. So um on this chart it says 5% it'll be at six and on this chart it says 4.25 and it'll be at five which were the percentage increases last time. What was the percentage on the good category? I'm sorry just not Oh. All right. So, so we're going in the good category. We're still recommending that

130we go from a 4% increase down to a 3.5% for for those meeting expectations. >> Mr. Kaylor, >> I wonder if we might consider keeping meeting expectations at 4%. Um, my work as a supervisor of student teachers, we use the Danielson rating method and meeting expectation means meeting expectation. So, I might propose to keep that at 4% but then of course keep the um not meeting at 0%. >> I I've seen lots of nods. >> That seems to follow the logic that was presented. >> Mrs. H. Okay. Okay. >> All right. Thank you, Mrs. Kaylor. Miss >> Yay. You know, in for a penny. Mrs. Marshall, do you have what you need? Okay. Thank you. So, we are now on to item H, recommendation to approve the 2026 2027 salary matrix for Act 93 groups

131A and B and salaried support staff. Back to you, Mr. Robinson. Similar to the last item, we're recommending uh salary increases for Act 93 and salary support staff. Um as presented on the agenda, we're looking at 4.25 for distinguished, 3.5 for productive, and zero for an ease improvement or unsatisfactory. These would go into effect for the 2627 fiscal year and is based on their 2526 performance and evaluation rating. >> Thank you, Mrs. Robbins. Does anyone have thoughts or questions? Seeing none. Okay, we're on to item H. Recommendation to Did I just say item H? I just said item H. We're on to item I. Recommendation to approve Act 93 agreement between the Manheim Township School District and the Manheim Township Act 93 administration and specialist groups A and B effective July 1st, 2026 through June

13230th, 2031. Mrs. Robbins, >> um the current current Act 93 agreement that covers our district administrators expires on June 30th, 2026. Um and that the process works a little bit different than negotiations under the collective bargaining agreement. Um, under the act 93 law of 1984, the school board after good faith meet and discuss can adopt the act 93 agreement without concurrence from the act 93 group. Um, our act 93 administrators did request a meet and discuss with with our board committee which comprised three members of our of our school board. Miss Zimmerman, Mr. McKenna, and Miss Woodbury. Thank you for your work with Act 93 group. Um, these board members met with four members of our act 93 team and are now recommending the agreement which uh becomes effective July 1, 2026 through June 30th,

1332031. >> Thank you, Mrs. Robbins, and thank you to those on the board who led that process. Any additional thoughts or questions? M >> I'll just note that we appreciate the productive conversations that we had and um the you know the support of the board, my board colleagues bringing this to the board tonight um and the great um feedback and information that the administrators brought to us um in consideration. I think we had wonderful conversations and again it's another group of individuals that we value very highly in our district and we're pleased to be able to support them. Vince as well and Mrs. Ward for the information that was brought forward to us. >> I love my time. I was just gonna express my gratitude to to Miss Robbins and Miss uh Miss Ward and

134and Dr. Ryman for for your support in the process uh for both the administrators as well as the board members. Okay, are we ready to move on? Okay, we are on to item J. recommendation to approve to appoint the Manheim Township Director of Communications and Marketing as the Manheim Township School Board Assistant Secretary effective July 1st, 2026 through June 30th, 2027 for a one-year term. There is no compensation for this role. Dr. Ryman. >> Thank you, Mr. Greer. The administration will recommend the appointment of our director of communications and marketing to serve as assistant board secretary in the event that Mrs. Marshall would not be able to be present on a particular evening. And that allows us to continue board business and Mrs. Davidson can serve in that role when your appointment initiating on July

1351. >> Thank you, Dr. Ivan. Any questions? >> All right, we're going to keep rolling. We're on to item K. Recommendation to approve to appoint the Manheim Township School District Chief Operating Officer as the Manheim Township School Board Treasurer effective July 1, 2026 through June 30, 2027 for a one-year term. There is no compensation for this role. Back to you, Dr. Redmond. >> All right, Mr. Gunner. Yep. Mrs. Robbins would be our recommendation as our seek approved uh by the board to serve as treasurer for that one-year term commen uh initiating on July one of this year. >> We're in a rhythm now. Any thoughts or questions? Okay, we're moving on. Item L, recommendation to approve the resolution appointing the Mainline Township School District chief operating officer as the main Township School District tax collector

136effective July 1, 2026 through June 30, 2027 for a one-year term. There is no compensation for this position, Dr. Ryan. >> All right. This would allow Mrs. Robbins to host and oversee the district's tax collection functions here at the district office, which has worked quite well for us. So, we recommend that to the board for that one-year appointment. >> It's been great. Thank you, Mrs. Robbins. Thank you, Dr. Ryman. Any other thoughts? >> Okay, we are moving on to item three in our agenda. Manheim Township Community Comments. Residents, taxpayers, district employees, and students are welcome and encouraged to participate. to speak. Please submit a commenters card to the board secretary as you approach the microphone in accordance with policy 903. States your state your name and limit your remarks to five minutes. The board will

137not engage in discussion at this time. Followup will be provided as needed. Is there anyone here who wishes to make a comment this evening? Welcome and please share your your full name. >> My name is Andreas Espazito uh special ed parah man township high school uh 18 Chamilleia Court and litics. I did a lot of homework before coming here tonight. Um not much now do I have to present because I do want to thank the board for actually I guess uh reading my comments. I was not able to make the meeting last month where I was going to ask the board to hold off on voting for the support staff salary increase which actually as you guys noted is was technically a bit of a decrease. Um so I do I am actually now up

138here thanking you guys not having to read too much of what I prepared uh to present to the board this evening. Um, just to quickly crunch numbers though for Mike that I did do, oh, Mr. McKenna, I'm sorry. I did do a little bit of math uh before coming here this evening had this decrease taken effect and now I'm just talking about myself personally um to have gone from an exemplary employee uh prior with the 6% to exemplary this year um that would have been a difference of $290 approximately $290 for the year. if my category was going to change from exemplary to excellent that's was close to $500 for the year. Um so I did I did actually crunch a little bit of numbers on that. Um what I am asking um and I

139know we you guys talked about it on this side if this is for next year. So now we're looking for next year decides to uh come back around that the support staff. So now I actually uh to backtrack I do um represent the approximately 70 paris on a committee with um HR uh but this is all support staff. nurses, administrative assistants, cafeteria workers. I'm asking that we're notified more in advance than um we had been notified prior. This kind of got pushed into the um proposal um that employment proposal that was in um the board meeting minutes. So, we received our evaluation notification on March 31st. We do self evaluations and they were due on April 24th. Nowhere in that email that came from HR with the blank um evaluation when we notified that the

140matrix was going down. It was kind of tucked away in board meeting minutes that was not and I was actually notified by actually another PAR. I was not even aware that the matrix was going down. So that I'm respectfully asking that next year if this comes back up for decision that we are notified earlier. So but I do I thank you for listening to um the emails that I had sent and um looking into this. So I'm thanking actually for all the supports there across the board. So thank you. Thank you for all that you do. Appreciate it. >> Does anyone else wish to make public comment this evening? >> Welcome. Please share your full name. >> My name is Kate Huff. I am a mother to three children in the district. I'm an English

141teacher with 22 years of experience, but I'm here tonight as a grateful parent. School boards and administrators only seem to hear from those who challenge their decisions and question the qualifications that they have to do what's best for kids. But I'm here tonight to voice my appreciation for this board, for the current district administration, and for the amazing teachers and staff members who go above and beyond every single day to give my children an incredible education. I'm here to address also to some book challenges that have been brought before this board. Students must be allowed to explore difficult perspectives and discuss difficult questions. The content that kids read and study in school is going to have conflict. There's a reason for that. Teachers help students to navigate that conflict. Kids discuss what characters learn from

142that conflict and how they develop and mature as a result of it. Scenes are never taught separate from the book. Difficult or tragic scenes are simply part of the story. A person cannot judge the benefits or the drawbacks of a book from a single scene or AI search. And yes, some scenes are going to make some people uncomfortable, but that's not a reason to avoid them, to formally challenge them, or to ban them. I teach my students the classic novel Fahrenheit 451 by Ray Bradbury, which focuses on these exact issues. In the futuristic dystopian setting of the novel, people have stopped feeling any real emotions. They no longer read anything that offends or upsets anyone, which eliminates almost all reading materials. When Montag questions his wife about the sad and pathetic state of their lives,

143he says, "We need to be really bothered once in a while. How long has it been since you were really bothered about something important, about something real?" This is what school is all about. Teachers and students can have serious conversations in the safe spaces of their classrooms before students navigate these challenges and obstacles on their own. As a parent, I fully respect every parent's right to decide what they feel is and is not appropriate for their own kids. Parents in township have the right to restrict access to certain books in the libraries for their kids. They do not have the right, however, to restrict access to library books for my children. Allowing students the option of reading about difficult concepts provides validation, awareness, increased empathy, and better preparation for the world around them. I am

144grateful for all of the librarians who ensure that books expose students to new perspectives and reflect students experiences, creating windows, mirrors, and doors through literature. Books and discussions about hard subjects can help a student who feels alone and voiceless to feel seen, empowered, and strong enough to keep fighting. For example, reading about sexual assault in a safe place with the freedom to ask questions of trusted adults can help students to feel prepared. A book with this kind of power is Speak by Lorie Hall Sanderson. I have read this incredible book many times and while I have not had the pleasure of teaching this book in my own classroom, I have had the honor of meeting this author this past November. Lori is one of the strongest humans I know. She experienced a sexual assault at

14513 and instead of succumbing to the pain that kept her silent for 25 years, she chose to use her voice to help others. Anderson said, "When you go through intense times as a teenager, you will remember that. Those times don't leave you. The trick is to figure out how to turn difficult emotional situations into something that makes you stronger instead of something that makes you vulnerable." These are the powerful words of a role model and a champion for kids, not someone out to traumatize or trigger them. Avoiding important topics doesn't protect students. It leaves them uninformed and at risk. Awareness of difficult situations can reduce victim blaming and shaming, which encourages more empathy and respectful behavior. Life is full of challenges, but teachers show students a path forward. And I'm grateful for the amazing professionals

146in this district who sacrifice so much of themselves to see kids succeed. Thanks for your time. >> Well, thank you and thank you for all that you do for this school district. Does anyone else have public comments they'd like to make this evening? >> Okay, seeing none, that brings us to adjournment. Is there a motion to adjourn? >> So moved. >> Miss Woodbury, is there a second? >> Second. >> Mr. McKenna. Our next meeting is Thursday, May 21st, 2026 at 6 PM here in the district office. As a reminder, schoolboard meetings can also be viewed online during the meeting or afterwards by going to the district website. Comments or questions for the board may be emailed to board secretary at mtwp.net. And thank you to all of Mayine Township staff, administrators, and volunteers for your

147dedication to our students and community. All in favor of adjournment, say I. I. >> Oppose. Nay. The motion carries. Thanks to you all. We are adjourned.