001Good evening. I'd like to call the July 20 July 22nd, 2025 Makan School District Board of Directors meeting to order. Please stand for the pledge. The public is hereby advised of the audio and video recording of this meeting for the purposes of rebroadcasting. All board members are present. So next we'll go to guest and schedule speakers. Dr. Zerby. Uh, Madam President, I think that we have an executive session announcement, two executive session announcements to make before we move on to guests and scheduled speakers. I I do apologize. The board of school directors met virtually in executive session on July 7th and on July 14th, July 15th for the purpose of discussing contract matters regarding one of the collective bargaining groups in the district. The board of school directors met in executive session immediately prior to
002tonight's meeting here at Mthakton High School for the purposes of discussing matters of personnel involving the evaluation of administrative employees. Thank you. And now for guests and scheduled speakers this evening. We have one we have uh Devin Bradberry and uh Josh uh from the Shrader Group uh to give us an update on the Mthactton High School renovation planning. Members of the board, you should have a copy of the presentation at your table and we'll be putting up the presentation up on the screen behind us. Devin and Josh. Okay. Good evening. We'll be I think brief tonight. We have just a couple slides uh to give you just a general update on the um renovation feasibility study. Devin is going to go through a couple of the preliminary concepts and what they include. Um, so we
003will have a visual presentation of those concepts at the August 19th work session. I know that I'm sure you guys are very anxious to see uh some of the visual concepts that are still coming together. Uh, following that on September 9th at the property committee, there'll be another general update. We can talk a little bit more about uh some of the concepts that you guys had seen at the 19th. And then on September 16th would be the presentation of those final concepts. Uh if you recall from last meeting, we also uh were going to have a se a separate meeting related to the natiatorum and how uh the construction of a new niatorum has been incorporated so far into the concept designs and and what that really means with uh phasing and and some other
004matters within the building. So that'll be a separate meeting on the 23rd to proceed in that direction. And then on October 28th would be the vote um once that final feasibility study is completed in terms of the um options, the budgets for each one, what the impacts would be on phasing and and u you know curriculum uh throughout the the school years where the project would be taking place. Then the board would uh provide us with the direction on which option is chosen. Okay. So that's kind of the general path moving forward. I will turn it over to Devin to go through some of the concept ideas and what's in incorporated with uh each iteration of that. Thank you Josh. Uh good evening everyone and happy summer. I know everyone is eager to see more
005than just words on the screen. So uh we're almost there. Uh next meeting as Josh mentioned we will start to show some visual concepts. Um but for now if we can go to the next slide we have um just a brief summary of what we're uh looking at as a team at the moment. Uh we are developing four options uh based on the board prioritization list that has been done in months previous. Um so we'll kind of go through all those just in a general air uh idea just to give everyone a sense of what's happening kind of behind the scenes. Um, so just so everyone knows, all of the options are going to include the baseline upgrades, which we've outlined previously. Those include the building envelope upgrades. That's that includes roof, windows, uh, things
006like masonry repairs that were identified in prior reports. Um, all of the MEP systems, the HVAC, electrical, and plumbing, uh, all of those systems that are coming towards the end of their lifespan will be upgraded as part of the baseline uh, upgrades. And then we talk about safety, security, and ADA. That's bringing the building up to code based on uh what we've seen throughout the the reports and through our walkthroughs. So, we're getting the building warm, dry, and safe with all of those baseline upgrades. Um, and again, those are included throughout all four of the options we're looking at. Um, the options are being evaluated for cost, constructibility, phasing, and then educational impacts. So, you'll have some cost numbers. you'll see some phasing plans of how some of these ideas might come together on a
007site. Uh we know we have a occupied building to work through. So it will uh kind of determine how we're going to move through the building based on all these options. Um you might have some uh some pros and cons based on the phasing. Um and then separately and uh simultaneously we are looking at site options. Um so the site options we're looking at are to improve some of the circulation parking. They're not necessarily tied to any of the options, but there are going to be different options of uh different impacts for the site depending on uh how much you want to do throughout the the site improvements. So, they're being uh shown they will will be shown in conjunction with the building options, but they're not necessarily tied to any specific option. Um, next
008slide, please. So, what are our four options? Um essentially we have two options and each one has a 1A or an A and a B. So option 1 A will address all of these priority uh items that we're showing here. So some of the priority one items including uh include improving traffic flow, parking capacity, uh providing a new pool, fitness and wellness center, and a life skills apartment. All of those items were in the priority group one that was voted on by the board. The fab lab is also included because if we are to build a new pool, we have some space to include for pro additional programming where the uh existing pool is. So we can bring some of those priority 2 items which the fab lab was one of those uh up into
009uh to utilize some of that space. So all those items uh are included in option 1A. As you can imagine, um it's mostly a renovation option except for that new pool is the only uh new construction that we're looking at. Uh 1B addresses everything that's included in option 1A. Plus, it's also looking at adding a common space to enable a lunch and learn. And when I say adding, it's really renovating a space inside the building to accommodate a space like for a common purpose. So, it's not an additional uh new construction piece. It's a renovation uh piece that would allow us to do a lunch and learn program in the school. Uh we're also looking at some priority two items bringing up into that option 1B. That would be standard standardizing the classroom sizes. Essentially
010that's some of the second floor in the west wing. We had smaller classrooms over there. Those were identified as critical to get up to a regulariz classroom. So we're doing that in option 1B. And then improvements to the uh performing arts spaces. that would be renovating the existing auditorium and some of the uh performing arts spaces attached to that. So again 1B 1A are both highly renovation uh options with a little bit of an addition new construction for the pool. Option two then brings in a little bit more. So option 2 A addresses everything again. We're we're addressing all the priorities that we mentioned before in option 1 A and 1B and then we're adding to it. We're adding in this case uh the the final uh priority one item which was improvements to the
011internal circulation, all the traffic flow inside the building, the hallway congestion, all of our transition times. We're trying to get a lot of those priority items into this. And the only way to do that, unfortunately, is some new construction. So, we're going to be looking at uh building a new auditorium with option 2A. Uh, as you can imagine, if we eliminate the length of that west wing and bring everything a little bit closer to the building, it's going to improve some of the circulation within the building. So, option 2A includes eliminating uh part of the building and bringing some of those spaces a little bit closer to improve some of the circulation that were identified previously. Um, option 2B also addresses everything that's included in 1A and 1B and then uh in 2A, but it
012does it in a little bit different way. Uh, we think there's some different layouts that we can look at for each of the the new new construction options um that might improve uh things a little bit further. Um, so we might look at different uh configurations of where things might be um to kind of help uh some of that uh internal circulation a little bit more. Maybe get some program pieces in better locations to improve the educational impact. Um so that's kind of a very brief outline of all these four options. Again, we're looking at costs. We're looking at phasing for all of these. Um and we're looking at educational impact uh for all of those. So, at the next meeting, it's going to be a lot to show all at one time, but we
013will show all of these options uh in some visual form. I'm not sure we'll have some definite costs at that point, but we'll have some ideas of what the the scale of each of those is going to be. Um, and then lastly, we have a township uh meeting scheduled for next week. Uh, as you can imagine with all of these options, there's going to be some various site uh configurations that we have to work through with the township. Um, so we're going to try to bring up all of these options in a very generic form uh with the the township just to get some feedback to see if there's any hurdles we need to go through uh with any of these options that might impact phasing or uh costs with those. Um, and additionally, we
014talked about the pool already. if there's an opportunity to bring the pool up forward as a uh early bid package item, we want to see what that's going to entail with the township to get that through uh to get that out to bid a little bit earlier if that's the the goal of the district. So, a lot is in motion behind the scenes. We wish you could we could show you all these uh nice flythroughs and visuals, but uh we're not quite there yet, but it is right around the corner. Thank you, Devin. Thank you, Josh. Are there any questions for members of the board for our professionals? Yes, Miss Purdue. Thank you. I just have two quick ones. Um, in reference to the township meeting, is it for Lower Providence and Warsester or which
015township? Just Warsester. Just Warester. Okay. And then, um, and then just for the options you mentioned with 1B, the standardized classroom size. Maybe I missed that. Why is is that considered like an addition instead of like something that will be I kind of picture it will be in one A. So So it was it was identified as a group two on the priority list. So we didn't do that as part of the renovations. It would require a reconfiguration of space. So a little bit heavier on the cost side in the renovations. So we put that into a 1B instead of a 1A because it was in that priority 2. Now could you move it back up? Sure. that it's a lower impact item. Okay. Thank you. Sure. And and if I could and correct me
016if I'm wrong, but one of the priorities of 1A was to identify the least cost option and likely 1A will be that one uh given the priorities we put into it. Correct. Other questions? Uh Miss Steel. Hi. Good evening. Thank you so much for this. Um uh well, two questions. Um, first, when on which one of these days will we be voting on one the the options? Are we voting on any of the options in any of these days? The vote on high school renovation is that to choose between 1 A, 1 B, 1 C, D, 2 A. Does that make sense? So, I guess the intention is to present this a little bit early so that you have time to digest everything. Yep. And then we pushed it back until October so that you
017have a full month to have any questions answered and and really fully understand what the concepts are. So that would be October. So that would be October 28th to vote on the option. And in the presentations up to October 28th, will any of them include which maybe not because it might be too early, the impact on the student body like which if a wing has to be closed or knocked down or moved or modules will any of that be included in those presentations before choosing the options? Yes. So you'll have a that's why I talk about phasing. So you'll have a high level uh understanding of where things need to move and how construction progresses through the site and throughout the the construction uh timeline. So you will have that information in a highle view
018but you should be able to see that how that unfolds. Thank you so much. Sure. Any other questions? Um Miss Alustin, hi. Thank you. So just a question like the 1A 1B 2 A 2B does that this it doesn't quite match the priorities or it does quite it so it does um so one we had to mix a little bit of uh assumptions here. So 1A includes all of the uh priority ones except for the commons and the lunch and learn uh program and the internal traffic flow. So those are a little bit higher cost items that we had to bring down to option one. They're the priorities but organized in a kind of more practical way. Correct. For implementation. Okay. So when you come back next time, could you also just bring a slide
019that reminds us of what the what the board priorities were just as they were just so we can all remember Sure. what how we prioritize the items. Thank you. Any other questions to my left to my right? Mr. winners. Yeah. Just real quick, when you come back next month, the you you said you're working on the numbers. Are we going to be able to dissect, for example, you have the standardized classroom, which we put in a second second phase or second priority, and you said it's more costly. Are we going to be able to identify that separately in in section 1B and say that may be something that we may have to reconsider as a priority? um we can have specific breakdowns for uh certain scopes of work. Um it would be helpful if the
020board could give us some feedback ahead of time so we know how to properly categorize. Um it's going to be tough under each option to have um to understand the level of detail for each pocket of the building if that makes sense. So, if we if we can have an idea of what uh programs or what spaces you guys might be looking for some more specific breakdown for, that would be very helpful ahead of time. Um, but yeah, the the we can certainly provide a a deeper breakdown of of those types of areas. I think that Yeah, I understand why you So, here's here's what I think I I I need to do. I I need to do some homework with uh some members of the We'll first start I'll start with the property chair
021and have a conversation about how the uh the we need to be able to dissect the the the cost out this. So, we'll do that and we'll get I'll get back to the board. Uh if we need additional input, uh we'll gather that and then we'll be prepared to share that with uh Josh because I I know exactly what you're asking. Um, and we got we got to be more definitive in what we're going to be presenting in that time. So, good question. You have any other questions? Okay. Yeah. Um, I just wanted to confirm a couple of things. One, I totally agree with Mr. winters that we we probably should take the prioritization list that we had and maybe assign values per prioritization item. I think that we have to think about that a
022little bit. It may be a little too granular because it may be important for the board to move one of those priority items up the list and add, you know, add to one of Anyway, um I think we have to think about that. My other question is on September 16th, you're going to be coming to the work session with the final concepts for the high school. So, we're going to see the four concepts at that time. Is that the first time we're going to be seeing costs? Because I also thought I heard that August 19th with the visual presentation. There may be some cost information. So, I just want to make sure we're setting expectations clearly. Yes, there can be some preliminary cost information in the August time frame. It's going to continually be updated
023and refined throughout the process. So, we can at least share preliminary higher, you know, level numbers and then for the following two meetings drill down a little bit further. But it it, like I said, it'll be a continual work in progress until we get to that September October time frame. So, um, just to clarify, like when we see preliminary numbers in August, then at the work session in September, you're going to give us the the concepts in sort of a final form. That's when we're going to see the real numbers. That's when we're going to see that we budgeting for future concept estimates. Yes. But we would see the when I say real numbers I mean they're much more firm numbers than we saw in August. Is that Yes. And a month later then we'll
024be voting on those numbers. That's right. So even from September to October, if there's any adjustments required, if there's any feedback from the board, if there's some adjustments like you guys are talking about, well, maybe we can figure um incorporating something from 2A into 1B or however it might work, you know, we'll continually update those those estimates. So, so if we did that in September at the work session, you would come back to us in October at the work session and present those updated concepts with updated costs and then we'd be voting the next week. Yes, correct. Okay. So then my other question is I see September 23rd vote on the pool. When do we see the pool costs? Uh we can share those in the August time frame as well. So, next month in
025the work session, you're going to bring us the breakout of the pool project and the pool costs. We can have the pool comparison costs at the August 19th meeting. Yes. Okay. Um and then we have basically a month to consider that, evaluate the options, and then vote. Yes. Okay. So, uh, based on some of the questions that you have, Miss Graph, I think what I'm going to do with the team is we're going to take this timeline as broad as it is right now and put some definitive deliverables in so that we we're all on the same page and make sure that it it sequences properly to allow us enough time to make the proper decisions. Yeah. My concern, I guess, is that if we're walking into a work session and we haven't had the
026presentation information at least a week in advance, the board is going to struggle with reviewing the information in real time, asking enough questions, making requests for changes, and then those changes are going to take two or three weeks to come back to us, and then we're going to have to make a decision. I think we're getting crunched on the sort of change modification piece. Um, and I also think we're going to need some time with the numbers because I think it's going to be, you know, if we want to do some horse trading, we need to know what the numbers are and what that means and then see if we can rework what we want into the design. That makes sense. Let it let us we we will add the detail in terms of the
027deliverables to this timeline if it seems reasonable u and and most appropriate. you know, pu pushing us out to November might not be a bad idea either if so that we have enough space to make the proper decision. So, right, we'll we'll we'll certainly take a look at it. Um, we'll be back uh in a memo to the board uh earlier than late than than any of these meeting dates with with an update. And I think that's fine. I mean, I the other thing I would suggest is could we have an updated schedule to um review in property in August? I mean that would be an optimum time to sort of take a look at that schedule and see if we're okay with all the detail. Thanks. Any other questions uh for our design team?
028Miss Clearary, not a question, but just I just want to echo what uh Kate was saying in terms of the timeline because I do when I look at this timeline, I I start to feel a little stressed for the for the whole board in terms of seeing what you guys present and then if we do need to make changes, coming to grips with what that's going to cost, how that's going to affect to Kate to to Miss Steel's point that um you know impact the kids. I just it just feels really rushed. And I liked when you just said uh you know perhaps maybe going to November as long as you have it built in um in case things don't go this smoothly. Things would have to go pretty smoothly I think on this timeline.
029Yep. Understand. Yep. No, thank you for that feedback. Uh so that that is the plan to get you an updated more uh timeline deliverable uh than what we have here. Um, and if we think as a as a team that it makes sense to to extend it, uh, we certainly need to do that. The other option, just so the board's aware, we we could also hold a a special meeting on the matter just for information purposes, certainly not to vote on anything uh of any uh great magnitude, but we certainly can have uh more meetings uh to address uh questions that you might have. So, I think that's a great idea. And I guess my question to the team is, can we back the September 16th presentation of the final high school concepts up to
030maybe do a special meeting the first week in September instead? Then you come to the work session in September 16th. We've seen the concepts. We have had time to digest the information around the pricing and the concepts and we can actually have conversation during that meeting. I mean, is that a doable timeline? I'm going to let you think about it. I'm not going to make you answer tonight. That's a great suggestion. I We'll take that we'll take that to the table and see how we can best, you know, because it's not always about uh stretching it out. It's about giving the steps along the way, right? Like insert something between, you know, August 19th and September 16th, closer to the 16th that would give us a couple of say a week in advance of the
031work session that you would have a special meeting presentation. So that would be my request. you guys can think about it and let us know if that's doable. Thank you. Any other comments, Miss Kro? No, with all the timelines, I do think it's important for us to just inform the public and the community on this. So, I just just so that they people were involved in it. So, just being able to either do a postcard, reach out, email, um I think it's important to share. Thank you. We certainly would do that. Any other any other comments on the presentation? Anything else from just to clarify Miss Graph's um request, would that um with that interim meeting, would you still request that information to be provided a week prior to that presentation? No, I would probably
032give you a little leeway on that week prior because All right. I'm just because I think if you present it to us for the first time, say September 10th or September 11th, you present it to us for the first time, I think it's fine for us to see it that first time with you walking us through it. But then we have a week to process, evaluate, think about it, you know, dig into it a little bit before the work session, which you'll be back so we could ask a bunch of questions. Okay. So, do I understand that are you saying that the August 19th meeting you would move that one back to the September? Because the August 19th is really when the intent was to kind of show you guys visually what those concepts look
033like. And it almost sounds like that's what you're requesting prior to so September 16. My request is that we see the final high school concepts sooner than September 16th in order to vote on them in the end of August, October or November even. I think we need more time between seeing the con the final concept and the vote. So one way to keep the vote say end of October or even November would be to move that September 16th date back. So show them to us a week earlier is my request. Okay, we will speak with Devin and his team and see what we can do. Yeah, thank you everyone for your feedback on that. Thank you gentlemen for the presentation this evening and uh I know we meet as a team I believe tomorrow. So
034we'll we'll get uh working on on those particular requests. So thank you very much. Uh that ends the guest and scheduled speakers for this evening. Thank you very much. We appreciate it. We'll now move to reports from the MCI this month. Mrs. Purdue Thank you very much. Um it was business as usual at the MCIU where um for June we had election of new board members and reelection of current board members um for their terms and then also the MCIU um voted on um board offices for president, vice president, treasury and secretary. Um the MCIU also updated their goals um to align with their comprehensive plan just based on some of the things that they um were able to do achieve last year including opening the discovery center um starting envision program and pathways to
035um empowerment facility and also the youth um development center. And then they provided updates on some federal funding that um they were waiting for that they finally um were able to receive some of that to support project aware and also head start programs for their upcoming um for the upcoming school year. Um one of the items I wanted to highlight was just on the some of the legislative updates that was provided. So this is from June. the MCI MCIU actually would not meet in July. Their next meeting will be in August. But there were three bills that passed the um Pennsylvania House um and are now going to be referred to the Senate Education Committee. Um but one of them is um in reference to PA to amend the PA public school code in certification
036of teachers um providing for state certificate and and a reduction of fee and um for professional education um fees. Another one was in reference to streamlining administrative requirements um in reference to collecting information on student transportation laws. And then there was the third one in providing transparency and accountability for PA cyber charter schools and um and reformal high cyber school um charter education is funded through the commonw world. And then the final one that I wanted to highlight was in reference to the adjustment of minimum wage across Pennsylvania counties and um introducing mechanisms um for the annual cost of living for um for the PA state. So, that one passed the House and will be referred to the Senate and Labor Industry Committee and I will provide an update based on how the meeting is.
037I may have an update for July just because we just got the new um calendar for the next school year meetings. Thank you very much. And we'll move on to North Monco. Miss Alustin and Mr. Murski. North Monco did not meet in July. Our next meeting is August 18th. Okay. Fantastic. communications and foundation will be updated next month and next to the superintendent report. Dr. Zerby, thank you. Uh on for for this month, we have the monthly right to know report and then we have two advisements including the list of tenured employees as attached. That ends my report. All right, great. We'll now move to public comment on board action items. The board will now take comments on board action items. This is an opportunity for residents to comment on matters that are to be
038decided upon as outlined on the agenda. The board asks that you keep your comments at 3 minutes or less. The board of school directors may choose to respond to matters following the conclusion of the comments and board action items. [Music] Uh I'm talking about 9E the bond resolution. There's a discrepancy between the agenda description and the actual resolution. In the agenda it says u you're doing this for repairs, upgrades or new construction to the high school. It's not what your resolution says. Your resolution says for the purpose of providing funds for capital projects of the school district. So which which one is it? I I probably think the agenda is in error, but if it's not, then there's a discrepancy. It's got to be straightened out. Um, what capital projects are you talking about in
039your resolution? Says, "Oh, we need 15 million for some capital projects." Like, what? You want to tell us what you're going to spend 15 million on, or is this like just pull a number out of the air? Um, what are the costs associated with the borrowing? legal, clerical, accounting, PFM fees, nothing. Don't we get to know how much this borrowing is going to cost? What's the interest payment or the interest cost on 15 million? It's like 20. This is 35. It's not 15. It's 15 plus 20 in interest. It's $35 million. So, tell us what you want to spend $35 million on. Capital project doesn't tell me anything. and it doesn't agree with what your agenda is. Um your um special ed hiring you're going to do for 760 a day. Can you explain what
040the need for this is this person 760 a day? You know, is there will this be an added expense or is this going to save us money? No explanation. I don't know what's going on with this. Doesn't make sense. I say no until we get a presentation on the uh special ed budget debacle. I wouldn't do any of this stuff until you figure out why you were so far off in your budgetary projections, a million to almost three million over a 4-year period of time. And you're spending more money on special ed. haven't even come to us and told us why you were in such a deficit situation, why you underestimated what you were going to spend. And they're going to spend more money. You don't spend any more money until you tell us why
041you didn't pick up the situation where you you missed it. When are we getting when are we going to get the presentation on special ed and the special ed budget debacle? Can you tell us? I've been asking for it. Don't you need to Don't you think you need to explain it to us? You took the special ed uh exception and and raised our taxes 4.4%. So tell us what's going on with your special ed and how you're budgeting because I think you got a real problem. Thank you. Anyone else for public comment? Seeing none, we'll now move to board meeting minutes. May I have a motion to approve the June 17, 2025 work session and the June 24th regular board meeting minutes as attached? Miss Clearary, may I have a second? Miss Perdue. All right.
042Any comments or questions? Seeing none, all those in favor? All those opposed? Motion carries nine to zero. We'll now move on to fiscal items. The uh on the agenda this evening, we have student activity accounts to approve the closure of student activity account for the class of 2025 with the remaining funds to be distributed in accordance with policy 618 of the board. And item two is approve the creation of student activity account for the class of 2029. We also have under 9E the bond resolution 254 which says approve resolution 254 as prepared by bond council authorizing the issuance of one or more series of general obligation bonds in the amount necessary to fund an approximate $15 million deposit uh to the project fund to the project fund for repairs upgrades and new construction uh to
043or or new construction to the high school and other projects associated with the facilities master plan as prepared prepared by uh as approved by the board and and to pay the cost of issuance. And if you recall, those those particular items were addressed in last month's uh board meeting where Dr. Seni presented a three-year uh uh capital improvements plan uh in the absence of the revised 10-year plan that we've been uh discussing and working towards with our um owners rep CHA. And that included uh a total spend in the three years of about $11 million uh dollars which included uh items at Warsester Elementary School for roof replacement. It included Sky View Arcola roof replacements. It included uh facade potential facade repairs. It included a tennis court resurfacing um at the high school. It included
044a district-wide um uh uh for for Ballards across the district. It included asphalt repair for Eagleville, chiller repair for Eagleville, and uh a generator replacement for Eagleville, among other things in regarding transportation and uh the sewer plant uh um sewer plant upgrades with in all we were thinking that the of estimates in 2026 it would it would cost us an estimate of $5.5 million. in 2027 about $4.3 million and in 2028 about $1.1 million and that's absent of anything that we decide to do with the renovation of the high school. Um on in terms of agreements there are there are two listed here to approve the settlement agreement on parcel number 43-00 04831-556 as prepared by the district solicitor. We also have approved the settlement agreement for parcel number 43003555-09-2 as prepared by the district
045solicitor. And then under 9G, we have a list of uh meal prices uh for the the 2526 school year. And please take note to the reference on the motion. It would be to approve the Methactton uh school district student and meal and adult meal prices for the 25 2025 and then it should say 2026 school year as listed. Then it goes on to talk about the the eight items. It said approved a breakfast meal price of $1.65 and lunch meal price of 305 for Arrowhead Eagleville Wood and Warcester schools. This reflects a 10% increase from the 24-25 school year to take effective the 2526 school year. The second item is approved the school breakfast meal price of $2.30 and lunch price of $3.35 for Sky View and or Cola. That's a 10% increase from the
0462425 school year. Number three is they approve the school breakfast uh meal price. I'm sorry. It's cents, not percent. Not%. 10 cents. That's correct. It's okay. Did I say that twice? 10%. You did. Okay. So that so let the uh the the record reflect is 10 cents, not 10%. And uh then on number three, approve the uh the the breakfast the meal breakfast meal price of $3, the lunch price of $3.75 for Methactton High School. This reflects a 15 cent increase uh for breakfast and a 25 cent increase for lunch for the from the 2425 school year. The item four is to approve the premium meal prices of 475 for mythactton high school. This reflects the 25 cent increase from the 2425 school year. Approve the adult meal price at Arrowhead, Eagleville, Woodland, and Warsester
047Elementary School as follows. Breakfast is $2.95, an increase of 15. Adult meal price of $4.85. That's an increase of 65. And that that's for the 20 that's 65 cents more than the 2425 school year. Approved the adult meal price at Sky View Upper Elementary School and Arcola Intermediate School as followed. Breakfast meal price of $345 and adult lunch price of $4.85. 85. This reflects a 35 cent increase in lunch. Number seven is approve the adult meal price at uh Mthactton High School as follows. Um breakfast meal at $4.50, adult lunch meal price of $5. This reflects a 25 increase in breakfast and lunch. And the last one is approved the adult premium meal price at Mthactton High School of $6. This reflects an increase of 25 cents from the 25 42 25 school year. That
048was a lot. Thank you. Probably should have just said read that for yourself with that. Well, we appreciate your thoroughess. So, may I have a motion to approve all fiscal items as presented? Mr. Winters, may I have a second? Miss Purdue, any comments or questions? Yes, Mr. Winters. Uh, Dr. RB or Kyle, can we have a confirmation that the item 9E is written in a way that's appropriate? 9E was written by the uh bond council uh to be inserted here uh in the agenda. So I would concur that as it's written, we we if if the board so chooses to proceed should leave the language as it is. Any other comments or questions? Yes, Miss Purdue. Can you just um explain the um when it comes to the meal pricing at the um at the
049schools, can you explain how the increase is determined? I don't actually do that calculation, but I'm going to give it my best shot. Uh certainly that's under the purview of uh Miss Stephie in the business office. But uh for the schools that have uh that are under national school lunch program, there is a a pricing tool. And the pricing tool um is designed to uh allow allow you to not actually increase more than a certain number of cents in a in a given a given year. So that um you're on target. the way I understand it on target to make sure that you break even. The goal is to break even. You're not supposed to be making any money and you certainly don't want to be losing any money. That's for K through eight. So,
050all of those prices are and then and that's for the student meals, okay? That's not necessarily for the adult meals. So, the adult meals are based on conversations with the vendor uh to make sure that we're, you know, staying in line with meeting our our our cost. And then for the high school because we're not on the national school lunch program, uh that is based on a a a preview of revenue. Also knowing that we can't, you know, increase things by a dollar. It would be, you know, way burdensome. But this these are we had more flexibility on what we are charging at at the the high school than we do in the other in the other buildings. I hope that's helpful. But generally for K8 there's a there's a tool that we that we
051have to use uh for the high school it was subject to our review and the fact that um we we are still in a deficit at the high school as a result of going off of that program. So, while we're making progress in terms of reducing that deficit, uh we still run a deficit specifically as a result of the free and reduced lunches that that we and breakfast that we provide at the high school. Okay. Thank you. And is do we have plans to provide just because you brought up the um the high school is there a plan to provide an update to how that is going and I guess you indicate we are we're still running under a deficit. I thought that will be I thought based on when we started we should be
052at the end of that now. Yeah. We we were estimating two to three years. So, um I can't, you know, I'm hoping that we can offset that based on the adjustments of these prices, but it's not necessarily um I I can't guarantee that. So what we can do is if if the board so uh uh desires, we can certainly have Miss Stephie and Aramar come forward to the board and just kind of give her a review and give us a you know a current status report as well as a historical uh report because at some point I I think it may be worthy as as as though we're our data is showing that we're we're serving more meals and we're serving more kids through the food program because the quality of the food is is
053more consistent with what they may be able to get outside uh rather than the the the strict uh quality control guidelines uh salt slash uh sugar guidelines for under the USDA. Um we we still we still need to be cognizant of the the the deficit that that we're running. So um I I'll I'll make a I'll make a point to have Miss Stephie come before the board with an update on that. Thank you. Any other comments or questions? Yes. Uh we'll go with Mr. Mki first. So I just comment on that last statement. I thought when we went through the budget process that we had made when we were looking at the numbers, we had made progress in reducing the deficit and the expectation was in what we put in the budget that by the
054end of this year we'd be close to break even. That was the objective. That's that's what we're we have to see how the year goes. Yeah. Um I and I know and and while I while I hope that these meal prices help offset that and and the sales increase and the alle cart helps offset that. I'm not 100% certain we're going to we're going to get there. So we're going to we're going to have to provide this presentation one way or another at at at at some point. My my only point is that that was a few months ago when we looked at this. That was that's what we were thinking is that we would the objective was to be at break even by the end of the upcoming school year. No. No. Absolutely. So,
055uh, and and the there's I mean there's certainly two break even parts to this. There's there's the there's the overall cost and then there's the the separated cost between what the guarantee provides us. So, our vendor provides a a guarantee that uh they won't lose money. But the fact that we subsidize uh through those sales the free and reduced lunches, that's the loss that we're we're trying to recover faster than than normal. So, so, um, we we may need to certainly evaluate that and I think with Miss Purdue's request to have Miss Stephie come forward, we can we can do that and start paying more attention to that matter. Yes, Miss Glary, just sorry, tagging on to what you guys were just talking about. Is there anything preventing us from evaluating where we are on
056this deficit and breaking even midyear or is it No, no, I think that's what we want to do. I think that's the whole point of bringing Miss Stephie forward because it's, you know, we we can certainly do this in September or October and then have another update probably in January and February, but what we have to do is if, let's say, for example, we want to make a change. Um, I'd have to check with Miss Stephie like when can we actually make that change? That was my question when I was saying midy year. If we're finding that we're still in a deficit, can we adjust? I don't think we can adjust. I I think we're locked in for the year. Um, so, so that's why I need to get the timeline and find out when
057do we have to make that decision. Uh, because we have to file certain forms with the USDA and and and and let me get that timeline. Let's work on a presentation early on in the in this school year. Let's get ahead of this. Make sense? Yes. Yes, Miss I'm sorry. Um just a a quick request for that presentation from Miss Stephie. Um if I would just be interested in historical data of the um number or percentage of students who qualify for free and reduced lunch just to see if we're growing or like what that what's happening with that population. That's a good point because if our if our population is going up then that could be part of the dilemma. Good good point. Any other comments? Yes, Miss Graph. Yeah, I guess I just wanted
058to clarify. So, because the high school is not on the federal program, does that mean we still can only adjust prices at the high school once a year? Is there anything that And you don't have there's no there there's there's there's no there's no reason we can't adjust the prices multiple times. We can adjust prices multiple times, but I can't change I can't go off I can't move from the program and on and off the program. Okay. And again, that's that's my belief based on I used to supervise this years ago, but I don't know all the rules off the top of my head right now. So, I think um because I think that was the question that Miss Clearary was asking was, "Oh, I'm sorry. Could we pricing the program so we don't lose
059money in the high school for the rest of the for the second half of the year?" Okay. Um, and my other question is items five and six, I see that the adult meal prices are the same at 4.85 at the elementary schools as well as Sky View Arcola, but the breakfast meal prices are different. Could we maybe just verify that those numbers are accurate? And it just seems strange to me that we wouldn't be charging the same adult breakfast price across the board. And maybe we're not. I I I I I yeah I I believe it's due to what we actually serve and and I I think by levels there is a allowable uh cost. Okay. So and it could be that the elementary school meals are different. They are absolutely different. Okay. So thanks.
060Any any other questions? Okay. All right. Okay. Seeing none. All right. May we already did the motion, right? May I did the motion already? Correct. Sorry. All right. All those in favor? All those opposed? Motion carries nine to zero. Thank you. All right. We'll now move on to personnel items. Thank you, Madame President. For the consideration of the board this month, there are the following personnel items. There are two employments professional. Jenna Young, elementary instructor at Sky View, and Lauren Rufo, elementary instructor at Warsester, both for the 2526 school year. We welcome Jenna and Lauren to the Mthactton family. There are four employments classified, Aaron Hillyard, part-time office assistant at Warsester, and three par professionals, Caitlyn Hopek at Arrowhead, Susanna McCord, and Donna Marie Brown at the high school. All for the 2526 school year.
061We welcome Erin, Caitlyn, Susanna, and Donna to the Mythactton family. There are three changes of status classified. Rebecca Murphy from benefit specialist at FINA to data specialist at FINA. Kelly Gallagher from part-time office assistant at Sky View to full-time office assistant at Archola. And Edna Evans from library assistant at the high school to secretary to the counseling office at the high school. We thank Rebecca, Kelly, and Cookie for taking on these roles. There is one uncompensated leave uh professional Laura Panicello, third grade instructor at Eagleville for the dates listed and supplemental contracts for the curriculum instruction and assessment office sponsors the pupil services office and for a marching band director at Mthactton High School. Thank you. Fantastic. Great news. All right. So, may I have a motion to approve all personnel items as presented? All
062right. Miss Purdue, may I have a second? Miss Steele, any comments or questions? Yes, Miss Clary, just a couple of questions. Um, Dr. Sini, the intent I is Miss is is that a position for dealing with right to know or is that completely separate? Miss Murphy? No, that is not right to know. Uh, Miss Murphy will be dealing as our uh our data specialist. That is generally our PIMS administrator, the statewide system. Thank you. And then the other question I had is on 10M um number two all of the the contracts for the sponsors. How many It's a big number. How many how many sponsor contracts is that? Uh it's across all seven school buildings. I don't know the specific number, but it is the clubs and sponsors for all of the for all schools.
063Yes, that's correct. Okay. Thank you, Mr. Winters. Yeah, I just want to make a comment and and maybe uh uh Dr. Sergini can comment. the two new employees that are making that our our goofy uh salary schedule starts at step two, but bachelor step two is the lowest entry point for a a teacher to come in. So I assume this individual is either coming from school or new into the education world. But the $61,000 427 I think puts us very very competitive and I don't know if you have any response uh towards the hiring that we're doing uh based on the contract changes we made several years. Are you seeing the fruits of this entry entry salary? We certainly are. We are competitive in in all of our categories now. Mr. winters. Any other comments
064or questions? All right, seeing none, all those in favor? All those opposed? Motion carries nine to zero. Thank you. All right, we'll now move on to curriculum and programs. Thank you, President Kro. Uh this evening we have two items under curriculum and programs. One, approve the educational services agreement and terms for student 320452 with special language and terms of the agreement drafted by the district solicitor. And two, approve the educational services agreement and terms for student 290022 with special language in terms of the agreement drafted by the district solicitor. That ends the items. Thank you very much. May I have a motion to approve all items listed under curriculum and programs as presented? Miss Clearary, may I have a second? Miss Graph. Okay. Any comments or questions? Seeing none, all those in favor. All those
065opposed. Motion carries. Nine to zero. Thank you. We'll now move on to policy. Oh, there's nothing under policy. Now we'll move on to other. May I have a motion to approve all I Oh, sorry, Dr. Zerby. Other I promise I won't read it all. Uh so uh under 13C uh transportation to approve the transportation employee roster as provided and then to approve the bus stops. Uh these uh stops have been given to the board uh in advance and they're not posted to the agenda for for safety and security reasons. And 13D is a staffing service agreement to approve the staffing service agreement with Chester County IU to provide interim supervisor special education services in the amount of 76545 per day uh from July 21 through September 30th. Um and I if I'm correct Dr. Seni
066that's the replacement supervisor that's leaving us. That is correct. We're in the process of replacing that individual. I anticipate that there will be someone on the August agenda. However, this person is serving as an interim in that uh time capacity. And this is a standard rate for the IUs to charge for these types of services. Correct. That is correct. And we routinely contract with one or or more of the IUs in the area. Thank you. May I have a motion to approve all items as listed under other as presented? Mr. Winters, may I have a second? Miss Graph, any comments or questions? Can I have a question? I'm sorry. I should have raised my hand and been called on fail. Um, can we I have a question about 13D and I don't know if it
067needs to be taken separately. So, I have a question for Mr. Smers. Um, uh, I am a employee of the Chester County Intermate Unit. Do I have to abstain? I think the question would be if there's any ethics requirement, uh, in terms of your your voting on this item. Um the ethics act requires that you abstain from any vote in which you would uh receive a private pecuniary or monetary benefit. I am certain that that is not the case with this particular vote. Um so you know my opinion would be that there is no need for you to abstain from this vote under the ethics act. Okay. Thank you. Great. Mrs. Purdue. I also have a question for 13D and I don't work for the CCIU, but um I just want to confirm um so
068we have the dates here from the 21st through the 30th, but I know you're currently in the process for recruitment. The date here is just you'll update it, right? I mean, this is based you clarify that. We certainly will uh in one direction or the other based on the start date of our finalist candidate, but we did go with September 30th anticipating that if we could complete that project here in July, move forward potentially with a hiring letter that was authorized by the board at a previous meeting, we could start that clock fully anticipating that a a successful candidate working in another public school would have up to a 60-day hold. So that would take us through the end of of September. And then can I just clarify um in the event we have someone
069in um you're able to get a candidate in the individual that's going to fill this position for the CCIU don't necessarily need to stay here to be employed by the district to serve as transition period right that's correct we would identify if there is any period of transition needed generally we look at two to three days and then we would move forward with the the new candidate in the position Thank you. Great. Any other comments? Yes, Miss Austin. Given this last exchange, could we change uh the motion up to up to September 30th? Can we do that? Dr. Sergene, is there any reason that that would cause a a challenge for us? No, not to my knowledge. Okay. So I also have have another question on the motion. Um July 21st is then it's retroactive
070or is it should it be the 22nd or should it be a different date on the motion? It is the 21st. So generally I guess it would be retroactive. Okay. And I'm fine with the 21, but maybe if we could say up up to or up to including I don't know September 30th. We just generally have not put in the word retroactive when it's a a contract such as this. It's just from one period to the next period. That's why we didn't use the word retroactive. Do that for employees though. Correct. Yeah. Right. Is there any anyone um not in favor for that change? Yes, Mr. Mki. So if if there were need were to uh arrive that arise that you need we needed to go beyond September 30th. Does that uh create a problem
071if we change the language? No, I would bring that back to the board and fully anticipate doing that approve it to extend it. That's correct. Thank you. All right. Great. So, may uh all those in favor with the uh motion as with the change of up to and including. All those in favor? All those opposed. Motion carries nine to zero. Thank you. Dates for board uh members calendars. The upcoming board member meeting dates are listed on the agenda and also on the Mthactton website. Uh we'll now move to old business. Does anyone have old or new business? Yes, Miss Graph. Yeah. On the um dates for the board members calendars, I just want to um make note that we are potentially going to do a property committee meeting in August. So that's not on the
072list. So just sorry. I know. I'm really winning everybody's hearts over today. Well, it's not it's not on the list because you used the word potentially. I said potentially. I didn't say for sure. I'm just we're thinking about it because there's a couple of things we may need to go through and discuss. So, if there is, we will add it and you will be notified. Just FYI. Is that a voting item? No, I'm No, but it will require us to place an ad in the paper and Okay. We'll we'll follow the the standard procedure to do that. But um in all fairness um you know given some of the the timing here with some of the projects um it it may be worth our while to to have that meeting. So Miss Graph and I
073will get back to the board leadership on whether or not we're going to do that. Sounds good. Miss Purdue, I just have a question. This is um because we're still very heavy into summer vacation. um in reference just because we voted on the bus um roster and the um the route. I just want to know do we have any do we see any issues with um the transportation routes just because I feel like there's always some renovation construction something planned that throws a wrench in our start of the school year. Yeah, we we haven't rece like the I I think what you're referring to is we typically get notice that there's going to be a road or a bridge or something that's going to cause a challenge. I've not received any notice to to date.
074Okay. And I'm looking over to Dr. Seni who he hasn't he hasn't either. Um but but but I by all means um when Miss Stephie returns from vacation um we'll we'll have a a meeting with her and and and Karen in in transportation and determine whether or not we anticipate any uh potential challenges. And the other thing, Miss Austin, and I guess along those lines, has I I'd be also interested to know about our bus driver situation because I know um it, you know, it's varied as to how well it's been going with the Yes. So, I I think we can uh provide a report. Typically there is a report to work uh day that that and then when we know when we're usually down they you know some sometimes they just decide not to
075show up that that particular day and they say yeah I'm not coming back and that's when we know the differential between what we have and what we don't have. Um but um so I'll get that information. We'll proide provide that as a timing mechanism uh to keep you apprised. Uh and we'll we'll communicate that in the memo. Any other comments or questions? All right, seeing none, we'll now move to courtesy of the floor. The board of school directors will now provide an opportunity for residents to make comment on matters that are or may be before the board. The board asks that you keep your comments to three minutes or less. The board of school directors may choose to respond to matters following the conclusion of the comments. You could also submit your questions via email
076at informationactton.org. Jim Oliver or Sester. Um, I still don't accept your explanation about the bond situation. You're telling us the bond company told you to write something that contradicts their official document as the motion? Don't think so, Dave. It's not going to work. You know, I may have to go outside of here to take care of it. Um, it's not correct. Um, again, why read, you know, send your questions and comments via email to, uh, you know, methacton or informationactton.org. And what I handed you is one of the reasons why we shouldn't even do it because you don't read the emails. You delete them. I handed you three emails where it says you deleted questions. You, Mr. Chairman, and the vice chair, Miss Purdue, deleted the uh questions that I asked the district without reading
077it. So, why do I why do I send anything to uh [email protected] when you guys aren't even reading it, you're deleting it. So, you might want to look at that and uh you know, maybe give me some kind of um advice as to what I should do. Uh so, now we finally have a renovation plan. This is amazing. I sat at a Warsester Planning Commission meeting and you know, you guys said, "Oh, yeah, we got a renovation plan. You didn't have a renovation plan. We're going to see it in a couple like a month." Why'd you deceive the public? mislead the public into thinking there was a plan. Oh, it's on a website. Oh, we can give it to you. You had zero. That's what's going on right now. That's going That's what you got
078a timeline for. It makes no sense. Where is the public input piece on the timeline? It's like, oh, we'll just vote on it when? October. No like public sessions, no like presentation to the public so we can give you feedback. Hey, we're going to spend 100 million. Boom. I It makes no sense to me. Um pool. You guys want a new pool. All those options have new pool. You don't get a new pool because you couldn't take care of the old one. You neglected it since 2016. Water leaked a thousand gallons a day down through the concrete. And you want a new pool? No. No. Not until you give us a presentation about how the old pool was mismanaged and how you're not going to do it again with the new pool uh auditorium, a
079new auditorium, the capacity going to be the same. Absolutely ridiculous waste of money. Makes no sense. Why would you build an auditorium, a new one, the same size or smaller than the old one? You know, you guys are ridiculous. Thank you. Anyone else for a public comment? Good evening. John Andrews, Lower Providence. Uh this evening again we had uh the architect give presentations and uh uniquely to this architect is a format for their slides. The the public sheets that are presented and and then their copy is provided to the uh to the directors. Uh the problem that I have seen continually with these slides is that they are white on black. That uses perhaps 10 times an order of magnitude of ink. And uh I think you ought to try black on white, which is
080conventional and economical. All right. Relative to the renovation, it looks to me like there's going to be zero uh information provided to the public. Uh and this just this evening, Miss Canro suggested a postcard. I almost want to say that I I'm violently opposed to to that minuscule type of communication. No, I think you I'm talking I'm talking about the value of a 10 or 20 page document that informs the public a and uh solicits information from the public. The public is a a valued and intelligent community. A and the the public also includes uh uh uh senior living facilities and businesses. It's not just people that live in single detached homes. Thank you very much. Anyone else for courtesy of the floor? Seeing none, is there any comments or questions following this? Seeing none,
081um, may I have a motion to adjourn, Miss Graph? May I have a second? Miss Purdue. Motion to adjourn. Have a good night, everyone.