May 21, 2025, 7:00 PM - Work Session of the Board

001Good evening everyone. Thank you for being here. I would like to call to order the May 21st work session for the Makin School District. Um we'll start with the pledge. All right. So, I just like to um inform that the public is here by advice of the audio and video recording for this meeting for the purposes of rebroadcasting. By way of attendance, I have all board members here except for um Mr. Glenn Murky and Katie Thiel who are excused and also Miss Kanko who will be joining us shortly. And now for recognition of guest and schedule speakers, Dr. Zerby. Thank you, Madam Vice President. This evening, it gives me great honor uh to not only introduce Dr. Sergini, my assistant superintendent, who will then introduce illustrious uh retirees, people that have committed their lifetimes and

002uh to this district. Uh but it's so wonderful to see all of you here this evening. Dr. Serjini, thank you. Dr. Zerby, members of the board of school directors and members of the Mthactton community. We are indeed fortunate in Mthactton School District to have staff members who join our Mthactton family and embark on lengthy careers of dedicated service to our students and service to the many facets of our organization that all work together to provide a superior education to the children of the Mthactton community. Each year in May, we come together to honor those members of the Methactton family who have retired from service during the past school year. Tonight, as we near the conclusion of the 2024 2025 school year and again come together in recognition of our retirees, we honor 33 retiring staff

003members who collectively represent a total of 767 years of exceptional service to Mthactton School District. We are grateful to them for all that they have done to make Mthactton an exceptional place for our students to learn and grow. a place of warm welcome to parents, guardians, and members of the of the community that come together in our school buildings and a second home to all of our staff members. On behalf of the entire Methactton community, I am honored to extend our gratitude and appreciation to all of our retirees and to wish them the very best of health and happiness in their well-deserved retirement. I will now read the names of our retirees and ask them to come forward to be recognized. And I ask Dr. Zerby and madam vice president to please come forward to

004receive our retirees. If you guys stand. Perfect. Thank you. Our retirees are Timothy Barbagallo, Lyn Bellow, Stephanie Buridelli, Daniel Bontempo, Caroline Deninger, Mary Joe Derado, Colleen Dods, Linda Emer, Sharon Evans, Kathleen Fontineella, David Ford, Anne Fraga, Mary Joe Golden, Dana Heyman, Leslie Culp, Sharon Kushner, Jodie Latanzy, Katherine Markle, Gregory McCertie, Daniel Mcdana, Linda Milligan, Dawn Montter, Anita Morgan, William Moser, Jeffrey Naylor, Francesca Neon, Sandra Parker, Lisa Rose, Linda Sat, Steven Shy, Mary Thomas, Jose Valdez, Cassennia Zahareek. Again, our 33 retirees representing 767 years of collective service. Thank you and [Applause] congratulations. Remember back to family. Nice and tight. Congratulations. [Applause] Thank you. Watching here to see you. I can't believe you're I'm like you have no idea how fast I drove you. This is my congratulations. I'm like, come on. Thank you. totally I tried

005so hard to get it. [Music] You guys [Music] [Laughter] [Music] I do want to say from the um board of school directors, thank you very much for all your support and tireless efforts for the Methan School District. I know, Miss Ko, maybe it was a good thing you were running a little bit late because I know there's a lot of there's a lot of love and we really appreciate all the work from our staff that's retiring. We really appreciate everything you've done for the district and I'm sure as we've heard and Mr. Seni mentioned, we welcome you all back anytime because we're always looking for incredible substitutes. So, thank you. Well, well, thank you. Um, that's a good uh emotional feeling. Uh, yeah. So, good experience, Dr. Sugini. Well done. Appreciate that. Uh, we have

006other good news here this evening. Um and and that is uh Miss Bassik, the chair of our music program, has an outstanding announcement, one that we've heard probably each of the last eight years consecutively. I think I may have that number wrong, but uh but Miss Bassik, would you mind coming down and and uh letting us know why we're here this evening uh and why NM is going to be uh presenting uh us with an award? Good evening. There we go. Pardon me if I starts to sing feelings, but we won't do that. You know, remember Mr. Kelly is an entertainer, so he he's he's playing with us right now. Okay, we'll we'll go light. Uh Dr. Zerby, uh, Miss Purdue, members of the board, and those that are here in the audience this evening,

007it's an honor to be here once again. Uh, I believe it is year number nine. So, uh, [Applause] uh, I I don't come before you this evening as the education representative for Zwitz Music, but I come as an ambassador for the DAM Foundation. Uh, I also have the opportunity to work with the the staff here in the Mthactton School District. And I will say that they work tirelessly to produce wonderful things, uh, not just the instrumental side, but the coral side as well as the general music teachers here because if they don't have a a wonderful time in general music, they're never going to make it to instruments or singing or or what have you. Uh but the the NAM Foundation started this particular application process 26 years ago. Um it's a rather lengthy as

008Mrs. Baslick said it it's it goes into great detail about uh the performance opportunities. Do you provide uh support financially? Are there rooms to practice in? Uh 35 pages. I believe there are essay questions and there are some questions that are relatively easy. it is uh uh kind of gone over by a third party. The University of Kansas uh actually evaluates the applications. Uh there are over 14,000 school districts in the United States. Methactton happens to be one of the 935 that have gotten this award. This year's 935 number is even less than it was last year. I think some of the application uh questions go a little deeper and and ask some some hard questions. Uh but again, it's to the support of of the staff, the administration, the parents that get their kids

009to and from rehearsals early in the morning, late in the day, uh and and work tirelessly to to put a a wonderful product out there that the Methactton community can be uh very very proud of. So, it's my pleasure to be here once again. I'm looking for number 10 next year. So, keep up the good work and on behalf of the NAM Foundation, congratulations, Smithton School District. Bravo. Great photo op. Uh we congratulate you Mthactton School District for outstanding support of music music education, enriching the lives of children and advancing advancing student achievement. Uh it is a a proven fact that students that are involved in music in some way, shape or form are smarter. Test scores will back that up if you dig deep and take uh take those that are involved in in

010instrumental or coral or or music in general. Um that their their test scores are are higher than the mean that uh that is out there. though. Um, and if you pull USA Today, USA Today did a poll u back in the late 80s that they they pulled the the top executives of Fortune 500 companies and over 80% of them were involved in music in some way, shape or form as as their their life went on. So maybe we'll have some billionaires here in Methton coming. So congratulations [Applause] very tired. Perfect. Thank you. [Applause] I just want to say congratulations to the Mactton music department. I was in third or fourth grade. Mrs. Sinnate at Arrowhead me. She had us all sing one by one and I was super shy kid, new to methacton. Well, new

011to Arrowhead. and she asked if I wanted to be in chorus and my mom said no cuz she had no idea what it was. So Mrs. Sinnet called my mom, explained to her what it was all about and I did chorus all the way through senior year and in high school when I had a real tough time fitting in anywhere marching band was my home and I see mix Shuy back there and I have some of my best friends today are from marching band and music. So it's a really good community. the teachers are awesome and thank you so much. [Applause] And I'm going to chime in because I think I do every time we receive this award um to say uh I just I love highlighting our music program and and our commitment to

012the music program in this district. And also that you know while music people who study music may have higher test scores, music is for everyone. And I love that about the program. Well, thank you everyone. And now we have again some more really good news. Uh to tonight, uh Dr. Regina is going to introduce some folks that have been working tirelessly tirelessly within our community to help support some of the things that are really important uh not only to the Mthactton School District uh to our administration, our staff, and our students, but also to the Mactton community. Dr. Regina. Yeah. Thank you, Dr. Zerby. Um, just just to the board, uh, this is we we're approached with really a wonderful opportunity and I I don't want to spoil kind of the specifics that are going

013to be gone over here. Um but really an approach to really being bring people together within our community within our school system and a program that we believe really complements a lot of things that we're doing around the be behavioral lens and a lot of the stuff that we're doing within our sense of belonging. And so this evening Leslie from Mission Kids and Amy from Rep. Webster's office along with Representative Webster himself are here this evening to share a little bit about what that is um and uh maybe get some questions from the board afterwards. So Amy Leslie, thank you. Good evening. Am I good? I'm Leslie Slingsby. I am CEO of Mission Kids Child Advocacy Center, but I am also a parent of an Arcola student as well as a Sky View student. And

014good evening. I'm Amy Smith. I am chief of staff for Representative Joe Webster, and I also have students in the district. I have a sixth grader at Sky View, a ninth grader at Mthactton, an 11th grader at Mthactton, and a graduate who is in college currently. Yeah. Yeah, and this program came about because um I got a call from Amy kind of saying, you know, we both have children in Sky View and we've had some, you know, concerns about um kind of the climate at Sky View and really wanting to focus on how can we as parents be part of the solution, right? Um bringing kindness, respect, um safety, welcoming environment just that we were a piece of that puzzle. And so we have a program that um we have developed that we think will

015really bring together uh upper elementary, junior high school students, high school students and then um different types of professionals in the community. So um what we are proposing is a six to eightmonth educational program for sixth graders as well as seventh graders. It's six months of educational lessons but two months included with for like an introduction and then a celebration at the end. These will be monthly one-hour sessions focused on topics related to respect, empathy, positive relationships, internet responsibility, and safety. The um while the audience would be sixth and seventh graders, it actually has a component that will include high schoolers that we'll get into. So the goals of this program are specifically to promote interpersonal skills and address social norms, enhance internet safety and responsibility, encourage respect, respecting differences and building connections, teaching conflict

016resolution, empower upstandards related to bullying, improve communication skills, and inspire kindness and team building. We have a high school leadership component. I don't know if you want to talk about that. So the idea of this program isn't to bring another curriculum to the teachers. It's not to meet with the counselors and say fold this into character strong or you know uh to say to the principles like make this work in PBIS. The idea is to add another dimension to what's already in place. So what we what we're proposing with the high school students is to to put together a cohort of juniors and seniors 48 about 48 students to be mentors to the students in sixth and seventh grade. So they would receive the high school students would receive leadership training from a myriad of

017partner organizations within the community. We have uh let's see mission kids obviously are involved. Rep. Webster's office would be involved and then MONCO victim services, Laurel House, the Ark Alliance, the McGomery County Commissioner's Office, McGomery County Community College, and we've also started to talk to the MCIU, Lower Providence Police is involved, or Sinus College is also a willing partner. So basically everyone we've talked to has wanted to figure out how can they take their programming that they offer in terms of training for leadership for safety for community engagement and create individual programs that can be presented to those high school students in a way that they receive a certification for participating in it. So it's something to add to a college application to a resume or just to enrich maybe their their own career aspirations.

018and then also have them trained in that subject so that the high school students go down to sixth and seventh grade, work with the same group of students every month, establish a mentoring relationship and do roleplaying or an activity together, something to instill the values from that particular uh particular program. So the the high school students will have the benefit of interacting with all of those organizations to receive that professional training and then mission kids and Rep. Webster's office, our staff will help to facilitate that and also be present on the days when those presentations are being done in case they need a little bit of help. But the idea isn't to say to the teachers, here's a packet you have to teach, right? The idea is for us to come in with the information

019and to impart that to the students and then hopefully establish a connection between the high school students and the middle school students. And we were just talking about this the other day. The kids that are at outdoor ed right now, they're going to tell you three things when they come home. First is how the weather was. That's a given, right? Like if it rained. Second thing, how much they didn't like the food. That's that's a given. The third thing is how much they loved their high school counselor. That is the third thing they're going to talk about. And maybe not in that order, but but the point is is that those connections, those opportunities for connection build accountability. It builds um positive role models. It builds upstanders, right? And it sets a standard for the

020culture, not just in one building, but across the whole district. Absolutely. Yeah, I couldn't agree more. I think that um obviously as an agency that goes into schools all the time, we're okay with the kindergarteners, the first and second graders, they'll they'll still listen to us and sometimes they just get excited to have someone come into their classroom. Um but with that being said, we're talking about fifth, sixth, seventh, eighth graders, they're a little more sophisticated. They don't want to hear from us adults. So that's why it's really important for us to bring in these high schoolers and help them kind of do a train the trainer so that they're really imparting the wisdom they've learned to the sixth and seventh graders. So um short-term outcomes is we really do hope that we'll have an

021increase of interpersonal skills as well as internet responsibility skills, improved peer relationships and understanding as well as respect. establish a culture of kindness and that each um student will be have the skills to navigate adolescence positively and create more of a sense of community between upper elementary, middle school and the high school. And you're going to ask, well, how are you going to learn that? So, we're hoping to do pre and post tests. So, we kind of get a little bit of sense of the kids as well as what how the teachers perceive the students before the program. And then after the program, we're going to give that same survey to see if we see any changes so we can learn about what worked, what didn't work, um, and what we can change for the

022future. So, anything else? Yeah. One other component to this is community involvement. So, and this is where Rep. Webster and and his office really come into play. The idea is all these things are happening provided by all these great organizations and Mission Kids is has a lot of experience with curriculum and and implementation. So they've got that market covered. What we're hoping to do is create community connections outside of the district. So you participate in this program and then you get a little card that says that you went through year one or or however it's it's demarcated. We have the mission kids marketing team working on a logo and we're going to have swag for the high school kids so that way they can, you know, wear it out, be proud, right? But the goal

023then is to have local businesses have that sticker on their front door or a poster hanging inside the restaurant, right? So when students go in, they see it and they can say, "Oh, I'm part of that that I know all about this program." And they're able to to show that. And maybe there's a reward. Maybe it's maybe it's just a that's awesome, you know, and and it leads to some conversation, but the goal is to have a presentation and some materials for all of those businesses and organizations to look at our our local corporations, right? I mean, so many people in the district are employed by some of these big companies. They're always looking for ways to connect with us. I hope to have a conversation with the education foundation about this as well because

024it could be a vehicle for some additional partnerships in a in a way to bring bring things to the district. And along those lines, we hope through all of those relationships to be able to fund anything that needs to be done for this program so that it's at zero cost to the district. We already have two other school districts that are interested in in participating in this, but we said the pilots's here for obvious reasons. So, um, we're really hoping that Mthactton will be at the front of this, that the high school students have an opportunity to not only participate, but to help mold it and shape what this looks like with their feedback. And we're also hoping that some of the students who maybe don't take on a leadership role right now that aren't

025sure what that looks like for them see this as a vehicle to say, "Oh, I can I would like to reach a hand back to middle school, you know, and and help some of those kids along." Right? So, it's it's we're hoping that in that cohort of high school students, we have a really good mix of of people from different different um backgrounds and interests so that Yeah. so that we can really, you know, pair them appropriately in the schools. Rep. Webster, do you want to say anything about the leadership component? Okay. I'll just make a quick note because I think you've seen the leadership that these two women are bringing to this project. Um it occurred to me as we were playing out a lot of the different variables and interests how a junior

026senior in high school get the opportunity to lead and there are those whether you're captain of the soccer team or something who are the natural leaders and the other students will follow along or you may be at a quieter person who needs to develop that opportunity and and when Amy spoke of sort of the combination that's the sweet spot right because when when one of those natural leaders buys in, a lot of others will buy in. But when when one of the quieter kids gets that first opportunity, they elevate so quickly. And and I'm I'm bringing that up as sort of part of my experience in life, whether it was uh my time in the Air Force or my time in in private sector or my current role in Harrisburg, it's not always the flashiest

027or or the best positioned person who leads the next step. But you need people in each category for that opportunity. And so as we were developing this issue that that resonated with me, I think it creates an opportunity for a lot of the this students, you know, the juniors and seniors who want to participate and then we build it out over time. And and I'll just hammer home the last point Amy made about making sure that it's our responsibility to fund this, that we keep it going without putting extra pressure on the on the district. So, thanks for that consideration and and vote yes when it's your turn and and it is uh the recommendation of the administration to vote yes. So, you know, uh, and this is a I'll say I I don't know

028the exact time frame, but when we got a call to come to Representative Webster's office, uh, we it was something like on a Thursday, we got it on the agenda for the education committee the following Tuesday. we're here before you and only because of the the the impact that we believe this can have not only initially as a pilot but the the capacity it has to make an impact uh long term and I and I don't mean to put uh Miss Chonda on the spot here but uh she had mentioned uh that there used to be a club of some sort that had oh now she remembers okay yes so share that uh I did something called peer connection in high school. And I remember it in elementary school, too, because some of my cousins,

029so to speak, came were the ones that came down and talked to us about drugs and alcohol in fourth and fifth grade. So, I got to high school and I was like, "Oh my god, I remember this thing." And I did it and it it was great. So, we learned all about drugs and alcohol and then we went down to the younger kids and talked about that. And then my senior year um some of the counselors had talked had told us that there they were seeing self-injurious behavior occurring in the middle school. So we used peer connection. We got a curriculum together and we went and the the first one was was in a big room and like I think all the seventh graders were in there and you could you could see which ones

030were like what am I doing here you know like they don't know what they're talking about and then some of us had shared our own experiences with that kind of stuff and it was like immediate and and the conversation and dialogue was so good the mentorship was so good. The relationships were so good from that moving forward. So when we were presented with this, I was like, "This sounds like peer connection." Also, what happened to peer connection? But awesome. It's coming back. That'll be that'll be a different topic. And and but the the the value here and and and that's what you're speaking of that, you know, it's always adults to students. That that's our unfortunately that's our system. That's how things work. Um, but when Representative Webster's office brought this to us, you know,

031that I think that's one of the missing pieces uh where where we have, you know, young adults, young leaders, uh, making that connection back and kind of giving back. Hi, thank you for bringing this to the board. Um, I just I have a question. And so I I think I heard you say about 48 high school students and how many then sixth graders and then how are how are they se is it all of them or how are they selected or are they recommended? Can you talk more about that process? Yeah, we're hoping to have 40 to 48 students um so that we can make sure that every single time we have at least two high schoolers kind of um conducting the curriculum while um each month's lesson. And so, um, they'll be selected through

032an application process. Again, we want a variety of kids. Man, we hope we get more than 40 kids apply. That would be wonderful. Um, that we have to make choices, but I we'll see how that goes. Um, with that being said, every sixth and seventh grader will be eligible to participate. And so we'll actually have two students go to each classroom and actually conduct it so that they're kind of working in their own classroom and their own group um and learning and hopefully being able to replicate the skills that they've learned. And so is it during school the school day then? Yes, it'll be during the school day. Yeah. Great. Thank you. So when we when we talk about costs, we just want to make sure we're covering transportation for the high school kids to

033the middle school and back to the high school and and any teacher stipens as well. One of the things that we've proposed is that you have the club sponsors at the high school level and and we would make sure that they receive all the same training that the students are receiving and then we could talk you know do we think it's appropriate to have building liaison as well which would be a nice conduit then to staff meetings to be able to explain this is what we're doing this month and why and and what what to expect in the classroom. Yeah, I guess I guess to that to that point, you know, we're we met just last week um kind of developing this and that's why it's kind of called a pilot because uh you know,

034the good news is we have uh two professionals who also are parents that know our system really well and so that makes it a lot easier. But we we do need to make you know scheduling uh decisions. We need to make coordinating operating type of of things. So, while we don't may not have every answer for you this evening, um it's certainly uh something that I believe we can do we can do very well and we can make sure that u it it's something that goes beyond the walls uh of MAC and and into the community as as a way to recognize all the good work that that we're doing. So, are there other questions? Yes, Miss Claire. So, I'm going to steal two of the words uh from Dr. Zerby and Puja tonight. Puja

035used the word awesome and I think that's my was my first reaction when you were talking. I think this is awesome and Dr. Zerby used the word value and I really you can you really presented the value. So I do want to say to all three of you thank you so much um first of all for doing this for having the forethought to do it for sticking with it to put it together and just really for everything all three of you do for the community. I think it is so awesome for you to present something that comes to us to help our community, our kids that is from outside the district. I just think that's really cool. Um, that being said, I do have a couple of questions. So, I hope I I hope you're

036okay with that. Um, okay. So, the first one is around the leadership of the of the high school students, those 48 students that you're going to pick. I I see in the presentation that it's um they'll be chosen through application and teacher recommendations. I I assume is it who's the ones that's going to be picking those kids? So, we're actually going to um present it to every English class and we that we only picked English because that means we hit every single high school student that can hear about the opportunity. We hope that they apply. We'll have an application process through a Google classroom because that's definitely the way we do it at Mthactton. And so, um, we'll be able to review those and it's not really like who would be a good fit. We

037want to make sure they have those leadership capabilities or potential leadership capabilities because we have a training component for that. Um, but it might be more like availability, right? Some kids may or may not be able to miss that much. And so, we do want to have like honest conversations about like, can you commit to this? this is how much it would be how much time it would take and that type of thing. But who's making the selections I guess is my first question. So we're going to the the everything will be in the Google classroom. The the component of teacher recommendation is to make sure that it's twofold, right? It's either that a teacher says yes, this student would be good for the program or here's a student I think would be good for

038the program. So we're hoping that that that widens the net. In terms of the selection, we'll be talking to Dr. Uker, whoever else from the school is the advisor, Dr. Regina. We'll be, you know, we'll be looking for certain things as well. So it'll it'll be a team approach, but it won't be like students select selecting or just opting in. It will be a selection process. Yeah. So what I'm was trying to get at is I think oftent times in schools, we always pick the kid. And when I say we, I'm not talking about me. I'm just saying the collective, you know, since I've been in school and and really today, a lot of the kids who have the best grades get picked, right? Or or the kids from always it's the kids. Not that

039there's anything wrong with that with those ch I don't not that there's anything wrong with those children like National Honor Society kids. I would just like to see that it's available and open and consideration given to kids who aren't those kids. Right. So, yeah. When when Leslie and her staff at Mission Kids developed this application that was with that in mind, we also have an an additional component. If there's a student that clicks on that link and feels overwhelmed by filling out the application, they can send an email to Mission Kids and we will set up an interview. We'll do it in person. We'll do it on the phone. We'll do it over over Zoom because the idea is not everyone there there's untapped potential, right? Okay. I mean, and I'm just I'm going to

040generalize, but like, you know, a a I have a child with ADHD where sometimes just the mechanics of that is overwhelming and getting over the hump, right, to just get started is the challenge and a conversation works wonders, right? So, we want to make sure that it's completely inclusive. And we are looking for that balance of okay, so here's like Joe said, you know, here's the captain of the soccer team, but here's a student that a teacher encouraged to apply who has that untapped potential that just it hasn't come come to fruition yet. And like Leslie said, with being in the English classrooms, we feel like the English teachers know what's going on. They're reading, they're writing, right? Like they have a little bit of a window into into the kids. So, we're hoping that

041presenting in the English class with the English English uh department being on board that that will help us with selection. Okay, that makes me happy. Thank you. And I also want to say um just so you know, um we're so we'll go into sophomore and junior classrooms, uh English classrooms, and talk to them. But we do really want a diverse group of kids. And one of the nice things about being outsiders is we don't know anything about these kids. And I don't know their GPA. I don't know what kind of grades they get. I just know what that they're interested and why they're interested and I hope that we get such a kind of response that we have to make selections. Um but we we really won't know that information and we did not ask

042that information. Okay. Um and then um another question I have is you've called it a pilot or maybe Dr. Zerby called it somebody called it a pilot. Um so so the program as I'm reading it is for next year. So tell me about the future. What happens after next year? And if you don't know, that's fair, too. Well, so, so the goal is is it's sixth and seventh grade. So, we want two years. We want the kids to experience this for two years, right? So, we want to stick with it in sixth and seventh grade and bridge those two buildings. Um, after that, I mean, we we hope to keep it going, right? And that's really where where Rep. Webster and I come in in terms of getting that community support and making sure that

043local nonprofits that this is part of their mission are willing to help with funding. Um that we're looking at state resources because as this expands, which I I think this will, if we're successful, it will again, we already have two other districts that want to sign on for year two, right, which would be their year one, our year two. Um we're going to need help. So that relationship with potentially the IU was really important, maybe Department of Ed, right? Like we have different avenues and that's that's the beauty of having the representative as part of this process, right? Is is that we we're exploring all of that, but the goal isn't to do it one year and then walk away. It's to it's to sustain this and to let in the fact and be the

044starting point for this as we work our way out through the county. So again, awesome because that's what I want to do here. I also want to say we this is going to be a lot of effort and a lot of energy and a lot of resources, but we believe in this. Um, but I also don't want to put any resources into things that don't we know don't work. Right? And so we know from doing the DARE program year after year. That didn't work for us as kids. Right now it's more having people say things like how many kids don't do drugs, how many kids aren't drinking in high school. And it's really high schoolers telling them. So, we will really dig into the data of the pre and post surveys to make sure that

045this is working and make changes for the following year if we determine it's not working. That's all I have. Thanks, guys. Any other questions to my right, Miss Graph? Yeah, I um I want to echo Miss Clary's comments. This is fantastic program. I am such a firm believer in the things that Mission Kids does. I love everything you guys are doing. So, I'm so happy that you came to Mthactton and I love the idea of Mthactton sort of leading this effort and sort of bringing a program like this to the forefront and I agree this is something our kids at that level really do need. So, just to confirm like from a pilot perspective, you're going to be going into classrooms this spring. Do you mean high school classrooms? Yeah. Yes. And we are and

046buying those kids this spring. We are. I know it sounds crazy, right? It's a little ambitious. So, we already have the application done. We already have it in Google Classroom. We have the uh high school flyers done. Uh we have the pitch. And so, yeah, we are ready to go. Uh we already have kind of when those applications will be due and when they'll get notified and how they'll get notified. Okay. And then, um would you be doing the training of the high schoolers over the summer? Like, how does that training piece work? So, there will be a leadership um orientation over the summer, two to three days. We're not sure exactly yet. Uh we're looking to have host that at our sinus so that they have like a cool no offense against the high

047school, but like you know, they get to go go someplace different, right? To to experience that, like to get to get um oriented. Yeah. and and then after that it'll be c certain days they're obligated to stay after school to receive the specific training which with each of these groups. So like the Ark Alliance for example uh when they come in they have they actually have a statewide and a national program that they offer to schools they're they're working right now to to curtail that and and fashion it in a way that it'll fit into this model so that they'll train the high school students. So that'll be a set day where we know they're coming and they're and then everyone who's involved will receive the training. That sounds great. And then um so from

048a monthly perspective, how much time do we expect our high schoolers to have to be out of the classroom? Like what kind of does that look like? Is it a half a day? Is it So it depends on how the scheduling works, right? Um, you know, as a parent who had has had kids in Sky View and Arc Colola, my first thought was, well, eighth period, right, at at Arc Colola, like that's easy, but that Hawk Huddle time has fluctuated and changed a lot at Sky View. It might not be able to be a backto-back thing, but it would be one day a month where those students would be transported down to to Sky View and Arcola and whatever the, you know, the breakdown would be, but we would want them to be able to

049participate in both schools so we have enough students. Right. Right. And and I I have to say the other thing that this just sort of is in my mind, it's really bringing up the whole lunch and learn programming. This would be a great way for our high school students to be able to participate even if they're in sports and can't do it after school if they could be able to do the trainings and the meetings like in the middle of the day where you would have club meetings. This would become a club for Dr. Regina. Did you write that down? Okay. So yeah, we were thinking after school, but the lunch and learn gives an opportunity for everyone no matter what they are participating in after school because you might have kids that are, you

050know, in band or they have other practice requirements or they don't have transportation home an hour after school, we would want to make sure that they could still participate. So, I just I also think that there could be an option maybe to allow some flexibility in the school day if it's only a little bit of time that maybe they get an excused class absence to do the training instead of it being required after school. Just a thought. Um, and then I guess the other question I had was you mentioned it would be great for us to get some funding like local support for funding. So, what do we need funding for? Well, that that's yet to be determined, right? Like we're we're working through that with administration. Like what would that look like? The tr

051I I my immediate thought when we first started to talk about this was transportation. I didn't know how it would work to be able to transport the high school students down to Skyola and back. So I thought, well, we're going to we're going to be covering that cost without a doubt. Uh the swag, the materials, any all those costs were absorbing that. And then also uh like I said, whatever the teacher involvement is, we would want to make sure obviously teachers are compensated. I don't know anything about how any of that works, but you would bring me a number and say this is this is what we need in terms of teacher stipens and then we would we would secure that funding. Okay, that makes that makes total sense. Um and I guess this is

052a question for the administration. I don't see a motion on the agenda. So the motion on the agenda would come after the presentation. So we're asking uh that the board authorize the administration to proceed forward uh with the community cares program uh for the 2025 2026 school year. So just to be clear like there's no cost to the district. There's just time and access to students and teachers and classrooms. Um, is there anything that I'm missing that I'm not sort of capturing in that sort of approval? I guess that's kind of why I'm asking is like all of those things are already under the admin's purview. Like I don't know that you need board approval to access students and classrooms and teachers and run a program like this. So I guess I'm just trying to

053make sure I understand what exactly we're approving. Yeah. So we're we're also uh knowing that from a fundamental perspective, these are all the things that we want to do. Um we're still building this and the last thing I want to do is find a place where I have to come back multiple times and ask for multiple different things. So I'm really asking for uh the board uh support as we build this. Um and certainly knowing that we have to do surveys and and things of that nature and using thirdparty organizations as part of this. Um it's important that uh that is that is authorized to do that. Okay. Um and the other thing I would just like to request is I would love for you guys to come back like in August and say this

054is how many kids we got. This is how the training went. Like this is I would love love love to hear about that before you even kick off the year. And then obviously I would love to have you back in the middle of the year to give us an update and if there's any way that the board can support like whatever you know feel free to come back because this is a great program. We were we were actually hoping to secure a board leaison too so that way we can keep you all looped in at every step of the way. I was going to say I think you might have fight on your hands. Any other questions from two to the left, Miss Kangro? Echoing everybody. I don't want to say anything different, but I

055do want to make sure I love pre and post data. I think it's super important because it really will let us know where we're going with this and and looking at everything, but the involvement of our school counselors and mental health counselors are really key as well. Um, so having them there be be an ear during the conversations because there's going to be conversations that are there's going to be an oversight that needs to be done for us for administration too. So um I would love for them to be sitting in in some of this uh trainings with the students because conversations can happen and I want our high schoolers to feel the ability to to cover it or be able to, you know, push the question to someone else or say well let's not

056answer this right now. So, I do think there's some vulnerability that they're going to be working with. So, but I do think this is an amazing program and thank you for bringing it to us. But, um, yeah, and again, as you could see, definitely come back, give us updates. We're looking forward to it. So, any other comments, questions to my left, Miss Pet? I just have one. I do want to say thank you. I know this was presented at at committee. very excited and just seeing how fast we are moving with this, how quick this was brought to ED committee and also before the board. So, it's definitely a great program. I think you hit on a lot of components of it, which I love, but also like the fact that we're just adding just

057another dimension of the things we already have in place at the district, right? But recognizing that there's always the need to look at what else can we do to support our kids. And so I love the fact I think you mentioned many things, leadership, mentorship. I know just going through the college application process, right? They're looking for not just I was part of this, but what role did you take as a leader, right? And working I I support girls on the run as a coach and we utilize the high school students and the younger students always love them. So there's many components of this program that I think is going to work really well. is going to resonate with our high school students and also the lower grade students. So, I do appreciate um Rep.

058We Webster's office for bringing this mission kids and I think it's a great program. I'm looking forward to it and yes, we do encourage you. I think August may be a little bit um because we won't have a committee, but um definitely maybe September may be a great time to come back just to let us know how we're where we are. I do love the idea of the lunch and learn because it's something that we're looking to do already. We've talked about and this may be a good way to branch into um something. So maybe a good point for consideration, but thank you all. Any final comments, Miss Clary? Yeah, I just want to echo what Miss Graph was saying, Dr. Zerby. if if perhaps maybe at your Friday meeting, you and the president and

059the vice president can talk about if we do really need a motion on this. I don't I don't I don't understand either. If it doesn't cost the district money, what is it that we're approving? Why is it a motion? So, I just would ask I I know you have your opinion, but maybe you guys could talk about it. It's just not making sense to me. That's fine. Any other comments or questions? Seeing none, Representative Webster, Leslie, Amy, thank you so much uh for your time this evening and uh and your effort to certainly bring this uh forward for uh for us and for our school community. We appreciate it. Uh next on the agenda, uh we have actually three kind of presentations that are kind of intermingled here. uh Miss Stephie will be uh uh

060presenting the uh 2425 year-end forecast, the 2526 budget uh proposal update, and then we also have uh Zach Willard from PFM to talk about some borrowing, but we're going to kind of do this in like reverse order. So, we're going to have uh I believe Zach start us off and just need to get you this thing here. Okay, thank you. [Music] Okay, so now the boring part of the meeting. We're gonna we're going to walk through this handout. Um, as Dr. Dr. Zerby said, I'm going to kind of set the stage for the borrowing part of it, which is one line item of the entire presentation then that that Kimberly is going to walk through. Okay. So, we're going to go through a couple slides here. Um, feel free to ask questions about the borrowing

061side. You know, you've seen a lot of this before over the past, you know, year or two. This is the most recent up-to-date version of, you know, what we think the borrowing plan looks like over a 10-year period, which would certainly change. Um, so we'll kind of walk through that. I also want to hit on the market here for a second. So, that'll be the first part, but I know um, you know, all the board meetings I've been to lately, even people that don't pay attention to interest rates, you know, kind of know that a lot of things have been happening. um what we're calling the tariff tantrum um which you can see at the bottom of this interest rate chart where you kind of get that spike there. So let's walk through that for

062a second. So this is the chart we show you every time we're here. It's the 10-year tax exempt rate. As a school district, you can borrow taxexempt debt, right? Which means it's cheaper and more affordable for the taxpayers. Okay. The 10-year rate is essentially a benchmark. It's not meant to show you where you would borrow if you went out to borrow today because we're going to borrow over probably a 30-year period. But again, it's just meant to show you a general kind of view of where interest rates going up, down, sideways. And so when you look at this, this goes back, the middle part of this chart goes back to the early 90s. So you can see, you know, where rates were. We're on the far right hand side. And so the bottom third of

063this page is kind of where we've been since early 2024. Okay. And I want to point out when you look at the middle of this page, the one interest rate that I feel like people hear about a lot in the news is the Fed funds rate, right? That's the overnight rate. That is not a borrowing rate that Methactton would use to borrow money over 30 years. That's basically the earnings rate that you get on your cash. But that's the main interest rate that people hear about. The Fed did start to cut rates. If you look at the middle of this chart kind of back before the election in the summertime and into September. Okay, so the Fed was lowering that overnight rate and I want to point out, you know, kind of what happened when

064you look at the market is longer term rates have actually gone up since then, right? Which is kind of counterintuitive, but that's kind of how backwards and upside down this market's been over the past, you know, 12 or 18 months. Okay, basically what you know what you're paying attention to for long-term interest rates is inflationary reports. So every month there's different reports that talk about the inflation in the economy. If those reports show that inflation is, you know, going higher, then interest rates have been trending higher. All right? And then you kind of insert what we call the tariff tantrum. And so that's that blip uh when you look back at the beginning late end of March, beginning of April. And what happened there was for a little bit for a day or two interest

065rates actually went down because they thought it would lead to a recession and then everyone changed their mind and thought that well now tariffs are going to be very inflationary so interest rates spiked up. There was actually about a two almost three-week pause in the municipal market as far as bond pricings went really across the country. There was very few bond issues that happened while investors and and and people issuers waited to see kind of the market catch its footing, right? And so it did. Um, and you can see kind of rates, you know, started to trend down and then kind of flatten out again. But it's been a very uncertain market. Um, and we just priced some bonds yesterday for a school district in Cumberland County with a similar rating to methacton. And the

066all-in rate over 30 years was about a 470. So that's kind of, you know, where the market is now. So it's a little bit higher than it was, you know, back in December. Um, but you can still borrow 30-year fixed rate debt, you know, in the mid4s. Okay. So, that's the market update. Any questions about that? Any questions uh at this point in time? Uh to the right. How about to my left? Uh Zach will stay here for for a little bit through the forecast and and the 10-year projection. Yeah. Well, yeah. So, we'll go we'll do one more page real quick. Okay. So, it's this page, this infamous page, right, with all of the the bar. You want me to hit on this first, right? Yeah. So again, I know you've seen iterations of

067this page. I apologize. You know, when it's up on the screen, it's very hard to read. Um, but there's just not a great way to show this page. But what this page is is it's the borrowings for projects that go out through 2034. Okay. So again, this is not something that's meant to show you exactly what'll happen. Really, the only kind of known on this is in the first column in the green, step one. that's showing that first $15 million that we spent a lot of time talking about last year. We were gearing up to actually lock in those rates back around Christmas time. And then we hit the pause button because, you know, some things popped up with the budget and it made sense to kind of take a deep breath, take a deeper

068look into the budget and kind of come back, you know, here in the in the early summer to to talk about um you know, going out to lock in the interest rates on those. So So that's the first 15 million for the projects that you have. Now, this page, and I think a lot of you have it in front of you, it's kind of broken out into two phases. So, phases steps one through five, I'm calling phase one. And that's where you're going to, you know, borrow about $140 million in some combination of timing and dollar amounts that we show here. It'll likely change. Okay? And that's going to get your debt service run rate up to about $11 million. Okay? So, you're going to phase that debt service into your budget. All right? and

069it's going to fund once that $11 million debt service number is in your budget, it's going to fund that first $140 million uh worth of projects. And then the second phase, which is really steps six and seven, that's about the last, you know, 40 million, 35 or 40 million. Um that would be phased in over a number of years through 2035. So, so again, this borrowing plan is meant to show you kind of where your debt service would go between now and 2035. So, a lot will change uh between now and then, but all all said and done, when you look in column 16 in the 2035 budget year, this assumes that your debt service needs to get up to about $13.5 million to kind of phase in this whole page worth of projects. And

070so, that's the kind of the line item there is column 16 that that Kimberly is going to show in her five and 10-year projection model here in a second. Um I think those are kind of the main points on this page. Um we talked about you know gearing up for this last financing I mean or the first financing the first step of this plan. So we have this timeline together. A lot of this work kind of already happened and and was done um at the end of the last year. You know the debt resolutions in place right the board put that in place. So, assuming that you do want to move forward with this, you have a finance committee meeting coming up on June 11th where the district uh administration will be able to provide

071you kind of with an update and a recommendation. And then after that, there's just a few things that we would need to touch up with the credit rating agencies and some documents. And then we could be locking in, you know, interest rates sometime around July 4th, maybe a little bit after that, just depending on how quickly the rating agencies move. And so that would take the uncertainty off the table for the first $15 million. I think that's kind of the goal here. Again, we don't know where the market's going to be in October or next year, but we do know right now, you know, it's about a 450, a 470 depending on uh the day in the market if you're going to borrow money. Okay. So, hopefully that was a helpful update. I'm going to

072turn over now to the kind of the the meat of the Well, are there any questions for Zach at this point? Yep. Other questions, Miss Larry? Okay. Can bear with me because I find uh this presentation and some of these slides always confusing. Okay. Um so if I go back to your colorcoded slide. Yes. Um so the total here is 180 million. Correct. Where did that total come from? that came from uh the projects from the administration. Okay. So, you were given that number from the administration, correct? Okay. Ask me that. Okay. I'll I can ask you when when Okay. I just wanted to make sure. And then step one, step two, step three, they have dates associated with them. So step one is a prop I guess a proposal or whatever or this is

073written that we would be borrowing 15 million in July of this year and then 35 million in October of 2026 and then so on and so forth. And that's okay. Yeah. And as I said really the only thing that is is that you're kind of talking about and maybe giving us authorization to move forward with is step one. When does step two, step three, step four happen? Is it going to be October of 26, 27? Probably not. It'll change likely as we continue to talk through the the financing plan. And according to the the slide that has the calendar on it, it looks like the administration is looking for us to authorize that at a June at a June meeting. And I assume the administration gave you these dates as well. Yeah. So, so again,

074the board already voted on the debt resolution for the first 15 million. You know, we didn't issue it. We didn't borrow it. Yeah. So, we didn't borrow it yet. So, um you know, if we'd like to get that process restarted again, we kind of did probably, you know, 12 weeks worth of work and we're kind of down to we need three weeks to to go ahead and lock interest rates if you're ready to do that. Okay. So, I'm just going to make a general comment. It's not really to you, but my I can think my general comment for the rest of the board and the administration is to me this feels rushed. Um because I don't understand yet or have any handle on what this would do to potential um tax increases and I really

075feel like I need to understand all of that information before I'm ever asked to borrow money again. I just don't want to see us rush and and make any more I don't want to call them missteps, but any more, you know, I don't want to see ourselves I don't want to find myself in a challenging position again. So, I want to really understand what all of this means for the the taxpayer. So, that's just my overall comment. Thank you. And that's really the that's really the purpose of bringing the uh the information to the finance committee to talk about are we prepared as a as a board to proceed forward with with what we previously authorized uh been authorized to do. And if comments like that or comment different questions come up and things and

076we're and it and it claims that we're not prepared or we're not informed enough to to make those decisions of that's the information we hope to to get back out of that committee and then inform the rest of the board about how that process will go. So as we as we develop because there's there's been a I don't know six eight months I don't know what the time frame is but it's a long period of time between the last like I'll call it lengthy discussion about borrowing and uh a lot of the uh well some of the of the tax impact will likely be explained as we talk about the budget for the 2526 school year but nonetheless it doesn't necessarily give you every answer on on the out years and that timeline's just meant

077to show you this is how it would happen. You know, you can pick any date and then it would take us kind of that three or four week period to line up those couple items that we need to do. So, just for a frame of reference. Other questions? Uh, Miss Graph. Yeah. So, I'm just trying to process. [Music] Um, we're being asked to approve borrowing $15 million in July for what? Oh, we're not June borrowing $15 million. So, you can borrow it in July. Is that That's right. the timing, right? Well, I don't think we're asking you anything today. Yeah, there's there there's there's no request. We're bringing we're revisiting the initial borrowing of $15 million as per uh the previous uh needs to you know do work on a the high school the the

078things that we've already kind of encumbered uh in addition to the potential for um any of the other master plan uh things that we have that we have listed. So I I that's I but I'm not really getting an answer to my question, but we have but that's that's what we're doing. We're coming back to the finance committee to talk about do we want to proceed uh with borrowing and for what and how will that impact be and those are the those are the conversations that we need to get back to. We haven't had those conversations at all to this point uh since probably November. Okay. So, I'm just going to go on record right now that I think the board needs to think long and hard about this because I feel like we're being

079asked to approve per this schedule that you have in the back here. It says Wednesday, June 11th, the board finance committee meeting the admin to discuss moving forward with borrowing. And then you sort of look through the whole thing and the estimated settlement date is the week of August 18th, but the week of July 7th, July 14th, July 21st are are if we're locking bond pricing, we're borrowing the money. Is that correct? It's sort of like when I take out a mortgage, when I lock in my mortgage, I've now committed to that, right? So if if you were to go with this timeline, you would be locking in the rate on July 21st. That's correct. Okay. So, so the board would have to approve that PFM can go ahead and do that in June. Yes.

080So, we're not going to do anything until the board asks us to do this, right? So, the last time we had this discussion was last October, I believe. And at that time, we said the board said PFM and financing team, go do all these things before the end of the year. So, we got everything geared up and then we decided to hit the pause button. And so now we're just kind of coming back to you with the next update of, you know, we're ready when you guys are ready. Um, and this is how it would happen. Okay. So it would take us need to vote to approve that PFM could move forward. And that vote we would have to do in June. Just so we're all clear. Only if you want the money by August.

081If you wanted to push that back a month, you could push it back. Then you just push it back. You know, just pick a different board meeting date and you'd slide all these things back. So my question to the administration is what is the money for the $15 million that we would borrow in August? What are we using it for? What are we spending the money on? And we can we can answer those questions. This this is I guess this is a revisit of the the the previous borrowing conversations which included, you know, here are the things that we're going to borrow the money for. So the previous borrowing conversations were within the framework of building a new high school and and moving forward with the expenses associated with the design of that high school,

082which was significant. That project is not on the table. So unless and until the administration puts forth what are we spending the money on, I would suggest you don't come back to the board and ask for $15 million because there's no way that I'm going to approve borrowing $15 million until we have a list of what it's going to be used for. That's just my opinion. Everyone else can certainly weigh in, but I just I think it's really important that we are crystal clear on what are we spending the money on. It is not in our current budget to this $15 million of borrowing is not something that we've allocated. So unless we know what we're going to spend it on, we shouldn't be borrowing it. I don't think anyone's arguing that that that that

083point. Um I I think we have uh Mr. Willard from PFM here this evening to talk about where the market is and to restart the conversation about if we were to borrow here's how we might do it and here's how it might sequence and it's all as part of leading into Miss Steppy's 10-year projection the thing that we talked about at the last uh or two finance committees ago uh where we wanted to make sure that the board understood if it we to do with some long-term borrowing whether it's for a renovation or new construction or a combination of there thereof. This is how the the picture would. So, this is kind of like a I think a combination of making sure that we're we're getting back to the the overall crux of of the

084conversation uh to what do we need what do we need the money for? What does the market look like? How do we proceed forward? That's the conversation that I'm asking to get on the table with the finance committee. If at the finance committee, we're in a position that we're saying, well, we don't have all the information we need. As Zach had mentioned, we then take that that schedule because at some point in time, we're going to need to renovate the high school. We're going to need to do some type of part with the master facilities plan. And then we just move that schedule uh back. But it gives us an opportunity uh to at least revisit the the conversation sooner rather than later in preparation for what might be coming to us in in September,

085October with uh uh the the renovation options that that we put on the table. Yeah, I don't know if that was I don't know that was clear. We're not we're not making a recommendation to go and do this, but that's about the earliest you could do it if Yeah. we were prepared and ready to do it. That that was all I didn't mean to confuse people with the timeline that it's just meant to show you when you want money. This is how long it's going to take us to kind of get there get there. So here's my question. Does the timing of the borrowing in year one in step one impact the run rate? Like if I said, you know what, we're not going to borrow step we're not going to do step one until

086November of 25. Does that impact our ability to borrow that money and the subsequent borrows would it change? So the two things that would change the the big one is the uncertainty of the market. So right, you know, again, we kind of know where rates are nowish. If we wait till November, they could be lower, they could be higher. We just don't know. That's the the big kind of question mark. The second one would be is if you borrow in November, instead of having the money in August, you're going to have three months less of an interest payment to make. So if if rates stay the same and you borrowed in November, you'd be better off by three months because you'd pay three months less of interest, right? But would we run into issues then

087borrowing the following? I guess what I'm saying is the way this is scheduled out, you have the first step one borrow is July of 25. The second is October of 26 and then October October. So I guess my question is could we not the reason this wasn't provided as October as step one is because of the potential the uncertainty with the interest rates. We just kind of picked the earliest possible date for the meeting. So we could scoot this back to November. It doesn't necessarily change steps two through seven. Um what'll change those is just the needs for the projects. Now, right now, if you look at the borrowing amounts in those steps, they're very round numbers. 35 million, 35 million. That's just because we had to pick something. In reality, what we'll do is

088we'll change those borrowing amounts to kind of match how much you need for the project. So, as you get a draw schedule and it says, you know, you're going to spend, I'm making it up, $28.7 million through 2026, then we might borrow $28.7 million to kind of match it with the needs of the project. Okay. And then I I notice between step five and six, there's a two-year gap. Why is that? So, again, those are way out there, right? I don't know how the projects are going to look. Um, you know, what the board's desire to move forward with those projects are. So, what we did was we staggered the borrowings a little bit. And it also helps you phase in the debt service a little bit slower. And that'll that'll kind of make maybe

089a little more sense when Kimberly goes through the 10-year projection model. But that was just meant to show you what it would look like over 10 years if you were going to do the $180 million of projects. Again, in reality, you might speed it up. You might slow it down even further. You might just never even do those steps because you don't want to do those projects. Those are all kind of to be determined at later date by future boards. So, I guess my follow-up question to that is if you pulled in steps six and seven to 2030 and 2031 instead of 2031 and 2034, would that cause us to have a run rate that was significantly higher than the 13 million? It would mean that you're getting to the 13 million quicker. Okay. But

090it wouldn't go over 13 million pulling it back. Yeah. Yeah, I mean again not knowing what where rates will be, you know, eight years from now. But if all this remained constant, that would mean that you'd get to the $13.4 million run rate, you know, three or four years sooner as opposed to in 2035. And I the reason I was asking is because when we saw this last time, there was a point in which we got the run rate spiked up because we hadn't there was debt that had not come off of the backlog, for lack of a better term. And so there was a point where the debt went significantly higher. So I was wondering if you had spaced it out in order to get over that to where other debt had already come

091off. Um well, we're we're always cognizant of the existing debt. And so that the existing debt plus any new debt legally by state law, it has to be either level or declining. It can't have a spike because you can't saddle a future board with paying for a project, you know, 10 years earlier. So that's the legal law is that when you add in old debt plus new debt, it has to be level or declining so that once you get the millage in your budget to pay for it, it's paid for. So when you jump from 11 to 13, you're saying that increase would happen in one year. So when you go down column 16, Yep. Right. You have to kind of look at it year by year, right? Mhm. So the debt service is increasing

092yearbyear as you borrow the money. Mh. Right. But you can't have what I was saying is you can't finish borrowing the money in 2034 and then have a spike in debt service out in, you know, six years later. I see because you're kind of pushing the debt off, right? You can't push it out that far. It has it has to be done. The rule is it has to be phased in within two years of the borrowing. Okay. Yeah. So that means so so really step six and seven could come could be pulled in with no impact other than that that going from 11 to 13 happens. Yeah. Faster. That's all. Right. Okay. And like I said, this will absolutely 100% change. You know, as you go through these projects every year, we're going to come

093back and show you, you know, if you started to do this plan, we'd still come back every year. We go through it. We make sure this is what you want to do. Then you execute step two. Then you come back again, go through the process again, and then you say, "No, we want to move this back or we want to borrow six million more." So, it's always a fluid kind of plan. So, is essentially when we get to a point where we have our 13-year facilities master plan, we will have essentially laid in all of the projects over a 13-year period. we will in theory know what we're going to do with the high school and have that amount borrowing amounts in there as well or costs in there as well. You could then revamp

094this schedule to do that 13-year look, right? And then we would sort of know pretty close to what we were going to be getting into for 13 years out, assuming things stay where you think they are. Um, but but that's sort of what you would propose to do, right? You you would come back once we get to that point. These always change. I've never I mean I'm on year 20 of doing this and these never look the same as you go through them. They always wiggle around. Okay. Project priorities change. Okay. Thank you. Sure. I think for for the the full board's uh just understanding of of how we kind of got here uh today is we we're trying to put together uh the budget projection for u any borrowing for whether it's renovation, new

095construction, all of that. I think it's important to to recognize that the the finance committee, you know, was presented a five-year uh projection uh that um showed and as you as you remember seeing that if we were borrowing, I believe it was $220 million. In year five, there was a there was a cliff of a of a of a debt u and and the uh a fall off of about I think it was like n maybe $9 million in in year five if we were borrowing all that money in in a short period of time. So what we did is we uh we asked PFM at at the at the request of the finance committee to really go back and say okay you know where where can we uh do this in a in a

096more appropriate way and how can we actually show a picture that would help us not only look at what the impact of barring will be in five years but whether that might look like uh longer and longer term. So, so again, tonight's uh presentation, the stuff that that Zach's put together, the information that Kimberly is going to be sharing with you is really a representation of that 10-year potential picture, uh, one snapshot necessar, not necessarily meaning that it's that that align with the master plan facil master plan uh, projects and how they'll fall. doesn't necessarily mean it align with the uh the new uh or renovation uh construction of the high school. It's really about the uh uh a picture of of how borrowing could unfold. And that's why, you know, we're not asking for

097the board to do any motion or anything associated with with this information other than recognize that there is a way to layer in the debt uh to borrow $180 million over a 10-year period and use that re that uh those resources to make renovations, whether it's to the master facilities plan or to to the high school. And that's really the the uh uh the picture that we're trying to share with you here this evening. and then a timeline if we were to get started on that particular process. Uh are there any other questions for for Zach? Miss Purdue, I don't have a question. I think it's just the way this is presented. There's a tenative timeline where it looks like the board is going to be asked to make a decision to proceed. And I

098think that I mean the background you provided is is clear. That probably should have started. We probably should have started with that just to have an idea. But um because my question, the only question I had from listening is what are we authorizing the district to borrow this money for, right? Because we haven't made any plans in reference to the high school or anything else right now. So, um but I appreciate the information and having um to be able to see how we can fold it out. I think it's a little bit um it's more of a FYI for me just to see it this way and I didn't take it as any action but I think when you see the tenative timelines here even though it say tenative it still makes it look like

099in June we're going to have to take some action right and maybe it will come once the finance committee meet meets they will have some action to take but for now I take it as FYI because there's no real plan to borrowing this money. Thanks. Any other questions, Ms. Canro? So, I guess my question is then for So, you're saying the from one through five, the four years we could borrow up to $140 million on a possible project. So, if we're going to have 11 million debt yeartoear, steps one, like 1 2 3 4 five, in those four years, we could borrow this much in total. So 140 million is our our opportunity. Yeah. All right. Where we'll be. All right. Thank you. Any other questions uh for uh Mr. Willard? With that, we'll ask

100uh Miss Stephie to present the uh the 10-year plan based on the uh based on the the chart that Mr. Willard went over in terms of the the borrowing of the $180 million in that sequence. Sure. And just one thing I'd like to add before we get started. Um, part of having this presentation tonight was I know in a in an earlier meeting we were tasked with before we can even begin to discuss high school renovations. What can we afford? So, we went through several iterations with PFM and this iteration, the $180 million is what we feel we can comfortably afford and mitigate any risks that are presented along the way. Um, it allows us to start to address the $77 million 13 uh 13-year capital plan and at a minimum borrow at least $100,000

101to address renovating the high school. So, kind of wanted to start with that. Um so okay so I'm going to go through the first five years of the projection first. Um and I'm going to start with the revenue assumptions. Um these are pretty much the same as they were the last time I presented them but I have made some small changes. So I'm going to go through the list again. Um the foundation for this projection is the May update of the 2526 budget. On the state side, we're projecting very conservative growth. Uh basic education and special education subsidies are assumed are assumed to grow at a modest 1%. FICA and Pasers contributions are tied directly to salary expenditures and reflect projected Pasers rates. Both the transportation subsidy and all other state revenue streams are expected

102to remain flat. At the local level, the real estate tax increases are projected in line with act one index. Earned income tax and occupational taxes grow at historical rates. Real estate growth is expected to be flat for the 2526 school year, then grow by 6% annually in the subsequent four years. We are assuming stable collection rate at 97% with no changes in interim or delinquent tax collections. Interest earnings follow existing market projections while IDA and all other local revenue streams are expected to remain flat. Finally, federal revenue is projected to remain flat throughout the 5-year period, reflecting the absence of major changes or new federal funding streams. Expenditure assumptions. This slide outlines the key assumptions driving our expenditure forecast for the five-year period from 2526 through 2930. The foundation for this projection is the May

103update of the 2526 budget. From there, we've built out cost expectations based on prevailing market and historical trends. Salaries are projected in line with market trends while retirements are modeled based on employees reaching Paser's eligibility without penalty. Health care costs are assumed to increase at a rate of 4.2% annually. Similarly, FICA and Paser expenditures are directly tied to projected salary levels and Paser's rate schedules. Other major expenses include general liability insurance which follows historical increases. Charter school tuition with which aligns with act one index growth. North Montco tuition follows its historical trend and transportation costs are based on current contracts with a market trend adjustment introduced in year five. Our bond payments are mapped according to the borrowing schedule presented tonight. And importantly, we are not anticipating any transfers to the capital projects fund during

104this period. Lastly, all operational other operational expenses such as supplies, utilities, and related costs are projected based on historical trends. As you can see, the forecast predicts break even for 2526, then three years of a surplus beginning in 2627 with $1.1 million, then tapering off to $170,000 in the year 2829 until we reach a deficit in the final year of the first five years of $565,000. This is largely due to the IFO's assumption that the ACT1 index will level off at 3.2%. As a result, revenue growth begins to slow while expenditures, particularly in areas like salaries, benefits, and operational costs continue to rise steadily, the second five years. Okay. In the final six years of the rejection, years uh 6 through 11, both revenue and expenditure growth are assumed to increase at a rate equal

105to the Aquin index which is set at 3.2%. The 3.2% growth rate is used in the projection because it reflects the last available act one index projection from the IFO. Since revenues and expenditures must remain in balance in long-term forecasting, applying the same 3.2% 2% growth rate to both allows us to create a neutral baseline that isolates the effect of the new debt costs. As we move beyond the first five years, the forecast begins to show a growing deficit which continues for several years. The trend is largely driven by the layering in of debt service payments associated with our long-term borrowing plan. As each new phase of borrowing is implemented, our annual debt obligations increase, putting additional pressure on the operating budget. However, over time, these debt service payments begin to level off as we

106reach the run rate. By the latter years of the forecast, our expenditures begin to stabilize. As a result, the annual deficits begin to slow, and by year 11, the district is projected to return to a budget surplus. There are several strategies we can use to mitigate the risk with the deficit in years 6 through 10. Based on current projections, we anticipate a budget surplus in years 2, three, and four. Per board policy, any unallocated fund balance exceeding 7% will be transferred to the capital reserve fund. These funds can be applied to reduce further future deficits. We can also take into consideration the potential proceeds from the sale of the autobond property which must be deposited into the capital reserve account during the early years of the borrowing period. We will explore opportunities for operational efficiencies

107particularly in areas like staffing, transportation and procurement phase capital planning. We have flexibility in the timing and sequencing of capital projects, allowing us to align expenditures with available resources and shift timelines if needed. While the financial projections provide a strong basis for decision-making in the near term, it's important to acknowledge that the reliability of any long-term financial model diminishes significantly over time. That said, the intent of the model is not predict to predict exact figures, but rather to illustrate a likely trend that as borrowing increases and debt service obligations ramp up, we will anticipate experiencing deficits. However, the model also shows that these deficits begin to stabilize over time. That concludes my presentation. Thank you, Miss Stephie. Um, are there questions from members of the board on any of the the the tenure forecast? And

108I know this is uh the first time that many of you are seeing this, so I I I would imagine that uh you would have some questions maybe after the meeting or or we sort of can take some here uh this evening. Miss Claire, sure. I'll I'll start. Okay. Um so I guess I'm going to start on the the cover slide, the $180 million borrowing. So, I had asked the question at the last presentation how that was determined and I I think I heard you say that the district decided that we could comfortably I I don't know what word you used um borrow I think you well actually I wrote it down so um was it 140 million during the first five years and did I hear that right and then 40 million in in

109the second five years. Is that what I heard you or did you say that I said that back to the color page? Yeah. When I broke it into two phases, step one through five was 140 million. Yeah. And that's where you got your debt service running up to the 11. Okay. So the number that we gave that you gave to PFM um so a h 100red million of that okay now I remember 100 million of that you said was for you earmarked for renovation and the other 80 million of the overall borrow is earmarked based on the information you gave for um capital the projects that are on our master facilities list right so not I not necessarily said earmarked just like knowing that we have 77 million dollars worth of projects in over 13

110years, right? So not necessar capital projects, right? So I guess the first thing I would say is that that master facilities plan uh needs to probably be updated and as we talked about, we've talked about that it needs to be looked at from a cost perspective by our owners rep to know if it's even accurate. I mean, things are constantly changing. So, that is literally my first concern. I mean, I have those projects may cost a ton more. I have no idea. Ton more, maybe less more, but I would assume it's more than than the number that you're using. There was discussion at the property committee um to have that that capital borrowing plan updated. So, I know it it is. Yes, we did talk about it. Yeah. Okay. So, so just for the board,

111just for the board, when we're talking about borrowing, potential of borrowing money, whether you're talking about it in finance or we're talking about it at next month's meeting, I think we all have to keep in mind that that's one of the things that we need updated so that we really know what kind of what kind of state we're in. Um, okay. Uh on slides um oh I I did want to make a quick comment on slide three before I move on. Um this says that the expenditure assumptions one of the items says general liability insurance based on historical trend and I had asked this question in finance and I never got an answer but I'm going to just ask it again. I'm not quite sure what that means. Is it your historical trends based on

112what we've paid? Yes. based on Mthactton's experience. Have we had any discussion with our insurance broker? Because I'm in the insurance business for a living and it's not really accurate to go based on just what you might have paid, what we might have paid over the past couple of years. The insurance market has hard and soft um years and and I don't know general liability insurance, but that would be a discussion that we should be having with our insurance broker to to bear out the accuracy of that. So, that's just a recommendation. I have a call with him tomorrow. So, perfect. I would be curious about all when you say Oh, and that was the other question I asked. When you say general liability, are you using that term to refer to all the lines

113of insurance we buy? I am. So, that like as as a broad term for every line of insurance that we have, correct? Okay. Probably more accurate would be like casualty insurance. Okay. It threw me off. That's why. Okay. Okay. Um then on slides four and slide six which are um the revenue and expenditures and the for the wherever it is the net operating balance I just want to make sure everybody on the board's on the same page that is whether it's a surplus or a deficit that's what that's intended correct right okay so for uh for the current year we're going to be we're we're going to break even the correct you you always have to present a a balanced budget, right? Okay. So, the following year, we're projecting to have a surplus of over

114a million dollars, correct? Okay. And then in year 29 and 30, we're projecting a deficit. Correct. So, how are we going to pay for that? Like, how what what we're going to be short. So, what how are we going to deal with that? Yeah. So I did um so a couple of the things I discussed were um using the surpluses in years 2, three and four to offset the deficits that will come in years five, six, seven, and eight. But at the same time, one of your assumptions is that we're going to tax our residents at the act one index every year. The assumption does. Yes, the model does assume that we will um increase taxes at to the A1 index. Yes. All right. So, we're going to So, the propos So, what the district

115is thinking about is proposing to tax the community at the Aquin index every year and have these surpluses or have the have these deficits at the same time. I just want to make sure that I understand. Not necessarily. I think it's just meant to illustrate using the act one index what the budget would look like. So this is what we would anticipate using the act one index which is the projection that we have. We would predict a surplus for the following year. Well, what do you mean when you say not necessarily? Well, it's not saying that we have to tax at the index. It's just saying that the forecast is assuming that we are taxing at the index. So the district is not making any particular recommendation on on the on the borrowing or how

116the budget will actually lay out in any of the years. The only the only thing that we are saying is the budget that we're presenting uh later in the presentation for the 2526 school year is the one that we would be recommending as as as the only one that actually requires approval and that is part of a recommendation. So I no I understand that but I don't know how I could make a decision without understanding what the what the intentions are here. Well there's there's no intention other than to say there's a set of assumptions on certain slides for revenue. There's a set of set of assumptions on the on the previous slides for expenditures and giving those assumptions and the debt schedule uh the way that it was laid out by PFM. If we

117were to do all that stuff and all that stuff worked out, this is the best picture that would materialize over time. I No, I understand. I just I But I do feel like you're looking like as a as a board, you're looking for us to maybe not vote on any on that, but buy in to this type of plan. I well I I think that I think there's there I'm not asking you to buy into this particular model, but I think what what the the finance committee wanted us to do in terms of illustrating the ability for us to to borrow and and borrow how much Okay, that was the that was the issue. Like how much can we borrow to to do the things that we said we thought we wanted to do? We

118we talked about $77 million. Whether that that master facilities plan needs to be updated or not, it's a number that we have at this moment in time. And that's why we use that $100 million. If you look at the uh I'm going to say a presentation from many months ago about what a renovation would cost and and Josh delivered that presentation. It was around 98 to hund00 million. It was there was a range. So we use those figures to say okay if we're going to renovate the high school it's going to be somewhere in number of what he provided. If we're going to do these other projects on based on the master facilities plan it's going to be there uh in terms of the 77. And we said that's the number uh Zach that we

119need to figure out how would we do borrowing that would make sense. And in a number of our conversations back and forth, we've had things where uh like Zach's firm gave us one year where we were borrowing hund00 million. So Miss Stephie went back to them and said, "Well, that's not realistic. How do we come up with the best possible example of how things might go given that there's still information that we need to uh, you know, produce? We need to get an updated master facilities plan. or need to, you know, find out where we're going to be in a renovation, you know, in in in several months. So, this is really just that. It's not to buy in. is to understand that if we were to take on a overall plan that would go

120to address what we know today, meaning the 77 million, the 100 for $180 million, this is how things might uh, you know, factor out, not knowing exactly the sequence of the borrowing and not knowing exactly uh the the amount of money to borrow in each year. So, it's really just a it's it's an illustration And I and I don't know how else to to to say it. I I don't want to confuse you to or anybody else to say that this is the plan. We need to now adopt it today. Okay. It it is it is simply designed to say, can we do and what Miss Stephie said is, you know, can we reasonably borrow $180 million to do what we said over this 10-year period? and and I can say that you know while

121there's some years that will will produce surpluses some years that will have deficits we are faced on an annual budgeting uh basis process this is determined are we going to have a surplus this year based on the cost of goods and services contracts uh the market trends so every year is is challenging so when I I I I uh I asked PFM that so so when we do something like this like how accurate is this 10-year projection. And you know, they they can they can speak for that. Well, yeah. I I think it's nice to do fiveyear projections. I think anything past three years starts to get pretty unreliable, right? It's just meant to give you a ballpark idea of, you know, kind of where you're going to be, but it's it's impossible to predict

122five years out. When you get into, you know, years six through 10, then it just continues to be a full eron. Other than that, it's nice to have a picture and understand, you know, get general trends of where things go. If you go to the index every year, here's what revenue might look like. If you borrow $180 million over 10 years, you know, here's, you know, about $13.5 million is what the running rate would get to depending on market condition. So I would, you know, three one to three years I think is kind of the the good spot and then years three to five you have to you know you're going to come back and like you said you're going to go budget by budget you know every year you're going to have to figure

123out how to get the budget in shape right because five years from now it's going to be different right costs will change inflation the index might change too it's hard it's hard to do and and and I and I think you know the the the part of all this is I I think we need to understand at least I want to share that we have to do something with our facilities. So that's what it is we do is going to be dependent on what we can reasonably afford and and and when we can afford to do it. So there's no there's no question in my mind that we've already come to the conclusion that something needs to be done with certain buildings in the district. Exactly to what degree to the actual you know dollar

124amount. I I know that still needs to be further developed and further dis further uh you know discussed. So, so putting a a picture in place to know what potential future commitment there may be so that when we get to September uh and we're talking about the high school and we want to borrow uh money to do a renovation, we we can keep in the back of our mind that u you know there there is a long-term commitment to uh that that particular borrowing. So um at no time have I made any comments that I don't think the high school needs renovation. I absolutely do. No, I'm not I'm not suggesting that either. I just that's the key I think that's the key element that we need to do something and and how we can

125afford it is is this picture that we're saying is is one example of it and members of the board at the last board meeting, maybe even before that, including myself, really feel like we need to understand the cost of items. We went through this whole exercise at the last board meeting of of picking the things that that we all thought were the the most important based on the community feedback without understanding the costs. And now suddenly this week we're saying it we're using the hundred million dollar number from Josh from before um which I don't even know is accurate anymore. I just all of this feels um I certainly don't have an the right information. the right information for me is is understanding how much to the extent we can get that how much things

126cost and then figuring out how much we're willing to borrow and um I don't know overall I'm just um uh go ahead so I think it may be the expectation of different board members and I everybody Everybody has a different expectation. The conversations we've had over the different months is we need different pieces of information and we're trying to move the ball a little along the way and different pieces and they all interact. So we need to know about the what the exact what'ss. We need to know about the what associated with other buildings. We need to understand what how much do we in total think we can borrow which I think this was meant to do with the help of PFM and Miss Stephy's uh long-term projections based on assumptions. So the assumptions are

127laid out. If you're not happy as a individual board member with the assumption that act one index type of tax increases is something you want as an assumption that will certainly change the model but the model that was presented here is based on these elements. Right? So it I don't know we're never going to have one meeting. we're going to have all these different pieces of information. This there was a discussion at the finance committee that Miss Graph and Miss Drummond about even bringing this forward at this point in time. So the idea was getting advancing the ball and giving you more information about how much how a debt schedule would look out. So to me the takeaways from both uh Mr. Willard's presentation, Miss Stephy's presentation is that that a run rate is established

128as early as almost as early as next year because we end up at 11.5 million, right? That amount according to current assumptions in the market of course change next week of course is $140 million. So it's meant to understand I think the takeaway as a board member is to understand there is a we have the capability to get to a run rate reasonably that of course affects the taxpayers but also affects our facilities to a point where we can move forward and understand if we want to do that or not. If that means I can't swallow an assumption of a 3.2% 2% uh act one index because and 2930 because I'm not comfortable going at the act one over these timing periods and that's the will of all nine members of the board then we

129can ask Miss Stephie to cut it in half but you're going to have to decide from a board perspective what your priorities are and addressing all these different variables that are affecting the taxpayers but also have to affect the facilities that we know we need to do something. So the exact what to me doesn't matter. That wasn't the purpose of the presentation for Miss Stafy and Mr. Woodward. It's to give you a more comfortable level or not about what it means when it comes to future. But the exactness of 730,000 and 2728 doesn't matter because we don't have an MEA contract after next July, right? So all those different things have lots of variabilities but we have assumptions and they'll thereundred million dollars is related to salaries and benefits. That's where the big variable is

130going to come into play. So it will come more in focus probably next spring I imagine or earlier hopefully. Uh, but there's lots of assumptions here that you could question, but they're built based on something because you're never going to have that comfort level of I don't believe anybody is ever going to get to that comfort level of really knowing what all those assumptions are and the confidence level that they're all going to be correct. Miss Graph. Yeah. Um, thank you, Mr. mentors because I think that does go to the point that in the finance committee meeting I know I had asked you to come forward and we had asked for PFM to come to sort of give us this framework and I think you've done that and I do think that because the question

131was how much could we borrow and then does that make sense for us to borrow that much and I think what this really is coming down to is if we want to borrow borrow 180 million, we need to increase taxes at the act one index for the next 10 years and we can do it based on the borrowing schedule and variations of the borrowing schedule. I mean, that's kind of like the takeaway. If we don't want to increase taxes at the act one index, then we need to scale back the amount we're going to borrow. And 180 million doesn't work, right? And it's my assumption. I think I heard you say the act one index in years 6 through 11 is assumed to be 3.2. Is that right? Correct. Okay. And the years before that

132we have estimates all the way up through year four I think. Correct. Okay. And then it's 3.2 from then on out. So we're not talking about a 4.5% act one index. We're talking about a fairly reasonable act one index number. Um, and I just I mean I think I'm going to say that I think the two of you have come forward with what we asked you to do in finance. And I know it's a little tricky because we're trying to like get our head around. How are we going to borrow 180 million and what does this look like? And we don't even know what we're spending the money on. And we don't even know if it's going to be enough money to do the things we want to do based on the prioritization we set

133forth. But the prioritization information is being sort of developed into schematic you know design I shouldn't say schematic I should say conceptual designs which will then be sort of translated into costs which will then come forward in a different presentation so that we can look at those costs and say with $180 million in the bucket how do we want to allocate those funds to the various projects we want to do and do we scale projects back or change projects as a result of that. Um, so I think in essence this has given us the information that I was looking for. Um, however, you know, I also think to Miss Clary's point, you know, this while we're not necessarily voting on it, it does become the basis of the decisions about moving forward with borrowing and

134projects and what we prioritize. So, we do have to be comfortable with these projections. And I I I am hearing a lot of, you know, I can tell you one to three years out, but 11 years out or eight years out, it's really really nebulous. Um I am a fixed rate mortgage girl. So like when you start talking about things that change and we don't know and we're not sure where it's going to go, that makes me nervous because I like to know that for the next 10 years my mortgage is going to be this much because it's fixed rate and it doesn't change. and we're not going to be able to get that level of comfort here, but we're going to do the best we can. Um, and when we have more firm information

135about the projects and the timing, we can get more firm information about how that overlays into the the financial piece. I think for the purposes of tonight, it's really, is this even viable? The answer is yes, it's viable. There's a little bit of questionable related to I understand the concerns about the deficits, but there is other money coming from other places. The other thing I guess I wanted to point out is I think that in the in the um colorful chart, you actually use the reserves, the capital reserves, the 18 million in that you have it sitting there, but you're not actually using it as a contribution to the 180 million. Right. So, you would still have those reserves available for offsetting some of your deficit years if you needed them. Yeah. And we knew

136that the board wanted to commit some level of cash. So we wanted to have it on the page, right? As you kind of go through the plan, you can decide when to pull from that or not. Okay. Yeah. So thank you both. I I know you guys are, you know, sort of getting a lot of questions and it is difficult. Um but I think as board members, we are sitting here trying to like get our heads around a lot of this and like get comfortable with this. This is a big decision and we've sort of gone down the path and sort of had to step back and pivot. And so I think we're all a little more sensitive than we might have been a year ago when we were having this conversation. So I appreciate

137the work you did. But and just the way you said that made me think. So the way that the borrowing two phases were set up kind of matches the way she has her two slides. So this slide shows that first 140 million. So again, I don't know exactly what the 140 million gets you to projectwise, but let's just say that was the right number. Then this would be the answer for that first 140. And then it becomes harder, you know, the second five years when you borrow that last 40 million. Sounds funny because I can borrow 140 million with less impact. A lot of that's because of the way your debt is already structured. So there's room in the first five years for that first. Then it gets tighter to borrow. Which also gets to

138why we want to look at a 13-year facilities master plan because there could be options to move some of those projects farther out beyond the 11 years you've got on the schedule to sort of push them out and level off that borrowing at the end. So we borrow less each year so that we can level that debt off and not increase from 11 and a half to 13 and a half. We could go from 11 and a half to 12 or 12 and a half, you know, and then level off there. So, I think there's a lot of things in play, but I think you've done a good job at getting us at least a little bit closer to understanding where we are. Yeah. Hopefully, it was Yeah. helpful. Yeah. So, thanks. Other questions? Uh

139to my left, Miss Kanker. Um the only question I had again was you talked about when we looked at 2025 through 2030. So, slide four transfer and other, right? Remind me again because we said that we would put transfer it into the capital reserve, right? So the the transfer other line on there is um that's going to encompass the majority of that are lease payments for it. Okay, that's all right. That's what I just wanted to know. So then when we put the in 2026 2027 the million that would be transferred to then capital where would that be sitting then as we pay off the debt pushing it like we million the operating balance. Yeah. The operating balance the surplus so to speak. Yeah. So any um any fund balance unallocated fund balance over 7%

140would go to the capital reserve fund. Okay. And the last thing I would say is that you did say that we're not going to be then we were going to stop doing transfers to the capital fund projects for the five years then correct. So yeah no transfer to capital in any of the years. You what what we're what we're saying is this the illustration and the assumptions in this presentation have no transfer to capital built in. That doesn't mean we won't do it. It doesn't mean you so so every year will be before you with a budget but but the assumption are are built so that it doesn't show that we've had that before though in the budget right so with the 7% or well well the the 7% is the is the remainder of

141that's only comes into into play when uh we have a budget surplus at the end. Okay. Um and and and there's a difference between having a budget surplus and then a plan transfer to capital. So so so theoretically uh you could have a budget surplus in addition to the plan transfer to capital. The trans plans to capital goes to capital automatically and then the surplus sits as a a number that if if anything more than 7% of the of the next year's budget would then also go to capital. But they're they're really two different two different things. But I want to make sure that we're not saying that we shouldn't do transfer capital. It's just that this represents that we're not okay. And you don't and just we don't have the MEA possibilities in this.

142Okay. We we've made we've made assumptions. We've made market assumptions based on what we know. Um Okay. Good. All right. Great. No, thank you for this. I do agree with everything they're saying. I think this is a good exercise to let us know where our comfort is and what our capability is. So thank you. Any qudu? Um my only thing and I was going to ask a question just because I wanted to understand a little bit more about the assumptions where it stays specifically in reference to um the transfer to um capital projects and I don't know if we can put that in a certain way in there. Maybe that's the way we have to state it because we we do end up doing it. So I don't know why it was that was going

143to be my question. Why was that included in there as the assumption? So the assumption is that there is no budgeted transfer to capital and we yeah I mean I get that from the conversation but I just feel like it's a little um we clarify that in just change that to budget. Okay. I don't I don't know. I just for me I was just like looking at it and and questioning why that was included that way. The only thing I want to ask is and I the picture is becoming a little bit clearer to me with everything. The only thing I will like to request and ask because I think it it it sound like it was already asked in reference to updating the master plan um spreadsheet when what is the plans for that?

144When would we have that um made available? because I think that's a critical piece that we also need um for our owner's rep is in the uh process of working through that and our goal is to have that back to you hopefully in September. That's being done in conjunction with the work that is being done on the high school as well. That's fine. I just think that timeline is um it's a little concerning to me just because I think there's there's going to be some decisions that we need to make and we won't have that information. I do want to um state that but I don't know how we um accelerate that but that piece I think will be important. So Dr. Genie, maybe it's it's helpful for the full board to know some of

145the the sequencing of of of the information. So, do you do you recall when we expect to have the Shrader group uh come to the board with the options for the high school? We expect Shrader to come at the end of June at least to give an update on what the process is. That's correct. And and to give us some information on that. And then the the hope is that they will be here in September. And then in conjunction with that, we would be able to provide information on the updated 13-year master facilities plan that you could see that we have worked all those projects in conjunction with the options with the high school. So then I, you know, assuming that we get the those those costs, uh, you know, at the same time, it's

146it's maybe reasonable. And Miss Stephie, you certainly can chime in on this. Uh if we have those two pieces, we have the options for the high school and then we have the updated master facilities plan. We theoretically, if we have that far enough in advance, at least administratively, we'd be able to use those dollars to get, you know, borrowing scenarios and then actually update this 10-year plan to be more reflective of what that information is. Um, and certainly just because we do all that doesn't mean that things can't change because you know we but but at least maybe have all three of those pieces in front of you at one time. Now the only question is is that going to be too overwhelming? I mean it's going to be a lot of information and and

147and we and if we do present it all at the same time, we got to be reasonable to say that we we we may not be in a position to make any decisions on that until we individually be able to to really do that. But I I think that's, you know, more conversation that we need to have. But I I just wanted to reflect that, you know, by September, we should have at least two pieces, potentially a third piece. And and would there be any more pieces than than that? Miss Graph, I know you're on the you're chairing the committee, and I wanted to make sure that we're not missing some other pieces to this. Yeah. You know, to Miss Purdue's comment, I I do think that the sooner we can get that facilities plan,

148the better. And I and I think, you know, we were thinking August, September. One of the things we were thinking about is that it would be good to see that maybe in advance even of the high school information and identify the projects that are in there in the schedule, but have what I would call sort of like an error bar, right? So, here's when we plan to do this project, but it could shift six months this way or two years this way, so that you could then overlay a high school project efforts on top of that and then shift things as needed, right? and and it would just mean you have to put things in perspective, right? We all have to do that at home and we would do that here too. So I think

149and I think the purpose of that was to give the board an understanding maybe even in advance of the high school project information coming to us in detail that you could see like this is how we got to 77 million or whatever the number is. So it would include not only a schedule but also the cost associated with that. So, it does take some time to do that again and go through the process and look at in detail what those projects entail for a 13-year window and then scaling all the numbers back to include um you know potential increases associated with doing it six years from now or 10 years from now. So, it's not a it's not a small effort and so we did want to make sure that we had all the information

150together in one place and so August seemed to be the soonest we could see it um with intentions of August September time frame I think is what we had put in the property meeting. So, so I may maybe and this may not be for a discussion here this evening, but Miss Graph and maybe uh you know, whoever else, Madame President, wants us to be involved, but maybe we ought to think about, you know, the decision-making timeline because just dumping all the information on the board at one time may not be the appropriate way. So, I' I'd like, Madam President, if I could, you know, work with uh the the chairperson of the property committee and anyone else that the two of you think is appropriate to have that conversation about how do we help uh

151put the board in the best position to analyze the information, not only hear the information, but analyze the information, be able to make a decision on it, because, you know, to to to dump three of those big things at one time. I'm a little concerned about that and maybe you might be as well. So, uh, if it's okay with you, I'll be in touch and we we'll we'll kind of think through that a little bit. Um, any other questions, uh, for Miss Stephie or, uh, Mr. Willards on the, uh, uh, 10ear projection borrowing scenario? Seeing no none other, uh, Mr. Willard, thank you so much for for your time this evening. We appreciate it. Um, as we said earlier in the presentation, we have two other uh, presentations. We have the budget update and we

152have the forecast uh for the uh end of year forecast for the 20425 fiscal year. Miss Stephie. Sure. So I'm going to start with the general fund forecast first. Um so this is a general fund forecast for a fiscal year ending June 30th, 2025. I am currently anticipating a general sun fund surplus for the 24-25 school year. I will begin by outlining the expense forecasts. Salaries and benefits represent the most predictable portion of our expenses and I feel confident in those projections. The underspend in salaries is primarily due to several positions that were budgeted but have not yet been filled, many of which have been discussed during the budgeting process. The underspend in benefits is directly related to the salary and healthcare savings as a result of unfilled budgeted positions. We are seeing an overspend

153in professional services driven largely by the cost of substitute teacher coverage and third-party special education services. The overspend in professional services is related to tuition costs for outofd district placements and charter school tuition. In the supplies category, the overspend is tied to an anticipated curriculum purchase. All overspending in the equipment category is related to grant-f funded expenses including items such as esports related materials. Under debt service and transfers, we had budgeted for $15 million in new debt this year with a corresponding $1 million payment which has not been realized. Also included in this figure is a $1.6 million budgeted transfer to the capital reserve fund. In total, I am forecasting an underspent in expenditures by approximately $1 million. Move on to revenues. On the revenue side, we are projecting an additional $4.4 million, the majority

154of which is attributed to earned income tax collections. May historically brings a large portion of EIT revenue, likely due to the timing of the filing of income taxes. We're also expecting additional IDA funds, additional revenue from interim and delinquent taxes, and slightly higher than budgeted interest income. State revenues are tracking closely to expected subsidy amounts are and are considered very reliable. At this time, I have not included any additional federal revenue in the forecast. If any is received, it will be offset by a cortis corresponding expenditure resulting in no net impact. Based on current projections, I anticipate that revenues will slightly exceed budget and when combined with the expected underspending expenditures, we are likely to end the fiscal year with a surplus in excess of $1 million. Any questions? Questions uh for Miss Stephie to

155my left, Miss Canankra. I appreciate it. I just wanted to kind of just draw attention. It was the debt that we did not borrow. Correct. And the surplus that we received pretty much in that state funding that was we received more from the state. So if you put those two and then also salaries and benefits. Yeah. So So I just want to show that specific. Yeah. The additional state funding that's due to um there was a charter school payment this year. the state funded um an allocation to each school based on the amount of money they pay for charter schools. So, we received I believe it was like $114,000 that was not budgeted and then the other amounts are tied to um state grants um school security and then we also received um a feminine

156hygiene grant. All right. Thank you. Other uh questions uh from Miss Stephie uh to my left. See none to my right. Miss Clary, I have a question that I don't know the answer to, but the assumption that the $1 million is related to the the money that we the 15 million that we didn't borrow. Didn't we approve the 15 million in November so that it wouldn't have been in the budget? It was anticipated that we were going to borrow the $15 million this year and that there would be a payment. Thank you. Any other questions to my right? So the the way so the reason we're presenting that this this evening is you'll see that on the agenda for uh the voting meeting in May. Um just for the voting meeting in May, there there

157was a our typical authorization uh based on our our practice was to transfer any um uh uh any a surplus uh from the existing uh budget year uh in excess of 7% uh to the capital projects fund and that's listed on the agenda for your approval uh next week. Mr. Wyers. Yeah. also to maybe provide some clarity on some of these things to Miss Clary's question. There was in the in the budget for this year that we voted on last year and anticipation of borrowing that 15 or whatever uh was the assumption last May in this calendar year. So that's where the million dollar is then the main difference in the debt transfer. Um, so the couple points that I'm sure will be pointed out. The several there's several positions in the salaries and correspondingly

158with the benefits that are showing a surplus. Um, some of that is going to be transferred to substitute cost which would move into the uh other purchase services. Is that correct? Correct. Um, I don't remember if that was three or $400,000 but Dr. Zerby and the administration we know uh before uh we even saw the budget the preliminary budget in January and then afterwards identified many of the positions either that did not get filled or they were being filled by outside agencies. Right. That's correct. So there and Miss Steffy, how from a process perspective, both for the budget that you're going to talk about in a second and also for the forecast, do you identify the 600 employees? Do you just use a round number or do you just use an average salary or do

159you use the actual payroll associated with those individuals, where they are on the salary schedule, where they are in the column and so forth. in terms of the forecast. Yeah, from a budgeting perspective, but it's b based um similarly in the forecast. I imagine that you don't you you're looking at the extension of the first nine 10 months of the school year. Is that correct? In the forecast, yes. So every like every employee is has a salary in the system and then every time we run payroll, it eats away at that salary. And so I can literally run a report that tells me the remainder of the salary to be paid for the school year. Yeah. And these uh positions that weren't filled, for example, um I believe Mr. uh Barbell retired at the end

160of January. January. So that individual is a empty position until potentially next week. Right. Correct. Um but then his position the individual that's suggested to replace him that position is not being filled. Right. Correct. So in the budget process just technicality there there are three administrative positions in the facilities realm. One is a director of facilities, one assistant director and one is a night an evening supervisor. We're eliminating the evening supervisor and we're recommending on the agenda here to for the evening supervisor to be transferred to the assistant director position. just to just to clarity there's a little bit of difference in their salary but at the end of the day there will be one elimination of an administrative position in the facilities area so it in this slide you're showing that as a surplus

161because that in mr over the last five months that position is empty so that will show as a surplus and then next year's budget you have taken that all these little movements out of the budget is that correct individually as a position associated with the 600 employees we employ. They've been removed. Yes. Yep. Thank you. Um also on local income there is that includes interest income which I believe we said was going to be three or $400,000 favorable if I recall at least in the finance meetings. But also that's offset I believe with a a short shortfall in the interim tax. Is that correct? So we're $28,000 uh from a budgeted perspective for local local expense and as mentioned before the 269 is primarily related to the bud PA budget being passed after our budget.

162Is that correct? Correct. Okay. Thank you. Any other final questions on the uh end of the year uh 202425 end of year forecast? Seeing no other questions. Thank you, Miss Stephie. And we'll move on to the May update for the 2526 budget. Okay. So, I'm going to now present the May update for the 2525 uh 2526 school year budget. Um there have been a few updates um to both revenue and expenditure categories during the month of May. On the expense side, we have reduced costs associated with thirdparty services, specifically by decreasing the number of registered behavior technicians by five. On the flip side, there is a need to add one instructional aid. In addition, there were several minor minor adjustments to employee salaries and benefits, primarily due to changes in step movement and benefit coverages.

163An additional $40,000 has been allocated to cover the cost of an administrative leave which will will require temporary staffing. Overall total expenditures decreased by 335,216 bringing the revised expense total to 13783384. On the revenue side, I have added $16,000 in real estate revenue to reflect a $464,000 increase in assessed value. Interest revenue projections have been revised based on updated guidance from our banking institutions, which now anticipate three interest rate cuts by the end of calendar year 2025. As a result, the interest revenue budget has been reduced by $260,000. With the millage rate maintained at 4.3125%, we would have a budgeted surplus. To maintain a balanced budget, we have adjusted the millage rate um millage increase to 4.202% which reflects the use of a special education exception in the amount of $183,415 or.202 202%. Oh. Okay.

164Next steps. Um I don't anticipate any further updates with the exception of real estate assessments. At the June finance committee meeting, I will present the final version of the 2526 budget which will be voted on at the June work session on June 17, 2025 at a special meeting prior to the work session. Thank you, Miss Stephy. Other questions uh on the May update for Miss Stephy to my right? See no no questions to my left. The questions for Miss Stephie. All right. Thank you very much, Miss [Music] Stephie. Madame President, that uh does end the guest and scheduled speakers for this evening. We know that next week um we'll have ceremonial signing of the high school diplomas. Um and and just for just for a board members understanding of that I think we those of

165you who are having seniors that are graduating um we did ask uh for if your if your children were coming we do take a motion uh at the board uh to make you temporary president uh and so that you can sign the diploma. Uh so that is a process that we'll we'll we'll walk everybody through. Um and uh we have packed champions the spirit of mthactin. Um I will I'm just going to warn the board at this moment in time. Dr. Uker is going to have a crowd of uh people here for the spirit of mactton. Uh we might have cheerleaders, the band. Um we we might have fire trucks. Um and all sorts of things. but uh she's doing an outstanding job in helping uh promote that within and and promoting school spirit within

166the the high school. I just want you to be aware of that and certainly em awards and then uh Dr. Walsh uh will be presenting an update on the overview uh as as a process to kind of uh bring some closure to what we've been doing in our math program overall uh K to2. uh we will then go into our standard reports and certainly um you know there they'll be listed there and we can uh have those discussions. Uh we then will move on to uh fiscal items. Uh Miss Stephie. Sure. Uh there are nine fiscal items on the agenda for your review tonight. 9 A list of bills. 9B treasures report. 9 C budgetary transfers. 9D Arcola Sky View Paving Project. Approve the Archola Scape Arc Colola Sky View Campus Paving Restoration Project Award

167to Sax and Suns Incorporated of Ziggler Zigglerville, PA in the amount of $454,54244. This amount includes the base bid of $428,654 and alternate number one resurfacing of the exterior play court in the amount of $25,88844. 9E insurance carriers and premiums. Approve Willis Towers Watson insurance premium schedule as attached in the amount of $365,541 for the 2526 school year. This represents an increase and that number should read $46,482 from the 2425 school year. 9F taxes for 2526 asks that the board approve the local services tax, real estate transfer tax, earn income tax, and amusement tax for lower Providence and Warcester townships. 9G food service contract annual extension. Approve the renewal of the food service management contract with Aramark Educational Services LLC for the period of July 1, 2025 through June 30th, 2026 at a break even

168guarantee. 9H unallocated fund balance approve unallocated fund balance ending June 30th, 2025 in excess of 7% of the budget to be transferred to the capital project fund. Student activity accounts 9 I approve the closure of the following student activity accounts at Mthactton High School. Dance team, German team, Spanish club, school store, Spanish immersion, Mthactton bowl team, and one to one one book one school. Any remaining unspent funds shall be distributed to the student council activity account at Mthactton High School in accordance with district policy number 618. Thank you, Miss Stephy. Are there questions for Miss Stephie to my left? Miss Purdue. I just have one for the Arola Sky View campus paving restoration project. When was the last time um we had the campus pave? Dr. Senior. Okay. We've been doing minor repairs for the

169last at least five years, but I'm not entirely sure when the last full repaving was. It was a you know the the the likelihood is it was done um not within the last uh 12 years for sure. Absolutely. Okay. Yes. That we can say. Okay. So, this is like the full on. It's not minor. I mean, and and I'm I'm fine with it just because as you drive through the campus, you definitely know notice there's there's definitely a lot of work that's needed, right? So, um I was just wondering when was the last time that was done and if we have it on some type of schedule, but I'm guessing like you said, we just do some minor work and then we do and then as Dr. Zerby said, it's been at least a dozen

170years since it's been fully done. This is a full mill and overlay. They take about the first inch and a half or so of the macadam. They remove it. They mill that off and then they do replace that. And the the bids came in lower than anticipated which is allowing us to do that for the entire campus. And Dr. Sergini, is is it true that uh aside from the uh roofing plan, uh we also have a paving uh plan? We do. Yes. And for all of our campuses. Thank you, Miss Alustin. Oh, I'm sorry. I'm sorry. No, I'm sorry. I just had um for 9 J1, is this for um a specific class or is this for the whole um Missact High School, the closure of the um student activity accounts? That's for me. Um

171yes. So when um Miss Parker started um one of the things that she did was go through all the student activity accounts and determine which accounts were inactive. And by inactive I mean they haven't had any activity in at least three years. And so per per board policy when that happens um we take that money and we transfer it to student council account which will benefit the entire student body at Methactton High School. So this is and I just I was just asking because I didn't know if we will have something that come up for the class of 2025. That's why I was just wondering. So this is just for all the ones that were enacted for the past three years. Correct. Okay. Thank you. And I did just have one quick one for and

172maybe I know we talked about this but can you explain um 9H1 again just like provide a brief summary? Sure. So um we are projected to run a surplus. I do project that we are going to run a surplus. Um, any amount I'm going to call it a million dollars, but any amount of that million dollars that we don't need to maintain an unallocated fund balance of 7% we will transfer to the capital project fund and and Miss Stephie is is that 7% of the next year's budget? Correct. So that's of the 137 million that I that Okay. Correct. Okay. Thank you. Just a follow-up question to Miss Purdue's um inquiry about the campus paving project. Does that also include all the markings restored or is that Yes, it does. Okay. Yes, all the striping

173is included. Okay. Thank you. Any other questions? To my left, to my right. Uh, Miss Claire on um nine ninee the insurance um could you if I'm not expecting you guys to have the answer but could you before the voting meeting um I would like to know if our program gets marketed by our broker um to so that making sure we're getting the most competitive pricing and two why what's driving the $65,000 increase um from our broker Good. Thanks, Mr. Winners. Yes, I'm beating the Arola Skyola. Uh, actually, I it this is good news. Are we getting the I believe at one point I thought that we were only doing the pathways. Are we actually doing the parking spots as well? Yes, we are. Okay. And that came in lower than our budget. significantly lower

174than our budget to do the whole to do the entire area. Curiosity, where does it stop? Does it stop at the transfer at the maintenance building? It does. Okay. Thank you. So, it it stops at the at the end of the maintenance building, but not all the way down. Not all the way down. Okay. All right. Okay. Well Well, it actually goes on beyond that. Yeah. That's why we're That's why we're going down the road. I got you. Gotcha. Any other question? Miss Alson, just a followup then about the insurance premium. I believe I heard a different number than the 65 46482. Correct. Okay. And I just want to make sure that'll be reflected in the next agenda. Thank you. Any other questions on matters of finance? Seeing none, we'll move on to uh Dr.

175I am delinquent in putting the minutes so the minutes will be provided to you tomorrow. That's okay. We we'll get all the minutes posted uh uh for the v the voting meeting for the board. Uh we will if if it's okay, we'll move on to item 10 uh personnel items. Dr. Serjini. Thank you, Dr. Zerby. for the consideration of the board this month. The personnel items are one resignation professional Francesca Nonrone, sixth grade instructor at Sky View. That is a resignation for retirement after 20 years of service to Mthactton. We thank Francesca for her service and we wish her well. One resignation classified Sandra Parker, par professional at the high school, also a resignation for retirement and also after 20 years of service to Mthactton. We thank Sandy for her dedicated service to Mthactton and

176we wish her well. There is one job description with two minor updates to the description based on policy and board feedback. And then one change of status as has been mentioned administrative. That's Derek Dinardo from facility supervisor at facilities to assistant to the director of facilities. Mr. Dinardo has provided dedicated service to Mthactton since 2014. First serving as HVAC master mechanic and most recently as an administrator in the position of facility supervisor. Mr. Dinardo earned an associate uh degree in HVAC technology from Pennsylvania College of Tech Technology and International Facility Management Association professional credentials from Villanova. He also carries multiple additional certifications in the field of HVAC and uh proud to say that he is also a Methactton alum. So we thank Derek for taking on this new role. There are two changes of status

177classified. Patricia Rupido from pupil services office assistant at Fina to secretary to the director of pupil services also at Fina and Julia Menick from part-time reading par profofessional at Arcola to full-time par profofessional at Arcola. We thank Patty and Julia for taking on these new roles and then supplemental contracts for chaperones at the high school, the pupil services department, outdoor education, extended school year and also room movements. Thank you. Thank you, Dr. Serjin. Other questions from members of the board to my left. Miss Purdue, can you just um briefly explain the change in the job description for the chief of police? Certainly, I can. There were two changes. The first one was they're both in essential job functions. The first was in job function number one. That's removal of the term that would include the

178individual serving as the act 44 safety and security coordinator. Kyle Summers did identify that that should continue to be an administrator. And then the other one was in item seven that was based on board feedback from last week that was the incorporation of bullying prevention and focus on that uh as part of the job description. Um so the job description was discussed at policy committee. Can I just ask the reason for that? Why it was discussed at policy committee? I don't know. The job description is not policy. So I'm just wondering why how did it make it to policy to be it actually didn't. So we were reviewing one of the policies that just happened to be discussing security personnel and on that it did refer to the act 44 officer having to be an

179administrator of the district. And from that conversation, we then suggested that we go back to the job description to rectify the uh description that the act 44 officer would be the chief of police. And so the job description wasn't directly discussed, but indirectly discussed based on the policy that happened to be up just No, I guess the it was the background is necessary. Yeah. Thank you. Yep. The the confusion is we we approved the policy and then we now we took it to to I'm sorry, we approved the job description, then we took it to policy. That's not that's not what we did. So, I just want to make everybody clear, but but but thanks for the clarification, and it's an excellent question. Normally, normally we wouldn't have brought this back, but but because of

180that particular item, even though the board said about the anti-bullying piece, uh we were going to make the modification based on on that on the motion previously, but this really had to be approved in this manner so that we were compliant with the law associated with that u recommendation from our our solicitor. Other questions? is to my left. Miss Purdue, in reference to 10H1, um the facility supervisor, I think if I heard tonight or maybe not tonight, we do not plan to fill that position, right? We're eliminating that position also. That is correct. Okay. And we don't need to vote on that. That's correct. Okay. Any other questions? Uh, on personnel to my left, to my right. Mr. Wyinners, uh, curious on 10 N5. I assume that's a contractual requirement for room move movements. That

181is correct. As part of the collective bargaining agreement in the addendum to the agreement, it provides for payment for room movements when it is determined necessary by the administration. If a staff member requests movement to another position or puts in for an open position, they are not compensated for that move. Okay. So when uh we had the extension of the contract a few years ago, I think we added another personal day related to Rome prep. Is that correct? Uh at the beginning of the school year. Is that independent? Is it is there expectation? is that a teacher will come in during the summer to move their stuff antic or are they also getting paid $125 for doing that during the in in service day in August? No, we have had that actually in the collective

182bargaining agreement that teachers do have a room prep requirement day that is generally required to take place between August 1st and the beginning of the school year and they are not compensated for that day other than that being one of the generally 191 days of professional service that's required in the in the contract. Okay. Thank you. And just for clarity sake, I think both of those items though they might appear to be similar things, they're not. Um, and when I mean they're they're not not only are they separated in the uh in the agreement, but they're actually they actually serve two separate purposes and and and and we want to make sure that it while it may sound like it's it's it's a double type of thing, it's not. I'm just trying to make sure

183that they're not you coming in on the inservice day and doing their room prep by moving their and additional the expectation is they're coming in an additional day to move two separate two separate things based on the administration asking them to move. Right. Thank you. Excellent question. Anything else uh on personnel to my right? Seeing none, we'll move on to the next item on the agenda, which is uh curriculum. Dr. Regina. Yep. Thanks, Dr. Zerby. Uh just one item for the board this evening to approve the participation of the Mthactton School District uh to participate in the following federal programs. Title one, title two, title three, and title four, which uh title one we all know as being the funding for title of schools based on the soio economic levels um which is the 40%

184of families. Title two is the professional development one. Title three is based on our EL population and title four is the support and academic enrichment title. And so that's what those four programs are. And in terms of the actual allocations, I I don't believe we received them until maybe June, possibly we we also received them in July. in in some years. Uh so it's just a participation in in that program. Once we get the allocation, um we'll we'll make those adjustments if we get it in advance of uh the budget adoption on the 17th. Any other questions on uh curriculum matters? If not, we'll move on to policy. Dr. Regina. Thank you, Dr. Zerby. Uh for items on first read, just to call out the reference that to Miss Purdue's question, it was 805.2 is

185kind of where that came up. Um, and so it just happened to come in our conversation, which is then how we refer to it. There are two items on there that we're just going to call special attention to. 226 searches and 904 public attendance at school events. Um, those two items were brought out of the rotation on policy based on the evolve system that we're looking at putting in for larger scale events. And so those were brought up for first rate to make sure that we had that literature in those specific policies as requested uh by our school solicitor. um and and he did review that and then suggested what that wording would be. Course items that you're going to be looking at for second read, we just have the four items for second read

186003, 800, 802, and 803 for next week's vote. Thank you. Any questions to my left uh for matters of policy, questions to my right for matters of policy? Seeing none, we move on to other uh we have gifts and donations. We have a generous gift from Gary Greco towards the Mthactton High School or I'm sorry, Mthon School District food program in the amount of $500. Approve the generous gift uh from Sky Homeland School for the backpack program in the amount of $200. We have transportation approving uh Vicky uh Resny uh for the 2425 school year as a driver. uh security services approve the uh contract with Cardinal Point uh group for the provision of security personnel services for the Mthakton School District for the period of July 125 through June 30th, 27 as per the

187attached agreement. And we have to approve the election of Daniel Prenza to serve as treasurer of the board of school directors for a one-year term beginning July 1 through June 30th. As you know, we do this on an annual basis as part of that requirement in May. questions on matters under other to my right. See none to my left. Miss Alustin. Yes. Um thank you to home and school um from Sky View towards the with giving a donation to the backpack program. I was wondering if number one from the generous donation from Gary Greco for the food program. Is that the same program as the backpack program? No. One is for uh helping dis uh economically disadvantaged students with uh um lunch balances. Very good. Okay. The other one is the backpack program. Okay. That's

188wonderful. Thank you. Any other questions on under other? Seeing none, we move on to dates for members calendar. Madam President, we'll then move to old and new business. Any old or new business? Yes, Miss Clary. I just wanted to take a moment to um thank Julia Scorbeck. I'm sorry that she's not here because I think that the website design, if you guys haven't seen it, I'm sure you all have, is fabulous. Um I especially like that the various languages, and there are so many languages, is unbelievable, can be translated for anybody. I just thought it was was really well done. So, um it's a shame she's not here taking her pictures. She will be here next week. Well, I'll tell her next week. Yeah. But yes, I I will say that um your your observation

189of that is is is spot on. Uh certainly uh some of what we we've seen was not only from her work, her department's work, but remember we had two interns that we've and they were a critical part of helping with the imagery. And and you can see you can see that there's a big shift from uh being anformational website to one that you know is is more representative of uh who we are and and uh and how we want to be and and and and the and the imagery certainly reflects that. Yeah, it's certainly well done and I will remember to thank her and the team. So, thank you. I will be sending an email to her as well because I think it's phenomenal. It was we needed it. Any other old or new business?

190All right, seeing none, we will now move to courtesy of the floor. The board of school directors will now provide an opportunity for residents to make comments on matters that are may be before the board. The board asks that you keep your comments to 3 minutes or less. The board of school directors may choose to respond to matters following the conclusion of the comments. Please submit questions via email to informationthactton.org. Uh Brian, lower Providence. Um, I found it interesting your 10-year forecast presentation that the assumption that any surpluses in one year will be used to offset deficit in the next year. Um, that seems very inconsistent with your current practice of taking any surplus and moving it to capital, which leads to higher tax increases in the subsequent year. So, you might want to be

191consistent in that policy. Uh, the personnel items includes two resignations. Will the budget be adjusted for those uh to reflect the lower salary for replacement positions? If not, why? Um Paul, thank you for the explanation on the forecast variances, but the bottom line is the budget still lacks accuracy. To have $3 million of a favorable variance in a very predictable expense, that being salaries and benefits, just proves that the budget process needs dramatic improvement. Um, after last week's finance committee meeting, I sent the finance committee links to numerous articles reflecting that interest rates will not be decreasing as rapidly as was expected at when you started your budget process. Um, included study uh, an article from Goldman Sachs, which is probably much more reputable than the local banks on which you're you're getting your interest

192rate forecast from. So, you might want to reook at the interest income budget um, over the next month before you approve the fi the final budget. Also, after the last finance committee meeting, I sent an update to various on two lower Providence social media sites, highlighting the one and a half million dollar flush down the drain for the new high school project now been cancelled. The fact that taxes were increased 4% this year and a $1.3 million budget surplus is projected and the fact that you're planning to raise taxes 4.2 4.2%. Now, very few people come to these meetings, but I did get some feedback. And I'd like to read you some of those comments in response to what I communicated. And these are quotes. Time for a board overhaul. And this is why I

193question myself, when are we going to leave? Sadly, I love my home and where I live, but this is not sustainable. Another reason I can't wait to leave this area between Mscaro and post like this. Time for a change. Too many bad decisions have been made over the years. Just look at school ratings and listen to many parents stories. If we're running a surplus, we don't probably don't need a tax increase, right? Overt tax for an unachieving district. People in this area better start to wake up. Something smells funny. Did any of you get a 4% or higher raise in the past two years? This needs to stop immediately. We'll be leaving this area soon if this exploitive doesn't stop. 8,500 in taxes to 12,000 in taxes in six years. No. The LP board and

194school are all Dems. Good looking them. tell them not to raise our taxes. These are your constituents who are making all these comments, the people who you're elected to represent. It's time to start really digging into the budget and really starting to challenge what the administration puts in front of you. That's not happening. You need to take a stand. These tax increases are not sustainable for anybody. Thank you. Good evening, John Andrews, Lower Providence. A few items. Uh I think the the board is uh generally well a aware of of uh a limited amount of money being available and a seemingly endless list of wants and needs. For instance, uh with regard to the pool at the high school, uh the uh the present pool is repairable and in some people's minds, it's uh inadequate

195for its purpose because it only has six lanes. Well, now I think the pool was I haven't heard of the pool being inadequate for instance requiring that competitions take two days rather than six hours or or whatever. Uh you know let's look at the facts of of uh of that and and and going to a new pool is a considerable expense. So that that's one example of uh how our desires affect the costs. Uh with regard to the PFM, I think uh people should be asking uh what are the interest costs on borrowing a 100 million or 140 million with a 20-year payback rather than a 30-year payback. I think uh I'm not saying 20 years is realistic but uh I think the board should have an idea as to uh how much interest cost

196is associated with with the borrowings. Uh also another area to look at is uh class size and uh no uh class size may be the red expanding class size in some schools may be the way to get the money for to have a new auditorium. So I I think uh there's a lot to be discussed and and a lot to be uh obtained or or or uh added added to the capabilities of of the district, but uh there's more than one way to afford them. Thank you. Thank you. Jim Malik Warsester. Uh Jen, you read the please submit questions via email. Why? Why should I? I submitted questions to Dr. Zerby. He won't answer it. Give it to Chay, he won't answer it. Give it to you and Miss Graph and you won't answer it.

197So why even bother put it in there? You know, I submit a question by email. You won't answer it. And you wonder why your right to know costs are so high. Um, the presentations from tonight, will they be on the website tomorrow? Because I've had to call, it's taken a week to get the stuff on the website. That's not transparency. I don't know what's going on. It doesn't make sense. Um, another $1.3 million surplus. So, we got overt taxed again. 1.3 million. You would say you didn't spend enough, but I say we got overt taxed. It's got to stop. How many times can you have budget surpluses? It's crazy. Um, and now we hear that you can use the budget surplus to offset a deficit. We were told, I think by Dr. Zerber, you can't

198do that. So, which one is it? Why don't you clarify that for us? Where'd that come from? You guys, you guys are so far over your heads. It's scary. Watching this up front to me is scary. You guys really I don't know what's going on. It's not good. Um, what's the total interest cost on a $180 million borrowing? Tell us how much it's going to cost. It's like, oh yeah, yeah, we're just going to spend 180. No, it's more like 400. It's 180 plus 220, right? So you're spending 400. You're not spending 180. You're spending 400. So you know, you guys have no concept. It's like it's other people's money. We'll just spend it. What the heck? Um what are the borrowing costs associated with PFM's model? You know, PFM's fees, legal, accounting. Didn't see

199any of that stuff. Um you're assuming you're assuming your budget projections the act one index will be 3%. But interest rates are going down and so is inflation. So what if it goes to 2%. What if it goes to 1.5%. We've been there before. You guys are going to be in trouble. So you better think about this stuff. It It's not good. Now the premise for borrowing $180 million is borrow the money when you don't know what you're spending it on, right? As and borrow as much as you can, then find a way to spend it. That's not how you do it. What you do is say, "We need this. We definitely need this. How much is it going to cost?" And then get your financing. That's like me going to get financing for a

200home, but I don't have a home to buy yet. It makes no sense. I don't know what you're doing. Thank you. Anyone else for courtesy of the floor? Seeing none, does anyone have any comments or anything? Seeing n then all right none. Can I have a motion to adjurnn? Miss Alustin, Miss Purdue. Have a good evening everyone.