001e for e e e right good evening everyone I'd like to call the February 25th 20125 mton School District Board of Directors meeting to order please stand for the pledge I pledge of allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the Republic for which it stands one nation under God indivisible with liberty and justice for all hi my name is SN and I go to elad elementary school what I love about elad is we have kind teachers subsid teachers and helpers they are always ready to help new students find their way our teachers show us find ways to learn new things Ahad has many fun after school activities that help us explore our talents math 24 aad news and after school sports just name a few we have different special classes
002our gam music art and Library classes teach us how to be healthy creative and musical our fourth graders have the chance to be a safety our playround has a lot for students to do dur resarch and includes everyone I hope you understand why I love aad thank you for [Applause] listening please please join me in one more round of applause for Andrew Z zck and Snider ordones chimo they they are both our Junior School Board directors will you join us out front so we can issue your certificate excellent e the public is here by advised of the audio and video recording of this meeting for the purposes of rebroadcasting all board members are present so next is guest and schedule speakers Dr Zerby thank you Madame President this evening if it's okay with the board
003of school directors I'd like to move the M Awards recognition for the mton high school cheerleading squad pack Champions uh to the the front of this presentation I ask uh High School principal Dr yuker to come forward and help us uh issue the ma awards for this outstanding Squad Dr uker you have to hold it in oh there we go I think I got it so I'm a little tall I just hold it we adapt good evening uh the M awards for athletic Excellence for the 2024 2025 school year recognize the outstanding athletic achievements of teams that excelled in their sports tonight I'd like to introduce coach Deanna Ellison who will introduce her and tell you a little bit about her athletes who made it to States this year Miss Deana [Applause] [Music] uh thank
004you Dr zby and members of the school board for taking the time this evening to recognize the accomplishments of these incredible young women thank you to Dr uker and our athletic director Taylor Parker for the constant support of the team um when our season started it was kind of hard to predict what the season would hold for this group um this is the youngest varsity team we've had at mton in my 16 years of coaching here with only three upper class classman however the passion enthusiasm and determination of the underclassmen combined with the experience leadership and guidance of the upper classmen proved to be the secret to success from the time they came together for Camp last summer this team worked hard and took nothing for granted they faced many obstacles along the way but
005continued to persevere grow and strive for Perfection each and every time they took the floor they never failed to rise to the occasion when it mattered most on top of winning the coveted pack championship for the second year in a row the team earned a bid to the PIAA State Championship where they made it to the semi-final round capping off their competitive season with a Flawless performance I could not be prouder of the growth teamwork and determination that each of these athletes has shown since August they've worked tirelessly to balance their dual responsibilities supporting the football and both boys and girls basketball teams while also focusing on their own competitive season where they take the spotlight their dedication truly paid off this year and they are champions in every sense of the word thank you
006for having us here tonight to celebrate these phenomenal athletes [Applause] know the girl everybody that's what the said you know [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] congratulations Che uh next on a list of guest and scheduled speakers we're going to return to the first item and we would like to introduce Dr Roberts uh principal of Arrowhead uh Elementary School who's going to introduce the spirit of methacton awardees uh for February 2025 Dr Roberts all right back up well good evening everyone um before I get started it was exciting to see Samar had alumni up here uh as a part of the M Awards so uh and thank you for that and i' just like to thank the board of school directors and Dr zby for allowing all the schools but particularly oure head for the month of
007February for our student we have one student and then several staff members and a volunteer to be recognized so if we could go to the next slide all right so these are honores uh we have Mrs Shannon Clark first grade teacher we have Mrs Jennifer McGregor or McGregor excuse me uh support staff we have Miss is Aaron Cardwell a volunteer and then we have Miss Janelle Dennis a fourth grade student in Arad they're going to be honored and recognized here momentarily next slide all right so here's Mrs Clark all right come on down Mrs Clark I I have it's this is an class class class yes yes yes all right so here's some kind words about Mrs Clark she serves Shad as a first grade teacher on a daily basis Shannon demonstrates a strong passion
008for teaching and finds joy in seeing students grow and succeed our student staff and families love Mrs Clark she's kind caring and engaging she is student centered a team player and this is evident through her teaching style energy and humor uh that she puts her students first so I just want to say Shannon thank you so much for all of your hard work you create a safe and nurturing learning environment for our students and it is clear how much our students look up to you please keep up the wonderful work your hair looks great we have a sign too so let's give it up for Mrs Clark all right up next we have Mrs Jennifer McGregor um Jen is a wonderful addition to our school yep give a round of applause for Jen she serves
009Arad is an instructional assistant Jen goes above and beyond in helping our students whether it is helping students during our pie time we serving as a substitute teacher uh Jen's children go to our school so she is all in at our head and we love her for that uh she's dedicated patient caring and these characteristics truly make a difference in the live lives of our student Jen I just want to say your positivity energy and creativity does not go unnoticed and we are truly thankful to have you part of our school team and family uh thank you so much for everything you do to support our students school and community and uh like I said to and please keep up the great work we're we're happy to have you thank you all right so we
010have I had to recognize Mrs Cardwell because she is our treasur so we need things I'm just kidding Aaron uh Mrs Aaron Cardwell she Serv elementary school as a volunteer she's not just our Treasurer but she's wonderful uh person and just a really great uh community and student Advocate I just wanted to say uh Mrs Cardwell that we express our heartfelt gratitude for your time your dedication to our students staff and families uh Mrs Cardwell also serves the district as a volunteer on the with act and coordinating Council she's busy uh her willingness to volunteer and support our school and district is exceptional Aon is also student centered extremely thorough and very very kind so uh Aaron thank you so much for being such a supportive and outstanding volunteer for our student school and families
011and I just want you know we really appreciate you thank you [Applause] all right so we're GNA save Miss Dennis for last this is Janelle Dennis Janelle come on down yeah all right so it's my honor and privilege to share some kind words about Janelle Janelle is such a positive om for a student body she's a true leader who sets a positive example for all the follow she displays kindness a strong work ethic and all her academics she just shows kindness toward everyone that she interacts with she's a helper a leader and just a wonderful person I really enjoyed writing this the world needs more people like youel we are so honored and humbled to have Janelle attend alad and uh Janelle I just want to thank you so much for uh being a wonderful
012student r model and just being a part of Arrowhead but not just Arad than the fact and family we're really proud of you keep up the great word J know [Applause] [Music] okay than [Applause] e so as some of our guests are uh uh exiting out I do want to bring to everyone's attention that about a year ago um we we were before the board of school directors and there were actually two individuals that you'll be hearing from in just a minute were before the board of school directors uh with an opportunity to uh bring Esports to methon school district uh but before we introduce those two special guests I want to turn it over to uh Dr Regina uh who's been helping uh spearhead and oversee uh the project Dr Regina thank you Dr
013Zerby uh thank you School Board uh this this is exciting uh for us personally as a school district thank for many of you for supporting this program um and we're specifically talking about the Esports initiative that we kicked off um some of the individuals we're about to share with you here in a second you probably recognize from their first presentation delivering really the concept around Esports to the district um you will quickly realize the enthusiasm that comes from these individuals and how exciting it is both for the team and probably for many of you to hear from them tonight what we were hoping for with the program was to build interest and to get students excited sometimes students that may not have Pathways to activities that currently exist in schools because that's where the connection
014is in education often for many of our students and a lot of that's happening now and it's really exciting to see they're going to talk a little bit about that um we're hoping for that but the success that we're seeing I think is even a little bit more exciting they're going to sh some of that to with you so without further Ado enough of me talking uh coach White House and team captain Dominic uh please join us and start the presentation thank you and welcome thanks hello everyone thank you again for having us here oh thank you was a little nervous so as Dr Regina mentioned we are here to just show you our success with the program so far and to really extend our thanks to you for all the support you've shown us
015without your support this would not have been as as successful as it is uh this is just a small portion of our students these are our new jerseys for the season this is probably what about a third of our kids uh we have about 20 kids competing right now last season we had about 26 this season we ended up having to do cuts just because of the restructure of our program but uh we're we have about 20 kids in the program right now uh this is just some glimpses of what we have going on in our lab here uh we have a lot of teamwork skill development and inclusivity in our program uh I think it may be mentioned later but I'm a little nervous now so I'm going to say it now um but
016uh it's been really cool to see the involvement with these kids so it's about 50% of our kids have never been in any activity at all in their entire schooling career not even just high school and then 70% of our kids have never been on a sports team uh so a lot of these kids were also kind of just getting used to what's it look like being on a team what's it like to navigate and communicate with others and what is it like to depend on each other with the teamwork uh scenarios that they have uh so some of our games that we play so we're in a league called the Pia I think this is what we actually suggested last season there was another one that we had talked about but we found that
017this one was the one that was streamlining our kids to the universities so the Pia is what we are running under and our game titles currently are OverWatch to valerent and Super Smash ultimate oh I already did I take your I took your stuff didn't I oh sorry guys do you want I didn't say that last part okay so I'd like to talk about our spring season last season the fall season we were just getting ourselves uh in the waters of the P we didn't really know what we were doing fully we didn't really do too hot The Fall season but this season currently our OverWatch two team is 4 and0 and if we continue to play as well as we've been playing we will win our division and after we win our division we'll
018move on to all the schools across the uh state of Pennsylvania combined into one overall playoff and if we win that we'll compete in person at a championship in St Francis University um and our valerant team is also undefeated two and 0 right now and we won our pass games 130 not letting our opponents win a single round and just to add to that so last season we were horrible however we did have three students we had three students that were contacted for scholarship opportunities from three different universities so despite our status uh we still have people who are reaching out to get them involved um and Dom is actually in the process of going to college and he is going to minor in Esports management so they do have that at school as well
019um some of our future goals is just more Club exposure I mentioned a bit earlier but there are some other games that they are pioneering and so we want to get some more people involved not just the small clientele that we have we want more match visibility so right now it's kind of limited for parents and people to actually see our kids compete so we're looking for some visibility so that we can actually show our success with our students and we're planning to do some fundraising just so we can show some growth with our program and for some equipment those are just some future goals um but as always thank you so much from uh all of you we really appreciate your support Dr Zerby Dr Regina you've been so helpful thank you for your
020patience it's been an incredible journey I've learned a lot but it has definitely been successful and I'm really proud especially of Dom and all the kids that have put in so much work with this so thank you so [Music] much I did want to just add thank you very much for piloting this program I mean you did it from the ground up and thank you the maakan Education Foundation for working and collaborating with the district I think as a whole group this has been a really wonderful Testament of working together and I I look forward to you and seeing what you're going to be able to do and I know you're going to do possibly teaching and coming back to us and investing in it but thank you thank you for giving opportunity to all
021the students and thank you for leading this I appreciate it yes absolutely um I know you you've been thanking the board but all of this work was you you came last year you did the presentations and you did a really great job of telling us why this was a great idea so congratulations thank you thank you I do want to say thank you also and I remember last year bringing this to the board and just being in the Esports room today was amazing and I love hearing I mean I think you know it was a change right was a new thing we tried and we tested the waters but just hearing how far we're going and I know many students are very excited about it I have one question for Don because you're leaving us
022really sad to see you leave but I'm sure you will do many great things going forward what is one thing that you wish for the club in your absence um I'd like to say I really want to see a lot of the underclassmen specifically one sophomore on the valerant team the only underclassman on that team um his name is Frankie um Frankie um he is showing great initiative great growth he's been watching a lot of the high levels I want to see kids uh other students like him take initiative and show that sort of interest and I want to see it grow in more talented kids that I know in our grade that may have lost the chance maybe to jump on the train and maybe get those scholarships I want to see all those
023kids who have that Talent be able to go to college for their talents thank you very much we will I'm sure we will work on that with the coach but thank you very much and we wish you all the best of luck thanks thank you uh Mr wyers yeah you guys buried the lead a little bit I I think if you could speak about how some of those uh students how they've adapted their classwork and how how they're able to participate in this uh a team sport for the first time um so I know a lot of students some friends who we have the same re requirements as other sports teams grade-wise and participation wise we want them to be good have good behaviors and I know a lot of my friends actually started to
024practice those behaviors and start trying a bit more in school to be a part of the team and like Mrs White House said earlier um a lot of the students hadn't been in any sort of extracurricular or um sports team even just outside of school like any sort of Club they weren't in any of those either and I've noticed a lot of people just find a social network they didn't really have before the team and just have that sort of connection that a sports team can help you build without needing to actually physically do sport that may be too demanding or just too much for students who may not want to participate in sports and I so some of these students I've actually taught in the classroom and so it's been tremendous to see how
025they've really come out of their shell they're starting to connect with others I mentioned when we were in the E Sports room that a mom came up to me and she said this is the first time my son is asked to go out and hang out with his friends he he had no connections before and now I can't I never see him at home um and so and he was one of the kids that was interested in you know really pioneering this so it's just been really cool to see the kids really come out of their shells um and be proud to wear the jerseys and um really care about what they're doing in the classroom because we hold them as Dom said to the same standard as our athletes so the expectations are there
026miss clar yeah a couple things Dominic congratulations on your scholarship I know that you may not be taking it but I think that's a fantastic achievement so congratulations can you come down actually and show the board the Jersey from behind as well because it's really cool could you like model that a little bit and the two universities that are on the back of that are two [Music] of and St Francis I believe above that gave an another student a scholarship as well right yeah and then the third was Messiah yeah okay yeah um so my question well also wanted to say thank you for both of you for your patience during the the tour before the board meeting you answered the same question several times and it was was great so thank you the question
027that I wanted to ask is is there anything that you feel that you need that could be would make the team better that you don't currently have if you had a if you had an open wish list is there is there anything um I think that the biggest issue and you know with any new new program I I definitely needed a lot of help um and with dom leaving just having somebody that's knowledgeable or at least having someone to help out with because what I'm trying to say is that there are three different games that I run um and there's a whole slew of kids that are coming in a lot of interest so I feel like eventually down the line we will need additional help um is there anything else that you can think
028of though that you want to add and really viewing viewing like I I know I mentioned it but being able to actually see even if we have some kind of program that can record and then we could put it out later for the news journal just to get that exposure that's one of the biggest things right now I know there are parents that are interested in watching the matches or at least reflecting the kids want to watch their game play to see where they could do better uh so having some type of program like that would be awesome yeah um so um the Pia the league we go through does stream some of the matches but they don't stream every single match so uh a lot of the other players and I have sent out
029the link when we have had matches streamed before but we've only had in on the valerant team at least we've only had one stream shared so we can only share it uh we only shared one of our games with like our parents or our friends so it would be great to have um like some sort of video clipping or streaming software on the PCS so that we could stream it and share it out to maybe even go live on the methacton uh Warrior news um so that kind of like the same way sports do or have like the same sort of um coverage that sports teams do it would be really beneficial for uh a lot of the other students to see how well we're all doing thank you any other comments seeing none thank
030you both so much and thank you for all that you've done for mton Esports team we appreciate it well done thank [Applause] you uh next on the agenda we have Dr sjeni Who's going to give a a brief update on the otton elementary school Dr sjeni thank you Dr zeran good evening in September of 2024 the board of school directors approved a resolution that authorized the administration to take all steps necessary to pursue a private sale of the former aaban Elementary School Pro property that is located at 2765 Egypt Road in Lower Providence Township with the final sale agreement requiring board approval at a later date following that in October of 2024 the administration was in contact with seven firms and businesses that have engaged in recent Land Development in the area and provided information
031related to the 14 acre parcel that includes a 55,000 ft² School building in an R2 residential zoning district with an Institutional overlay in November interested companies were provided a walkthrough of the building and property and subsequently in December of 2024 the district received three offers for the property the district is currently in conversation with the highest bidder until an uh the terms of an agreement of sale with the bidder are reached the following steps must be taken we are negotiating the terms of a proposed agreement of sale once finalized we will present those terms to the board for their consideration if the board approves the agreement of sale we will then work with the solicitor to submit a petition for court court approval of the sale we will then post and publish the required Public
032Notices and then we will attend the hearing to secure the court approval that will take uh likely many months um probably six to 12 months at least so over that time we will continue to provide updates to the board as we're able to do so thank you thank you Dr Genie and last on the set of guests and scheduled speakers we have the manaon high school update we have cha and Shader group what I'd suggest because I know that uh there's there's quite a bit of Animation uh as part of this I'd ask if the board of school directors would be so kind to take a seat in the front row uh there is a handout so you could take that with you as well uh but the animations are very hard to uh display
033on paper as you might imagine all right should I hold this like Dr yuker see if I can take it out all right thank you again for having us back uh in February can't believe it's almost the end of February here but uh here we are um we wanted to do two things and if this I guess this doesn't work I have to plug it in I'll use this all right so we want to do two things update everyone on the schedule Land Development and estimates for the project and then go through a schematic design estimate uh that includes site plans building plans and a little fly through of the building uh towards the end of the present presentation so first um updates and I believe these are the same updates we presented last month
034but just wanted to make sure everyone's on the same page we're going to be presenting uh kind of the same information the schematic design will be finished at the uh March 18th um board meeting the work session so we will be back to present another update uh for schematic design that will include some uh Financial presentations as well I believe pfm is coming uh to to show some uh some of the budgetary concerns or uh updates board decision we are looking for on March 25th so that would be the vote to move into the next phase and you can see all the dates on the right hand side so March 25th we would look to move into design development and we'll talk a little bit about what that means uh but design development moves through
035September and then you have another board vote in in uh September to move into construction documents there's also something we've been talking about this act 34 hearing which you've done with the uh Arrowhead project in the past um that would happen in um October we would need the design development uh estimates to perform that hearing um once we move into construction documents uh another board decision would would happen sometime in January at this time um that would uh allow us to move into bidding assuming everything is in order um so you could vote to to move the project to bidding that would last through March of 26 if all of your bids come in and you're ready to roll then you would have the opportunity to vote March 26 to move into construction so a
036lot of steps there's a lot of time for input and thoughts to to be gathered for the project here um I just want to note a couple of items in the bottom we will be presenting monthly just to give updates and this schedule is completely contingent on Land Development so there are a lot of things to go through step-by-step process with the township with the uh Montgomery County um that really could impact some of these dates but we're going to do our best to keep on track um construction what what this might look like if you do end up following the previous schedule that we just laid out construction would be from about the May 26th through December of 28 timeline uh students would be able to move into the building in December of 28
037at this point uh then the demolition of the existing high school and remaining site work would happen after that and you'd look at a full project completion in summer of 29 so it's a long construction period um about a year from now for design and then we move into construction um a couple of key uh Land Development uh submissions that we've made uh we did show most of these items at the last board meeting uh the one new one is something that's happening on Thursday of this week and that is the war sester Township Planning Commission and that's where we will present uh the the sketch plan that we've already uh given to them we have received comments back from their engineers and we'll be we'll be able to interact with them and and kind
038of go through the the back and forth necessary to get um their thoughts on on the status here so if anyone is interested interested uh that meaning is at 7 p.m. over at the township building um I mentioned we did get comments back from the engineers uh nothing that we really weren't expecting at this point uh so I've highlighted some of these here uh it is a uh we are in an agricultural District the zoning map um that means we have a conditional use for a public school I know you have an existing School currently on site but that because we're demolishing this the the existing building and building new we may need another conditional approval so that's something we'll negotiate with the the zoning officer uh they've also noted that we have to confirm
039that the bus depot is an allowable uh space on the site we're not touching it but it is uh does need a conditional approval to remain as an accessory building and because we're removing the old building we still have to kind of go through the motions there um a few zoning relief items that we've been tracking the building height uh we're not to exceed 35 ft or 2 and a half stories we are currently at 3 stories and probably about 45 fet at the moment uh for a portion of the building um so that's one item that will need zoning relief from also the impervious surface coverage so that's all of the spaces that the uh water does not infiltrate through currently we're at 43% on the existing site and the limit per the the
040township ordinance is 40% so we're already over that and we are increasing that up to 45% at the moment so you already have a non-conform a non-conforming condition um we are imp uh increasing it but we are providing a lot more parking so there's a little bit of a reason why we need to have that and why they may allow us to to increase the impervious surface uh parking lots so in the zoning ordinance we're not allowed to have parking lots within 250 ft of a front yard property line now you currently have a building and parking lots within that uh setback uh but we do have to go through the zoning uh hearing to to allow us to build again the parking that's in the in the setback um you may ask why can't
041we just eliminate the parking from that front setback well 285 spaces are in those setbacks in the along creal Mill couple of others regarding lighting uh you are very familiar with the lighting ordinance for the multi-purpose field we are proposing Lighting on the existing varsity baseball field and the new softball field that's coming up right next to the the baseball field so we'll have to go through that and get a conditional use uh for those and then they have an A a requirement of a 12 foot maximum uh uh sight light height that's a a tough one to say um so the parking lot lights cannot be higher than 12 feet and and for a typical school you're going to want them higher so you're not you don't have lights every you know 10 feet
042down the road like a a mall parking lot so we're going to ask for the allowance to uh have those a little bit higher that should not be uh too much of an issue um a couple other land these are not zoning items but a couple other Land Development items uh to consider uh they are requesting Curbing and sidewalk along Germantown Pike creal Mill and millroad so something will have to work with the the township on uh they want us to confirm the widths of creal Mill and Mill to make sure that they meet the township requirements and then they are looking for a way for us to prove that millroad can only be a bus and emergency access road so they don't want cars going in and out of there and they're wondering how
043we're going to limit that to just buses and uh emergency vehicles some noted improvements which they don't usually go out of their way to note things of improvement here but they've noted that uh the parking on site in our current plans is increased up to 877 new spaces you currently have 603 and I know everyone parks in unmarked spaces so you actually have more cars on the site but you have 603 line spaces and we're going up to 877 uh the building coverage so we're making a lot more efficient building by making it taller uh the existing building footprint is about 88.7% of the site and we're reducing that to 88.0% on the site so that is a benefit and then they've noted that uh the layout that we've provided they believe is a safe
044and efficient uh way to have off Street passenger drop off and pick up separated so they're talking about the different access points how we have bus coming in one way parents coming in the other way and then students coming in a totally separate access so they believe that is a a safe and efficient layout um we do have other opportunities for input uh there's the Land Development approval process the first meeting as I mentioned is this Thursday we also have to go through County Conservation District approval so we will have feedback from that department uh we're scheduling several staff meetings we have one scheduled for next week with Dr uker and her staff to go through the building uh we'd like to get students in involved and that would likely come during the design development
045phase uh we'd also probably schedule some community and parent presentations to uh let them know what the progress is and then we will be updating the the district website with images and information along the way so for this I will pass to Josh for the cost update thank you Devon good evening um so Devon mentioned the process moving uh from schematic design design development and ultimately construction documents and really the level of refinement with project scope project details really come into Focus as we move through the process um this is a condensed version at this point of our overall budget summary we have at this point broken down um uh not individual um lengths of pipe or number of fixtures but system by System the schematic phase we do have breakdowns that we can provide
046and the Really the reason for that is so that we have a comprehensive budget not only for the building itself but also for the site and all the improvements that go along with it Devon mentioned the process going through the township uh County Conservation um even the sewer planning module requires input and um is not completely known at this point but what we do want to make sure is that we have those cost s accounted for that we are making um available contingencies or allowances for all of the costs for both the built uh construction as well as any fees uh to the the county or the township any professional fees any construction testing when it comes time for the construction phase so even though we're still in schematic design we are focusing and making
047sure that we really have a comprehensive budget uh for the entire project we're looking at things like phasing if we are disturbing spaces during construction that aren't necessarily um intended for improvement if they will be disturbed obviously we will need to restore those areas one thing that comes to mind are the tennis courts um this site as you know is going to be really um challenging from a standpoint of finding available spaces during construction so we need to make sure that we're accounting for all of those types of incidental costs as part of the uh budget update and we are including those um every step of the way what you'll see as we move forward through design development and ultimately construction documents are those very detailed takeoffs once we get to a point where we
048have more information available um through the details of construction with the building so um again we're taking into account some of the geotechnical information that we have so far are we accounting for rock removal are we accounting for soil conditions yes we are our estimates will also include what are the prevailing wage rates for this region obviously with a publicly bid project we need to factor in public uh prevailing wages um I mentioned some of the other incidental phase and costs Land Development so you know long story short we want to make sure that the numbers you guys are considering um both you know tonight moving into March 18th and moving forward are comprehensive from a total project standpoint um so at this point you know previously we had kind of had a range of
049costs and it was mostly related to the building itself at this point we're really focusing in on a set square footage now that we're nearing the end of schematic design so we are at this point focusing in on both a um target number for Hard costs and soft costs the hard costs coming in around 163 million with soft costs at about 49 million okay and again those soft costs do include some contingency there's also some escalation figured until we get to about the midpoint of construction um so you'll see that at about 3% okay so at this point Allin total project cost uh at 23, 385,000 and again that will be further refined as we continue moving so Devin uh mentioned a couple steps moving into the design development phase uh we will be back
050in front of you on March 18th at the board work session we will have a more detailed cost estimate that we're happy to share with you uh there will be updated plans and elevations provided uh through the shraer group and their team Deon mentioned the Planning Commission that first meeting is Thursday night so we will have good feedback from the Planning Commission hopefully to help verify some of the assumptions and initial input that we've gotten from the township uh which may Impact scope or feasibility of of how the building can actually be constructed um pfm will also be here for some updated Financial pictures uh borrowing scenarios and a five-year budget forecast so again uh moving through design development taking us to that culmination with the ACT 34 public hearing um again Devin mentioned some
051of the end user meetings that will be had with staff and also students um you know we know number of classrooms we know General sizing but we really want to start digging into amenities um Technologies learning uh tools those types of things that are really going to help um finalize what's in a classroom and obviously within a certain budget range that we're targeting uh finishes and materials are going to start to be looked at uh you know terazzo floooring or tile flooring those types of considerations um the the documents as I said just are going to be more refined throughout the design development phase that will help with constructibility and also with uh budgeting just to make sure that the systems and the constructibility is what we are are picturing initially in order to again
052meet that Target budget uh plans will be submitted to the Conservation District and as well as uh perom Authority ultimately as the sewer planning module continues those are lengthy processes so even aside from the local Township approval process getting through Conservation District getting through sewer planning could be upwards of uh 9 to 12 months just with those processes so um really need to keep things moving quickly and efficiently throughout this design and design development process and again I mentioned the ACT 34 hearing uh targeted for October of 25 uh again public hearing that's where the total project cost Total Building cost again will be sort of uh finalized for um public advertising public vote to proceed forward and ultimately get us into the construction documents phase so with that I will let Devin take us
053through some more exciting uh topics here with some of the imagery all right thank you Josh all right now everyone's gonna have to pay close attention here because we're going to start to look at some uh fun imagery um I do want to preface this with this is still very schematic it may start to look like a real building but we've really just started to model things so although it looks like it could be a complete project it is nowhere near done so I don't want anyone in the public or on the board to really get too excited about the progress that we've made um I want you to know it it is going to take every bit of a year to get through the design process so with that said uh we'll start with
054the site uh obviously here is your exist existing site and I'm going to uh overlay the new site plan on this so just kind of notice where the existing building is and then notice where the new building is going to start to appear and you can see how tight it's going to be uh but we are missing the existing building um so some of the features that we are uh going to discuss are uh circulation patterns parking uh storm waterer management um some of the athletic areas and general uh layout and circulation around the site so um we'll start with the bus access and we've seen this before you see the blue dot uh the blue line coming around this would the bus only and emergency only Vehicles would be coming off of milroad and
055they would come in and park uh or drop off up towards what we're calling the gymnasium entrance uh which maybe I can use my mouse pointer here laser there we go so the buses would would drop off right along here and then everyone would enter the building through this entry point here when they're dropped off uh then we have the uh parent drop off Loop so again bringing everybody on site get them off Creo Mill so the yellow line is the parent drop off they will come around this area and drop off at the front of the building here and then students students come in at their own entrance always good to separate the students from the buses from the parents bring them in they Park in the student parking lot here or potentially down
056here there's probably some spillover student parking down in this area uh so three very clear uh different access points for the the various ways to get in the site um that will really increase the safety and the circulation around the site um and notice we we talked about parking um 877 spaces it looks like a lot of parking but that's what you need to get everybody off of the surrounding streets and make the neighbors happy that the students are no longer parking along their roads so ample parking for not only every day but for uh after school events um you can see there's different lots for different activities maybe this is a staff lot back here where staff can come in the building in the back there's another couple of lots here that would allow
057parking for the baseball and softball fields there's another one over here uh by the Athletics area so there's there's ample uh parking around the site for the various activities and it gets it all onto the site and off of uh we don't need to use the the church parking lot anymore we don't need to use the uh ancillary streets around um I don't believe that we've updated you on on some of the fields but uh notice that we are maintaining um the same number of fields that we had in the past so we are relocating the softball field that would come up here this would be Varsity Softball next to Varsity Baseball uh the multi-purpose field that we're taking away from the building uh comes over here so this is a natural grass multi-purpose field
058along creal Mill uh this basically remains we're showing it as a lined field but it remains as that practice field that you currently have and we've maneuvered the road for the buses around the existing uh JV baseball so that can stay in its current location and then we've moved the softball uh the the JV softball down to this corner uh you can see where it uh previously was and now would be relocated down here we also have field events so this this green area would be reserved for some of the track and field events like Javelin and discus and shotput um Fieldhouse uh We've we've discussed this in the past this is an area for uh some toilet rooms and locker rooms that would support all of the Athletics that are over here in this
059Zone kind of further away from the building and notice uh we'll talk about this path but this could be like the warrior way where everybody's all the athletes are coming from the main building and proceeding down this this area down to the athletic Plaza and getting to their various um different sports um we'll go into the building actually I'll mention one more thing um what's not showing here there's two things not showing up one is the setback line so there's a 250 fot setback line that comes across and lines BAS basically about here so when I talked about those parking spaces that were in the setback that's all of these in the front of the building uh there's also a 250 foot setback along Germantown and along Mill Road so we cannot build in those
060areas uh towards the back of the site that don't have roads that's 125 ft and the building is actually beyond that limit so we're further away than we need to be um and that would be the same thing all the way through the back of the site here uh couple of things that aren't showing up on this plan because it's uh more of a rendered plan rather than an engineered plan storm water uh is going to be a key feature for this we have to go through Montgomery County Conservation District which will uh make sure that we are abiding by all the uh the County laws with storm water management uh we'll have several underground basins under uh parking lots and Fields and then we're we're proposing uh several above ground basins kind of like
061you have currently next to the transportation center there's one here we would provide a a few of those around the site as well and that's really going to make sure that all of the site all of the rainwater is contained on the site and then slowly released into the various uh uh waterways off the site so you're going to see a significant Improvement in storm water management in terms of uh off-site uh runoff so uh moving into the building we have several uh plans in this accent ometric view this is kind of the best way to to make sure everybody understands what's happening we're going to start from the top and work our way down there are three floors and as everybody knows we're kind of marching down the hill you know you go from
062the tennis courts at the High Point down to that next level where the multi-purpose field is down to the softball field so this area down here uh is where the softball fields are so you can imagine that's almost two stories down from where the tennis courts are so just keep that in mind as we go down um on the third floor uh it it's basically matching what's on the first floor or second floor um when we get down to that level but one thing I want to note for the third floor is there is a continuous access point around the entire building so this area in blue is all of your academic classrooms the yellow is meant to be science technology art classrooms and then this is the media Center over here this green space
063is the common so your cafeteria and your after hours uh after school activity space um everything on this side of the building is Athletics uh so you have your gym your auxiliary gym and then the pool is over here and then all of the Performing Arts are here so it's set up nicely to separate all of the traditional academic areas from the public spaces so all of the academic areas are are kind of in the back of the building down on that three-story piece uh which is uh inherently the quieter part of the site uh and all of the the noisy activities and and public spaces are out toward the front of the site almost looking out towards kbal Mill and the rest of the athletic areas um there could be a really good opportunity
064for security to kind of lock down the building at Key areas so that we can uh kind of quarantine off the academic spaces from those public spaces so you can have public in the public spaces and not give them access to the rest of the building so we'll see a couple of key features and there's really only one on the on this Upper Floor that we want to highlight and that's the media center um we want to kind of create this as a a really Innovative space uh there's a really good opportunity overlooking the commons and then having that nice view uh if you think of standing at the the baseball field there's a really great view down down the hill out towards the multi-purpose field you would actually get that uh from the media
065center uh and we'll see that as we go through the video um moving down to the the mid level so the second floor it's actually on grade so when you first come in the building you're entering on the second floor and what that means is students are only going up one floor or down one floor at any point during the day so you enter in the comments here um you have a really nice two-story space here that could be utilized as cafeteria uh sort of a common space for we we almost call it a 20-hour space because students are using it throughout the day and then after school all these different events are happening in this comments um so it separates the the gym the auxiliary gym the pool you can kind of hold your
066events uh for the pre-events for those spaces in this area and you also have the Performing Arts area so your Auditorium can also utilize this common space uh as kind of a pre uh event uh venue the area in blue over here I didn't mention um these are both twostory spaces the one closest to the commons is the uh District administration so that would be your typical main office maybe the second floor is a guidance Suite or counseling area um and then the space on the other side is again two stories but that's the District administration space so finina would be moving to that location and they have their own entry point off of this side of the building and their own parking lot um the rest of the building is exactly how I mentioned
067it uh on the third floor you have your Performing Arts spaces your steam spaces and then your regular academic spaces so we'll kind of highlight a few the commons as I mentioned it's a community space it's a large group space it's a multi-use space very flexible um you can hold uh many different events in this space and and we'll have to kind of figure out what the teachers we meeting with them in the next several weeks as we go through design development how are they going to utilize these these types of spaces uh the athletic areas so full uh court or full um competition gymnasium and then auxiliary gymnasium there's support spaces that we still need to get through design but it might be your weight room your training room those types of spaces all
068on the Upper Floor so again this is the second floor you'd walk in and you're up on the second floor of the gymnasium so you would come in on the track level which is surrounding the the gym and walk down into the bleachers so some of the athletic spaces that we've seen before your pool again uh we everyone knows the condition of the current pool this is going to be an upgraded pool kind of meeting the standards that the rest of your competing districts are are currently utilizing uh this would be kind of off to the side here parallel with your multi-purpose field again an image of what the pool could be we've talked about the bulkhead you know we'll we'll kind of go through the alternate process to figure out how large that is
069performing arts uh we've decided on a I believe a 450 uh capacity on the lower level with an additional 200 uh seats up on the upper level with a flexible uh balcony space uh so you have kind of a a a right sized uh Performing Arts area and then all of the uh music supporting music spaces are behind that uh Courtyard this is a big one so originally if we remember months ago we've we presented many different options and the district was very adamant about providing a courtyard design so what that allows us to do is to create these Amazing Outdoor Learning spaces these teaching areas outside that are not uh you know part of the square footage of the building so you're getting additional space that you could use for instruction in those areas
070it's also allowing us to reduce the amount of circulation in the building talked about this the sprawling uh footprint of this current building and getting from one point to the other point I believe it's seven or eight minutes right so with this Arrangement and kind of the circular pattern we're going to reduce the the student circulation time significantly and the fact that they're only going up or down one floor just to get to their classes is really going to improve things uh We've also allowed this the the courtyard to be a circulation path so if someone wants to go from the the commons all the way to their class over on this uh side of the building they can easily just walk outside walk down a ramp or a set of stairs down to that
071lower floor and get into the building there so we're trying to use the courtyard to our benefit it allows a lot of natural light it's secure there's a lot of benefits to to this type of design academic Wing so this is the three-story part uh we currently have it as a a a a dual-sided corridor with uh learning spaces in the center uh kind of like what you have seen at uh like the upper Maran um flexible learning spaces right-sized classrooms a lot of your classrooms right now are pretty small for a lot of your students um so we're going to right siize those classrooms make them flexible um and then all of the Open Spaces in the center are additional collaboration spaces so large groups small groups individual learning you're going to really utilize
072a lot of the space in the center core in between the classrooms there uh to your benefit some of the other uh options for some of those student work areas lower level uh you can see this piece is where the three story is so we're trying to really bring the teched and Arch spaces down to that lower level uh the thought is that you're going to be bringing in heavy equipment and utilizing different materials that need to be accessed from that lower floor and then you can open up a garage door and have projects out in the courtyard so again really utilize that courtyard for additional space to teach to work to uh develop activities um and then you can see what I mentioned the gym the main level of the gym is down at
073the lower Lev level of the building and that what I called uh the Warrior Way connects into a Lobby down here so students can go directly from the gym out of their locker room down that path to their fields some of the teched spaces that we mentioned here so um again this is the piece that's going to seem like it's real and seem like it's fully developed but it's not so just keep that in mind as we kind of walk our way through the building um this SK you a sense of the scale of the building uh this is coming down creal Mill and then you'd enter right to the right of that softball field um this would be the approach that any of your visitors and your uh parents would be coming down um
074the auditorium is the space on the left this is your main entrance your Commons area and then the spaces on the right the the building Administration and the District administration over there and we'll kind of take a a tour through um we have not developed any of the Interiors yet we really need to talk to uh a lot of the Educators about those spaces but this is kind of a general sense um from a taste test that we've done to kind of get a sense for what the building might look like um so over here this is the District administration entrance this would be that bus drop off area and entrance into the gymnasium and then we're kind of swinging around the pool over towards the existing multi-purpose field um those spaces right next to
075the pool are some of the other athletic spaces so you have your auxiliary gym uh your training spaces and then you get over to some of the the academic spaces as we get down uh towards this three-story piece um again a lot of the lower levels they might need access in and out um for some of the teched spaces uh you can see how this is all proceeding down through this uh the loop around the site um this is the the three-story wing there are stairwells to allow egress in and out and then we're going to take a quick peek of what the courtyard might look like uh this is just an architect's uh attempt to make it look like uh something usable here so a lot of opportunities for development but uh you can
076see that there's a lot of great things that could happen in your courtyard uh from learning areas to circulation paths to um you know all the natural light that comes in you're also looking at the very top of the hill there that's your uh cafeteria Commons so you have the ability to bring people out and have some outdoor dining space at the same time uh and this I believe will end our video so I will take questions yeah [Music] thank you very much what we'll do is start taking anyone anyone have questions to the left of me or comments Mr I do want to say thank you um one of my earlier questions was in reference to teacher input but I think you mentioned that at the end so is that happening only at the
077design phase so uh thank you for that question we uh are meeting with uh Dr yuker and some of her staff next week so that's still in the schematic phase and and that's really to to make sure we have all the spaces in the right locations as far as the floor plan goes once we get a little bit further and we get into design development which is the next uh phase that's when we start to meet with the individual groups and start to kind of plan each of their spaces individually but right now we're just looking for uh kind of a confirmation that we have all of the classrooms in the right locations where does science need to be next to in order to function properly those types of of spaces perfect and I just
078know that we've talked about teacher input being really um critical and so I do appreciate that I had a question when we looked at um when we talked about the parking and then the number of parking we'll have on site um available I think something do we know the capacity of parking at the church currently I don't know and is that like with the capacity of the church do that put us at a good number still I just want to because we do have a significant number of students that park there or use that lot yeah so that I don't know the number at the church 50 Okay so 50 spots at the church but the intent is to bring everybody off of the church parking so that 877 allows for all of your parking
079for student staff visitors on site without needing anything off site so I think there's even you know an extra 20 or so spaces beyond what the the true number is that the district needs which is wonderful that's what I was hoping to hear um and then in reference to the zoning um meeting next week well no this week right Thursday um you talked about a lot of I think it seemed like we're asking for a lot of um exceptions if you want to call it a conditional use do you think the list we have is typical of what we expect yeah so the zoning uh the zoning hearing board will have to kind of get a feel for what they're they're looking for here but this is not a typical of a project this size
080to ask for this many variances um now we could start to say if we're not going to make this variance then we have to find a way to to get around that but I think the ones that we've identified are ones that are fairly common in projects of educational uh size like this so I'm not too surprised at what we have on our list at the moment perfect and I just have one more in reference to the and I guess it's also under the township for the development I found it interesting where we had on there for the development will say confirm the width of existing roads now is that so they're requiring us to confirm the width or is that something the township is looking to do so I don't think um our Engineers
081had anything on their plans as far as the existing widths goes but uh there is an a requirement in the township for a certain width so we just need to go through measure those make sure that those are compliant to their um their requirements I don't know too much about that but our civil engineer can get you more information all right thank you sure any questions to the right Mr mki uh this has to do with the cost estimate sheet I'll I'll pass it off to Josh then so the uh building costs you have estimated here uh when when were those what when were those done or when were those taken is that current cost estimates is that it it is so um as I mentioned uh in the update we previously had that range
082um which essentially was a certain Square uh cost per square foot estimate for typical you know public high schools between about 370 and 400 in today's dollars so um we're you know targeting somewhere in the middle of that range and we really just want to uh find that Target focus in on it so that we um have more clear picture of what is our ultimate goal here what's our ultimate dollar amount okay uh second question this escalation um amount that you have estimated here is do you still feel that's an accurate or well a realistic number given the current economic conditions that's a great question um we we continue to hear some questions concerns regarding tariffs regarding ongoing supply chain issues um at this point this is still our best estimate of what those escalation
083factors may be um really a key I think is uh if we can continue the process and be efficient with the design and getting through uh the township and and the County Conservation District whatever we can do to um combat any escalation is really going to be key with getting this project on budget and under budget but you can't really walk in the hard cost particularly the materials cost until you start construction that's right so the escalation we factor to about midpoint of construction at that point typically the contractors have secured all their materials um they should be stored on site at that point we do encourage contractors um we typically allow and it's ultimately the district or the owner's uh preference but we do allow for stored materials so in other words as soon
084as the contractors have their agreements in place have their contracts if there are lead time items let's get them approved get them secured we'll pay for stored material and that really again will help to um offset those escalation costs but at this point it's an estimate of course understand but key point you made is that you're you're targeting like a midpoint from those for those estimates yes for that purpose so okay I do have another question that was uh concerning the roads this is switch switch mics so so just a clarification the township is questioning the width of the roads the public access roads not the roads we're constructing on the site correct that's a confirmation of the widths I don't know that they're questioning the width but they just want us to conf confirming
085because we didn't have it in our correct okay correct thank you Miss Clary uh thank you for the presentation my questions are for Josh oh great [Music] um Josh the cost estimate that Mr Mery was just talking about so if I understood correctly uh at the March work session you're going to have a more detailed cost estimate for us we will so I I don't anticipate these numbers changing drastically we will have some more um detailed breakdowns of what's included in those numbers okay because that was my next question so things like like one of the pictures that we saw uh in the architect's rendering was the pool and the bulkhead and I know there's a you know there's a cost to the bulkhead so are are those types of costs whether it's a bulkhead
086or it's the materials or it's the furniture is any of that included in the 2113 million oh certainly so I mean what what we can include and as part of the schematic design process Shader group has provided what we call outline specs so it's not the final set of specifications but it's a listing of here are the types of systems here are the uh General Finishes that we are including in this schematic design um these are the types of things that have been vetted through uh Mr Kenwood in some cases if it relates to HVAC equipment or lighting equipment um so we do have a pretty good idea of what the system types will be um there's going to be an entire value Engineering Process that will really scrutinize those types of topics is there
087a more efficient system is there another way of accomplishing the framing system that might be more efficient that might save some costs at this point um we certainly do have included finishes we have included Furniture we have included all types of everything that's included in the building some of the things that you might be thinking of whether it's a bulkhead or what if we would switch this type of floor for that type of floor we can identif if y as alternate bid items and we can come up with a separate list of items um including a bulkhead whether it's an ad alternate or a deduct alternate we do have a list started of what those individual ads or deducts might look like so we can provide that if it's not included if we say we
088we assumed or we know that this is the system that's included in our estimate there's an alternate bid or an alternate cost we can put on the side and say if you consider this as an add deduct here's the potential savings or ad that you might be up against are we going to see that in March meaning um if the number is 213 and you're going to give us more detail and you're telling me that some of the you know the for the most part the finishes and the and the basic furniture and all of that is included are we going to be able to see in March how much this could actually go to if the ultimate not the ultimate cost because I I understand this is a process right through construction as you
089as you fine-tune the costs but we going to have a number from you guys of of what those additional costs could look like well a lot of times Alternet really are more defined throughout the construction documents and moving into the bidding phase it's uh you know we can take we we can take a best estimate of what are the types of things that typically we look at alternates a big one for example is Roofing roofing materials whether it's a builtup roof or whether it's a single ply membrane there's a huge cost difference between the two um those are the types of things that we can identify whether it's Roofing or floor finishes or if you want a bulkhead or not if if we don't know collectively what your total scope of alternates are um it's
090going to be difficult for us to identify all of that upfront I guess my my question is is the general scope is the general program still in question because if there are large swings related to square footage or athletic amenities or site improvements we would need to know that now in order to identify what's what's an alternate okay and I didn't mean to uh pick on the bulkhead it was just it stuck out to me because it was in the architectural desire sure no we've definitely talked about that as being a potential alternate that's a perfect example of something that doesn't drastically change the rest of the building it's easy to um kind of single that out and make that an alternate okay and then the other question I had was um actually on the
091on the timeline but I still think that the design timeline but I think this still might be a question for Josh but maybe not um when we when we vote at in March um on whether we're moving to the next phase do are are we going to know that cost in do you have the cost that you could share with us in March um what it would cost us to go through that next phase that make sense we can certainly prepare that I believe Deon we did that for the schematic um process and I think we actually had targeted a design development we can go back and make sure that those numbers are are still accurate okay thank you sure I apologize and M graph thank you for the presentation um just to follow up
092from Miss clar's comment on the um timeline it might be helpful for us to have a breakdown of how much cost is in the schematic design phase how much spend is in the design development phase how much and sort of see that laid out in some way and I don't know what the easiest way to do that is but I kind of think of it as the the Board needs to get their hands around um moving to the next phase is a is a cost impact of X and then when we get to you know bid documents it's something else and you sort of can see what that spend looks like over time especially in consideration of pfm coming back to us and talking about the borrowing piece of all of the project it'd be
093nice to have those two things match up absolutely now like I said I think we were tasked with that moving into even schematic design we can update that I believe for schematic design we had actually prepared a um cash flow analysis or or a draw schedule so to speak um that we can refine again as part of this March 18th update right um and then the other thing I heard you mention value engineering so can you tell us a little bit about um what that process looks like who participates when does that happen and what's the objective or outcome sure uh so value engineering um is not cost cutting it's an exercise where we are looking for opportunities for efficiency savings whether it's during construction or considering alternate ways of um constructing the building is
094is there a framing system that's more efficient that will save time on site um collectively it's with a group of Administrators typically it's with the entire design team and their Consultants um who chooses or is um is chosen to be in that group from the district certainly is is the is your decision but typically you know it's the end users um it's the design team and it's really throwing ideas up that have we truly vetted every possible scenario that we can either do things more efficiently or save money um it could be considering an alternate HVAC system it's looking at life cycle costs not just first costs so um it's a pretty lengthy process that will begin actually in just a few weeks assuming that we are moving into the design development portion so that
095we still have time to make adjustments before we get to the ACT 34 hearing or into the construction documents phase um so it's very collaborative um it's going to be about a two-month or so process um initially and it's something that that doesn't just end once we're done with that study we will be continually looking for ways uh to reconsider doing things well to the other point about um escalation and you know possibly tariffs are there are there impacts that we can't see today that maybe will come three or four months that we don't know about and we're g to have to maybe look at doing things a little bit differently so it will be an ongoing process uh but it will be starting up in just a few weeks and um from the value
096engineering perspective can Will cha bring to the table experiences from other projects that are similar to this that are either ongoing or completed or kicking off where they're doing their value engineering assessments and coming up with Alternatives or approaches that we may want to consider uh certainly in fact we're in the process right now preparing for that kickoff meeting of uh pulling information pulling results from some of the recent larger projects uh so that we can come to you with a A list that we've already thought of that again we can vet through Devon and his design team and to make sure it makes sense with the district and your goals and your program delivery um but yes we we can certainly provide other examples and you mentioned program delivery and that's kind of where
097I think I'm I'm sort of going with this is um when you bring that list forward I think that there could be an opportunity there to really dig into some of our educational programming approach and discuss with our teachers and our administrators how the methacton approach to teaching and education in the building actually could be improved by certain value engineering components and whether that's um having collaborative spaces or whether that's the way we outfit our Labs or the way we design our large group instruction spaces whatever that is it could be lots of things um I just wonder if there's an opportunity there to have smaller groups where you could talk more specifically about the kinds of things that would impact the day-to-day function of the building and the teaching spaces with our teachers we
098can certainly do that um we just don't want to step on toes or come in with um examples from other districts maybe where it was successful but for some reason or another it may not be a fit for methacton so again we can certainly come with other experiences other examples but really being a collaborative effort I think we really need that input from the administrators from the teachers to say yeah that makes sense or no let's let's let's cross this one off the list yeah and I guess I'm just thinking about it in in a big meeting with lots of um people who do construction and Engineering all time teachers may not necessarily have the same sort of comfort to have those conversations as they might in a smaller group where you're having those conversations
099with the teachers right they're the primary components of that discussion and I would just I would just encourage the administration to really take the time to bring the right people to the table for those conversations and make sure that we're getting feedback from our teachers and the people who are in the buildings dayto day to make sure we're getting to a solution that works for everyone not just the best engineered solution but also the functionality certainly and and if requested we can provide any of those uh value engineering ve updates you know in this setting um just so everybody stays on the same page that we know we're not making decisions behind the scenes without full input or for full education of of the board and the administration yeah that would be great um and
100the other question I had was when you're talking about alternates so next week you're going to come to us with a a bit more detail around the cost estimates and I'm just wondering if that's an opportunity for the for an identification of what should be or could be an alternate if the board so desired to put some things into an alternate bucket um things that come to mind are uh the Fieldhouse the district admin again the bulkhead had come up before so I'm just wondering if is there an opportunity in the discussions next week when you bring us a more detailed cost estimate for the board to identify anything we see as potentially we would want to put it into an alternate option you know to option including it I guess is how I want
101to certainly if I mean if we know ahead of time what are the kind of main focal points that you're considering we can come prepared with that information or those separate breakout cost estimates um I I yeah I just want to make sure that kind of as I mentioned about scope you know if we're suddenly considering cutting 10,000 square feet of program or something that you're not hitting that right I suggesting that we would want you to present it to us next week or next month what I'm suggesting is after you present to us the costs and everyone gets a better sense of what the costs look like and how it breaks down and we say well if we we didn't do blah blah blah it would save you know maybe it would save us
102some money the question may come up to you that what if we didn't didn't install a Fieldhouse what's the impact right you then could go back and do an assessment and come back to us the following month with that updated cost estimate of says here's the tradeoff I'm just wondering if that's part of the process I think we can provide those updates again in whatever venue you think is appropriate whether it's in the value engineering breakout meetings whether it's in these monthly meetings we can certainly provide those updates along the way yeah I mean I'm just thinking there may be lots of ideas from the board in ways we could potentially um be cost efficient and still get to you know the opportunity to do a project that works well for the district but also
103considers that board members may have all kinds of crazy ideas that we should consider or suggestions on how to improve costs or make it more cost- effective going forward so next week would be an opportunity to have that conversation sounds like that can start next week sure and then moving it into the value engineering piece would be the other place okay thanks um I just wanted to to kind of go off of that I I mean I definitely understand what we're doing but I do think I appreciate you coming in with the 213 knowing that we are going into the borrowing scenario so we're what I do appreciate through this design is that you've taken every input that you've done through the community meetings that we've done for the past year and a half you've
104done the tours that we've done 10 tours plus you've took all the feedback that we've had in the different meetings so I do appreciate from the Shader group end that you blended it in this presentation tonight the auditorium highlighting the bringing the parking into space like those different scenarios that I really like that you put just like the picture of the glimpses of what we've seen so I do really appreciate you blending that and so with that being said I do like that we are now at a number that we can all kind of wrap our head around that if it's all of these things that we want are in this program we're at 213 so we're going to now see the borrowing for next at our next meeting at the work session and then
105what the scenario is for us going forward um it's in the development design that I'm we are going to do the breakouts of and talk more is that clear like we're not going to have any of this break outs of the bulkheads and this and that before that we're going to do it in the development design well again if you can give us a list if there are specific things you guys are looking for sooner than later of can you identify a cost for this specific scope we can we can come prepared with that yeah no I no I'm I'm to myself I'm very satisfied with the design of what we see and the programming that we have in this right now so for me I think I really appreciate what you've done so just
106thank you yeah Miss Aon um I do have a couple questions thank you for the presentation so my first question is about um and maybe it's a premature interior detail because but but I do want to voice it because it's been a significant issue here in this current school but will there be handicap accessible ramps all through out is that the plan to have them I know you're coming in on the second floor going up to the third going down to the first is that handicapp the short answer is yes and I will let Devon explain uh further than that well so we don't currently have the ramps that are going up and down but we have several elevators around the building um if a ramp is something that the district really wants to to
107make happen there might be a way but it takes up a lot of length to get from a a floor up to another floor so if you saw what happened in the courtyard I mean that's like 200 and some feet just to get down to the the lower level so if that is truly something that you're really focused on it's going to add some cost but it it's something that we can incorporate um I I would encourage you just to to to think about elevators versus other areas and and ramps if it's really uh that much of a benefit but it's a great point it's something that we struggle with on on all these projects yeah and I know I know that's the best practice for the accessibility so I I just wanted to voice
108that um and then my other question when we're talking about efficiencies is there is there a path towards um looking at something Innovative in terms of Energy Efficiency of of the building so that's a great question as well um something that we Shader group strives for is designing sustainably without going towards the lead certification stuff so our buildings are very energy efficient uh with our engineering Partners as well um if you desire something above and beyond that say solar panels or something like that that's a perfect thing to ident ify in the value engineering exercise and then we provide that as an alternate that you can see the numbers on bidday we've done that on several different projects Mr msky so to uh alternates that I would um suggest that we have included for March
109are the uh bulkhead for the pole and the uh I guess we're calling game house or the the Fieldhouse at the football field they should be broken out so we know what what component cost they are in the I don't think the the current design doesn't include the bulkhead correct current design does not have a bulkhead but it does include the Fieldhouse correct and just just to clarify the Fieldhouse has program in it that is necessary for the high school so that program would then have to shift into the high school I think we discussed that before but I don't I mean I I don't know if there were any other items that uh we think should be broken out for the March meeting but I think those two would be useful I think the
110best exercise to this is uh we we've listed several in in the past I'll I'll have those available uh to to the board to make sure that any of those from the the previous list of of potential alternates and and things we need to make decisions on uh are before you so that you can get that information to me in advance which includes things like the District administration the bulkhead stuff like that just one other comment I me the the reality is that LE roughly 60% of the cost is construction cost and that's really the only component of this total cost that we can affect by changing the design of the building right so if we think we're going to shave 20% off the cost you don't you're not going to build a new building
111right you're you're talking about trimming around the edges to to meet a number that's the reality okay any other comments seean thank you very much thank you all we will now move to reports the committee reports are attached from the mciu this month Miss Purdue um just briefly the mciu is actually meeting tomorrow February 26 so I'll provide an update um from that meeting next month but as I wasn't here in January I just wanted to highlight four items from the January mciu meeting the first is that um the mciu office of Technology provided um an interesting presentation on Statewide consort Consortium that they're looking for to use for secure email Gateway and I believe it's um a security product that um will filter and block suspicious emails before they even reach the recipients inbox
112so they're looking to provide that a Statewide level and I'm interested to hear more and how they plan to roll that out so more to come on that the next item from the mciu is that they they've now have a university partnership with St Joe's um and I think they're offering 20% discount to um anyone and Educators so I thought that was an interesting one to share the third item is something that they just launched this um January actually which is voices for education and it's a student advocacy group for grades 9 through 12 so at the high school level where it's really set up to help students learn about leadership and help them make changes in their schools in their community so I thought that was an interesting one they had a meeting also
113in January I don't know if the meetings will be monthly or how they have that set up but it's I'm curious to see how far that going in um I'm not sure if M participated but I think they're looking to have all students in the Montgomery County participate and then last I believe they also have in March March 3rd there's the annual diversity job fair that they'll have their host I believe information is on their website so if anyone is interested you can look into it just to a little bit more information on it thank you thank you very much from North moner Tech Miss Alon Mr mki yes um we met on February 19th and we went over an audit report um that was presented we did uh receive a clean audit and um
114there is a motion there's going to be a motion next month to approve appr that audit report um we also reviews reviewed the draft budget for next school year um with a proposed 3.79% um increase to the sending districts um we also uh we have a capacity ad hoc committee um where uh representes from each of the sending school districts are meeting monthly to review how we can best serve our students given the weight lists we have and the popularity of some of the programs um and then finally we went over um the skills USA winners um from the different districts and there was a lot of winners this year um the first place winners including um one Elijah Purdue is going to be going to the state skills competition in Hershey in early April
115so that's my report thank you than you very much now from our high school board representative Victoria fan um hi my name is Victoria fan and I will be presenting the student representative report this evening so just to go through some events that have been happening at the high school the senior banquet took place on February 13th at Normy Farms from 6:00 to 9:30 p.m. and featured senior superlatives and lots of dancing and food which was a lot of fun the mini thaon nothing bun cake sale ran from January 27th to February 10th with cake pickup being on February 24th and all pre proceeds are going to minithon the academic de cathon team has advanced to States for I believe the sixth year in a row and there were four students who achieved perfect scores
116on the math section at regionals um all four coming from mton Jeffrey fan Dylan Wen aan Lee and Micah Abraham as well as Jeffrey fan and Caitlyn McKenna um being named to the eastern regional all tournament team the annual FCCLA Valentine's Carnation sale ran from February 3rd to February 7th Juniors and seniors in gym class had self-defense class taught from Von dojang um from January 27th to January 30th and as for Sports in the pack swimming Championship Jason fan was named the pack diving champion and other notal finishes included the second place 400 meter freestyle relays for guys and girls who will um have taken on districts this week um as for basketball the boys and girls teams both entered the 6A District playoffs and the boys are at um playbacks tonight so hopefully they're
117doing well right now um the theater company has been preparing for their spring musical Guys and Dolls which will take place the nights from February 27th to March 1st and tickets are now available on Hometown ticking and the theater company has also started up pretzel Tuesdays in the lobby after school um the 11th Tri County High School exhibition will showcase eight students artwork on display from February 11th to March 7th um we've also had pmea festivals which are Pennsylvania music music educators Association festivals um mid-march will be the chorus Festival last weekend we had the orchestra Festival as well um the School blood drive is scheduled for March 5 4th and then $20 tickets for spring formal on March 14th are available for freshman and sophomores on Hometown ticketing starting now course scheduling for next
118year has also begun as counselors have been visiting 9th 10th and 11th grade classes and by the beginning of March all course requests are expected to be completed and that's all I have thank you great thank you so much seemed very busy so with that you're more than welcome to excuse yourself and have a good evening thank you you well thank you the foundation update miss pergolini all right there it goes I mean I'm not very tall so it's not a big deal um hi hello everyone 5 foot one over here um I'm thrilled to announce that are upcoming dodgeball tournament on March 16th is sold out we are expecting over 375 participants in 50 teams all proceeds from this event help us raise money to support in Innovative grants and from events like this
119we were able to fund over $150,000 already this school year these grants support Technology and Engineering upgrades at the high school we provided a new planner for ar ar cola's tech ed program we're also investing in Sky View's Outdoor Ed program provided 3D printers for elementary maker spaces robotics kid kits for the high school professional development for language teachers and science fair participation plus some continued support of other programs so thank you to all our donors who making this possible the spring Grant cycle is open for any staff and teachers who would like to apply for a grant also the MAF board of directors is pleased to welcome its newest member Jake Wolfman an 2013 graduate of mton high school Jake currently works as a wealth adviser for sensitin Capital we're we're really excited to
120have a L young alumni on board and lastly we look forward to seeing all of you on March 16th so if you're not playing we could definitely use more volunteers great fantastic thank you for all that you do with us and partnering with us we appreciate everything you guys have a team we didn't apparently we just found out we didn't sign up in time exceptions made we've um I'm a lot of us are volunteering we will definitely show up volunteering I am shocked we were we were planning a team so I'm sorry we'll be there to cheer people on all right so then I guess we'll move to Communications Mrs throwback good evening the finina fireballers will be at the dodgeball tournament I am the team manager so just giving them a little shout out
121as far as our website redesign goes I just want to give you an update on that our team has been working with final site to redesign the homepage and the individual Pages as part of this next phase we're going to be going out to different schools and programs and classes getting some photos to add to our website to make it more engaging and build those emotional connections um we hope to have a preview of The District site to share with our website advisory committee sometime in the next month in March our launch is still on on track for May registration is going to open next month for our summer Community Education programs I'm excited to announce that in addition to the return of Firebird theater Warriors basketball camp and kids games we're now offering shining
122nights chess snapology science explorers camps also registration for little warrior swim lessons opens March 22nd for our spring classes and that registration link is available on our website and I'd like to share some upcoming events um the blood drive was mentioned again that is Tuesday March 4th at the high school gym between 2:30 and 7:30 all donors get a free A1C test to screen for diabetes and pre-diabetes so come on out to that and then save the date for our International Fair that's going to be April 11th at the high school we're currently looking for presenters and Booth exhibitors to Showcase their Heritage country culture religion race through food Music Arts and more if anyone is interested in signing up for signing up for that please visit our website there's a link on our homepage
123and that concludes my report thank you great thank you so much I'm excited for the website and definitely for the bringing back the International Fair I'm super excited very popular years ago so thank you for doing that all right and next the superintendent report Dr Zerby thank you Madame President um and the write the no report for this month um or for the month of January you can see that there's 10 new requests for a total of 49 year to date U the the expense for January was approximately $18,000 and the total for the year to date is about $171,000 uh there are list of advisements uh to on the on the agenda and based on the conversation that we had uh last week um we would like uh Miss Stephy our director of financial
124services to come forward uh there is a handout on a budget update for you we'll be posting it on the screen then posting it up the district website Miss stepy I will now provide the board with a budget update highlighting the changes made since the preliminary budget was presented in January could you advance the slide James thank you thank you first we will take a look at expenditures total expenditures in the preliminary budget were 139 m841 158 since then Productions have been made in the following categories salaries salaries have been reduced by $178,900 have been reduced by $446,000 for two reasons approximately $61,000 of the paser savings is result from the salary reductions mentioned above an additional $385,000 in savings is due to the final paser rate of 34% compared to the projected rate of
12534.723061 been reduced as a direct result of the salary reductions mentioned above healthc care the bucksmont conser first look projected a 7.7% rate increase which was used in the preliminary budget however the second look came in at 6% resulting in a reduction of approximately $191,000 the total change in expenditures is a reduction of $23 now I'll flip over to revenues total revenues including fund balance and the special at exception totaled 139 m84 1058 as presented in the preliminary budget this included the use of fund balance and the special education exception as noted special education exception 99787 $70 use of fund balance $1,932 74 four adjustments have been made to revenue figures basic education subsidy was increased by $2,152 based on the governor's preliminary budget special education subsidy was adjusted by $75,600 based on the governor's
126preliminary budget FICA and peer's um adjustments were made to reflect the reduced expenditures total net change resulting from decrease in both revenues and expenditures is $784,900 to meet the Act One index limit without the use of fund balance or the special education exception we will still need to identify $1.3 million in additional adjustments these adjustments will be further discussed in upcoming Finance meetings and work sessions as we refine the budget leading up to final approval next slide please thank you uh budget timeline and key dates this slide outlines key dates leading up to final budget approval at the May 27th regular voting meeting I'm going to highlight a few in March budget updates will be presented at both the finance committee meeting and the board work session in April the proposed final budget will be
127reviewed by the finance committee and presented at the April 22nd Work session in May the draft final budget will be presented at the May finance committee and Bo work sessions the final budget will be presented to the board for approval at the May 27th regular meeting open matters tax revenue tax revenue adjustments will continue as mon ly assessment reports are received Staffing review is ongoing Charter Schools Charter adjustments will be made based on enrollment Trends and tuition costs in the governor's budget North monco technical career center budget is currently budgeted at 4 a 4% increase and final um figures will be presented to us in March workers compensation budget figures are expected next week Healthcare the third and final look for healthcare will be received in April um and may updates will include final figures
128for next year's technology lease agreements and Commercial insurances that concludes my budget update thank you any questions or comments yes Miss graph okay so I I just want to make sure I I understand this correctly um um on the first slide here uh there's a reduction in salary of $17,995 how many positions is that so that is not it's not a specific to positions so that is accounting for retirements and then that's also counting for filled vacancies like when we budget a vacancy for a teacher we budget it at Masters plus 5 and in some instances the teacher will come in at a rate less than that so how how many positions are included in that calculation is there is it like five positions is it like two positions is it like 20 positions I
129can get it for you but it's a bunch yeah it is a bunch okay um and so I I think what I am concerned about is when I look at the last slide and I see the open matters everything in March are things are outside the district's control assessments we don't control that Charter School adjustments you said are based on government requ you know State set information uh the north Monaco Technical Center is based on their assessment correct we don't have any control over that workman's comp is you know an updated number that comes to us along with everything else correct the only thing in that list that it appears that we have any control over would be the Staffing changes and you've already accounted for them and they only amount they amount to less
130than $200,000 is that accurate No Okay so that there are other staff changes that we are reviewing at the moment those do not include positions like the Staffing changes mentions are the reductions for retirement the reductions for filled vacancies that were budgeted at a higher cost but those are no specific positions so if there's Staffing changes in April are we looking at is that Staffing changes for retirement similar to what we did in March so there will be some staffing changes due to retirements but the retirements have already been accounted for okay so can you tell me what the Staffing changes are in March that we're going to be seeing I will refer to Dr Zerby on that we're going to be bringing the Staffing changes uh to the board in March we're still working
131through the final list of those okay um and is there anything else that you're working on that is in the district's control in April or May because the only thing I can see on the list is the Staffing changes there's about 17 different things that we're actually working on which you also don't see in here is uh the uh the review of a special education program so in the future when you do this presentation can we add those things into this list so we as a board have an expectation of when we're going to see maybe like the update on a specific program or maybe when we're going to see an update on you know the spend on a specific thing so we can sort of know how to educate ourselves about what we're doing
132there so we can be prepared that would be really helpful thank you absolutely any other questions yes Miss Purdue thank you um for providing the update I also had a question reference to the um the staff and mainly the salary reduction so I think it'll be important to know exactly for me at least the number of positions and it seemed like it's something that we can't have but I'm thinking if it's retirement we know if it's just one retirement that's included in there too whatever that is the field vacancies may be not as clean but I I do agree I think that information is helpful for us and I also will appreciate having a little bit more information um or visibility to the things that we are considering because I think we have a huge
133number that we're trying to get to um and it'll be great for us to have that visibility to see those line items and how that will help us get to a number in May right so as we're doing that I know in the past we've done it where and maybe this is early but we've done it where we're able to see how some of those changes that we're looking of like I think Dr Zerby said we have 17 line items but how that will impact the final budget so I think that will be great to have um that visibility um to it and I only have one question in reference to the timelines that you provided and mainly I I think it makes sense you're going to present that Finance um those Finance meetings but
134in reference to I don't even know how so special education structure and planning update at at committee we don't really talk about financial cost I mean maybe we we do with certain things that we bring to at committee we will indicate the finance aspect and and then that will go to Ed committee is that why that is listed on here believe I believe it's list on there because the education Comm committee would consider the education components of any changes that would be uh you know brought forward and then once those are okay then they would be able to go to finance for uh and and the rest of the board for their consideration as part of the budget process yes if there's an add or subtract in terms of the cost okay so that's what
135I'm asking so I'm thinking based on the fact that at committee is on here we're expecting to see something at committee that maybe we will move to finance that's why I was asking maybe it's too early we'll we'll have the meeting but I just was trying to gauge for why that's specifically on the timeline and and again some of these things may change based on our ability to be prepared on time for for different uh parts of this timeline but this is generally the the framework for which we want to operate in okay and then in reference to the regular meeting um and then um the board work session you also providing what update would you be providing in March to the board that's different different from the regular meeting the voting meeting I just
136wasn't sure of what because there's a decision point so I'm just trying to figure out exactly and I I I maybe I have an understanding of what to expect on the March 18th meeting I'm not sure what we will receive as the um 25th so you the um it it will probably be the the same so the regular voting meeting there probably won't be an update from the 18th at the work session I'll present an update a March update so we'll first be presented at the finance committee um then we'll discuss any uh changes that need to be made and then it will be presented to the whole board the entire board on March 18th not for a vote just as as a budget update so nothing will happen happen on March 25th in terms
137of myself giving you a budget update okay so the meeting the presentation will be on the 18th and then maybe on the the next meeting we'll just have an update similar to this correct perfect that makes sense to me thank you any other comments or questions right see none thank you very much with that concluding that we will move to public comment on board action items the board will now take comments and board action items this is an opport continue for residents to comment on matters that are to be decided upon as outlined on the agenda 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 on board action items hi my name is Susan
138Fitzpatrick and I have two children at you're just going to name also your municipality so Lower Providence or war sester war sester thank you and I have two children at War sester Elementary I'd like to raise concerns I have with how days off of school are determined and the scheduling of the school calendar as a full-time working parent in the elementary schools there are 33 scheduled days off of school I'm not asking for that number to change but I am asking you to take a sharper look at when these days off are scheduled as you can sure as I'm sure you all empathize Child Care is the single most challenging logistical hurdle that working parents have to manage nothing reeks havoc on a parent schedule more than a single day off or an early dismissal
139near large groupings of days off and from a child care perspective an early dismissal is the same as a day off I cannot go into the office on an early dismissal day since the school day is only about four hours here are a few real examples from the methacton calendar to illustrate my point in 2024 there was no school March 27th through April 2nd 5 days off around a weekend and then there was an early dismissal that week on the 5th in November 2024 students were off the 27th 28th and 29th and then had an early dismissal that following Thursday coming up in May this year there is no school on Tuesday May 20th and then no school again that Friday the 23rd before the Memorial Day long weekend these are just examples of scheduled
140time off as you know this month we faced fit snow days that were followed by February 14th 17th and 18th onth I know you can't control the weather but here are some suggestions to help manage the scheduling challenges share the proposed school calendar in advance with a group of working parents for their review and feedback they will be able to highlight potential complications like the ones I flaged my second suggestion is around parent teacher conferences in the elementary school there are three days off during the school year to allow for these conferences we cannot bring our child to the meeting but we cannot be home with our kids at the same time could there be some arrangement made in the school like a few high school students in need of community service hours stationed in
141the gym so we can leave our kids supervised for that 15minute conference and my third request is around FID days can you please make publicly available the crit IA for calling a FID day or delayed opening my school principal told me quote bus stops being clear and the condition of the parking lot and sidewalks at school business at school buildings were determining factors these factors are incredibly subjective and hard to plan if we're able to have a clear understanding of what would determine a FID day it helps us anticipate it in advance and finally I ask that the calendar posted as approved includes all the scheduled days off and early dismissals last June there were early dismiss missil for the elementary schools on June 7th 10th and 11th those dates were not on the approved
142calendar when I inquired with the school principal why those dates were not on the calendar she responded quote historically these early dismissals occur each year during the last four days of school I have been in the district for 17 years and it has always been this way well I have not been in the district for 17 years to have that historical context I like other families in this District sorry we have three minutes I apologize I hope you'll consider my suggestions I submitted a letter to the board earlier today with a lot more detail all right thank you very much anyone else for a public comment good evening my name is SEMA rord and I'm a resident of Lower Providence I have three children in the mton public school district and I appreciate the board
143um looking into and considering adding the Eid holidays as well as the Diwali holiday to the um school calendar and approving um giving all students off on that um on those days um uh I'm a member of the Muslim Community and I never had a chance to celebrate those publicly with everybody else in school and always had to you know tell the teachers and the principal kind of on the DL that like hey I'm going to be taking this time off um can I make make this school work up at at a later time um and it'll just you know mean mean so much to students to not have to do that and um it's a significantly I would say fairly large community um of South Asians for example uh in methacton uh my two
144daughters go to to Woodland Elementary School and I believe 30% of the students are of Asian descent primarily South Asian descent and my daughter in her classroom of 22 students last last year 11 of the students were of South Asian descent um and and most of them celebrated Eid and thali so um you know we're part of the community and um in my research I think mathon was one of the few uh school districts that actually did not put Eid on the calendar this year um yeah one of the few actually and so this is the right thing to do um it's a step forward and I thank you all for for your leadership and consideration thanks thank you very much anyone else for public comment on action items Brian eraw Lower Providence um the
145list of bills includes about 94,000 relating to the design of the new high school um I would like to see this project put on hold for um at Le least two if not more reasons one being the board and administration need needs to give a serious look at renovating the existing building which on initial estimates with no details behind it would be less than half the cost to building a new High School number two as I communicated back in October of 2024 the projections used to evaluate whether the district and the taxpayers could afford afford a new high school were severely flawed the starting point of those projections was the annual budget which has historically lacked accuracy in the last five years revenues expenses were were off $15.5 million the projection shared with the board
146and the public lacked details it was only one page in a presentation no one evaluated the validity of the assumptions used in the projections no sensitivity analyses were ever completed what if the plan if what's the plan if the required tax increases exceeded the Act One index and there was no effort to reduce operating costs the cost of this new high school is proposed to be borne entirely on the taxpayers in the form of higher taxes and adding debt service costs of $420 million and those projections were completed by someone with no Financial background when you look at those projections fast forward three months the projections showed that the the budget would Bal be balanced with a 4% tax increase for the coming school year the presentation provided by the administration in January showed there
1476 3% tax increase was needed it was off by 60% it's pretty steep so at a minimum these projections need to be worked and looked at in Greater detail and evaluated independently before you mortgage the future of this school district and layer and burden the taxpayers with $ 4220 million of debt service requirements so bottom line the project needs to be put on hold and it needs to be really looked at in detail not just one page also in the list of bills there are payments to a company called Direct Energy business is this related to an alternative energy supplier if so is it for gas or electric and if so have the contracts been reviewed recently to ensure that those rates being paid are less than the rates to compare provided by Pico and
148finally on the treasurers report somewhere um could you let me know why there is $40 million in a Univest money market account that pays interest at 50 basis points Less in other available accounts in the district PR sizeable interest loss of that money could be moved and two could you tell me the interest rates on the funds holding the 7.9 million in the capital projects and what the rates and terms are on the CDs 5.1 million of CDs associated with capital projects thank you thank you and anyone else for a public comment [Music] J war sester I'm going to talk about the same uh item that Mr eraw was talking about the $94,000 for schematic design don't pay it I wouldn't even put this project on hold I'd scrap it um and here's why um
149the presentation we saw said that the total cost for constructions 213 23, 385,000 that's not the total cost of this project the total cost is $450 million could be higher with the interest rates this entire project was based upon the work of Bureau veritos that's what your Architects are using right I explained to this board why you can't rely on Bureau Veritas reports the first report they presented to you said everything's fine then you had input and got it up to the point where you needed to destroy the school over their objections in an email that I've shown the entire board and you continue to move forward 450 million M grap there is no way you're going to make $450 million cost effective to Mr mery's point you around the edges this that you're never
150going to make it cost effective now a couple things in their presentation that are bothering me is that they're having meetings with teachers and with students what about us we're paying for it teachers and students who are going to benefit from a new school are going to talk to them but nobody wants to talk to taxpayers number two here's just another one right off the cuff they show us a picture up there of your new Auditorium of what they want to build capacity 460 you know what the capacity of your Auditorium now is about the same if you remember moving forward one of the reasons you wanted to build a new high school is because your Auditorium is too small and you can't get all the classes in there at the same time you're building
151the same size Auditorium it's one thing after another you guys want well some of you want a new school it's like a little baby wants you know hey feed me I mean it's ridiculous what's Happening Here is is a problem and maybe some Outside Agency needs to get involved thank you any other public comment on board action items Amy Smith War sester I just wanted to say thank you for the consideration of the calendar for next year I've been at multiple education committee meetings and have listened to the conversation Plus have heard from you know with talked with multiple board members uh about uh what it could look like for next year and I just really appreciate the diligence in thinking about the community as a whole and talking to the teachers and making sure
152that it's something that um can work for most people I appreciate too that that you're open to feedback about what that could look like and how it impacts families we've heard heard from someone tonight that that talks about that so I appreciate the board's willingness to um look at that and the challenges that come from all of the different uh religions and cultures that are represented in our district as well as people's work schedules so I want to I wanted to take a minute to thank you for that and I also wanted to say it's been a while since I heard anything uh got to see a presentation on the high school I I did participate in some of the community forums that you held over and over again so taxpayers could share their opinions
153on what could be or or what might be um and I just want to say as a parent in the district who has children who have I have one who's graduated already two in the high school now one coming up the Pike and I plan on God willingly living here for a long time I appreciate the discussion and the thoroughness in how you are evaluating and working towards some sort of discussion or decision on on what we need to do at the high school as someone who spends a decent amount of time in it I recognize that there's improvements that need to be made so thank you for your diligence thank you very much any other public comment on board action items uh hi my name is Albert vote from Worchester Township I have two
154children in the school district uh and I just want to say that I'm very concerned to see that the board is voting on a policy to endorse discrimination tonight um you voted to pass uh a policy in October uh to prevent discrimination and now you're voting to resin that and I don't see any reason why you would want to remove protections from children that need it so thank you any other public comment on board action items right seeing none right we will now move to board minute meetings may have a motion to approve the January 21st 2025 work session and January 28 2025 regular board meeting minutes as attached Miss Purdue I have a second Miss salston Miss yes Miss Clary sorry now that we've done that can I'd like to move to amend the
155motion to say um if we can um just to correct the some typos before we approve it with the corrected typos that need to get made Miss CLA just to be clear are you say suggesting that the board approve the minutes but subject to typos being corrected I am thank you sure and is there any objection to the motion uh that's before the board uh being the approval of the minutes subject to the correction of spelling typos or other non-substantive changes U hearing none you can certainly have that be the motion that is voted on thank you very much with that being said can I all those in favor all those opposed motion carries 9 to zero right we'll now move to fiscal item there are five fiscal items on the agenda tonight for approval
156there have been no changes since last week's meeting that concludes my report thank you may I have a motion to approve all fiscal items as presented Mr Winters may have a second Miss graph any comments or questions right seeing none all those in favor all those oppos motion carries nine to zero we'll now move on to Personnel thank you Madame President the Personnel items for the for this month include those presented last week at the work session as well as the following additions there is one resignation professional Jason Schultz health and physical education instructor at Sky View effective at the end of the school year after 24 years of dedicated service to the students of methacton the metha and family thanks Jason for his Dynamic instruction and we wish him well under employment classified please
157note that the student interns are are for a period that will conclude at the end of the school year that was asked at the work session last week and there was one addition Betty nasimo part-time office assistant at Eagleville we welcome Betty to the methacton family there is one Intermittent uncompensated Leave classified Kevin Paskowski information technology specialist at finina for the dates listed one uncompensated Le professional Stacy mcgaan special education education rather instructor at Scott Elementary for the dates listed supplemental contracts for spring coaches and one addition to the classified substitute list Mary Joe golden casual on call custodian we welcome back JoJo thank you great thank you very much may I have a motion to approve all Personnel items as presented Miss steel may have a second Miss Altin any comments or questions seeing
158none all those in favor all those opposed MO motion carries 9 to zero thank you next we'll move to curriculum and programs thank you Miss kro uh we have two items on curriculum and programs the first item is the approval for the 2528 meth and comprehensive plan document that needs to be on per 28 public review we will be voting on that in March um but it is the announcement that that is going to be on 28 public review the second one are two educational agreements that exist uh that read as follows approve the educational service agreement and release for student 34137 with special education language with special language and terms of the agreement drafted by the district solicitor and two approve the educational service agreement and release for student 271 447 with special language
159in terms of agreement drafted by the district solicitor thank you great thank you may I have a motion to approve all items listed under curriculums presented um it's not all items just item 11b as presented just 11b as presented okay sorry I apologize I have a motion to Pro proa may have a motion to approve 11b as presented on curriculum and Miss clear may have a second Miss graph thank you sorry about that tongue twister there any comments or questions right saying that all those in yes Miss steel yep I just want to make one quick comment and I know that it's going to be for approval in March um but I did just want to say I'm very um excited about the goal in the meth acting comprehensive plan that has 95% um proficiency
160by um for the measurable goal for grades through to 8 and 11 on state literacy um assessments and I just want to sing that goal because I think it's a brave goal and one that we can do and I just will say it over and over again shout from the rooftops thank you very much any other comments or questions seeing none all those in favor all those opposed motion carries nine to zero we now move on to policy thank you m kro um so we have three items for first read relatively few changes to those items specific to some formatting uh and one small edit to 702 um we did talk last week about 103A 104a and and sometimes I'd recognize we talk a lot about this but not everyone in the community or in
161the public hears all those conversations and I heard the gentleman at the microphone and I think it's important that that we addressed it we are absolutely not getting rid of our discrimination policy what it happened earlier this year is there was an injunction that created two separate policies by law that we had to follow in the school district with a new court ruling we have to eliminate one of those but it doesn't eliminate the protections for students at all um the the process for which we follow will be a little different which is what the policy change is but the definition of who is protected does not change and the policy it claims on the basis of sex as the protection and that is defined by sex assigned at Birth sexual orientation transgender identity gender
162transition gender identity Andor gender expression in the enforcement of Title 9 cases and the Pennsylvania human relations commission defines that and that has not changed as a furthermore I said last week we've actually never processed a 2024 case in District I have only processed 2020 cases because of the injunction so we won't notice a change at all so that's my update for the board thank you do uh do you have a question on and um can I just ask just for clarification what the current policy number is just in case someone wants to reference it to make sure the one where resending this one covers everything great question uh policy 103 is the title 9 discrimination harassment protection policy that protects students policy 104 is the policy that protects staff we had created a 103A
163and 104a because of the injunction that only was applicable at Arrowhead and Arcola because the injunction in the CA in the court case early on I believe was in Kentucky and I was on policy when that we had to make those changes and I I know I said was going to be a nightmare to have to like figure out which one to reference because you had a policy and then you had a subset of I don't know if you want to call it subset but followup policy so I did want to make it clear but we still do have 103 and 104 still available um to support staff and students in the district that is correct and and and title is a federal law not all the states have the same level of definition that
164Pennsylvania does their protections may change but ours do not in Pennsylvania thank you with that may have a motion to approve 12C as listed under policy Miss clar May I have a second Miss graph any comments or questions seeing none all those in favor all those opposed motion carries nine to zero now under other ba based on the uh the uh items presented at the work session last week uh there are no changes uh to items that sit under other okay may have a motion to approve all items listed under other as presented Miss Bon may have a second Miss Purdue any comments or questions yes Miss gra yeah I have a question um we have this generous gift from the van foundation for the girls winter track team I'm just curious as to how
165that funding is allocated to the track team and how the track team can use the funds because I know there were a couple of other teams that have also been given a gift from the same foundation and I just want to make sure there's an understanding how that process works yeah it's it's a great question uh I spoke with a representative from the van eyes Foundation just this week to reiterate that the funds will be added to the activity account for those um I think there were three about about two months ago and then this one uh to the to the activity CS of those Sports and then the coach and the and players typically the the um uh the captains of the teams uh typically would sign off on how they would spend the
166money so just to be clear the money can be used for anything that the coach and the captains deem Worthy is that yeah they make the decision all activity funds are are are managed that way and do the funds have to be used in this fiscal year they do not so they would carry over for that particular team year after year if they're not used that's correct um and is there any limitation at all and how the funds are used other than that you have to have agreement with the coach and the and the well well the the athletic director and the principal have to review it and and it has to be obviously something they can technically purchase um I guess it has to be has to be legal I mean there are limitations
167there are limitations no I guess I mean um our booster clubs in a lot of cases can can do pizza parties and they can do um gifts with our our athletes and they do all kinds of other things right and I just wanted to make sure that these gifts the way they're provided to the district it doesn't restrict these GI are not restricted could use booster fun these are not restricted gifts right okay that's what I I just wanted to clarify so any of the coaches for The Comedy but but but but there are we do review them even though the coach signs off uh and and and the player the players sign off we still have to review it we have to make sure that it's it's with within reason I mean they would
168you I don't want to come up with some farfetch examples but I'm sure there could be some and do they can they expense things to to be um is it more like they expense their expenditures or can they actually request the money in advance does it work either way and I don't I just don't know I'm I'm G to ask the expert on that activity funds can they be can the funds be requested in advance or is is it expensed sure we do um we do issue advances for certain things um the one that comes off the top of my head is travel a lot of times when we have a team that goes away for travel we'll issue the the coach in advance they will spend down the money and they will give us
169a um detailed receipts and then the remainder of the cash that wasn't spent so we we do that we do do that perfect and how long does it take from the time that the gift is provided to the district till that money is allocated into the fund that they can use the the coach can actually start using that money is it days you're both looking at me quickly okay yeah pretty much as soon as we receive the check and it gets deposited it's recorded into the activity account yep that's and and and for clarity sake U this one uh obviously if it's if it's approved accepted this evening would happen much faster than the previous ones did uh we we had we had the conversation with the family to to ensure that there it was
170without restrictions even though the paperwork received was clear to that but it was so they were so generous in terms of the the donations we wanted to make sure that they're being allocated in their best wishes absent of any other documentation that they may have forgotten to give us right so we made all that clear and and now we're we're moving forward and we're issuing the uh the funds to those um activity funds and then communicating with the coaches about the money be that would be there that's great because that's the other piece I guess is is I just want to make sure that the coaches are aware that this fund is this money is sitting there and that they can use it for various things so thanks Miss Purdue I had a quick a
171few just because the calendar um is on the on this portion of the agenda um and we've talked about this a little bit can I get Mr Regina if you Dr Regina if you can provide us just a little brief overview of the process for the calendar and how we set the days and then um what the opportunities are for input yeah so good question the calendar as we know and I and I recognize I think sometimes people respond with we've been doing it a certain way sometimes they don't necessarily probably know the full process even internally um but the idea some of it is um based off of inservice and professional devel schedules some of is based on contractual language some of is based that certainly we want to do parent teacher conferences you
172know we' he that this evening um but the input that we do we bring it to Ed committee we have the discussion in Ed committee we present it to the board um if the Ed committee feels that it's appropriate to take the full board we will if not like we did this year we are asked to look at some things bring it back to Ed committee for approval and so there are multiple cases that were providing it to the board and the public for review and discussion um but yes a lot of the things in there that that are connected and that are also found in our collective bargaining agreements and so we're not able to transition some of those dates some of those are locked in and then um so I I think there
173was a comment made about parent input opportunities for working parent input I think at at at committee especially because we get the calendar then it we make a decision if is coming to the board usually at at committee we have parents that attend those meetings and provide input but then the calendar correct me if I'm wrong based on the agenda is also available for the propos is the propos available in our meeting minutes or the in the links for parents to review also and provide additional feedback if needed I know is the draft is weird yeah I'm not sure so I don't know that we put it where the presentations are if that's the question um it is attachment that we have to the agenda but uh it may not be in that that section
174um there is something that we then put out there that of the proposed calendar once it moves past this phase of the process okay um but yeah while we're doing that we certainly will take input from anybody at that point and we typically do it in January to start that's when we usually start having the discussions um in hopes to have it within the next two months for the approval okay so may I mean so maybe we can take a look at that or maybe discuss that a little bit at committee if there's something that we want to consider just to make sure we have but I know there's certain things that I think like you said we may not have so much control over it because there's multiple things that I know when we
175as to look at one of the dates it was like dominoes Right Moving one thing something falls off and is really is set up to strategically support our students and our teachers also because we all understand professional development is important every time we bring a new program or initiative to the district it's important important to provide the resources parent teacher conferences I know I actually make it a point to take my kid if I can but of course if I have multiples I can take them if it's not for them just because it's a distraction um I I don't know how we get by with that but I know with Co some of the opportunities have also been to have a zoom meeting for parent teacher conferences I know face tof face is helpful but
176I've taken advantage of those just because it's a little bit easier for me and I can also get my husband on the call and my kid on the call at the same time if they're in different places um so I think there are opportunities but I I do appreciate I know we received an extensive letter today and I think we all had a chance to review it but I do appreciate the opportunity to highlight things that um maybe we need to look at a little bit more when we're setting the calendar um but I just wanted to bring that up just because that's coming up on this part and I specifically sit on at committee any other comments yes Miss steal yeah I just want to piggy back off of what Miss Purdue shared and
177just because um you know it it was a the the comments about um some of the d off and the hardship on when you have a a working working parents to coordinate for the half days and the days off and the parent teacher conferences um I think it it could be really great conversations to have an ed committee to discuss um you know just maybe to discuss how to support like what is available to support those working parents um during those days some of the like there were some ideas that she brought up and and just maybe discussing some of that some of the framework that is available to support it I don't know if that makes sense I'm not wording myself correctly right now so I apologize but it would be a good conversation
178to have at Ed committee I think would be appropriate for that going forward um if that makes any sense yep thanks thank you any other comments or questions yes Miss Alon yes I just want to thank uh the acne markets foundations nourishing neighbors program and gen youth um with their Acme Gift Card donation of 3 ,000 to support the methacton backpack program great thank you any other comments or questions all right seeing none may I have a motion to approve all items as listed under other as presented Mr Winters may I have a second Miss Altin all any other comments or questions seeing none all those in favor all those oppose motion carries 9 to zero thank you we'll now move to the dates for upcoming board meeting are listed on the agenda and also
179on the mton website does anyone have any old or new business tonight yes Mr Purdue I I just wanted to say thank you to the um High School staff and um Dr Yuka for doing a great job with the um eighth grade scheduling um they held a meeting actually here um and it was a full house but it provided a lot of information for um many of us going through the transition from e8th grade to the high school something that I didn't have an opportunity to do last time just because I think we were in the middle of Co so it's nice to see the process for that and then just have the counseling team available to help with some questions that parents have so I I do want to say thank you to them
180for that great thank you any other Miss hon I would be remiss if I did not uh Echo the student Representatives shout out to the math Acton theater company for their production of Guys and Dolls which is this week on Thursday Friday and Saturday at 7 p.m here at the high school great thank you any other New or Old business all right seeing none um the courtesy of the four the board of school directors will now provide an opportunity for residents to make comment on matters that are may be before the board the board asks that you keep your comments to three minutes or less the board of school directors may choose to respond to matters following the conclusion of the comments you could also submit questions email to information methacton.org right Curtis have the
181floor uh Brian araw laowa Providence um I believe the board members that are designated as liaison to the townships of lower provins and War need to take a more active role um I had attended the Lower Providence supervisor meetings this week and one of the things I learned was that the township is buying a building for their use um as a result of the township owning that building the school district will not collect tax revenue on that property anymore which means the district is going to lose about $100,000 in Revenue um although I communicated that to the administration um I did not see it in tonight's budget update so you've got another $100,000 to find somewhere to get down to the Act One index um also it's going be great opportunity to provide information on
182what's going on with the new high school how much it's going to cost taxpayers how much tax is are going to go up they both I know low provins published a newsletter you could write something in there about that and just another opportunity to get your message out um regarding next year's budget um tonight's presentation was a was a decent update but it was way too brief the board spent more talk more time talking about the other section of the agenda that you did the budget so another lost opportunity to dig into the budget details learn about the assump ions and challenge the assumptions being made to see if there's any opportunity to reduce costs or enhance revenues for that Ma for that matter one assumption I heard tonight is the the assumption that they
183hire replacement teachers at Masters plus five that's got to carry a price tag of 70 to 80,000 on salary alone and then add 25% for Pas in FICA so can you hire teachers out of college they're probably you know more more ready to get in there and and really learn and teach kids so as probably cost-saving opportunity does that make any sense those are the types of questions that the Board needs to be asking and challenging the administration not just taking a one page update this upcoming meetings they're all the ones are already scheduled there's no additional meetings on that calendar to review the budget and get into details you look around other districts they hold budget workshops so given all that I'm renewing my offer to provide help in this budget process I'm willing
184to take on a role as a board consultant my pay will be zero give me 30 days tell the administration to give me access to all the budget assumptions and records and I'll report back to you with all the um findings I have I may find nothing but then you have an independent set of eyes looking at the budget and that should make the public more comfortable if you have to pass along a 5.1 tax increase another thing is we've not heard anything about special ed costs that chart that was showed in January was alarming now it might be real but it'd be good ide good idea to understand why why are costs going so up so much is it effective can it be reduced you got a lot of work to do to get
185down to Mr Winter's magical 5.1% increase but I'm still shocked how you can over that number just to get a vote it's crazy thank you very much good evening it's been a long evening um I'm Dr Janine Darby resident of Lower Providence Township I have two alums mfon High School alums and two still here um first off I'd like to thank the board for understanding the meaning of Dei which is um diversity equity and inclusion unfortunately we can't say the same for others I appreciate that you listen to the students and the parents in order to make the school calendar More inclusive for our maaan community inclusion is important studies show that when individuals feel a sense of belonging they Thrive don't we all want to see methacton students succeed this action is beneficial for
186improving the school environment and ensuring that all students feel a sense of belonging so lastly if I may ask a favor when collecting data about bullying please be more specific about the incidents being reported indicate whether they involve racism discrimination harassment or other types of behavior thank you all again for all the efforts in serving the facton school District thank you Julia knuckley Lower Providence um I was happy to hear the international affirs back that's great and that you know what uh Dr Darby said that exactly the kind of things we should be doing and the calendar being you know more inclusive of of more holidays that's that's great I I applaud that in terms of the um High School presentation I think some of the things that um you might want to be looking
187at uh I couldn't tell on the overview picture exactly where the sidewalks were going to be um it would be good to make sure that for the students that are parking as well as students who are walking to the high school have a safe access and cross the least amount of traffic as possible so they're not like playing Frogger with the bus to try to get into the school so I think that would be important to look at um it I I believe that it looked like the the art rooms will have natural light but I want to make sure that that is in fact the case because that's a big problem right now the current art rooms there's no natural light um so it's something to just make sure that gets taken care of
188um and in terms of the solar was mentioned even if you know you're not immediately going to have solar it would be good to think about making it such that it's solar ready whether that's having a roof that's um you know that can handle solar or if you're going to have like solar canopies in the parking lot making sure there's enough space for the the poles or whatever to hold the the canopies um so that if you know even if you're not ready to do solar now that it would be easier to do solar in the future that sort of thing and the same thing for um looking at for Ev chargers for the school buses if you know if when you're doing construction it's a lot easier to to lay things down while the
189construction is happening than having to dig up a parking lot or a field or something after the fact so even if it just means you know laying conduit or something like that so that to make it that an easier process in the future because um you know electric school buses are so much better for the health of our students so that they're not breathing that terrible the terrible terrible fumes that come from the diesel buses that um are accumulate inside the school bus that the kids are riding in um so I think that covers all of my topics so thank you thank you hi shadin peer Lower Providence I just wanted to comment and thank the board about the calendar and the inclusion of the additional holidays I was thinking as I was listening to
190everybody speak about it there was a presentation last year and a bunch of students that celebrated Eid came up and asked for this and they were talking about not being able to spend the holiday with their family and it got me thinking about Christmas and Easter in my house and how we see family at a couple times a year I can't imagine my kids sitting Christmas day in their math class and having to focus on math instead of being with the family on this on the special holidays in our life so just being inclusive of that really it just makes an impact as so many people other you know have said before and I just appreciate that thank you thank you good evening hanifa Muhammed War sester Township I want to thank the board for
191adding both aids to the calendar alra this calendar has proofed that inclusion is possible proof that Dei is not a zero SU game when everyone is taking a step back from Dei I think it is commendable that you guys are planting your feet and standing in it instead of following others like Disney who will realize too late that they are on the wrong side of History so again thank you for being leaders and not followers in our community and being the first District to have both Aids on the calendar thank you thank you very much hi Beth feifer Lower Providence Township uh I wanted to applaud the board on the inclusive calendaring initiatives I stand before you today to emphasize the critical importance of diversity Equity inclusion in our schools these values not only enrich
192the learning environment for all but they also prepare our students to be compassionate open-minded open-minded leaders in the world we are incredibly grateful for the hard work the board has put into initiatives that elevate the experiences of all students including both students with special learning needs as well as gifted students with specialized courses and classrooms you have also shown your support for Dei or diversity equity and inclusion with our community's lowincome families through programs like free and reduced school lunches as well as the backpack program both ensure that every child has the tools they need to succeed at school at home and in life I also wanted to thank you for your commitment to supporting students from diverse backgrounds whether it's religion race or Creed these efforts also a part of diversity equity and inclusion
193ensure that every student feels valued and empowered to reach their full potential no matter where they come from together we're building a school Community where every student feels seen heard and respected thank you for your continued dedication to these vital initiatives that make our schools a great place for all students to thrive thank you hi Terry nfag Laural Providence although I do not have any children period so I don't have any children in this school first of all I want to say I'm very impressed with the community and everything they've said about Dei I am impressed with the board that you are thoughtful about including our diverse community in the school calendar and the various religious celebrations but again I'm I'm very impressed with this discussion it gives me hope where there's some darkness in
194the world right now and just keep supporting Dei thank you any other courtesy of the floor [Music] I'm glad I could make Dave laugh it's good uh Jim mik War sester I'll say it again scrap the EI okay you don't need Dei for a calendar you need common sense right save yourself a couple hundred grand the federal government's doing it the military's doing it Disney's doing it and if you don't agree fine but you know I wouldn't take it personal um uh I uh had to review the video of the last meeting after the comments I heard uh by Mr winter so here here's here's some of the comments that were made about the uh the budget Miss Purdue said that you guys made a compromise on the tax increase where did that happen exact
195cutive session did the Compromise a current executive session Mr witer said the reason we came up with 5.1% is because I pulled it out of my tus how did I miss that I pulled it out of my tus um because it was obvious we weren't going to get five votes for a 6.3% increase so we had to come up with something that hopefully somebody would change their vote somewhere between between 6.5 and 4% so I randomly picked 5.1% and luckily it passed well you got to step down you got to step down gotta resign this is ridiculous if an outside agency gets away for this you got a problem um Mr Regina the back to the you know all's well in the fton talk um if you saw what I gave you I did a
196comparison of 2018 levels to current levels for pssas for you know all the grades appropriate not one score in 2024 is higher than 2018 everything's below 2018 significantly that's a problem that's the problem I was talking about but I don't blame you for it I blame these people for it the way they manage Co Mas social distancing virtual learning did everything wrong and those are the results question is when are they going to come up with a plan on how to get the kids back to 2018 levels right guys spend more time on E Sports than you did come up with a plan I don't get it um Dave you have a private meeting with a bunch of residents who lived around the high school to go a sketch plan how come we didn't see
197the sketch plan first the first people who saw that sketch plan were your selected group in a private meeting because they live 500 feet from the school and I heard that one of the criteria for the meeting was nobody was to talk about cost now doesn't that sum it up a private group and you tell them we can't talk about cost and that's the problem Dave you got a problem thank you any other comments from courtesy of the floor okay seeing none any other comments or questions from the board yes Miss Purdue I do want to say um a few things just because a few topics keep coming up um first of all I think I commend the public for their comments on diversity equity and inclusion just because at the last meeia was brought
198up and probably this meeting and maybe over several meetings it will be brought up how Dei that important as I sit here as an African-American woman the only one on this board I think it is important to have the perspective it is important to hear from different voices at all times because that's how we improve so I do want to say that Dei is important it's especially important for all our students when they walk into F sense of belonging our schools each day I would love for every student to go home till when they belong we're very far away from reaching that there's many students in our building that don't believe they feel that sense when they leave here or when they get on the bus but that's what we're striving towards we're striving towards
199making sure that each and every single mathan student even staff teachers in our buildings feel the sense of belonging the same way when we have these meetings it's the same aspect of I work in a company that we also strive to ensure that everyone feel a sense of belonging so I don't see why that's something that we don't need to have for our students and our teachers and our staff in our schools so I think MAF facton is going in the right direction there's always room for improval but I do want to say we are going in the right direction and then with that I will also say in reference to the high school planning I sat through several meetings and I think we we heard from today input still continues we will still require
200input from the community that include all taxpayers teachers students everyone that is part of our community is welcome to the meetings that are held we've held several meetings already and you saw from the outline today there will be several meetings to ensure that everyone is part of the process this process started a while ago and will continue to be part of the process and then lastly I will tell on the budget and Mr enaw thank you for reaching out and saying that we can reach out to you I actually send you an email and I think many of the board members will be interested if you have you set on this board the same seat as us if there's opportunities for improvement I think we all welcome that because at the end of the day
201that's why we're here we're here to do the work to support our school district so any feedback that is available we take that seriously and we're always willing to work with the community so I just wanted to say those aspect and as far as these scores that were provided if you look at these scores you can see where when we look at it and I think this data was presented also when you compare mathon from 2018 to now to the state mathon is going in the right direction but I think I also called out last week there a report that was just provided by the Ed committee or the um education report that indicates that school districts are still working on making progress from Co and it's not whether School District stay hybrid stay remote
202whichever plan they put in place there's tremendous amount of work that's needed to get school districts um to get our test schools back one of the things we said is looking at the pro procedures and processes we've put in and looking to see how those work how those are working and what is really working that we can continue to do to support our students because we do care we do want to make sure that our students are excellent and they're getting the best education when they leave our district so it's something that we keep working on at committee will keep working on we don't do that work here at the at the board but we do we spend hours our at Community meetings are actually going past the regular work session and regular meetings because
203we spend a significant amount talking about education and how we improve our test scores and so I think we are putting in a lot of those practices that it's been researched and seeing that they're working and we will continue to keep doing that work to see improvement in our test course thank you Miss Purdue yes Miss steel I just want to um uh build off of what Miss Purdue was sharing and um in particular the we are here to do hard work for to support the school district when it comes to these scores and it comes to the discussion of to the scores that were shared here of their pssa scores and the discussion about diversity equity and inclusion and belonging the most Equitable thing a school district can do is to provide great literacy
204instruction for all and our district and the in the comprehensive plan has a goal for 95% proficiency on these exams by 2028 and we have been spending hours discussing this at Ed committee and I am looking really forward to the presentations that will be coming in the Years forward I have spent Decades of my life focused on literacy research and supporting students to grow in their reading and writing skills and that's why I ran for the school board and that's why I have the honor of serving here and supporting our district it is the most Equitable thing that you can do for all thank you thank you any other comments Miss Austin yeah yeah just related to some of the comments on on Dei when I think of that I think of of the words
205I think of the word diversity so eliminating Dei what what aspect of diversity are we trying to eliminate are we trying to make it so our school environment only caters to some in terms of equity are we trying to not give all students the support that they need for them to succeed and inclusion are we trying to keep some students marginalized or excluded from certain classes or activities which one of these examples are we trying to eliminate from our school and our school community and to me the answer is none of these um we need to be here for all of the students where they are and and meet them where they are and educate them all and give them all that sense of belonging and to me that's what it means and I'm here
206for it thank you anyone else for comments seeing none may I have a motion to adjourn the meeting Miss graph may have a second Miss Clary meeting is adjourned have a good night you like that