001e for e for e e e good evening I'd like to call the work session of January 22nd 2025 and the proposed preliminary budget agenda please stand for the Pledge of Allegiance Al to flag United States of America to the stands naice the public is hereby advised of the audio and video recording of this meeting for the purposes of rebroadcasting I'd like to make an executive session announcements on December 3rd the board of school directors met an executive session virtually on December 3rd 2024 for the purpose of seeking advice for special Counsel on right to no legal matter on January 21st 2025 the board of school directors met an executive session prior to this evening's meeting on January 21st 2025 for a matter of personnel involving an administrative employee the board also the board of
002school directors also met an executive session prior to this evening meeting on January 21st 2025 for the purpose of seeking advice from special Counsel on right to no legal matter all board members are in attendance this evening we'll now move to recognition of guests and scheduled speakers Dr Zerby good evening and thank you madam president uh this evening we have three presentations we have the 2324 annual Financial audit uh we have Miss Stephie our director of business services and we have Hank Miller from Gorman and Associates uh this evening there should be a budget booklet I believe it's black or blue it's it's the full and complete audit um if uh you approve accepting the audit at next week's meeting um we will then post that audit live for for public uh access as well
003as any other documents that come through uh the presentations here this evening as well as um uh next week so with that said Miss Stephy uh do you want to make any comments prior to us introducing Mr Miller I do not okay thank you very much uh Hank you're you're you're on Gman Associates the annual Financial audit I believe uh you also should have a presentation the audit and you [Music] don't is there a clicker or will you will yeah I have that right here for you yeah so members of the board uh we we while we have the full audit at your table we do not have this presentation printed out so I can give you one of two options one we can kind of turn around on our seats to to view it
004or we can go to the front row is there any objection to viewing it from our seats no okay thank you very much HK good evening ladies and gentlemen my name is Hank Miller uh I'm a partner at Gman associate we conducted your uh Financial audit for the 2324 uh fiscal year and so I'm just going to go over some some highlights of the audit and you know we have a PowerPoint presentation here for you so real briefly our our responsibility is to come in we meet with your management team your business office uh we go through your financial records for the fiscal year we perform certain audit procedures the whole objective of our audit is for us to come come in obtain reasonable Assurance um so through conduct through our audit procedures so that
005we can then give you an opinion on on those financial statements stating that they're free from material misstatement so and the reason that's important is that as an independent third party we come in we give our opinion on those financial statements those financial statements can then be relied upon by the readers of the financial statements the readers being the board the public uh lenders anybody who would rely on that financial information to make decisions um so that's why it's important so just a brief overview uh or so for the 23 24 year I just want to say working with the business office are very responsive uh the audit went very smooth um they do a great job of keeping their books um Danielle and Tim uh you know answered all of our questions provided all
006the information we had no hiccups during the audit um and that you know you guys probably have I would say top two or top three clean a set of books out of all of our audit clients that we look at um so with that being said you know this year you'll see in the audit report I believe it's on page three is the start of our independent auditor report the first couple paragraphs there is where we State our opinion and again for this year in our opinion we believe that the financial statements that are presented in the audit report are presented fairly and that you can use that information uh to make financial decisions so next slide here um just want to give a real quick Financial highlight this is just a summary of the
007general fund activity for the year so First Column you have final budget the middle column there are your actual results the the third column there is just a variance between your budget and actual results and I'll just point you there in the actual column you finish the year with a $1.5 million surplus and at the very bottom there you had an ending fund balance of $1,460 now fund balance for the June 30 2024 year is made up of the following items you have prepaids that's prepaid expenditures of nearly $2.7 million that those for the most part are just things that are were paid in the 23 24 year but are applicable or should will be recognized as expenses in the in future years um so for example uh the largest item in there was a
008$1.1 million cash outflow in June for your July health insurance so it's not recorded as an expenditure in a 23 24 year even though there was a cash outlow so uh that that makes up a large portion of that balance then you also have some restrictions on your fund balance so this is where you have inflows that are restricted by outside third parties uh most commonly just think of donations that come with restrictions so somebody makes a contribution they restrict it for playground equipment or you know what have you if that money isn't spent during the year we show it as restricted fund balance and then you have unassigned fund balance of just under $9.4 million and that's what makes up your total fund balance of $12.4 million uh just a little some more financial
009highlights here this is a trend analysis for the Food Service fund over the last four years so you can see how your operating revenues and how your operating expenses um have fluctuated over those years in the 23 24 year the one new thing was that you guys moved the high school off of the national school lunch program uh so in 22 and 23 you had profits in the Food Service fund at just under $400,000 so I'm looking at the bottom line there you have the change in that position June 30 2024 was $495,000 and if you look above that you had transfers in of $500,000 so if there weren't transfers in coming in from the general funds then you would about broke even this year uh in the Food Service fund and this is just
010a quick summary of your capital projects fund so you had you started the year with a fund balance of 17 $17.2 million uh you had net outflows of 2.2 m383 th000 and so you ended the year with a fund balance of $14.8 million um so this is just a an audit summary for your single audit so because you expended more than $750,000 in federal Awards um the single audit section that's the last section in the audit report um a single audit is just where you're required to undergo a compliance audit of your federal programs um so there's there are a couple Auditors independent Auditors reports in that section where you know we give our report on your internal controls and over your compliance over those Federal programs and in there we state in our opinion
011Miss act and School District complied with the compliance requirements uh for your major federal programs so we did not have any findings as they related to your federal programs and again just a summary of the single audit you are a lowrisk auditee we did test uh this year we had to test your title one program and the education stabilization fund and that is just your your Esser arser uh there's also some set of sides in there so it's made up of a few different programs uh the education stabilization fund is so of all of your federal Awards we tested during the single audit just over 40% and again there are no findings and that's all I have thank you Mr Miller are there questions from members of the board regarding uh the presentation or anything
012from the audit Mr wers no I just want to thank both the uh business office and the Auditors for you know clean result and uh certainly we rely on our financials to go to the market for borrowing money and uh understanding that we I think the quote was two or three clean audits that the Gman has done so thank you thank and Captain you can you can give it to Dr serini there are there any other comments or or questions for Mr Miller at this time seeing none uh we will then uh put have the motion on the agenda for your approval of accepting the audit as presented and prepared by gourman and Associates thank you Mr Miller is there any I'm I'm having some feedback issues so is there any okay next on the
013agenda we have the proposed preliminary uh budget for the 2526 uh school year Miss deppy U this presentation is at your table um so that document is is there uh this will uh be posted uh to the the agenda following this evening's meeting and um at the end of this presentation uh in the last slide there there needs to be some feedback uh from the board as to how we want to proceed uh for uh this recommendation uh on the 28th which is next Tuesday's voting meeting so with that said I'll turn it over to miss Stephy good evening I just wanted to start by saying thank you to miss Penza and the rest of the business office team the clean audit is a direct result of the amazing work that they do every day
014tonight I will Begin by presenting the 2324 fiscal year end results while Mr Miller has already shared the audited financial statements I will provide additional context to these figures to help frame a more comprehensive [Music] picture for this presentation I will be using adjusted figures to provide a clear comparison between the budget and actual performance these adjustments exclude one-time unbudgeted revenues and expenses which can otherwise distort year-over-year Trends and Analysis specifically I have excluded the following MEF grants that were awarded and expended Safety and Security grants Esser funds and gasby 87 lease accounting adjustments after accounting for these exclusions the district ended the year with a surplus of almost 1.6 million it is important to note that while a large transfer to Capital fund was budgeted a transfer of only $22,000 was completed in order
015to maintain an unassigned fund balance of at least 7% slide four provides a breakdown of revenues by category and highlights the budget to actual variances the one-time adjustments made on the prior slide are shown in the adjustments column the remaining variances will be explored in more detail on the following slides local Revenue variances here I've detailed the primary variances in local Revenue categories interest earn earnings exceeded projections due to higher than anticipated interest rates earned income tax taxes came in above expectations likely due to increased wages and economic growth within the community transfer and interim taxes are based on a rolling average of Prior Year's actuals and are trending downward delinquent taxes while also based on historical Trends came in higher than expected refund of Prior expenses refer to expenses pray paid in a prior
016year but reimbursed to the district these are very challenging to predict so we adopt a conservative approach in budgeting for them District activities include revenues from items like AP exam field trips and course fees grants and donation include unspent grants that are recorded as Revenue upon receipt but remain unused by year end these amounts are ultimately reflected in the restricted fund balance state revenue variances the most significant variances in state revenue include include the following basic education subsidy and special education subsidy these figures were finalized after the state budget was adopted meaning we relied on preliminary estimates during our budget process plan con payments reimbursements came in at a total of $ 885,000 to the expiration of tech school debt related reimbursements Transportation subsidy came in slightly above expectations as these are based solely on
017available data at the time of budget development Social Security and retirement subsidies were lower than budgeted reflecting lower than anticipated salary costs other small variances totaled $147,000 1151 these include Health Service reimbursements Revenue received from the Commonwealth for children in foster care or Court placed homes and a jobs Grant Federal variances are due to Medical access reimbursements and title program funds which can vary significantly depending on midyear adjustments and program timing next slide on the next few slides I will address the key expenditure variances in Greater detail I have detailed variances of greater than 10% and $100,000 the primary in both regular education and special education is within purchased Professional Services in regular education the overspend is attributable to the cost of substitute teachers which is offset by a corresponding variance in salaries special education
018Third Party Support Services exceeded budget by over $3 million a significant portion of this is due to the use of registered Behavior technicians rbts who play a critical role in enabling 100% inclusive instruction in the classroom Additionally the large variance in other purchase Services is primarily the result of increasing tuition costs such as out of District placements Charter School tuition and other related expenses these details will be expanded on in a proceeding slide slide eight this slide provides a five-year historical overview of special education Support Services costs and budgets green represents actual spend While Blue represents the budgeted amounts as shown this area has been overspent consistently for the past several years current year expenditures align with Trends from the previous year and we anticipate another overspend in this area by the end of the
019fiscal year we are actively monitoring to mitigate the variance next slide other purchases Services has also been an area of consistent overspend this side provides a 5-year historical overview of special education other purchases Services actual and budgeted amounts green represents actual spend blue the budgeted amounts tuition in this category is based on information available at the time however due to the fluid nature of enrollment large variances often occur you can see the breakdown of specific tuition expenses including those related to Charter Schools outof district placements and specialized programming current Year's expenditures are trending slightly higher than this time last year and we do anticipate another overspend in this area by the end of fiscal year again we are actively monitoring to mitigate the variance next Slide the variance in Support Services is attributable to several
020factors legal costs the overspend here is related to special education matters and right to no request community relations was underspent due to a branding effort that was budgeted but did not materialize this year the hiring of an interor principal contributed to higher expenses in this category but there would be an offset to a salary account there was 33 $38,000 underspend in the superintendent's office and the overspend in nursing Services is due to the use of substitute nurses and the need to provide onetoone nursing services for certain students next slide this slide details the fiscal yearend Surplus as well as its impact on fund balance a transfer of $ 22,8 128 was made to cap to the capital fund leaving the unassigned fund balance at 7% although the district recorded a surplus of $1.57 million the
021unassigned fund balance increased only $523,000 the remaining Surplus has been committed to curriculum purchases these costs are distributed over several years to avoid significant fluctuations in curriculum expenditures however since these funds has already been allocated they are considered nonspendable that concludes the 2324 fiscal year end review did any members of the board want to have any have any question on the fiscal year end before we proceed with the uh the budget Miss Purdue I just have um a quick one p r RI what is that uh private residential rehabilitative in institution okay and then I just I did just have a quick one on um one one services for nursing students um I'm just trying to figure out how that fallen and how often we're seeing that just because you call it out so it
022was I called it out because it was a significant overspend I can get you um and provide you at the next meeting um data on the number of students that that was is that what you're asking for yeah I'm just curious because I don't recall us specifically calling out that out and I'm just wondering is that's something that we saw last year that maybe we were in seen and what may have contributed to the um overspending that sure I can compare it to previous years and say what difference was and then maybe we'll touch on it later I think you mentioned within in reference to special ad or anything else with the increase of 248 per. um I believe in one of the slides you mentioned we are monitoring to mitigate is that one of
023those that we we include in the monitoring to mitigate and do we have any on there so in terms of one to one nursing Services is that what you're asking no just in reference to Special Ed I believe in slide number eight you had the 2 148% increase yep is that something that we'll hear a little bit more on exactly um I guess I'm just trying to find out like the increase and then when we say we're monitoring to exactly what we're doing okay um yeah I can provide more detail on that at the next meeting okay Miss K just to piggyback on that I think what we had always seen of why we didn't take a special exemption or we didn't or we we always knew the number of students that were involved in
024special EDS so if we could see a trend that correlates with this would be great and then I think if you even just put it into um complex students because nurses are like onetoone nursing is complex cases so I think there's even a level of like certain amount of money that's over like whatever percentage $25,000 for a student but maybe giving the level of complexity I don't think special ed Al loone could be really give the impact that we're dealing with and I think with the inclusion model like you brought up when the inclusion model was integrated into the system for us to have the RBT one:1 um which provided full inclusion at that time as well so I'm just kind of showing us like when what uh inclusion model full inclusion started so it
025gives us an idea that correlated to the RBT and the trend and if you think those are the top three trends of special ed and that could be not may be discussed here but even in um the finance committee would be great yep understood thanks any other questions on the year end from to 23 24 Miss Ste yeah uh thank you so much I just uh had a question to follow up on what was just asked um just how if later in the next presentation next meeting um how we under budgeted so much like what was the thought process behind the budgeting that much and if there's a trend of what was missed or something along those lines because it's a significant Gap but at least two years previously thank you um Miss Austin did
026you have a a question um yeah my question was also about the nursing which was addressed and um just wondering are there have there been has there been an increase in out of District placements um for students and IEPs so I will provide that information in terms of number of students with um the other student information as well thank you for the question any other comments oh U Miss graph um yeah thanks great presentation my question is um I noticed on the where you're talking about the expenditure variances and you talk about um substitute teachers so the increase for the substitute teachers was like 1.1 million with a corresponding salary credit of almost half a million so can we just I'd like to understand what was driving that increase in substitutes is are they positions
027that we currently cannot fill or is it our teachers taking time off and we're having to get substitutes is it time out of the classroom for something else like I just want to understand a little bit more about that overspend and then basically because I want to make sure that we're accounting for that somehow in the budget going forward sure I can get that detail and then the the other thing I'm going to come back to the uh special education question so when I look at slide eight um we have the budget for special education for 2425 at 6 million so my question is what is our current spend in special education so far this year and do we have a projection for the you know by June we will have spent X doll are
028we on track to spend under budget or are we I think I heard you say we're on track to we're going to potentially exceed the $6 million spend but i' just like to know what that actually is okay and then um I think piggybacking on what Miss kro said I think it would be interesting to see a per student cost on Year bye for that yeah I have that information so put that in great thank you Miss Cy well fort itely most of my questions got um asked and answer maybe asked anyway so I just have a couple so I am sort of piggybacking off other people um to miss graph's point on the substitute teachers I am curious if the overspend has anything to do with uh the increase that we agreed to with
029regards to the hourly rate okay um that was a discussion that we had about you know trying to attract and retain substitutes um I am I was most struck um with questions when when on two different slides uh I don't have page numbers but um the expenditure variances and the slide before that on special education thirdparty Support Services on both of those slides you said we are actively monitoring to mitigate the variance and I do really want I know someone already asked you Miss Purdue but I do really want to understand what that means what those are with regards to each of of these categories um and then finally on slide um uh on the state revenue variant slide there's something called it's in the beginning of the presentation uh plan con payments what is
030that what's plan con oh so that's um basically like your Construction reimbursements so s so construction reimbursements sever several years ago I'm going to say about anywhere between seven and 11 years ago I can't remember exactly when the state uh retired the plan conon program typically uh based on uh School construction uh requirements you could file for this program at the state level called plancon it would provide you a certain level of reimbursement so the the program we were referring to in terms of Revenue drop off we prepaid our our uh one of the our debt to the uh North monco technical career center because we had I believe some grant funding or some Surplus in in a previous budget but in doing so the planc con Revenue continued on its normal cycle until it's
031now at its last payment um so that's where we're showing that that likely there there will be a a decline in that typee of Revenue going forward plan con however is no longer available for school construction so it's basically a a reimbursement of a percentage of the construction cost thank you and that's all my questions thank you Mr mki so just one additional um so current year-to date on slide nine as well as project for uh it's a one of the variances it's the same as Kate asked for for the previous slide I would also like to see uh because there are a number of other expenses associated with special ed like legal um what potentially one on want nursing so when we get into this later all the costs associated with the special ed
032program that we may be broken out into other categor yeah I'll provide greater detail y thank you uh anyone else Mr wers no I just want to try to provide one level of clarity maybe uh when it comes to how we take the approach of um substitute teachers is that every year this is a what we changed in the process say three or four years ago is every year we used to for forecast exactly what we expected to spend on substitutes on a yearly basis as long as you don't change that rate generally is within a a smaller tolerance where you have the same number of hours and so forth It's same number of days for the most part it's not an exact science but that generally so we would put in a business plan
033or yeah put in a a budget associated with that and then at the same time we would budget as if every teacher's position would be filled on day one and we know that that doesn't happen we have people take leaves we know we don't fill the position right away we have long-term Subs in different areas and so forth so we were actually over budgeting in two when you add the two together every year it was part of the Surplus explanation so what we're trying to do here it's not necessarily exact science and I don't know if we did a transfer um a budgetary fund transfer later on but the bottom line is we're trying to sort of offset those two so you would see the one always being on the high side and one being
034always on the low side so it obviously netted out to about $600,000 overspend between the two but I believe to the question of how much is related to the rate changes that we did I believe September last year uh I think it was I don't remember if it was Dr serini or or Dr uh Regina that presented that we did change that rate so there's an element so the ask Kimberly is to be able to try to identify how much was related to volume and how much was related to price if you you get what I mean yep understood thank you are there any other comments on the year end for 23 24 seeing none we're going to move on to the second part of the presentation Miss stuffy and just so everyone's reference there
035are page numbers but they're very hard to see so I I do apologize for that I will change the color of those all right I'm also you know of the age where I can't see so okay I will now transition to the draft proposed preliminary budget for the 2526 school year I will begin with an object comparison this slide details the increases by object comparison the First Column represents the 2526 proposed budget the next column represents the current year then there are budget to- budget dollar and percentage increases the last column represents the total percentage of the $5.7 million increase that that core category represents salaries account for 18.49% of that increase benefits 19.23% and so on and so on the following slides will provide more detail on the object comparisons next slide salaries account
036for about $1 million or 18.49% of the increase salary increases are attributed to contractual increases and it is important to note that no new positions have been added at this stage of the budgeting process benefits account for $1 million or 19.2% of the total budget increase the first look we received indicates a 7.7% healthc care and prescription increase there was also a very small increase in the peers rate third-party special education Support Services account for a little over a million dollars in this category also included here are increases in legal attributable to special ed and right to know increases in nursing Services which include substitute nursing Services as well as onetoone nursing Services psychologists and IU services the decrease in purchased Property Services is due to the removal of one-time items from the general fund
037budget these items and projects have been moved to the administrative capital projects list next slide continuing with object comparisons the $1.7 million increase in other purchase Services is a result of increased costs for outof district placements tuition and increased cost for the tech school first student contractual Transportation increase as well as specialized thirdparty transportation services for outof district placements as well as homeless students the $577,000 increase in supplies is a result of Science and foreign language curriculum refresh as well as security supplies and software the variances in other objects and other use of funds are a result of the debt schedule as well as the absence of a transfer to Capital fund next slide this graph depicts year-over-year increased costs for special education Support Services green represents actual costs blue budgeted figures as mentioned earlier
038the budgeted figures for 2425 are less than actual spend for last year the 2526 budget was developed taking into account both current and prior year Trends slide 17 next slide this graph depicts year-over-year increased costs for special education other purchase Services which are mainly costs for outside placements tuition as mentioned earlier the budgeted figures for 2425 are less than actual spend last year the 2526 budget was developed taking into account both current and prior year Trends next slide major object major program comparison program breaks expenditures into broader categories increases in regular education special education and administrative support services are driven by increased salary costs as well as purchase Services an anticipated increase at the tech school drives an increase in vocational education Transportation includes contractual increases as well as a budgeted increased costs provide transportation
039to homeless students and out of District placements budgeting in this category is based on actual need from the current year and prior year the absence of a budgeted transfer to Capital fund results in an 84.6% decrease in fund transfer category note budgeted 2425 special ed costs are projected to be higher than budgeted special ed cost next slide special education cost the budget for special education costs for the current year are a million less than last year's actual spend the 2526 budget was developed taking actual spend for last year and the current year into consideration special education costs have risen at an average of 8% each year over the Last 5 Years while special education subsidies have increased at an average of only 1.76% per year comparatively all other costs are increasing at a rate of
040less than half that 3.74% while the regular education subsidy is increasing at a rate of 5.32% per year next slide this chart illustrates the 5-year Trend in debt service the budgeted Debt Service figures for 2526 include borrowing associated with the high school project next slide what is act one act one provides limits on a school district's ability to raise taxes the Act One index is set by Pennsylvania Department of Education and limits a school district's ability to increase the mill rate from previous year by no more than the established index exceptions can be granted to cover significant cost increases in debt special education and Pension Act One is calculated using the percentage changes in wages Statewide and the percentage changes in school employee compensation cost Statewide next Slide the approved Act One index for the
0412526 school year has been set at 4% methacton has not raised taxes above the index in over seven years even after making 1.6 million in budgeted reductions if methacton holds the tax increase to the Act One limit we will experience a shortfall of a little over $2 million next slide because of special education cost increases year-over-year and with the 2526 preliminary budget having a $2.1 million shortfall we are proposing to file file for the specialed exception while we work on the reducing the budget filing for the exception does not require us to use any or all parts of it it does however make sure we have the tools necessary to provide a balanced budget the proposed preliminary budget presented assumes methacton utilizes the entire exception for the 2425 school year act one is set at
0424% with the specialed exception the allowable tax increases Rises to 6.386 per. for a homestead at the district average the tax increase would result in the following raising taxes to the index a $240 52 increase raising the taxes to the inex plus exception $379 34 the chart on the right illustrates the following red represents the allowable tax one increase blue blue represents meth Acton's actual tax increase and green represents the allowable increase if the exception was available the dollar amount under each year on the chart represents the Perpetual tax revenue that would have been generated had metha and raised taxes to the allowable index every year for the past seven years for 2425 an additional $12.8 million in tax revenue would have been generated over the past seven years a cumulative total of over $44
043million would have been generated next slide Revenue comparison this slide offers a high level Revenue comparison the budgeted Revenue increase is 4.25% most of which is made up of the increase in real EST estate taxes next slide next slide details local Revenue Act One with special education exception allows for a 6.03 30 86% increase the assessed value from the December County control report was used for calculations and due to the fluctuations I'm seeing in the assessment reports I've not assumed any increase in assessed value at this time a collection rate of 96.96 % was applied based on a three-year average earned income tax revenue is based on projections provided by Burkheimer interest income is based on data received from our banking institutions transfer delinquent and interum taxes are based on a three-year average and will
044be adjusted accordingly as the year progresses next slide state revenue a 2% increase has been assumed for regular Ed education there has been no assumed increase for special education increases in that area are on a downward projection and last year's increase was about 1% I will Monitor and make adjustments to both regular and special education subsidy amounts as more information is received from the state retirement and Social Security subsidies are budgeted as a percent of salaries there are no assumed increase in pupil and non-public transportations although this will be monitored closely and adjusted as needed plan con reimbursements previously budgeted at $400,000 are budgeted at the known revenue of $237,200 while higher reimbursements were received last year than budgeted this will not be the case moving forward all other Revenue such as health services reimbursement
045orphan subsidies and ready to learn block grant account for 1% of all state revenue next slide federal revenue summary this slide presents detail for each federal revenue category Title One is used for instructional AIDS math and reading at Eagleville sky view in arola staff title two is used for staff development title four career Readiness and Equitable education access funds are used for special education related costs we are working with the Montgomery County IU to determine how we can increase inre our access Revenue next slide this slide provides a comparative summary of budgeted revenues and expenditures a total increase of 4.25% in both revenues and expenditures for the 2526 proposed preliminary budget next slide there's still more work to be done while this is the current iteration of the proposed budget there is still a lot
046of work to be done as we refine these figures and monitor evolving factors we will continue review of operational costs and make adjustments where necessary we will continue review of special education services and make adjustments where necessary we will update Revenue projections as more information becomes available we'll update medical and RX Productions as the second and third looks become available to us in the coming months we will continue to review and update Staffing next slide what are the next steps at the January 28th meeting the board must I their a authorize the administration to make available for public inspection the proposed preliminary budget the proposed preliminary budget must be made available for public inspection 20 days prior to adoption or adopt the resolution stating methacton will not raise taxes above the Act One index if
047option A is chosen then we will need to advertise as outlined above and advertised for special meeting to the work session on February 18th to approve the 2526 preliminary budget as presented on the pte 2028 in the amount of $139,800 4,159 and authorize Administration to apply for referendum inceptions in the accordance with Act One regardless of taking option A or B we will need to Begin work to bring the budget within the allowable Act increase of not greater than 4% this concludes my proposed preliminary budget presentation thank you Miss stepy uh for that presentation again uh members of the board um for for the voting meeting next week um you know I'm going to try to at least get some assemblance of our conversation this evening to get that direction about what motion we put
048on the agenda for consideration uh so just keep that in mind as we're asking questions as we're having discussion um would would it be I uh a as listed on next steps or would it be b as listed on on next steps with that said um the uh the the the greatest uh uh challenge for us uh right now is to know that um this is you know uh essentially uh you know a 6% tax increase is certainly not a welcomed uh conversation but by any means and certainly when presenting this uh to you uh I I recognize that but I also recognize that until we have a better handle on uh some of uh our our uh our request until we have an opportunity to thoroughly review uh the the items uh coming to
049you with something uh anything less than than what uh we have here this evening uh would would not necessarily be appropriate so with that said that we'll open up the floor uh for questions but know that we know as as an administrative team that we have a lot of work ahead of us to get a budget into an acceptable format uh not only from a financial taxpayer perspective but also from an organizational and educational operation perspective so with that said uh are there questions from members to my right Mr winners yeah thank you Kimberly um Miss sty could I just preemptively say that all the special ed data you asked for in the year end review I will also provide for the budgeted data as well yeah uh thank you so I I do like
050that you T um mentioned a couple times of how we're hoping to improve the numbers and so the one I would highlight on sight slide 26 which you know there is the good and the bad is that um when we made the decision a few years ago to pay for the IU earlier we got rid of the expense but we weren't getting those revenues and now that revenue is coming around without the corresponding expense so next year uh we will not even receive the 200 after next year that we receive the 236,000 moving forward as a revenue is that correct so the $236,000 doeses not include the tech school reimbursement it's for other projects okay so the the uh Tech School uh Roofing or project or whatever is done this p last year in the
051audited results okay all right um you mentioned as I started to say you mentioned about uh working with the IU on the access uh certainly obviously special education is the word of the day uh and you provided some of the assumptions but um I want to just um ask a question related to The Voice uh slide 18 I imagine we're in the same spot as the IU is that the votech has a very very preliminary budget and they have to make a decision at this point what they're planning on doing so they can pass it on to the district other districts So currently their preliminary budget is plus 15% including you know what is the main driver for uh that that program so let's go 18 I can't even see I can't even see the
052numbers on there right so the tech school um preliminary increases 4% so I was looking at this earlier and I think that that may be a Mis um classification of a salary like in a 1300 versus a400 so that's why that that may look a little skewed but I'm looking into that further okay cuz that should be right at 4% yeah I didn't I the 15% coming from the you didn't seem to that that may have been a carryover there was a I'm not sure there was a one-time ask I think it was last year from North monco tech for um an increase from all the districts for facility Improvement and so that might be something to look at that could be a carryover but I don't believe that's the ask again this year okay
053a good point Thank you thank [Music] Mr mki so I'm just curious on the but we're talking about uh needing to increase the real estate taxes by over 6% um while the budget's increasing by S projected the cor current forecast of budgets projected increase slightly over 4% so obviously is a a a loss of other revenue streams no not necessarily is is there a spe specific area that we're needing to offset in loss and revenue since since basically real estate taxes make up roughly 80% of the revenue stream so so why why the difference in the you know that two and a half percent difference so there wasn't any significant decrease in revenues so I'll look into the so nothing specific that you can think of large because I don't see anything here that's why
054I'm ask large nope okay well the plan on yeah well that's about yeah 250 but that's not two and a half that's not that doesn't account for it right so I I'd be curious I me that's what I'm going to be looking for that later on is where that where that difference is coming from any other questions I right Miss Clary um I don't have actually have any questions but I'm hoping that once the board does go through the question phase for Miss stepy that we could come Circle back around and talk about comments for the feedback for you on what to do next okay thank [Music] you okay um starting on page slide 22 so as I read this slide I just want to make sure we currently are projecting a shortfall of $2
055million which essentially takes the tax increase from 4% to 6.3% so essentially a $2 million shortfall is equivalent to to a 2.3% tax increase for our taxpayers is that accurate correct and I think on slide 15 there was a discussion about curriculum okay so you just told us with the 2425 Surplus we were going to spend a million dollars on curriculum we set aside a million dollars for curriculum so decide in the respect that let's say we made a text or curriculum purchase that was $1.4 Million we are allowed to spread that out over several years being six years so then we expense a piece of last year's refresh every year for six years the numbers here are reflected of expensing out for six years next year's anticipated curriculum purchases so the bud increase for
056supplies which includes curriculum is a five almost a $600,000 increase in this budget so my question is out of a million dollar set aside for curriculum this line item looks like a $600,000 increase so my question is what's in that increase it is and you mentioned that's science and foreign language um so can we just get a little more information around I have all the detail on it so I can present that abely I'm just not sure I'm following like if we're only spending $200,000 a year out of that million why am I seeing a $500,000 plus it wouldn't be a year-to-year increase because you would have credited the 200 from the Surplus right the the increase for next year is differential is specifically for next year's purchases right right um so that doesn't make
057a whole lot of sense to me and the other question is when I look at that same slide 15 when we say other objects and other use of f of funds it says based on debt schedule so where does the debt schedule actually fall in like Which object is that is it okay that other objects or other uses of funds so principal Falls in one category and interest falls in the other that's why I kind of grouped them together to explain it because you may see one year you have a decrease in principle but an increase in interest so kinds of shifts kind of shifts from year to year okay so that makes sense to me so if I look at those two together I see that we get a decrease of 840 in one
058category and an increase of basically 450 in the other but when I go over to slide 20 I see The Debt Service increases by $900,000 so how is that so it's not just Debt Service like that number would have um includes the transfer to Capital that was planned so the decrease also is a is a um result of the not budgeting a transfer to Capital and they're also included in there is um a budgeted transfer to Food Service for $250,000 should it be needed so I guess what I'm sort of getting to is I've got I've got a $900,000 increase in debt service and I've got a million doll increase in curriculum as it sort of looks like and I've got a million $2 million increase in special education I think the special the curriculum
059wasn't that's kind of where I'm trying to figure out where I think curriculum was about 500,000 okay right well it says on here it's 500,000 but you're also you put set aside the million dollars from the Surplus so my question is like you're spending that million dollars over years you know five or six years but essentially I could have used that whole Surplus for this next year budget instead if you didn't make the curriculum purchase right or if we chose not to make curriculum purchases in 2526 that are going to be $500,000 more than what we spent in 2425 you see where I'm going um I just as I look at these numbers I think we're gonna we're going to need to dig down into these a little further AB because there's going to be
060some hard decisions to make and the other so the other thing I really would like to see a little bit more information around is the debt schedule and I know we've had the financial guys come in and talk about the debt schedule and what the timing looks like on that debt schedule and when some of our debt falls off and all that I think we need to revisit that for the board and make sure we all understand what do we what are we spending the extra you know almost a million dollars for debt on and you know know I assume that in that increase is basically attributable to the borrowing for the high school project correct so there's an option for us to make a decision at some point here very very soon that we
061could design a high school that we don't end up actually moving forward to construct in order to keep the budget from going Beyond say a 4% Act One Index right that is an option okay thank you questions to my left Miss K just going back to what I I think what doc what uh Kate Miss graph was saying was the Surplus that we had last year was the 1.5 million and that we already committed that 1 million to curriculum did we spend that already done and spend so did it roll over to what you're saying for this next budget it's spent in terms of that we we SP cash for it right so we expense a piece of it every year for the next five or six years and then you're looking at it then
062here yeah just if we could look at that and break it down and give the clarification and finance when we're looking at the other objects that' be great um my question comes from the revenue component where how come you're saying there's going to be you're not looking at a change in Revenue when it comes to our local assessments increase in assessment values because I feel like every year we always do up until May we put that in consideration and that actually jumps up a million a million each time we have seen like a huge influx of residential appeals and so from month to month I'm seeing like increases and then decreases and then increases and then decreases so once I have the um like the January report should be I should have a figure that
063I should feel comfortable using okay I think the one thing I did love was I this looks great I love this outline I love like specifics because I feel very direct to no where we're looking at but I did love at the the old budget where it would show each month some change things that were're to look at which was always the health care cost always the assess because I I want to go all the way to the end of May to get the assessed value in consideration of where we're going to be as far as our acceptance of budget and I see that we have accepting budget adoption of final budget May 27th I I would like to have it in June I'd like that final number for assess values first um so that's
064the only thing I would definitely you know take a look at for that so thank you and I think you've heard the rest of the group where we are so I think I appreciate it and I think I look forward to finance committee working together on the special ed and all the other different areas thanks thank you Miss kre other questions uh for members to my left Miss Austin hi thank you um I'm on uh 14 and again the onetoone nursing Services based on student needs and just gets me thinking again about the substitute nursing costs yep so are are nurses their own category and they're not included when we talk about substitute costs they're they're they're a different category or are they included with the how we budget for substitutes I guess that's my
065question um and we're talking a lot about curriculum and I would really like to see that category of expenses going back sever years like five years what have we been what have we bought what have we done yep what have we budgeted for what have we what have we spend um because I really want a big snapshot like a longer term snapshot of where what that's been yeah I know Mr uh Walsh presents it to um education committee so I can definitely that's definitely something I can get you and um I guess just you know looking at at our Trends on slide 16 um the special education Support Services cost I mean because that has been going up um and it just I guess we were with this budget we were kind of splitting the
066difference of the past two years I'm I'm just surprised that that that we weren't budgeting a little more proactively um for that um the other thing I would like to get information on and this is um related you know when we're talking about added District placements and I know students are placed out a district for a number of reasons and um but one of the things we were talking about with our reach program is that an offset to the cost of that program would be a reduction in in out of District placements I would just like more information to look at that a little more comprehensively I would like to know how many students were serving um just and an outline of reach and are we really maximizing those dollars that we're putting into it
067or is there a better way we could be thinking about it to maximize our dollars there um and yeah I I did also notice the north mon CCH um because so I think that's about a difference of 213,000 um that that's off um Liz can I just jump in because I think there was a misunderstanding on your ask related to the curriculum schedule I think you were asking for you know over the last 5 years what we have prepaid for and how the schedule lays out not just the the timing of the six-year cycle that Dr Walsh goes through is that correct I I would like both I would I would like that to see the six-year cycle and I I want to see what the budget is where we're hitting the budget what's projected
068to then hit again um yeah that's how I understood it the whole thing yeah um okay I think that was it oh no my my last question is related to State uh state revenue um so the the budget 25 is 28 million like are we counting that extra amount that we got from that unexpected amount that we got from the state for for the basic education the special education subsidy is that included in there so where where is that number is about $340,000 so that number is included in like basic Ed subsidy for next year was what was what is actually going to be received for this year which was the budgeted amount plus the difference and then I increased it 2% so it's the known subsidy for this year plus an additional 2% okay
069right so so I see the proposed 20 26 but the is the budget 2025 on slide oh gosh I can't see that um is that inclusive of or it because the the budget didn't include what we didn't know we were getting yet do you see what I'm saying we were unaware that we were getting that what was it 700,000 and another right that $700,000 it was $340,000 340 we were unaware that we were getting when we pass the budget when we passed the budget so this number 28476 is that inclusive of the I'm just wondering let us confirm that okay okay thank you thank you [Music] other questions um Miss Ste yeah thank you so much for this again uh I just want to go back since curriculum has been mentioned a number of times
070I did just want to ask one thing first with the data you're bringing back just to go off of um Miss Austin's request I think it would be helpful with curriculum to The Limited degree but for instance the science I know is in response to a change in the standards the seal standards so that gets our district aligned it's not just a updating texts so if that difference would be very helpful and included um versus foreign language um so that would be really helpful um I was actually wondering if the curriculum supplies included professional development and uh the school's Cube discussion and literacy needs or if that was somewhere else where that was being fit into the budget and discussed um similarly I was wondering um the coaching program and instruct that is instructional focused
071is that under just Personnel or is that under somewhere else how is that budgeted coaching services like not coaching Services the coaching program in the district like the the teachers who are the coaches I'll get back to you on that thank you so much thank you Miss Ste any other questions Miss P cha thank you for the presentation um could you explain the requirements necessary to qualify for the special education exemption yes so your special education costs like it Compares cost year-over-year and so they um they have to increase at a certain rate and then the state gives you an exception which has to be greater [Music] than and then I don't I don't know if I'm asking this question right but would you be a would you be able to show if there was
072that increase through the exception would you be able to show that how that amount of money is being applied to special [Music] education it makes sense the exception is about $2 million and um our increase in Special Ed I think is about $2.5 million if that's what you're asking because it's not like we don't specifically apply it to certain pieces just let in a hole as a whole okay I think that's it thank you thank you any other comments to miss kro there's a great Workshop uh worksheet that uh Tim bicker used to give us about the special ed exemption worksheet I think that would be great if we could share that with them because then I think it would show you where you have to fill out a form in order to qualify and
073it shows you number of students cost per students and that's basically really shows why that exemption is necessary so I think it's a great one to see simple it's a simple form yeah you have it done so put it on there any other comments to my left to my right seeing Oh no one other so uh again uh it this brings us back to the last slide of the of the presentation and talking about next steps um it is the it is the the recommendation uh to uh put on the agenda for the 28th item a uh that that based on our presentation here this evening that would mean that if put on the agenda we would have a vote uh as to whether or not to Pro to authorize Administration to move forward to
074make the uh the 2028 the PD 2028 form available for public inspection for 20 days and then that would bring us to a uh a meeting on the on the scheduled work session in February which would be advertised as two separate meetings the first meeting being a meeting of uh the board to adopt uh the proposed preliminary budget as presented with the pte 2028 form and then to file for the for the exception to take it if needed again this is I I'll say it it is preliminary in terms of uh whether we need it right now uh or we need it you know come May or whenever we approve the budget but in in the instance that we do need it um it gives us that flexibility um when necessary uh if we decide
075not to vote on a and we vote on B uh that would mean that there would be you know similar uh and and more uh direct uh discussions about uh the programs and and the services and things that we need to cut in terms of the budget in order to bring it under uh a specific uh 4% tax increase so with that said um any comments uh which kind of go uh down the line here any comments on whether or not you want to see A or B on the agenda for for next week yeah I'll start um I support uh putting a on I know that it's a hard pill to swallow but it does not mean that we are raising I know that that will be we um it might try to be
076spun that we immediately have decided to raise taxes 6 point whatever percent it ends up being but the bottom line is if if we can't get to 4% um we need the ability to figure out what what that number is by going through the budget cycle um and cutting ourselves off on that option at this point in time is not the um the right approach for the delivery um of course there's other things that go into that increase around debt um um and things like that so but that's the point the point is we need more time and we need to get that number um you know lower and uh to be able to make the right choices so we need to have that flexibility so that's why I support going with the uh proposed
077preliminary budget of with taking the special education exception are there any other comments to my left M mer or right I'm sorry no I just want to say I Al I agree with Paul I I support given the schedule that we have to apply for this that we submit we vote to submit for the uh education special education exemption I don't support the full increase and I will push hard to find places to get it on get it within budget within act act one but I do think it's wise for us to uh to give us give us more latitude to work through the budget understood thank you m clear uh so respectfully I disagree um strongly um when we last uh debated a potential tax increase and borrowing in conjunction with a potential of
078a new high school construction project we were assured over and over again that we would not need to exceed the acan index of 4% we agreed to some initial borrowing we agreed to spend $3.2 million in costs to proceed with the design phase uh based on these assumptions I mean I can say that's why I voted for it um and now just a short time later we're now discussing a 6% uh property tax increase and being asked to consider these um seeking referendum exceptions to act one from the state I I just I feel the need to say that we are supposed to be not only stewards of public education but equally as important as good stewards of our taxpayers funded dollars and in my opinion this is not F fiscally responsible I recommend that
079we do not continue down this path I think strongly that if you vote uh uh yes to is it option b if you yeah if you vote for option A next week uh to proceed down this path that we are sending the wrong message to the administration um and to the taxpayer I think that we need to stop to completely flip the Paradigm scheme or not scheme but the the Paradigm here and look at it differently rather than saying we have to you know put leave this on the table um rather than consider considering that because it's It ultimately is an additional taxpayer burden we need to tell the administration no like and and and firmly say that and go back and we have to do the work and present us with a budget an
080updated budget for us to consider the gets below the act1 index um I that's it thank you thank you any other comments on M um so I will tell you um I I'm it's really curious to me that we have an act one index of 4% and with the special education exemption we go to 6.3 and this budget comes in at a 6.3 not a six not a 5.75 a 6.3 so whatever the administration did to get to this budget was to bring the numbers down to the threshold where this special exemption would allow us to go and I agree with Miss clear like I do not think that's how I set a budget at home and I don't think that's how we should be setting a budget here I do not do not want
081to cut funding for our programming I do not want to cut programming for our curriculum and our kids and the activities that they get to do here but I will tell you that if our special education costs are so high that we need to get them under control maybe we need a year to do that and we need to put the high school project on hold for a year and I am not afraid to do that and I am very very afraid to think about the prospect of our taxpayers having to pay 6.3% tax increases and that may not be super popular with the rest of the board and I understand the idea of giving us some flexibility and some space to make these cuts and to make these choices and have time to do
082that my fear is that we're going to end up at a 4.75 or a 5.5 and that's still too high it is still too high and I have spent a couple of days thinking about this and going back and forth and at the end of the day I don't think that I can say with a straight face that I think that this budget has been reviewed and assessed and pulled apart enough for us to have done our homework to say we can't get below four I think that we can and I think that $2 million out of this budget is not that much to pull out of the budget we can find $2 million we can find $900,000 just by not going forward and borrowing the money for the high school project so that's not
083a lot for us to get to the other million and a half right I think it can be done and if we need to put that project on hold for a year then that's what we need to do I I just I I know I work better when I'm under pressure and I think if we take this exception we will take the pressure off and we will allow more flexibility to say well what's a little more what's a little more what's a little more and suddenly we're at you know 6% increase in tax so that's where I am thank you any uh comments to my left M puru no I I I think what when we adopt a budget is when we work our hardest throughout the year and I think the committee that is
084the job of the committee that is the job of presenting it each time is that we go through this exercise of of really giving a full focus on it so as a board and as an Administration we are we are committed to that I do I do support a only because I I worry about the trends since that covid nonsense that went on through all that that hindered us and the special ed increases that I've seen throughout of state state of Pennsylvania I've seen the increases firsthand and I'd love to see the trends of what the from the business administrator when she meets the rest of the districts what they're experiencing I think special ed is heightened like no other before there is autistic Support classes and I've seen it it's just it's in it's
085in it's unremarkable it's like there's no comments to say to that but Aquin index has been founded to support what's been going on in in around us like so I really always like the definition of the AC one index um and special ed I've haven't seen that worksheet shows why we need it so there's a need for it for us to have this ability to work within it but I do not our direction is clearly to be below this so I just don't want to create boundaries for ourselves but I do think we have work to be put through and I've been through the cycles of budgets for the past seven years and we've always met with the same angst and we worked for seven years straight I've seen working down to keep it down
086keep it down so I think we just have to put the work in but I do support making sure we're not stuck in a boundary but thank you Mr Purdue um I think it's this is a little tough to take just because I think a lot of decisions we made um last year were based off the fact that we said we will not go above the Act One index and I have to agree to turn right back around and to be ask this and this amount it's it feels like a bit of an oversight or we were not thinking comprehensively um I've set through this board and going through the budget season and I think a 2 million um shortall I don't know how we bring that down and I think with proceeding to take
087um the exemptions puts us in a comfortable position I think I challenge that just from this presentation a lot of administration was coming back to me and a lot of the information was flushed out and I was given something and they said we really looked at everything possible and this is the best we can do different I hear that from this presentation I don't see that we've done everything possible so I'm not in favor of this I think it's um we need to do better so that's just where I stand thank you any other M Chanda um I am also pretty disappointed because I made a lot of decisions on the basis that we would not exceed the Act One index and for me we're here for the education of the kids and those are
088the that should be the priority and if that means we have to pause the high school project you know a building is not going to teach our kids they need it it's it's our High School is falling apart and I would love to see a new high school but not at the expense of Education thank you Miss steal uh thank you um just to piggyback this is a really hard the thought of increasing taxes over the actan index after voting with the Assumption with with the um with being Affirmed we would not have to is extremely hard to to even consider that vote for me um the other thing that I'm not comfortable doing is when we talk about special education and I look at all these numbers immediately what I think of is not
089just numbers it is the students families and teachers that are represented in these numbers and for the past two years I have talked to Dort I I've knocked on doors I've talked to constituents and I continually talk to people across the district who are in who are part of the special education program at every single step of the way um students with 504s um students being assessed students being supported families being supported and those experiencing transition and I and constituents concerned for teachers who are experiencing burnout or or are strug strling within the system I don't hear I mean you you never really it's really the people who are struggling who share but there's a lot of frustration in the system I am I understand the system I know across Pennsylvania it is a struggle
090I am not immune to that I don't think there is perfection but if there was a plan if there was something here that said we realize why these are going up and I know that there are all these excuses but what is the plan to look at the system and the structure to address it and say this is how we can fix it in this way these are the people we're talking to to do it maybe I would feel more comfortable but just saying the special education is the reason why we need it because of all these increases yes it's increasing but what is being done to better understand it because I don't think it's working for anyone either so in order for me to be comfortable even saying yes I need to understand how
091it's working and if we don't know how it's working in order to make it better which it's not perfect and that doesn't lean on any one person that's structural um I know everyone's working so incredibly hard but then I I have to agree with those saying we have to prioritize education so when I look at cuts that need to be made to the budget we have to prioritize those that have a direct impact on our students the curriculum and profession de professional development that they need um the supports that they need um for instance we need to keep everything that is related to literacy we need to keep everything related to coaches to make sure that that is structur that that that solidifies within our district and we also need to make sure that that
092we're looking at what is needed in special education in every level and maybe starting to think outside the box because I don't think anyone's doing it perfect but I can't say yes to borrowing for a high school for $9 million and looking at this I don't I don't I don't see I'm really struggling with this decision right now so I don't think I've meaned any way yet so thank you Miss Austin thank you um yeah in terms of this presentation I will say in the finance committee I I was surprised to see that the um the exception was the starting point uh that we were talking about with these numbers and I understand understand what voting for taking it means that it just gives us leeway so that if we need a budget of say
093you know increase of 4.1 or 4.2 that that were able then to take that um however I also was reflecting on uh Mr Bricker and his slides of Doom that would show like all those negative revenues and all all that you know we would have no money by 2037 if we didn't do certain things and what really happens is that year-over-year we have a consistent budget surplus and I and I understand also that year-over-year the the you know I think there's 17 categories in this presentation um that are the reasons why for this year's budget surplus I understand it's there's it's nothing to bank on it's it's seemingly random sometimes really unexpected factors um come into the Surplus but the fact is that it is it is there consistently year-over-year um and I'm just afraid
094that voting for this does not send the message to um to Administration to take a comprehensive look at at efficiencies of spending and I do not think it sends a good message to our taxpayers that we're looking at a new build and but yet and we were told that that new building could be at at or below the aqu one index and now it it seems like we are having this big project in mind but yet then we're sort of crying poor and um saying to our taxpayers you need to to to give us even more for that and so I am I'm not comfortable with this thank you all for your your feedback this evening um I'm just going to make a few comments on based on what I heard so that you know
095we can all kind of get bring this uh together um I think it's important to recognize that the uh the budget that we presented to you um was certainly not the starting point of of the administration's work um You probably only heard it one time in Miss steppy's presentation but that is this presentation is actually with $1.6 million of reductions and we can certainly outline what those reductions are for you um but like those reductions those aren't things that we can make unilaterally and what I what I'm suggesting to you this evening is there are needs for cuts in this in this budget the the challenge that that uh we will have as a as a as a Administration and as a board is prioritizing what those cuts are going to be so with with
096that said um what the Act One index plus the exception does for you as a board is allows you greater flexibility in making the determination of what those cuts are it doesn't mean that you can't cut to get to the point you're at a 4% tax increase a 3% tax increase or whatever or no no tax increase what it does is it it it provides you the opportunity did to say if if I if if the administration is proposing to cut the XYZ program and again that's a fictitious program it doesn't doesn't exist but if we're recommending to cut that and that's a program a program that you believe is a priority for the district um and and certainly there's a a conflict of uh between the administration and the board about whether that should
097or shouldn't be uh cut uh it does give uh you know some uh availability for us to you know you know hedge the Hedge a decision on that so so while I and I just share with you that I've been involved with budgets and as Miss canro had mentioned uh certainly uh We've we've done uh Cuts in just about every year that we've uh you know presented budgets uh to the board of school directors U but I can tell you that um voting to adopt the uh the resolution by which you would not go above the Act One exception uh does put you in a position then to have to cut certain programs that you might not otherwise want to cut and that's that's my only worry um and and you may not agree with
098that philosophy uh but it allows you uh to like like for example as as Miss ker mentioned I I think it was her um that it might actually take us a year to wait or it might take us you know you know 18 months to you know outline and and and come up with the plan that's that you you don't have here before you about how we're going to make those reductions and that's kind of really the time that we need in order to do it so those are those are some things I just want you to consider but it but it sounds as though um there's there's a there's a uh a majority of opinion that we adopt a resolution to not raise the taxes above the act1 index and if I'm hearing it
099differently you know please advise me or certainly give Miss canro uh your your opinion otherwise before we construct the agenda uh for which the motion uh will be uh placed on it for next Tuesday uh any other comments or or questions at this point in time seeing none M oh I'm sorry Mr mki can we take a closer look at slide 23 and 2 5 not not now just uh because I think there's some there's some inconsistency in the representation of real estate tax revenue between those two slides 23 and 25 23 and 25 okay Dr Zerby if I could just add one more thing I understand where people are coming from but I do think um although you don't like the Optics of voting for a pimary budget that has a six point bu
100um the point of not knowing where those cuts will come when you're worried about the education at delivery and worry about possibly having to cut a reach program a cut certainly the debt I understand the point but the bottom line is the debt increase is not the whole difference in the special education exception so I understand the princip making the stand I disagree with the principle that the admin is not trying to get to having an exact number that is this that's because it's a preliminary budget it has not been fine-tuned to that level so it doesn't matter if it's 6.3 or 6.1 at this point it could move move up to 6.3 tomorrow because she gets a new update related to health educ health care so the principle everybody's argument that they don't want
101to make these cuts by voting for option b you are putting yourself into not knowing what those choices are and having to make harder choices than possibly raising taxes 4.3% or whatever that number ends up being so I just want everybody to think for the next week if that's truly what you want to do is to be making those hard choices because you have no options M kro you know I just wanted to Echo only that as well because um it's only every two years that we vote for special at exemption is that correct Miss stuffy it's not every year that we vote for an opportunity right so the other thing is that through that worksheet it shows why it's necessary because they and and in truth we've always voted against it every two years
102where're that's why you're seeing though our Trends have been going up but we're always voting down special ed support because we're going to get it under budget and we do and we work hard to do that but notice that we year after year after year special ed goes up a million dollars every year you've seen it there so we're voting against special ed even though it's in CL it's cining and there's a worksheet that shows that we need it we're just going to vote against it so that's my only other thing too is that the borrowing cost that we would look at for high school is a little it's a small amount compared to the needs of the district where we are right now so that's what I'm only saying is that this is I
103do not want to be above the Act One index absolutely not and I want us to work towards getting it down like we have it in the past but I just want to realize that that's there's a purpose for the ACT one you know Act One index and there's a purpose for special exemption is that we hit them both and that's not to do with the building of the high school except you know with some component I I agree with the borrowing but not the majority thank you any any other comments oh I'm sorry Miss steal if we were I guess so I don't I'm not necessarily taking a stand although again this is hard to swallow after the votes that we've done previously but if we were to move forward with the special education
104exemption and even if we're not to be very honest with these increases and how much they are above the budgeted that we that was budgeted before I would really like to see a priority be taken on understanding as well as rethinking and creating a plan to address the needs of special education because I think we see the needs in many different ways and I think it is impacting and coming out in our budget and other areas and I think that that needs to start being a conversation that has had um because I don't feel comfortable in just saying well it's it's special ed here's look all the money so we have to pay I I I I'd like to see more of a plan in the addressing if that makes sense um I think that
105that's really important and again Perfection is not what I'm asking for I understand this is an issue everywhere but that's part of thinking outside the box and I think we need to start thinking that way because it's a very large percentage of our population and I think we need to our numbers are indicating that we need to yeah I I just want the the board to know that uh as we were preparing uh for the for the budget and recognizing the uh the the costs associated with the special education we began formulating that plan um and we we can certainly share that with the board we don't we don't have that for you this evening but we certainly have uh a number of items that we know we need to address and we're not saying
106that we're cutting special education I just want to make sure that people understand what I'm saying here I'm saying that there's there's a there's an appropriate way to deliver special education obviously within the law and obviously based on the needs that our students have and we want to make sure that we're meeting those needs in every which way possible uh but there there are different designs on how that service can be delivered and there are different ways that we can do an equally or better job uh with uh less resources and those are the types of conversations that we've started having and we can certainly uh share with you at at a at a later date uh what that that that plan will be and what our projection is in terms of those cost reductions
107uh but certainly not service reductions if that makes sense uh but I I don't have that for you this evening so I I recognize that presenting you with this type of information and not having all the information that you need in order to uh say I'd like to know exactly where we're going to be in may now um is very difficult for you to make a make a vote so I want you to know that I recognize that and I certainly wouldn't be presenting uh this to you if I felt that I can unilaterally give you all that you need in order to get us down to four or below so with that said I'm I'm only suggesting that going with option A whether you like it or or not it it in in my
108experience it will give you you the best and most uh um U appropriate means for which to bring a budget in that is not only appropriate to the tax base but also appropriate to continue delivery of our programs and services while the plan that we put in place to either for special ed for any other uh area of of budgetary increases that we want to address can have its time to play out in the process but making all the making the decision that we we're going to stay within the 4% now without having all the information is going to be very challenging in in if if if we do that I'm just not warning you I'm just sharing with you it's been my experience that you may not be you may not like the choices
109that are are brought before you uh if if we're we're in that position um but again um also one of one other thing that that that is that is interesting in terms of looking at the presentation that Miss Stephie put together was that we've we've consistently uh been budgeting and raising taxes well under the Act One index and so while we come to you uh and what Miss caner was saying earlier we we it was on a regular basis it was every other year that we be became eligible based on the cost of special education over the last say 10 15 years it was it just seemed to be a cycle about every other year that we were eligible for special exception and when we identify what the Act One index is and that the
110state you know provided these exceptions for the consideration of of of increased cost in those three areas paser debt and uh um special education costs and they did that with a reason understanding that we're talking about underfunding the the operation based on the increases in the previous years of cost of goods and services in in the economy so we've done a tremendously good job at budgeting uh for on a year-to-year basis I think in the last 10 years we've done the act one uh index plus the exception one time um and I'm not suggesting here this evening that we need to take the full act one exception or any portion of that I'm saying this is the opportunity for you to uh for us all to work together to make sure that the choices that
111we need to make uh for next year's budget can be made uh and and given you enough room to make those even if they have to occur over a longer period of time than just one year so those are those are some comments to cons to to consider uh certainly uh I I will continue to be in communication with the board president about what matter how we you know we how we put this on the agenda I certainly appreciate your feedback here this evening um if if your opinions or comments uh change after this evening please reach back out to her uh for uh you know and provide that feedback so that we can put the right uh motion on the agenda uh for your con for your consideration again that motion can be uh
112you know approved uh not approved um but we have to approve one or the other uh and that's that's what's on the agenda for the 28th uh with that said uh I appreciate your time this evening and certainly I appreciate your thoughtful input on all of this oh I'm sorry Miss graph yeah I I had two thoughts one um is it possible for us to see the impact to the budget of the proposed borrowing for the high school project in 2425 so the differential in the you know to to Mr Winter's point I'd like to see the differential in the budget if we do not choose to borrow any additional funds in 24 25 certain do that and then the second question is um and this is not going to be something I that you
113could put together before next week but I think it's important when we talk about spending in a lot of these areas is that we're thinking about it benchmarking right does our reach program cost double what the reach program costs at North pen does our reach program service half as many students and cost twice as much I don't know but we need to be benchmarking what we're spending and what we're getting for those dollars because there is a possibility that when things were Grant funded they were you know we weren't very concerned about spending the money and that approach has continued even though now the money is coming out of our own pocket so I just think we need to be thinking about benchmarking our programs to make make sure that they're actually being well spent
114dollars and my concern is you know when we look at special education we under budgeted two years in a row by almost double and then in 2425 we we increased the budget to $6 million and we still are overspending so to me who's watching the store right like we need to be paying close attention to what our budget is and what we're spending and if we're not coming in close to the budget we should be explaining that to the board and in the next year's budget we should be explaining why there's going to be this increase and it should have had there should have been some justification in that process and so my concern is if we just continue to move forward and say well let's just move forward and do the best we can
115how do we prevent this from happening in some other area next year or in the high school project which is you know not $7 million but $200 million so I think that we need to get our house in order and then decide how we want to proceed that's just my take on it that does make sense and I appreciate that feedback um so with that uh thank you everyone for your feedback this evening uh Miss Stephy thank you so much for uh the presentation our goal is to be able to start moving forward to get you the information that you requested I can't guarant gue that we'll have everything for you for next week uh but certainly um that is sooner rather than later as terms of the process uh for the last presentation this
116evening um as as one of the things that uh we've been we've been asked to do in terms of seeking out grants uh that help support some of the programs uh we do have Dr serini and Mr savit our science curriculum uh chair here this evening to talk about the grant uh by the Pennsylvania Department of Education called the solar for schools Grant um and I know that Dr soini had presented a little bit of this information at the property committee meeting this month uh certainly this evening um we have uh some updated information but please know that uh as he presents this we don't have all the information that we need to finalize the recommendation so there is on the agenda a um a a resolution that if we're going to proceed forward with
117uh applying for this grant that we would need to pass uh next week because the deadline for the grant is at the end of this month but please know that we do not have all the information that we commonly would have when making this presentation we're waiting for a vendor uh to complete their assessment and with that we would then be able to complete the rest of the resolution and fill in the rest of the details so with that said Dr serini it's all yours thank you than you Dr Zerby and good evening Steve Savage and I are here presenting tonight about an opportunity to pursue a Department of community and economic development commonly referred to as dced Grant to construct an alternative energy source solar array to offset power suppli to the hydroponic farm
118at methacton high school to that end we are seeking approval of the board of school directors for methacton school district to apply for a PA for school's Grant through the PA Department of community and economic development the grant will seek funding to offset approximately 30% of the installation expenses for a small solar array either on the roof of the hydroponic Farm shipping container or on the ground adjacent to the container the ongoing use of the solar array will offset a small portion of the approximately 255 kilowatt hours per day that are required to operate the farm during the school year the solar aray will be integrated into the school's curriculum and will serve as a visible learning tool for students teachers and visitors I'll now turn the presentation over to Steve to review the curricular
119and educational impacts of pursuing the grant opportunity Steve hello everyone as Jason mentioned the solar for schools act sponsored by the dced will reduce the cost of implementing solar energy systems in schools across the the Commonwealth the DC is awarding $25 million to support this program and we're looking for the grant to cover 30% of the cost of the solar array for the hydroponic Farm further cost reduction to the project will be aided by applying for federal tax credits so let's talk about the hydroponic Farm itself you know we're the only hydroponic Farm in the country that teaches students about the science of hydroponic farming while learning how to run the farm as a business the students are in charge of absolutely everything from seeding harvesting to the maintenance straight through generating invoices for the
120produce that they sell to tusco the Elwood Park Zoo and a school run farmers market the solar to school Grant will allow us to extend this learning experience into additional topics like renewable energy and carbon Footprints the curricular enhancements and vantages are many for instance every ninth grade student takes the environmental science course which covers in renewable energy now imagine each class having the ability to leave their classroom for an on-site field trip to see a solar array and learn how it works in person students will see firsthand how much energy is being collected and how it is also weather dependent they can then relate all this information to the carbon footprint of the farm before and after the the solar aray installation students will also see which aspects of the farm draw the largest
121amounts of energy and discuss with us ways to make it more energy efficient we will also provide the opportunity for other schools to visit us as well as produce webinars discussing the journey as our form Works towards achieving a zero carbon footprint and zero waste goal I'll turn it back to Jason to talk more about the grant proposal thank you Stephen as Dr Zerby said a facility assessment is a required component of the grant submission generation 180 is a nonprofit company that works with schools to conduct a facility assessment in advance of pursuing solar energy solutions they were on site at the high school last week to see our hydroponic Freight farm and also to review the logistics associated with implementing solar panels to defay some of the uh necessary electric power that uh is
122required for the farm that assessment looked at five areas including the orientation of the proposed solar array which is either the roof of the freight Farm or the adjacent ground a solar shading study to determine how much sun the area near the farm gets in the day and if there's anything like trees or structure in the area that might impede that a 25-year cash flow analysis an overall cost estimate to implement the solar array as compared to traditional electric costs uh which will determine a return on investment and also the development of a maintenance and operation plan for the future through the initial assessment it was determined that the freight Farm requires approximately 255 kilowatt hours of electricity per day to run during the school year uh for reference a kilowatt hours a unit of
123measurement for electricity usage it's the amount of energies energy that's used to run a 1,000 watt appliance for 1 hour so we're at 2 55 kwatt hours per day to supply the amount of power that would re uh be required to uh fully run the farm it would take 116 solar panels that is not what we are requesting also required in this process is a string inverter a string inverter would be installed close to the main service panel or electrical meter the electricity generated by the solar panels is then sent to the inverter where it's converted to AC current which would would then be used to uh Power the the appliances that are in the farm also required is a 200 amp breaker at the main electrical panel and a solar disconnect to shut off
124the AC power from the electrical grid as well as utility meters to measure the power in and out the estimated overall cost to purchase and install enough solar panels to run the entire farm would be $27,600 however the intent is to only Power a portion of what is needed throughout the solar array I'm giving you that figure solely because that's the maximum amount but I reference that that is not what we are seeking uh our system therefore would only be a portion of that and would be a lesser cost to the district given the limited roof space available on the freight farm and the possibility that the upcoming high school project that has been discussed could disrupt the area of the freight Farm we are not recommending that the board pursue the entire uh amount
125of solar energy that would be required to power the entire Farm rather once the facility assessment that Dr Zerby had mentioned is completed we will be then recommending that the grant pursue only the amount of panes CA panels rather capable of being placed on the roof of the freight Farm or perhaps a small area adjacent to the farm the grant awards for reference are determined by applicant market value uh to personal income Aid ratio which is MV p and that's determined by the Pennsylvania Department of Education it represents the relative wealth in relation to the state for uh average for each pupil in methacton school district based on this the maximum eligible dced grant for methacton would be 30% of the of the cost of the project there is also a federal solar tax credit
126which may cover up to 30% of the projected cost which we can actually pursue as well the as I had mentioned the estimated total cost for the project if fully powering all panels would be $127,600 of which the meaan cost of that would be 70% a smaller project will be less cost overall with methacton contribution obviously less of the project is funded at 30% we will know more once the assessment is complete we hope to have that to the board prior to the vote next week but we're providing this overall information so that you have the information and as Dr Zerby had mentioned this has to be completed by January 31st so we are providing that to you now I would also mention that we're seeking additional funding from the methacton Education Foundation as we
127pursue this this project and I'll turn it to Steve for one more slide so the addition of the solar array will provide our students with a stem experience that continually grows in Innovation and origin ity the array will be a new educational experience right outside the classroom and open to all teachers beaken will continue to Foster and expand this unique learning environment only available in our district thank you thank you Mr savit and thank you Dr sorini are there questions from members of the board related to this solar for schools program Miss graph yeah I'm I I really appreciate you guys coming today I think this is such a cool idea and I love that you listened and heard what we said in property and are coming back with an alternative to do a small
128project that the district may be able to you know may warrant you know investing the money in this so I appreciate that and I and I know that it's probably not exactly what you guys were thinking but I do appreciate that you're cognizant of where where we are right now um the other question I had is I think that typically the um shipping containers roofs are not um able to withstand a lot of weight so I would suggest that if we haven't done an investigation of that we would need to do an investigation of that perhaps our engineer could take a quick look and tell us if the roof of the actual container could actually withstand that because I have heard that they're not very they don't have a lot of support structure to be
129able to take the weight of the panels I don't if you guys have looked into it I well the site visit that we had the other day he was climbing on top of that to measure that exact answer give the exact answer to that and that's part of the conclusion we haven't received okay just something to consider sure yeah um Miss Clary thank you for the presentation I am a huge proponent of the hydroponic Farm I I I love it my kids loved it love it um so just a couple of so just a couple of questions um one the grant itself when does that Grant have to be used by do we know I know that question had been asked if property it does not have a sunset provision on it so we had
130read all of the information on the Grant and it doesn't identify an amount of time so does that conclusively mean that even if we applied for it and got it we wouldn't have to use it for four years if that was that the way that we went we're going to have to verify that that that's typically that's typically there's typically a time frame for which it has to be spent by can we are we going to be able to find that answer out before we vote next week we should be able okay because I I think that's really important I mean I think that if we're going to take a step to apply for a grant we'd want to know that we'd be willing to move forward with it um in my opinion um as
131opposed to have you apply for it and then we pull back for for whatever reason because of the potential of a new high school [Music] um um hold please so in terms of the costs um Dr sergia I think I heard you say uh that the the small project the the larger that you're not doing in the 127,000 it would include both install the purchase and install did I hear that correctly that's correct okay all right because the the slide just says install so that that was important to me um is there an anticipated cost well let me ask it this way do solar panels have a [Music] lifespan and uh maybe we could find that out yeah I'd like to know what that what that is uh two notes one uh we did look
132at putting the array in the ground and screwing it into the ground as opposed to cement so it could be moved when a new high sk is built and I'd say the typical solar panel lasts between 20 and 30 years if you take an average of 25 okay and do we have any sense of what the cost would be to to move to move that to move to move those or do we have I I don't know if that's expensive not expensive like I don't have any sense of um is that something that we think our owner rep might have any any opinion on that we might uh ask it's worth a shot I guess okay um and then I I apologize because I know you went through it I just it was too fast
133I didn't understand it the slide on um on how much we're asking for um so can you can you run through the numbers again with me if we're not asking for the hundred if we're not if the cost isn't going to be if the project cost isn't going to be 127,000 what actually is the project cost that you're proposing again that's what we don't know yet as Dr Zerby has had said at the beginning some amount I'm sorry some amount less than that I only gave that that number as a if we were to go for a a full buildout to try and and power the entire Freight Farm with solar that's the amount that it would cost we're going for something far less than that we're just waiting for the assessment to come back
134to tell us what's a reasonable amount and we yes yeah the the 127,000 is based on the number of panels that we would need to purchase and then install in somewhere either the ground over the roof of the high school which is likely going to be a significant amount more panels than what can actually fit on the roof of the hydroponic farm so so and and and that then would mean that there would be actual less Energy savings a total offset uh to that but it also would be some uh energy offset at the same time being a a measure of the curriculum did you just say the for the high school well I think originally one of the conversations was that the the the number of panels at per the 100 $27,000 would have
135to go somewhere and they and they don't all fit on to to do the full amount of electron electricity replacement you would have to have an area large enough for the number of panels and how many panels would that be right yeah of the 116 panels I mean the limitation was space so as you were talking about the roof of the freight Farm the one thing the engineer was looking is how many panels could fit on the farm and then they looked at a location that got enough sun and he was going to calculate how many panels could fit in that area to optimize the rotation of the Sun so those two would then be that price so he comes back and says you know in this area we can put 25 panels in sufficiently
136so now we're at 25% of the 116 and then the the price now drops you know 75% so like what that number is simply by how many panels we can afford and Will We Know by next week's vote Yes okay okay um damn the other thing I like to just throw in to is that the farm is $3,600 a year in cost to run it so if it's at 25 panels we calculated it would be 10 to 12 years for it pays for itself like a normal solar array wood on a house and then that electricity would not be have to be paid for anymore um this may be a question that neither gentleman can answer but I'm going to ask it anyway are these types of solar grants come up in the state every
137year or is this like the one unique opportunity where we need to take advantage of it this this is the first time that PA has has done this type of solar for schools Grant um one of the major uh um backers of this uh project was uh representative Webster in a a local community um and then finally were were these costs or some semblance of these costs factored into the budget that was presented tonight or is this in addition to that those those costs were not factored into the budget anything would be in addition to that but it would likely the recommendation would be that we would use a capital uh project funds uh to pay the difference of the 70% for this year and then okay well because there' be costs year-over year Well
138are there costs year-over year or or we just talking about electric savings year-over-year yes savings okay so there's a so so okay there's no cost after it's just a onetime cost okay thank you thank you Mr wyers yeah so I'm just gonna ask uh um around the curriculum you know putting putting the the actual panels on our roof or and on the container itself is that being able to actually touch the panels as a student not part of the program or do we expect that people would be climbing up onto the roof to look at the no if it was obviously on the ground it'd be something they could see if on the ground it's going to be fenced off so they won't be able to get to the panels and touch them but they'd
139be able to close enough to see the small solar squares representing the photo the cells and that becomes more of a lesson plan if it was on the roof of the freight Farm it would just be a matter of having a picture of closeup what they're looking at and then showing that okay and then uh I didn't uh attend the property meeting so I don't know exactly what the discussion was but the I understand that we're trying to sort of replace the electricity usage that we're using related to the freight form but does there need to be actually a phys obviously if you're putting on the roof it doesn't have to be a physical connction ction um so when we're thinking about the plans of potentially uh doing something with the high school is there
140a plot maybe in the uh on the outside of the track inside the fence uh you know near the scoreboard or something that is not planned to be touched uh with a high school program is there and I I know that we sort of I believe you guys backed off of the looking at the Woodland as well I realized that having a farm at Woodland for the high school program is not advantageous but I guess the cons the the question is to put something in right now when we don't know what we're going to do and we're have to spend money to move it we're talking about an installation with a reinstallation it seems like not necessarily the right timing for methacton so that's really wondering if there's a place to lock it in that
141we could take advantage of the grant but also know that it's not really going to move yeah I think I think he makes excellent points uh Mr wyers the the challenge is um and and maybe this was this is where Miss Clary was going you know if we if we can hold off for two years to actually spend the money after applying for it to make the actual better determination you mean that makes makes a lot more sense um and I think that's we need to get that data and that's why we we we we originally proposed two options a large project correct and we and that was the wooden project if you remember this board has t maybe not everyone on this board right now but in years past we talked about potentially using
142some of the land at at the Woodland property in order to uh provide some uh energy offset uh and that that was a rather large project and do you remember million yeah so we were we were you know reaching into the millions of dollars uh for that particular project which we felt was a little beyond our scope uh given everything that was before us this seems to be an opportunity uh with with the assumption that we can have some electricity offset provide something for the curriculum and have a very di Minimus uh cost if it's actually just located on on the on the roof of the uh of the freight form if we need to put it in other locations that's going to be a more challenging uh conversation likely will contribute to the cost
143of of moving the electricity you know through wires to get it to uh the freight F like like like we may if if our timeline for applying this is not more flexible uh we we may have to pause and and and you know you know just wait for another round of this U will there be another solar for schools uh Grant in the future we can't determine that but this is the first one first year that we know that PA has had it so U those are all things we need to consider the the challenge this evening is we don't have enough information to completely give you what the recommendation is but we don't want to wait till the voting meeting to say hey we need you to give us a resolution uh on something
144right now uh without having some at least preconceived understanding of what we're dealing with Miss graph yeah it it seems to me like the most reasonable thing to do would be to size the system for what could fit on the roof of the of the existing structure and in that way they would just pick it up and move the structure just like they're planning to do anyway cuz because they are going to maintain that structure regardless of what high school project happens right so you could just relocate it it'll have the inverter mounted right on the building it everything is sort of contained then and and I know that's a much smaller project but a much smaller project fits within the budget a much smaller project still allows demonstration a much smaller project still allows
145our students to have the learning it it it just solves a lot of problems and I think that might just be the the best way to present it back to the board to get an opportunity to move forward um and it has very low bar for us to sort of do this project which might be helpful right now just just saying thank you so much for that input uh Miss kro yeah I just wanted to add that Dr Zerby and I met with uh representative Webster and he was really excited we met him just like second week in December so it was a big turn around super excited for this he was like let's see if we could pursue it so I do think there's an opportunity for just to go back to representative Webster
146let them know that we're looking into it let them be informed of where we are in the process and you know our decision Tre but if we do go ahead and move forward with it we don't have to accept it correct is that that's the thing like it's okay for us to vote for get it in get this grant in process see what the ability is and then we don't have to accept it but I do think it's a really cool thing to be able to investigate and and see we're the one place in Pennsylvania that would be able to have this functioning Hydroponics Farm it's why not see what the chances are so thank you any other comments um Miss Purdue um thank you for the presentation I I think it's a great program
147to consider or Grant to consider I think um I had some of the similar questions asked that I would like to get some more clarification or in reference to the sunset clause on the grant like if we get it what we have to do I think was also brought up by Miss graph is a good point also to think about I think when we think about anything that we'll have to consider putting in place and then having to relocate so reinstallation naturally that's a cost there and we don't know what that cost is I don't know if we'll know that by next week but it may be good to consider is there something that we put in place that the whole thing can be moved I don't know if that's also something so I don't
148I guess what I would like to know is um when will we have that information before next week or at or is this something that we're going to we we're voting on the Grant and then more information will be provided later our goal is to provide the information in advance of next week's vote um in the instance that we don't have the information needed um it may be then just too premature for us to to move forward at all I mean it's just just the way it is but inent is to give you as as much information that you can reasonably uh approve a resolution and and as Miss canro said um if we are awarded we can choose not to accept it and therefore not be required to expend the 70% associated with the
149grant whatever that amount is and I just have one I know it was mentioned about maybe discussion with the MEF has that happened already or is there a proposed timeline to get some input from the the initial discussion with the uh the uh executive director occurred uh last week and uh she was going to be taking that to uh her board thank you other comments questions Miss steel hi thank you so much for this presentation I just have a very two two quick questions um I just wanted to get a sense how many students have access and work with the Hydroponics lab like right now we we have 125 students sign up for it and we have 48 slots total wow that's awesome um that's great and then my other question would be um because
150there's classes that I think you mentioned that classes could go in and visit it talk about it do a lot of teachers take advantage of that is that something that's done or maybe moving into the curriculum or does that make sense it it does uh some have but not many be honest that's that's okay and and my next question is um how do the steals because I know there's a huge transition to the steel standards right now and 3D learning does this fit in with that um is it something that can be considered to be woven in with the c like the methacton curriculum because it is it's yeah it it scre it screams steals right because it's all handson and initiative and exploration and absolutely could be worked in all right that's um I
151had another question but it's gone so thank you so much sure thank you any other question Miss Alon yes hi thank you um just so that I know that I'm understanding this correctly the maximum cost that we're talking about is the 128 if we were going to the whole that's the maximum ever okay and then and then what we would be receiving would be 30% off and then there's another opportunity for federal 30% off correct okay it set up to 70 but because of our parameters of our we're looking at probably 30 the initi initially says up to 70% Federal but we're qualified for about 30 okay thank you um okay and then I just sort of have a in terms of this motion just um a couple mechanical questions with it um because what
152I'm seeing here on the agenda is approve the the resol resolution um per attach we don't have an electronic like we don't have a copy of this resolution here so I went into look at the resolution um resolution is on the agenda but it's not complete right yes so it's so it's electronically attached to the agenda I I see that it's not complete so it is going to I guess be it's either going to have a number in there or be an up to amount I guess I I have to see what the proposal is but yeah I mean it okay yeah and and so if we could as a board just so what we so we all understand what we're voting for could we e could we just have a paper copy of the
153resolution at the meeting next week so that we all can see um what we're what we're doing absolutely no okay good suggestion thank you thank you any other comments for Dr or questions for Dr Ser miss you remember the question okay just a minute um the my one question is uh so obviously there's SC there's different certifications for science teachers is hyd I'm guessing Hydroponics is special and is there like a programmed key make sure that there's teachers that live on when like you or does that make sense like wow that yeah that hurt are you looking at me no no saying that I you look very new so yeah no absolutely I mean Jeremy Walton who helps me run it the farm uh he's 15 years younger and uh we've had other teachers have
154the farm as a duty so they could get acquainted with how it works that's an awesome duty to have I have to say way better than Call of Duty many are uh always raising their hand to be a part of that so it's nice that's biology certific that's awesome thank you I just and not any commentary but I remember there was a visit to a school and there was like a a long lost lab somewhere that dis so thank you so much sure thank any other comments or questions for Dr sujini or Mr savath seeing none thank you so much for your your comments Dr Sav or Mr savis and Dr sujini thank you for your time this evening uh you will see that on the agenda for uh recognition of guests and schedual speakers
155next week we have the spirit of methacton Ward School director recognition and the high school uh project update uh there will be the the standard reports for committees and other uh individuals um you will see that the right the monthly right to know report will be uh uh posted and there are some advisements uh we'll have public comment on action items and then we go to the board uh uh meeting minutes so with that said for the work session this evening uh Miss Stephie we going to go through the fiscal items uh for the board there are nine fiscal items for the board's review this evening items 9A list of bills and item 9B Treasures report are attached 9 C there are no budgetary transfers 9 D IRS mileage rate approve the mileage reimbursement rate
156for travel from the previous IRS level of 67 cents per mile to the new IRS level of 7 cents per mile effective January 1st 2025 this is an increase of 3 cents per mile 9e the 2023 annual Financial audit approve the 2324 annual Financial audit and the single audit as prepared and presented by gourman and Associates certified public accountants note this is considered a clean audit with no findings tax collector compensation rate approve the tax collector compensation adjustment as outlined in board resolution 2501 as attached 9g solar for schools Grant resolution approve the solar for schools Grant resolution 25-2 as per attached item 9h AR Cola Roofing approved toan Jan Incorporated change order number one in the amount of $ 56,86282 for unused allowances item 9 I Arcola Sky View pavement improvements project approve cha
157Consulting of Bethlehem PA to provide Engineering Services for the arola sky view pavement improvements project in accordance with the existing Master agreement the preliminary estimated construction cost for the project is $940,000 the estimated fee for services is$ 65,8 00 with an additional not to exceed fee of $32,000 for added services not covered under the master ingredient um Master agreement including boundary topographic surveys course sampling and construction phase sampling that includes the fiscal items thank you Miss deppy other questions for Miss deppy on any of the items presented under fiscal seeing any any to my right uh to my left Miss puru um thank you can you just review um I I'm just not I don't recall that project um so this um came from property so our the sky Cola complex uh has a Paving
158project that's coming up this summer so the estimated cost for the paving project is $940,000 the fee is for cha to go ahead and get us bids for the paving work and then also oversee the paving work and provide Engineering Services for the paving work which will happen in the summer um do you have anything to add Dr sori it would be an estimated 25,000 square yards of a full Milling project in the drive aisles and then another I believe 10,500 square yards of an asphalt uh micro overlay on the in the park area so full Mill and overlay of the drive ISS is is critically important and it was on the master facilities plan and U any visit to that campus is an apparent um visible reason why this project is needed would that
159be correct that would be correct yes mue any other questions on that no I was just I mean you answered the other part of it I was whether it was on the master plan and exactly where um the cost would be covered under it' be the cost would be covered under the uh U uh capital projects fund to my left on any of fiscal isem to my right Mr mki just to clarify we're voting to approve the uh Consulting fees the the management fees are not voting to approve the expenditure it's for them to do the work to get quotes to do the engineering study and then the only other item that would be under fiscal for next week would be the approval or would be option A or option b based on the proposed
160preliminary budget presentation earlier this evening okay any other questions Mr W yeah so just uh maybe maybe we can clean up the the wording on 98 91 a little bit because it was a little confusing adding the 940,000 and also the term estimated fee for the services of 65 800 I assume that that that part should be locked into with a not take seat [Music] yeah thank you any other comments on fiscal items seeing none we'll move on to matters of personnel Dr serini thank you Dr Zerby for the consideration of the board this month there are the following Personnel items six resignations professional all for retirement at the end of the 2425 School Year Lisa rose art instructor at Sky View 10 years of service to the district Leslie col fifth grade instructor at
161Sky View 26 years of service Don monter librarian at Arrowhead 36 years of service Colleen dods fifth grade instructor at Sky View 17 years of service cenia zaharchuk English language development instructor at Woodland 19 years of service and Linda Emer counselor at wood wood 18 years of service these six members of the meakan family have positively impacted the lives of countless children and families in the district we're grateful for all their uh dedicated work and wish them well in their retirement there are three resignations classified jened D Franchesco personal care assistant at Sky View and two resignations for retirement Caroline deninger counseling office secretary at arola 19 years of service to the district and Linda sep secretary to the principal at War sester 36 years of service to the district Caroline and Linda have for
162many years been a welcoming presence in our school offices we're grateful to both of them for their dedicated service and we wish them well in their retirement there is one employment professional Jody Davis k12 diversity equity and inclusion and climate counselor we look forward to welcoming Jody to the methacton family their four Employments classified John drone Jr custodian at arola James Stone custodian at the high school Alexis cozy par professional at Sky viw and Deborah wolf personal care assistant at Sky View we look forward to welcoming John James Alexis and Deborah to the methon family there are three changes of status classified Theodore nidau from custodian at arola to utility grounds person at maintenance hej ghob from monitoring assistant at the high school to office assistant at War sester and Jenna Garcia from personal care
163assistant at arola to monitoring assistant at the high school and we thank Ted hej and Jennifer taking on these new roles there's one uncompensated leave classified Christen bar Jones personal care assistant at arola for the dates listed supplemental contracts for intermural sports at War sester the pupil Services Department the curriculum instruction and assessment Department senior bank with chaperon and fall coach extended season pay and the addition of one person to the classified substitute list Sherry Bruno for a support staff casual on call and we look forward to welcoming Sher deaon that concludes my report thank you Dr serini other questions for Dr serini on any of the matters under the personel to my left Miss Purdue sorry just went on um M1 for the um intramural sports at War sest do you know um what
164sports are included and do we just have one person doing that all together or is this like new replacement addition it's a replacement there is uh intermal Sports at all four of the K4 buildings and they do a series of activities uh throughout the year uh some do it all year long some do it by semester but it it does exist at all four buildings so it's just a it's a replacement correct it's replacing the person who was in the position okay any other questions for Dr zini to my left to my right see no questions thank you Dr serini uh there are no items listed under curriculum under policy there are no items for first reading however there are four policies uh for second reading uh that's policy 624 taxable fringe benefits 626 travel
165reimbursement 627 Student Financial Obligations and 701 facilities planning um are there any questions on any of the second reading uh policies Miss clar I just wanted to make a comment for no questions on the actual policies just wanted to make a comment on the reports um that we have listed for the agenda for next week we will not have a policy committee report we did not meet um and the policies that were on our list for this month have been moved to next month thank you and we we weren't able to get all the uh reports from the other committees on for tonight's meeting but they will be posted uh when the U um agenda goes live on Saturday uh so with that said um under other gifts and donations uh there are a list
166of of eight gifts and donations that are on the agenda for your consideration that's approve a genderist a donation from members of the community for the backpack program for $177 42 approve a generous gift of Well Fargo Community Care Program on behalf of Leanne Lopez to use first grade field trip in the amount of $200 approve a generous gift from nanise Foundation to support the metha high school girls across team in the amount of $4,000 approve a generous gift from De vanise Foundation to support the metha high school girls soccer team in the amount of $4,000 and approve a generous script from the vaniz foundation to support the girls field hockey team in the amount of $4,000 um then number six is approve the generous gift from Anthony and Margaret Picos for the backpack program
167the amount of $50 uh item seven approve the generous gift from Merc uh company foundation on behalf of [Music] Martin um amama uh to Woodland Elementary in the amount of uh $50 and then the last one approve a generous gift uh for Charities Aid Foundation America State Farm on behalf of of Angela pushman uh to Woodland Elementary School in the amount of $730 uh under also under the uh other area trips to provide uh the approval for M High School orch to participate in the pmea uh Festival from February 6th to the 8th to be held at pots grve uh Middle School uh and then for transportation there's a list of drivers for your approval as well and that ends the agenda with turn over for dates of members calendars um that that ends my
168part Madam president okay and next we will have old business or new business anyone h of the board have old or new business seeing none we'll move it over to the courtesy of the floor 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 at 3 minutes or less the board of school directors may choose respond to matters following the conclusion of the comments and please submit questions via email at information methacton.org Jim mik sester um the CFO of this organization should be fired after what I just heard um when Dave did you first become aware of this $2 million shortfall what yesterday a month ago Paul when did you find out about
169this two million doll shortfall yesterday six months ago something could have been done about it your board had a straw poll and they disagreed with you and instead of saying okay you tried to Strongarm them because you don't want to do your job it's ridiculous Dave you're wrong they called you on it you're still going to try to convince them to do it your way um you forgot you're a couple options you had option A B option C take the money out of the capital reserve or the uh general fund take it out of the general fund if it's only going to be 4.3% couple hundred grand take it out of the uh general fund that was never an option no new school there's an option how about using the Surplus from last year there's
170an option but somebody made a decision to spend the Surplus who made that decision did they know about this when they made the decision to spend the Surplus we wouldn't have a problem if somebody didn't spend the Surplus um you got $7 million in the general fund you got $1 million in the capital reserve fund you spent a million of the Surplus and you incurred $2 million more debt for your new school project all of that could have been used to avoid this situation which I don't understand it doesn't make any sense um so the way I look at it you repeatedly underestimated the special ed budget over the past three years and now you want to take the special ed exemption to take us to 6.3% my question is was this you know underestimation
171of the budget or over under spending something you plan for was this the plan so you could take the special exemption were these budgetary misses all part of a grand scheme to go ahead now and get us the special exemption maybe maybe you can answer that uh you gave us a presentation roughly three months ago where you predicted or you said the predict budget uh budgetary increase for at five years or next year this year actually is 1.4% you're way off and that when you add the 200 million in it's 2.6% this is three months ago you're telling us that's what it is what happened basically you misled the public you misled the misled the board for you know we're not going to exceed the Act One index come on than thank you good evening
172good evening John Andrews Lower [Music] Providence so uh over the course of the last six or seven months the uh board had no meetings I think in July and no meetings in December uh you know when you take on this responsibility it it involves uh some planning and I think uh not enough planning back in November after a series of speeches at at various Podium Podium podiums in the district I spoke on on things related to the uh renovation of the existing high school and among other things I I stated that if you commit all that money to the new high school 200 million for construction 225 million for interest uh you don't have money for other things so you know you may have a high school but an ability to uh give the students
173the education that they need and that comes to know those thoughts come up uh when you're uh trying to uh cover costs that you've spent on special education I think sometime in the last month Dr Zerby said that we've we spent all the money that that would justify getting the exception so the uh you know there's no commitment to to what program would be for special education for instance in the in the current year and uh I'm happy to hear this evening uh a number of directors uh uh speaking clearly to the various areas of fiduciary responsibility that's a real term it's not a vague term so I uh I encourage you to uh vote down uh the a option next week and uh put some attention to getting professional estimates for renovation you know
174maybe quar million dollars in two or three months you know conceivably you could even have good in information before you vote on the budget and way before taxpayers vote on candidates for for four positions in the fall thank you thank you sorry is there any comments or questions from the board right seeing none do I have a motion to adjourn this graph can I second Mrs Purdue all right motion meetings adjourned