November 17, 2020 Work Session Meeting of the Board

001Madame President we are now recording so we can begin the meeting okay thank you good evening everybody I'd like to call to order the November 17th 2020 work session of meth Acton School District board of directors please rise for the Pledge of Allegiance I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the Republic for which it stands one nation under God indivisible with liberty and justice for all okay the public is hereby advised of the audio and video recording of this meeting for the purposes of rebroadcasting given the need to conduct this board meeting in a virtual en the board of directors required members of the public wanting to make comments on agenda items um or courtesy of the floor to pre-register by 5 pm today um by way of

002announcements we also have um the board met in Virtual executive sessions on November 5th 2020 and November 7 I'm sorry November 12th 2020 for the purpose of discussing matters of personnel involving potential promotion of an administrative employee of the district as well as information and strategy related to collective bargaining with methacton Education Association the board met in a virtual executive session on November 11th 2020 for the purpose of Consulting with the solicitor regarding a potential legal matter involving the district's health and safety plan by way of attendance it looks like we have all board members present this evening um as we don't have any voting items I don't think it's necessary to do a roll call vote a roll call for attendance I'm sorry uh recognition of guests and scheduled speakers Dr zery thank you

003madam president uh this evening um we have a number of uh guests scheduled speakers we have the 2019 uh 20 fiscal year end audit we have the hour ahead new construction uh presentation um I have an administrative Staffing recommendation and then I have a an item here for the board's uh discussion and feedback on Athletics activities and the facilities use related to a recent spike in uh positivity and incident rates uh of covid uh with that said um I am going to ask Mr Bricker um if we are ready for the uh audit which it appears we're not um we're we're still trying to hunt down the uh the individual who's scheduled to present this evening he doesn't seem to be on the call he is trying to join now I'm being told Dr Dr

004zby okay do you want to start with the houre head and then move to this or do you want to just give him did you you want to give him a couple seconds I could show everyone my dog for a few seconds now I'm just kidding I'm just making thank you that's that's nice I'm sorry I just know it's gonna be a long night I had to make one joke I'm quiet now no you're good you're good that that helped help calm the silence we we will give him one more second I don't see him so Mr Kelly are you and your team ready to present Arrowhead new construction a bid result presentation and recommendation Mr Kelly yes we are all right excellent so I made you a co-host you should be to present I'll

005stop my sharing of the screen and allow you to take over yes screen two share all right you should be um seeing the arrowhead forward presentation everybody good everybody can hear me all right well uh thank you for having us tonight uh like you said I know you have a long night so we'll uh we'll go forward with this uh rather quickly which was uh not the not the jump jump ahead but some very good news um the schedule as we've been talking to you guys over the last uh well well over a year uh has been um the study of of uh of Arrowhead uh itself the existing conditions a lot of options there uh approv will move ahead with uh the building of a new building um we had board approval in June

006for the construction drawings our our x34 hearing on uh September 8th uh last week we met with the building committee um so a lot of what you'll see tonight has been uh discussed with them uh tonight is the Board review um we're into the the section called the big night um we're talking tonight about uh moving forward with construction this is to build the building this is uh this is the time where we're approving uh what you'll see uh tonight are five um contracts we're going to talk about um uh the four main construction contracts the fifth being as passes uh but contracts to go ahead and and build the new building um the once we completed all of the the bid drawings they went out to bid uh that was um again back in

007September there um bids were open uh at 3:15 p.m. on on October 29th uh so biders were given about four weeks a little under that to um produce their bids we had a lot of bidding there's a lot of good competition out there to have five general contractors 13 mechanical and eight of each for for uh Electrical employing uh it's a really good result um there's a lot of competition uh and we feel really good about the the number of bids uh that were received um just to provide some context this was the budget we were looking at the last time that we worked with Becker frondorf on our existing budget um they had a project of uh at $28.99 million uh that breaks down into these four contracts general contractor mechanical electrical Plumbing uh

008again um the way that they will break down and the contracts that you will be uh awarding to uh to proceed with the building so these are the budgets um that we were looking at um the total construction base bid so meaning the the base bid number and we're going to get into the alternates that's going to be kind of the meat of tonight um came in like this uh working for bottom up um Plumbing was about 160,000 under this is kind of how we opened them as well so we were feeling pretty good um electrical was 120,000 under uh mechanical was $130,000 under and then the general contractor was the one um that we were obviously most pleased at that was about four and a half million dollar under budget so we're looking at

009a base bid uh number of $23.6 million uh for the base bid of of the project which is which is incredible so we were rejoicing we were very happy um as I mentioned we were severely um under budget when it well not severely but uh enough under budget for uh the general contractor that we were um saving quite a lot um we went through and vetted all of these numbers uh between ourselves and fidevia um we've met with every one of these contractors uh actually visited the uh um the Lansdale uh home of the mechanical and plumbing contractor um and over the last couple of weeks have had vetted all these together with um with the low biders so this is where we're at with um uh the the low bid base bid numbers um

01023.6 million you're about $5.2 million under budget um if you took all of the deducts now remember there are some alternates that were subtractive let's take these things out and there were some alternates that were additive let's put something in if you elected to take all of the deduct that would reduce that 26 I'm sorry 23.6 down to about 22.6 if you elected to take all of the ads that number would go up to uh 24.2 so somewhere in between there uh is obviously will your go where you'll where you'll be and we'll we'll go through here now all the deducts and ads and all the alternates and kind of give you our recommendation and the committee's recommendation of of which ones to select um so as I mentioned before there were 19 alternates um

011things like casework in classrooms floor finishes ceiling finishes Roofing um all of these other things all the way down to actually the reduction of classrooms remember we had that as an alternate as well um so if there aren't any questions about the base bids uh I'll jump into the alternates so the first one um typical classroom um uh casework we said the the base bid meaning this is already in the building was just the casework along the corridor walls it's a teachers wardrobe of sync and some casework there um alternate one was providing some additional casework along the uh exterior wall a lot more storage and that was about $115,000 that's for every classroom um so that's a lot of additional casework um the second alternate so there were two um was to add bookshelves

012instead of just casework along the exterior wall and some high cabinets along the corridor so this is what we would typically have as u a fully built out uh assessment of of casework so the alternate two was for $440,000 that that again just number two was adding um bookshelves and this high casew workk at $40,000 which is very inexpensive when you look at the linear cost per um per foot of casework so the bidding results for both if you took alternates one and two is $155,000 in addition to the base bit that's just about $4,800 a a classroom uh and we are recommending we are recommending this um casework storage in classrooms especially in elementary schools is critically important um this type of casework will provide uh the ability for teachers to keep a lot

013of storage and things off the floor it'll make the rooms feel a lot bigger uh and again the the number that the alternate is the ad alternate as opposed to uh what we typically see in linear feet per casework um is is very low so we were um we were definitely recommending to add these two alternates into the project flooring is the next part um typically what you have now as you can see on the left there you have existing um carpet and VCT VCT is vinyl composite tile um in your classrooms that's little one foot by one foot squares uh in your corridors in Arrowhead now you have terazo tazzo is a a poured um uh flooring top it's one of those floor that you'll never have to replace um it lasts for forever

014um but there is some VCT and carpet in your corridors as well so kind of a an understanding of what's uh what's currently existing uh in your existing school and and most of your other schools are very similar to this as well um so there were alternates for uh classroom uh flooring as well as Corridor flooring in the classrooms um there was a difference between uh courts which is a um which is also a tile very similar to vinyl tile but it's much more durable um it's actually a through body tile and it's scratched it it still is the same uh material underneath versus uh vinyl tile uh if that gets scratched it's just black underneath it's essentially just a tile with a coating on top or or an image printed on top um versus

015anything thicker than that um in the corridors there was an alternate for uh quartz tile a higher grade tile or terazzo terazzo again is what you have in most of your existing schools and corridors um it is a like I said basically the most durable flooring material uh you can find it's um again the the first and last flooring you'll ever need to to put down in the uh in the school so these are considered deduct alternates in the base bid right now we have terazzo floooring in the corridors and and quartz tile the better tile in the classroom so these are deducts if you choose to take them out um as you can see terazzo is expensive uh to take to reduce from terazzo to courts is 115,000 in the first floor uh 110,000

016on the second floor uh we do show terazzo and the in the cafeteria as well so it's a potential deduct of $266,000 however for the cost of this again when we're seeing this in other projects um this is a low number for terazzo in that amount of terazzo that we're looking at uh in the school uh 266,000 is a lot of money um but you'll spend that in 10 years when you have to redo all the corridors again uh when it's time for the tile to be replaced uh corridors get beat up the most cafeterias get beat up the most terazzo is the most durable flooring you can put in uh any type of building um so we are not recommending approving taking the terazzo out so we're recommending staying with the terazzo in the

017um in the project classroom flooring again um we had a a luxury vinyl tile um which is a little bit of a different tile from from um VCT um that's um fine but not as certainly not as durable as quartz tile and again you can see the deduct for vinyl composite tile in all of the classroom so again you're looking at a $75,000 deduct but you're going from um a significantly better um floor finish floor tile something that doesn't have to be waxed in a lot of your schools that have vinyl composite tile you're taking all the furniture out all summer stripping down the the the coating rewaxing rebuffing you don't have to do that with cordz tile it's it's a matte finish um you basically uh dry mop it uh and it's clean um

018so we feel that this is not again not something that we would recommend proving meaning that we would not want you to take out um the higher quality uh [Music] tile ceilings uh the only area that we have a ceiling alternate was in the the two Innovative spaces uh there was an alternate for uh acoustical baffles that's what's in the project now um that's similar to the picture to the right that we've been showing versus Linear metal uh the difference here is What's called the NRC rating that's the acoustic rating um of that ceiling um a typical ceiling tile for example is a 7 um so going to a Linear metal at 08 85 or acoustical baffle at 1.06 is creating a much more um sound absorbant uh material in that area that that area

019is designed to be noisy um but we certainly don't want it to be too noisy uh that is another deduct alternate of $122,000 um to go from the baffles to the linear Metals so again even Linear metal is a little bit better than your typical 2x4 ceiling tile but it's certainly not as good as as as the acoustical baffles there and again 12,000 is still 12,000 but it's in our estimate it wasn't enough to to say let's let's remove that uh and go to a lesser functioning um acoustical material so we were not recommending um taking taking the acoustic baffles out and going to Linear metal roofing materials um there was a base bid for TPO versus EPDM it's basically a rubber membrane versus TPO which is more of a plastic membrane that is um

020TPO is the district choice for um roofs that's all of your Roes are being re-roofed with TPO um the difference was really nominal for uh EPDM versus TPO so uh as a as a district decision um that was not being recommended to be taken as well as a duu rather than staying with the the TP which is your District standard um toilet room floors uh there was a base bid for ceramic tile um there was an ad alternate for resonance flooring um res flooring res resonance flooring is kind of a poured flooring um again a district uh standard for ceramic tile um this was kind of a price check on the ceramic tile guys as well we would not recommend adding costs to the project for a flooring that um we all kind of agreed

021that the ceramic tile was a better flooring anyway um but again we needed toh to share all the alternates with you there um two more uh the uh which can be a little confusing unclassified site work basically meaning um we would ask the the contractors um anything they find below ground rock things like that um if if it's substantial in nature um they can often ask for a change order for the removal of all of those um materials that rock or other kind of unsuitable soils um so we asked for them to include an unclassified site work alternate in their bids um the bid for this was $90,000 which seems like a lot um but we could make that up very quickly in the site if we start to find um rocks or Boulders um

022the building is up on some fill but there are a lot of areas where we're digging there's retention areas there's areas that we are digging down um and talking with fidevia as well as the building committee we felt that it was recommended to approve this to keep this in as an insurance policy um would you spend all 90 um maybe but if it gets more than that it could be hundreds of thousands of dollars uh if we start to find things that are unsuitable underneath uh underneath the ground so we were recommending um taking that unclassified site work uh alternate basically meaning again anything that the contractors find they're they're in charge of removing there's no change orders for those uh another thing that we were strongly recommending as well that's called a um a

0235- foot fill underneath the building pad so basically they're going to start construction in December and January um you're going to have frozen ground you're going to have snow you're going to have wet ground through the spring um we have found that by adding um uh fill underneath the building pad adding additional Stone than what we would typically have it creates a much better um pad for the building to be built around uh and what it does is prevents delays when it rains in February and March uh and now they're just pushing goo and mud around the site um it slows them down they can't get out of the ground um if we have a significant amount of stone underneath the building uh it keeps them moving and prevents delays uh due to wet soil

024so that was an ad of 75,000 again the committee and us and and fvia was was uh recommending moving ahead with that the sooner you can get out of ground the better much better chances you are of staying on schedule two more that are um down in the weeds a bit there was an alternate for some different automatic mechanical controls again this was kind of a price check um the existing one that was or the the one that's in the base bid was the one that the district um wanted to to maintain so we are not recommending certainly adding any cost uh to the project by going with a automated controls that you don't want um lightning protection uh was $48,000 um uh that was not recommended adding to the project as well after consultation

025with your insurance company they said um it really didn't affect your insurance rates at all whether the building had lightning protection or not um it's fine to have but if lightning strikes your building you know you're going to have um things that you're going to need to fix regardless of whether you have lightning protection or not some districts ask that we put this in as an alternate if it affects their insurance rates it does not in your sense so um we would not recommend uh adding that cost for lightning production H distributed antenna uh system this is basically much improved wireless service throughout the building we are seeing a lot of schools doing this even though it is a very high cost um what this is doing is is boosting the cellular service in your

026building so this is not Wi-Fi for student um laptops and things this is wireless service for um cell phones uh what we heard a lot from teachers on site was you know when I'm in the building or we we're on site um sell service in that area isn't very good so that's why we added that as an alternate here um and again after consultation with the the building committee uh as well as Bob Jones and some some people from the school they recommended including this in the project because because of some concerns with wireless service and there are some security concerns that go along with that um making sure that everybody can use their uh use their cell phones in case of emergency bipolar ionization um this is a new thing in the postco world

027um I guess we're not post yet but um in covid World um this is a bio uh um magnetic filtration for HVAC systems so what this is rather than the filters that you have in your house or that you'll see in buildings that are um you know the MV 15 MV 16 filters those are C catching dust that's catching pollen that's catching things that you can see um covid the flu things like that are um particulates in the air it's it's droplets it's not something that those filters tend to catch very easily um so you can have UV light and if the UV light sees that piece of Bio um disease floating around it'll zap it um but only if it can see it so it needs to be of a certain size it needs

028to be going through where all the laser beams are if you had UV light what bipolar ionization does is it creates a magnetic filtration in the duct work so it anything that's floating through there that isn't air it's sucked into the the magnet and essentially pulled away we're seeing this in a lot of clean Labs we're seeing this in hospitals and surgical centers now we're starting to see them in offices and schools um it's less taxing on your HVAC system than big thick filters if you the thicker the filter the harder it is for those um H HVAC systems to um to push air through so the your mechanical system has to work a little more um so with this it doesn't have to push anything doesn't have to push the air as hard um

029it's an ad of about $40,000 uh we were certainly recommending uh doing that um as as again just another way to ensure that we're having uh the best indoor air quality that we can provide uh for the students in the school last two I promise this is the reduction of School classrooms um we wanted to have a couple of areas where we could have some large uh deducts in case the bids went the other way and we came in over budget um thankfully again it's not the case um but in the uh in these alternates there was a reduction of two classrooms so basically you're taking whoops you're taking the two classrooms you know one on each floor uh and that was a reduction of about $240,000 or 120,000 per classroom if you look at

030the other alternate there was two one to take two classrooms away another one to take four classrooms away uh that was 430,000 or about 108,000 square feet per classroom if you think about it as cost per square foot um to take four classrooms away is $128 per square foot um the average building cost for the entire project is 281 so if you think of it that way if you're taking to eliminate a classroom it would cost you at least two and a half times to bring it back probably more if you went and did it 5 10 years from now so again we kind had these as safeguards in case bidding came back um over budget we under budget um so we would not recommend reducing the side of uh of the building and again

031you know as I've mentioned if you took that out and came back and built it later it could be three or four times uh as expensive as much as the as the savings that you that you may uh be getting if if you decided to to take either one of the alternates so if we looked at the the budget we looked at the construction base bids and what we're looking at now is what we're recommending so we took out a few things we added a few things back in so the budget was $ 28.9 million for the building the base bid was 23.6 um we're recommending a Construction contract of $24.1 million um that is still $4.7 million under budget um again the bidding market right now you never know how things are going you

032certainly didn't know that we're going to be in a pandemic when we started this um bidding is very hungry right now um this is a phenomenal outcome um it's uh well below budget um the durability of of the equipment that we were proposing um will create a very durable long long lasting school um this is the school we've been talking about with you guys for over a year um so this is the uh the project these are the contracts that we are recommending uh that you would proceed with um last slide um is schedules um basically you're going to uh talk about this tonight vote next week uh we would provide notice to proceed to the contractors in um actually right away uh we need to do that legally by um December 14th um site

033preparation would start in December uh construction areas would start in February and you'd start to see the big heavy equipment coming out in uh in February so we'd have temporary fencing uh we'd be moving the the modular would be removed uh the playground would be moved to the front of the school uh and everything would be ready for um the big trucks to come in in February uh wrapping up the building in July of 22 um then the uh existing building would come down the summer of 22 and into uh into the fall there um the fields itself that Green Field over there there would be some seating and some site restoration that would that would come back in the spring just to make sure that uh the grass takes and everything like that in

034the spring but uh you're looking at opening the school for the Academic Year of of 2022 and 23 so that's the good news thank you Mr Kelly and thank you Jamie um are there questions from members of the board Mr neat yeah I guess I just to sum up what we talked about in property um previously obviously U you know we went through a great a great amount of detail uh in this in property and might covered a lot of that today I guess I want to kind of reiterate some of those things uh and then Mike allow you to expand on some of them for for the folks here because I think they're instructive to um to what we're talking about I the first thing obviously you know we came in way underneath our

035budget um which was you know in some ways expected right we you talked all the way uh through this process about the fact that we were you know we're trying to stay at a conservative number right so we don't get uh you know an unpleasant surprise when we open bids um but there were other factors that played into it can you talk through those um what we've heard from contractors is is there's two things there's labor and there's material um material costs have risen uh but labor costs have stayed steady or um have gone down a little bit especially when you look at something like the general contractor um obviously everybody was a little low the general contractors much more low but again they've got a much larger contract um so they're you know in

036the millions under versus the the hundreds of thousands um but uh these are all good companies these are all companies that we've uh worked with in the past or for davia has experiences with as well and like we said we we kind of vetted everyone's um credentials uh and and talk to other uh contract or other schools or universities that are working with these contractors now um so I I think um contractors always ask us if we're busy because they know we're about a year ahead of them um so we've been telling them yeah this is this is a good project that'll be uh yours to construct for the next you know almost two years um they're looking for stability so we're we're seeing um a lot of aggressiveness in the market now um September

037October November um versus you know schools that we just bid in in the spring um so some of these numbers are are close to or or a little under uh what they would be in the spring whereas traditionally they should be obviously growing and getting um more expensive as they go um but we feel we're we're in a a good position here I you know I certainly don't want to say it's a it's a good thing that we're in the economy and pandemic that we're in now um but those certainly have some um some advantages in this case or or you're seeing the result I should say uh of of the market right now and it's certainly a positive when it comes to to this project yeah Ralph can I chime in real quick Ralph

038yeah yeah in fact Dan I was going to ask you to because I think you know you're our owner rep on this project and and certainly you know we always ask questions about contractors right we're fighting something now with Eagleville where we got a a bum facade that was built that we've got to deal with we ran into problems on the field project um that resulted in some legal action so you know we all want to I guess have some sense of who who won these jobs and what their what their reputation is yeah and I I just want to punctuate what Mike said about without repeating everything he said about the marketplace you do have an attractive project it's not you know there's a lot of renovation uh more difficult projects out there that

039maybe are not as simple to price and build and bid um the fact that we got 30 four contractors for four for four awarded contracts is is is really phenomenal and it's reflective of the effort that went in over the course of the last couple months in particular but even leading up to that so it's there's you know we can talk about how much we on the budget but from a district standpoint to be able to say that you got the best value that's in the marketplace because of the amount of competition that was out there on the projects important and as far as the under budget thing just as a real side note um in math actt and we had that that which I'll say is a very unexciting tank and canopy project that

040we receive bids on today and we were under budget for that as well so um it's no surprise I think right now that we're under budget particularly for that project and and just to Echo what Mike had said earlier about the contractors we we did have some concerns um we have we have experience with two of the four well it's really two of the three because uh the one mechanical uh contractor mechanical uh plumbing contractor is the same entity um NE neither of our firms have direct experience I believe the uh engineering firm under Mike is aware and has some knowledge of that firm we we went besides meeting with the contractor and the ownership of that particular contractor we we we called all of their school references many of whom were in and around

041methacton and they all all the references came back glowing so we I think we did our job as far as vetting um the the the firms pretty closely and and I can expand on that any more that you might want Ralph but that's kind of a summary no that's good Dan I that's what I wanted I just wanted everybody to kind of get the same the same thing that we heard in um in committee I guess two um two more follow-up questions um or really just one maybe this is too much in the weed right now um scrolling scrolling scrolling Mike can you just talk about the lightning protection for a minute and and what exactly that is because I think as you're presented it here it sounds like hey we can protect our building

042from lightning but we're going to choose CH not to um so can you explain exactly what that system is and and what it actually protects us from and why and and then I guess expand on some of the you know the discussion that we had around the financial incentive not to do it you're muted muted Mike you're muted I see people do that all the time and I'm like I can't believe people don't know they're muted um sorry about that uh what you'll see a lot of little spikes going around um the outside and perimeter of the building um essentially what it's trying to do is um sort of predict where lightning is going to strike um and then ground uh that charge so instead of um hitting the building and messing up whatever it

043hits it's trying to to uh find where it is Route it around the building and then throw it into the ground uh for additional protection um it's perfect fine to do again we see school districts do this in areas where they may be up on a hill or may have had lightning strikes in the past um it doesn't 100% prevent any type of damage lightning might hit an area that didn't have a spike it may uh it still may hit um one of those areas it still May ground and still can cause uh damage to the building or or camera systems or things like that um so it's perfectly fine to add um I don't think as I said it's it's the end all be all of all protectant it's not 100% guarantee of of

044damage um we see as I mentioned um sometimes school districts are asked to uh do this to see if their insurance rates will go down um sometimes it goes down a little I I believe in your case there they actually wasn't a reduction in Insurance costs um so there there's really no buyback it is a little bit of extra protection like I said but um you know after talking about it it's you know um again it's certainly up to you guys but it's because it's not a 100% protectant um it's it's really up to the to the committee and and didn't feel as we discussed that that it was um that it was worth the worth the payment sure and I guess I guess my question Bob do you um do you know I guess

045we don't have this on any of the other buildings in the district do we yes we do yes it is on the other elementaries but it is also tripping Hazard Up on the Roof okay that's all the questions I have are there other questions from members of the board Mr wyers yeah Ralph i i attended most of the uh property committing online last week um was there some discussion about the the deduction of the four or possibly two uh additional classrooms I know I I understand the argument from Mr Kelly related to the cost of the deduction doesn't equal the cost of the the 281 per square foot so and also related to that um I'm just curious Mr Kelly said the 281 is very similar to what they would be expecting in the spring

046so it doesn't sound like it's necessarily that much lower than sort of the the going rate it's just not as L large as it could have been in a typical time frame so those are my two first questions I believe so Paul I'll start and then I'll let Mike finish um we didn't spend an inordinate amount of time discussing the deduction of those uh two or four classrooms uh just because of the dollar value of it versus the benefit yeah and and as we've talked at length about the capacity of of the school one of the reasons to to to build this obviously the the expanded um projected enrollment here you know four classrooms is uh almost one per grade um so by removing those we're we're taking out that that uh that room for

047added growth uh and even on day one there's there's use for for all four of those so um again we we included them as alternates as safeguards um but but as we said you know again the cost to to uh to put them back some other day if it were ever needed would be uh exponentially larger than than the savings you're getting uh if you considered taking them out and and then also Mr Kelly if you can speak towards the sort of the going rates of the I think you talked a couple years ago about the square footage um I think at the time it might have been around 270 or so I believe that was the building yeah so at 281 you're looking um here at building and site um I can tell you

048the um the schools that we did uh just this spring um were 290 295 close to 300 uh with building and site um site work can be you know anywhere from $30 or so a square foot so the the 270 that we were looking at for the building um this is building and site so again as I said this is between 6 months ago and now these numbers this 281 is is less than what we saw 6 months ago um and again I I would I would kind of point to the market and say you know people are much more aggressive they're worried about next year um and I think that's where we're we're seeing some savings there um versus really going in the opposite direction where you know 290 should be you know 295

049or 300 at this point or even higher okay so I believe the the analogy would be all right I want the car and then the next thing you know uh now I'm getting floor mats and everything else so what are some of the things uh certainly I understand there's there's fees your your cost associated with it but I look at if I look at actually if you go back uh to the previous the when I look at the picture here I it starts to it it starts to make me wonder I know that we had a separate line for um the P work that you talked about you also had separate line item potentially for furniture but it makes me wonder about all the other stuff that's inside there for example it looks like you

050have two or three rows of bleachers it looks like the obviously it would be a fully loaded kitchen uh C for for cooking um what's behind the curtain of additional cost that we're not seeing in this particular everything you're seeing here out outside of furniture now there is a Furniture budget we've been holding 750,000 I believe and that's in the grander full total project costs um we're still holding um you know Furniture we're still holding contingencies um so in that larger number that we had been sharing in the past all of those numbers are still there um you know we still are are um looking to provide uh um you know furniture for the project so over the next year and a half or so we'll um we'll have conversations about that and be able

051to show uh bidding for that um there really isn't anything missing I mean you're still getting caseworks and whiteboards and lighting and and the bleachers are there and curtains and um basketball back stops and all the kitchen equipment like you said okay so so we're not gonna have We're not gonna have a we need a curtain for the for the stage we're not going to need to buy a refrigerator back down those type of things are are included than the 281 per per square foot yes the the crude way of saying if it's glued or screwed it's in the building anything movable like Furniture um is a separate budget okay all right that's what I all I have for now thank you thank you Mr winers uh other questions any other comments questions um Mr

052mcz uh thank you hopefully you guys can hear me um I I just want to talk about the the estimates and the bids and I'm not gonna sit here and say I told you so but I told you so and I think one thing that we have to understand about the timing of these bids and the compression of these prices is covid related okay and it sounds really really weird that I'm celebrating something about covid but these contractors that bid they compressed their profit margins considerably I didn't think it'd be this crazy but it it speaks to the point of the timing of this is that we got really really lucky on two fronts we got really lucky and as weird as it sounds because of covid and we got really lucky on the um

053Bond issuance if the18 million Bond issuance at a 1.8% yield trading as a premium so we won on that and we won on this pricing so I know the easy thing is to say oh well the estimates were wrong they weren't they weren't uh I got a funny feeling that the people at kcba have done this before and they just took historical pricing and put it into this estimate the difference is that these contractors need this job and that's why we got the numbers we got so the timing of this is luckily very good for us I just wanted everyone to understand that thanks thank you Mr mcness Miss germond I think I saw your hand yes I had a question about the additional um fee for removing rocks and boulders and if you I

054know we've had issues with that kind of work before so could we just um be just get a reminder refresher on what our what kind of rock situation we seem to run into with um projects in this district and um and and what this cost of $90,000 how that lines up with costs we might expect if we were to do it like Allah cart Dan you did a good job of explaining this in the property committee can I jump in Liz and I hope you don't mind I will add my two cents here because I deal in rock adders every day in my line of work um basically what this says is any hole that they dig and they're going to have to dig a lot of holes obviously to clear the site anything they

055hit is on them okay okay so if we didn't have this anything they hit they're going to come back to us with rock adders and and removal adders and candidly one of the bad news of them compressing their margins is we're going to get hit with a ton of change orders on this they're going to come back and try and nickel and damus to get regain some of that margin they they they lost on the bid so what this says is whatever they hit is on them so they don't come to us for hey we tried to bore we tried to do this and we hit and it's going to be an extra $40 a foot and oh my God we have this spoils pile that's going to cost you $100,000 to get rid of

056so this is basically saying it's a $90,000 insurance policy that they're going to hit more rock than $90,000 we may win we may lose but if we don't close this door on change orders for rock Adder they're going to come back and and come back with a vengeance I can promise that so hopefully Dan that's not stealing your thunder or if I'm out of line I apologize gone it's gone but Liz I will add just by you know for reference we weren't involved in the beginning of the stadium project but I'm pretty sure my recollection serves me had you had this uh vehicle available to you when we started that project you would have saved at least that value in multiples of three at least um yeah and just I'm just gonna mimic everything that

057you just heard because it's true I if you you're dealing with a new building just in just installing a retention Basin you know to manage storm water alone you can go through that in in one or two or three multiples so it's great value Great Value and Mike's comment not to repeat it but it is important we are going through foundation in a tough time of year and we get we have to hit the schedule I do disagree we're gonna have I'm and I'll put our integrity on the line we're going to have we're going to have manageable change orders on this job but that's a that's an obvious place to second item about the stone the stone fill that that also is going to pay back in dividends in terms of keeping the schedule

058on and not running into change orders otherwise I mean we could extend the schedule and just wait for the weather to happen but then we're going to have claims from the other contractors because of delay and the over they're worth their weight in gold and the stadium project proves it out okay so what I'm hearing is that um you know given our historical knowledge of this type of work in our district that this is a good value to add to the contract yeah I mean above and beyond kcva and fed's experience which is universally saying take these yes your own District experience clearly says take these alternates yep okay thank you thank you Miss drumond uh other questions from members of the board regarding uh the arrowhead project Miss AR yes thank you um a

059couple of the questions that I had have already been addressed um I'm glad that we talked about the potential change in overall cost if with the reduction of classes because I know that's a comment that has come up multiple times um the one question that I have is um looking at the casework is that something that we have talked about in any of our conversations with our our current staff um I I'm having never been a teacher um I don't know a whole lot about how um you know classroom management works with that the physical space but I want to make sure that we are not creating limitations on the the use of the space I'm just picturing this purely from a homeowner's perspective that you know if you have a room that has a

060built-in feature there's only so many ways that you can rearrange the furniture and use the space because of the the buildin um I don't want to create kind of a constraint for the teachers by putting in um too much casework but I mean have we talked to the teachers is there such a thing as too much casework or is this one of those things where like you could fill the room with cabinets and they'd be thrilled I that's my opinion and I think the teachers uh would agree with that as well a lot of the teachers that we met with um your existing classrooms again are are let's say unique um in the Triangle um there's limited casework there's some kind of over by the exterior but then they have those little rooms kind of

061in between the two rooms um and they use that for for some storage in there so they were very concerned about um not having enough storage um this is more than what they have now um this is adequate to get you know and and especially anytime you walk into any Elementary School there's stuff everywhere um I don't think you can have enough storage in in an elementary school classroom uh we talked to them about cabinets versus drawers versus bookshelves you know because sometimes you do want kids to be able to go to a shelf and come back with something um so there are all of these things had kind of been been vetted and we we look to that uh for some things that that kids would have access to versus areas where they wouldn't

062um so I we we see you know we're definitely living under the adage of you can never have enough storage uh we hear that all the time from teachers um and you know we felt that again this was these are typically big ticket items that we can use for for bidding purposes and and the fact that they they came in uh very reasonable um is why we were we were recommending moving ahead with them and and again I I think um most teachers would would agree more storage the better there okay um and then that um square footage cost that we had you had talked about earlier I believe it was 281 per square foot um what are the the conversations that comes up lot in um the general public when we talk about this

063is the size of the gym um and the fact that this gym is larger than obviously much larger than what we currently have at Arrowhead um and you know concerns about whether or not it's actually needed for an elementary school to have a gym of that size what is the difference in square footage between um the the gym that we're proposing and say a typical Elementary School gym size well you use the word typical I will tell you it is typical such thing as typical well what I'll tell you is that the typic this is a typical um Elementary School uh gymnasium every every school that we have built and this is our sixth elementary school in two years has a gym that's this size um the yes it is much bigger than the gym

064that you're leaving um but everything we heard was it was too small and we've talked again at length about having a gym separate from a cafeteria and the advantages of that um so this is different uh from what you have uh at the existing school um but the uh the uses of this space are um you know tremendously greater than uh the limitations that they have now so um to compare this to typical I will say this is typical again the other schools that we saw uh in our Tour all had separate gyms and cafeterias all hady this size this is not big um it's not a high school basketball court um it is it is meant for um PE classes it is meant for you know a divider can come down a net can

065come down in the middle and you could have gym class on one side and indoor recess on another um youth leagues you know throughout the community can utilize these spaces my my son plays basketball at our local elementary school um very similar um you know it's not it's wide like a basketball court but it's not nearly as long as as you know high school or college um so I believe that this is a typical uh 21st century gym albeit you know obviously larger than what was again deemed undersized gym uh that you have now right if everything about the current Arrowhead building was adequate we wouldn't be having this conversation right now so I I can appreciate that and Mike I'm glad that you brought up the part about the um Community groups um and

066athletic organizations using the space because I know that that's another comment that we hear a lot is that this building is only benefiting a very narrow segment of our population but the reality is that this this space particularly this gym space will be utilized by children um methacton and non- methacton students um who live in our community so it's it's not just benefiting a small group um but thank you once again for an excellent presentation very thorough very comprehensive and very excited to see those numbers come in so low so thank you for everyone who worked on this thank you thank you madam president um are there any other questions for members of the board I have a question seeing no other hands um I have a question oh Miss Purdue um so I know

067at the ACT 34 hearing um a comment was brought up about I guess postco right and you even mention it I know you mentioned um in your presentation tonight he talked about the bipolar ionization and I guess that's one of our postco measures are there anything else we can look at or have you looked into anything else that you think may come down I know we're still learning and we're still living in covid times but I'm wondering are there any things that I guess when we look into a new construction that we need to be made aware of that all we need to consider yeah and and a lot of of what we've researched and and found over the last six months has been um kind of reiterating a lot of things that we've talked

068about in the past couple of years about better indoor air quality now the the bipolarization um ionization sorry um is uh is new um you know zapping um uh flu and and bacteria and things like that in uh in our duct work is new um but uh having breakout spaces having areas for kids to break out outside their classroom so they're not just um confined to to smaller areas there's a lot of schools now that are trying to move kids out into various areas gyms cafeterias spaces like that that are being utilized for for Education now um nurses Suite that have um isolation rooms uh so if a child or or a faculty member starts to show symptoms they can be brought into the nurse's Suite there's a um negative pressure uh and in there

069where where all of that air just goes directly outside none of it is is brought back into the building um and that's another safety measure that's being uh included in in newer schools so um we're looking at things like um hands-free uh stations for washing your hands handfree stations for uh water bottle filling stations rather than um uh water fountains and things like that so uh there are certainly things that we have um been changing our ways over the past few few years uh and and that's just exemplified that much more now that we're that much more concerned about um U biohazards uh and and uh diseases and things like that that could be could be in the air so um yeah this is this this building is is uh very much in protocol with

070um with some Modern practices Now with uh with covid and and um you know even just cold and flu concerns and if I could just add Miss Purdue it's not quite on target with your question but in case anyone's thinking of it we did add language to the contract documents that would protect the district in terms of liability from covid so uh I mean that's come up with a number of districts who are concerned about doing projects during covid in the event that there's you know issues with um staff you know employees of the contractor who have you know file claims of various sorts but there is language in the documents that specifically addresses that um I guess can you speak a little bit more to that language is that really um when you say

071language in the document is that for the construction during the construction period for those employees yeah like for example we know some districts that were apprehensive um when the governor allowed districts to make their own decision as to whether or not to restart construction you know back in March um there were some districts that were very apprehensive because nobody really knows how covid liability is going to play out so specifically there were concerns from uh owners about you what if a contractor has an issue on site and wants to file a claim claiming the district didn't um maintain proper procedures for for the construction workers you know wasn't enforcing uh you know the the applicable CDC Etc guidelines at that moment that the way the contract documents are written that responsibility is solely on the

072contractors and it explicitly removes the owner from liability does that answer your question no it definitely do and one of the things I I'm not sure if we've talked about is just in relation to if um I guess new regulations come down within the next year or so as we're learning more about how to deal with this um virus what I guess what advantages or what do we have within this contract or when we thinking about new construction that will also protect us more I guess more for the district than anything else well I again just to not to to kind of expand expand on what I just said if something happens that's unforeseen that causes a shutdown we arguably and again I'm doing hypotheticals now but to answer your question we we might have

073to look at a potential delay scenario where we extend the schedule I mean for example you know when covid first hit and contractors were allowed to start there were limitations on the number of workers that were allowed in you know in a certain amount of square footage of building and in a separate figure for how how site construction outdoor construction was handled should we run into some of those things it's a possibility we may have to extend the schedule but there wouldn't be liability um coming your way from a cost standpoint it would just be basically an extension of time so I I feel pretty confident I mean if if if if if if the langu if the regulations came out with some I'm just trying to imagine with something specific like contractors were required

074to provide some additional type of sanitizing or something like that where there was a truly unforeseen cost that the contractors are only having to deal with because of covid that might be something like totally unforeseen that the contractors could arguably make a claim about but again the big the real by far the biggest issue is the unknown liability of people filing claims because they contract you know and affected by Co in some way and again you're you're you're protected in that regard does that I'm sorry does that answer your question yeah that's why it's a convolute it's a long answer I'm sorry no Dan I was gonna actually piggyback on that so and maybe Mike you or Dan can can answer this but can you talk about what the schedule actually looks like let's say

075through the early spring right I mean we're hopeful that you know with all the discussions going going on that you know was we start to move into some kind of vaccination period and maybe you know in the spring early spring late spring we start to you know uh avoid some of these issues that are there but can you talk about what that schedule looks like in terms of individual work group work clearly we're not going to have you know electric electricians working on top of each other in a building by that point um so what what work is being done on the site through the early spring yeah as we get started it's it's about getting out of the ground um believe it or not the the big goal for next year is to going

076to is to to be under roof by next winter um so this time we're trying to get out of the ground get our foundations poured get the steel erected um and and really create the framing so you're going to have um you're gonna have Plumbing and Electric guys out there running stuff underground but everything is really uh as Dan had mentioned uh exterior it's out in the open um it's site work um until uh probably late summer early fall before you know rofes are on and um again we kind of want to have the the shell of the Building completed by uh winter of 22 uh so that spring of 22 and and into the summer of 22 it's really just interior work so if you look at um M if you refer back to

077Mr mcguinness's comment earlier about covid and the timing of things your project actually times well with covid because where there might be an issue with restriction of Workforce it it's God willing it's going to be in the way in the distance for when you know when Co hopefully is in a much better place you know had had you been working indoors now we might be subject to an immediate issue but like Mike says that's not going to be toward you know till this time next year sometime sure okay thank you are there any other questions from members of the board seeing no other questions uh thank thank you Mike Kelly thank you Jamie over for the presentation and and months of hard work working with building principal Dr aan Roberts and his staff as well

078as other administrators across the district um and and and our Board of course uh we will look uh for uh the approval of the agenda items uh so attributed to this project and uh we will uh we will see you again next week in case there's any additional questions of prior to uh the consideration by the board so thank you um with that with that said uh we're going to actually go back to the first item on the agenda which was the 201920 fiscal year end audit and it looks like we have uh the gentleman from Mali who is our internal Auditors and we'll have him and Mr Bricker present information associated with the audit Mr bicker thank you again I apolog olizee for the confusion on the start for tonight but uh we are

079ready to go and Don if you would take us away sounds good again I apologize for jumping in five minutes late I uh think I got tonight's meeting mixed up with uh my audit manager Dale with next week's meeting but um our we finished our audit report it's about an 80 page report um I believe most of you have gotten copies but um put together just a little three or four page uh audit presentation summary here um that Tim brought up um just going to talk briefly about our required Communications with the board um the scope and timing of the audit and then I just review some some major items um in in the report uh not going to it's going to be a very high level overview um and if you want to jump

080to the next slide Tim um or the next page um typic Ally the one thing that I always like to remind boards um you know we're giving an opinion on your financial statements that management um you know has put together and um you know they the representations of management and those financials and we're just giving an opinion um on those financial statements um in accordance with generally accepted auditing standards um we've given an unmodified audit opinion or what we refer to as a clean opinion um and basically uh we're just stating that in our opinion financial statements are fairly presented in accordance with us generally accepted accounting principles for governmental entities um and also we've given an opinion um on the single audit which is the uh audit of your federal Awards um every year

081um any any entity that gets Federal funding over 7 50,000 is required to do um the single audit and um we audit those Federal Awards we typically audit a major program every year um uh programs such as Title One your lunch program uh this year the major program that we tested um primarily was the idea program um so we're also giving an unmodified audit opinion on your audit of federal Awards um and then um the other thing that we always issue every year is a what we refer to as a SAS 114 letter or a a communication letter with the board um really just um outlines um your some of your responsibilities some of our responsibilities highlights things um you know if there was any major changes in accounting policies which there really weren't this

082year if there were any significant estimates in the report were required to uh um communicate with the board what those significant estimates are um some of your significant estimates um typically are um the the pension liabilities that are on the books the other post-employment benefit liabilities on your books um and some of your depreciation or some of the more significant um estimates um and and if we have any um material weaknesses in internal control or significant deficiency and internal controls we're required to report those and I'm um happy to say that there were no material weaknesses or significant deficiencies in your internal controls uh that we believe were required to report under the standards um so if you go to the next slide um just the audit scope and timing um I really have to

083thank um you know your your staff Tim um you know everybody that helped us through the audit this year um being um you know with the pandemic going on uh we did a lot of things remote this year uh whereas in other years we might spend um you know several U you know weeks out at the um District looking at various invoices looking at various documents um this year we really had to do a lot of things remotely um quite frankly some things worked out a little bit better doing it that way um you know so but uh really it did take a lot of effort on on the District staff and I appreciate all their efforts um you know we keep all of our work papers electronically so um some of the things that

084we were getting remote um you know in some areas of the audit made it easier there are other areas uh where we have to observe certain things where it make makes it a little bit more difficult but um we truly appreciate it um the other thing this this page just shows some of the different things that we do during the course of the audit we look at your internal controls um we um uh propose audit adjustments to your books and Records if there are any there were no material audit adjustments in our um in our audit this year um we reconcile cash and Investments um and make sure you're in compliance with act 72 um cas Investments for us uh when you're looking at audit proof some of our best audit proof in the area

085of cash and Investments also in some of your revenues is to get um corroboration of your account balances from outside sources sources outside the district um that's always some of the best audit evidence so we do um confirm certain things during the course of the audit um look at Major material additions um look at your calculation of depreciation expense which is on your government-wide statements the really the write off of the estimated useable life of the asset for each of your different fixed assets um do a search for unrecorded liabilities um use a lot of data extraction tools to try and um you know we we obviously can't look at every single transaction and I always like to to point out you know to boards that we're not looking at every single invoice and every

086single transaction um within the district we're trying to focus on on um specific risk areas um do use a lot of sampling techniques to sample various account balances um those are just some of the things we do in the course of the audit audit typically starts anywhere you know before the year end in May uh we do some preliminary work uh do a lot of our field work in August and September and wrap things up in October um so that um the business office can file your annual financial report with the Department of Education um and also get any uh um audit reports filed timely for your um Emma requirements for your bond issues and other things if you go to the last last slide um these are this is just really some of the

087um uh main numbers over the LA I I just presented the last five years although um the audit is really for just the the year end of June 2020 um I'm just showing your cash and investment balances in there 32 million uh that's up from last year um the capital assets are at 106 million I always like to remind boards that um you know those Capital assets are the cost of of what you've purchased various equipment buildings you know that we were you were just talking in your work session about the budget that you have um you know for for this project going on whether it comes out at 23 million 24 million um those costs are eventually going to hit this Capital asset line item and get written off um over the estimated useful

088life of the asset um so there there's a a degree of estimation there but big thing I always like to remind you is it's not liquid cash it it's an asset but it's not liquid cash um just in some of your other things on here some of your accounts payable and ACR expenses uh your bonds and notes payable for some of your bond issues at the end of the year ended up at 66 million compensated absences was at 2.9 Million compensated absences liability is really your liability for uh vacation time and sick time um other post employment benefits there were some changes in that liability over the last couple years and and in um a new accounting pronouncement in the way you report that but um that's really post-employment benefits uh that people are earning

089now for you know benefits that they're going to be um able to utilize Health uh health insurance after they retire as well as any liability for current retirees then your net pension liability so your net position is a negative 90 million last year it was a negative 100 million um similar to most school districts across the state you have a big negative net position on the government wide statement a net position because of your pension liability or your share of the pension liability uh really passed down to you from peers um but the fact that your your deficit position on the government-wide statement went down is a positive uh it's you know not the best indicator but it's one indicator of whether your financial position is staying the same improving or deteriorating and and I

090think this shows some uh you know some improvement some of that is because of the market some of that is because of the you know the pension liability itself and and you know some of the underlying Investments um may be earning good returns relative to you know the the uh overall liability that exists out there in the long term um then underneath that I just showed some various revenues and expenses I wasn't really going to go through any in detail but the the net of of your revenues and expenses on the government wide is a positive 10 million um and really the numbers you focus on probably more importantly the governmental funds um you're in particular your general fund which is the primary fund of the um of the district uh your fund balance at

091the end of the year was 16, 530,000 you had a net change in fund balance of 3.1 million um revenues over expenses um and and again that's a a a number that I'm sure you focus on throughout the course of the year um these fund financial statements are more of a short-term Focus than than the long-term Focus like the government-wide statements that I mentioned above um you know the fund statements at least the governmental fund statements are more of a a cash in cash out type of you know um more of a almost a cash basis type of a thing and and similar to the way you budget um so um but again the positive fund balance I think is a positive and and I will just highlight some of that fund balance is the

092unrestricted piece of the fund balance is only about7 and a half million um so a lot of that general fund balance has been committed by the board or restricted by outside parties um for a particular you know for a restricted purpose um so it's it's not all unrestricted fund balance um and then I'm just showing the Food Service net position at 356,000 uh the change in net position in the Food Service fund was 35,000 so that's basically your your lunch program and then just showed some uh General expenditures there but that that's the Highlight uh I think um from from a a a really high overview always like to remind boards to take a look at the statements take a look at the managements discussion and Analysis it's a good section provided by management um

093that uh shows you some condensed numbers and shows some fluctuations from one you to the next and why things are going up and down so that's a good section that I think you always want to focus on um outside of that I I I really just appreciate the opportunity to communicate with the board um and and meet with you every year um and I appreciate everything The District staff has done to help us with the audit but the audit is complete for the June 30 2020 year and um you know I again I appreciate uh the district's efforts Don this is Tim just to be clear the change in the net change in fund balance the $3 3.17 s million that is the Surplus that it was for the uh 2019 2020 fiscal year correct

094correct that is the Surplus for the 2019 2020 fiscal year um and I I focused more on on the top part of the schedule and the government wide statements um which are more designed to show the assets and liabilities all of the assets and liabilities of of the entity and um you know the the fund statements are more of a just you know shortterm Focus but um yeah the 3.1 million is the um current year um diff uh exess thank you so uh like we normally do uh and thank you for the presentation like we normally do at this time of the year we also talk about any other surpluses that that we may have had Mr burer I think you prepared something to share with the board this evening yes I [Music] did so

095uh I did a review of the uh fund Surplus for everyone so we could go through that and explain where the 3.1 $3.2 million comes [Music] from so let me see if I can get this bigger I'm not sure if everyone can see this does anyone have any issues seeing what's on the screen okay okay U so I'll go through this so as uh Don mentioned we had a surplus of about $3 million uh $3.2 million um Revenue was $111.6 Million which was $247,800 below budget with expenditures of $18.4 million $3.4 million below budget when you put the two together we have the $3.2 million uh Surplus that we mentioned this is primarily driven by our operating expenses were which were not spent due to covid-19 the closure of the school district on March 12th

096uh 2020 and the savings associated with operating the schools in a virtual versus a traditional [Music] setting we take a look at the revenue efforts some of the highing contributing areas that delinquent real estate taxes were unfavorable by about $270,000 earned income was $220,000 favorable interest income due to the loss of the interest rates that were anticipated and projected in the budget caus a shortfall of about $28,000 real estate transfer taxes were stronger $17 $70,000 the idea funding which is uh reimbursements that uh we get from the state or for were down by 103 obviously the tuition and adulty school we weren't able to run the community ed program inter real estate taxes slipped uh refunds on prior years were down that's more of a bigger that changes year to year than covid related and

097receipts from other alas were down and finally the last one was the uh Amusement tax which went away this was the sale of the Center Square Golf Course um there'll be no future revenue and that was removed from future budgets overall local Revenue was 6 $564,000 below budget I presented the top 10 most of them were impacted by covid and very and the other ones um vary based on external factors um at the end of the day Revenue uh was 99.4% of budget on to the next side when we look at the state revenue overall the state revenue we had a favorable variance of about $252,000 uh reti and Social Securities were down by about $500,000 combined this is due to open positions not being filled at mainly due to the anticipated transfers uh that

098would have been coming in on the owner expense side uh subsidies were also U below budget due to the timing when the Figures were approved uh the state by the state said when they released that information when we could put that information into the budget um overall state revenue was that that should be 100 point 106% above budget I apologize there's a point there in the wrong [Music] spot U going into federal revenue federal revenue was about $552,000 favorable uh title one which was driven by the use is $111,000 favorable where title two and title four came in lower after state made their adjustment other cares act funding was $150 ,000 faval that is actually driving the federal revenue that is the grant money that we received due to covid-19 had that not been there

099we would have been below Budget on our federal revenue by about $98,000 and that would have been a direct result of the access which is the reimbursements we received um they were lower obviously due to the co and not being able to run certain programs that do the reimbursements associated with access and then Medical claiming as you'll see at the bottom was favorable by about $9,600 getting into the expenditures when you look at the salaries Administration salaries were failable by about $54,000 uh to budget professional staff was only about $223 favorable support staff $101,000 favorable technology unfavorable by $96,000 facilities was unfavorable by $127,000 000 and coach and sponsors pay was about $889,000 vable um the director technology position and res resignation that occurred during the year fill into the admin uh MAA salaries H

100were right it to 223,000 this comes into the movement of the funds for substitutes um so that played a role in the Sal that's the first area that we would move to offset the cost to to the subs m La by about $101,000 this was due to unfilled positions that and positions that were vacated through the fiscal year also the inability to fill them towards the end of the year uh confidentials were unfavorable by $92,000 due to a budgeting change which was the reclassification of an individual um and the facilities was over budget by about $127,000 this was due to budget transfers initially when the transfers were made to some of their items they were um able to they were those items went to different cost however we did not anticipate the facility staff coming

101back the way they did for the co when they were done and then we had the inability to get board approval for certain measures to re undo the budget transfers uh again due to co and the lack of being able to meet um so that should not happen again um and then the coaches and sponsors play we already went over the fact that that was from the cancellation of Vents and program s moving into the benefits you'll see that the benefits align pretty close medical insurance was favorable by about $60,000 prescription 245 iare was just about right on D Insurance um was a favorable by 108 life insurance 119 about 19,000 sorry Social Security and retirement discussed this this is the favorable this is favorable of because we did not expend the money associated with

102that again had we had a full year these amounts would have moved into the subs which would have reduced the Social Security and retirement contributions because as we said before when you're not hiring the staff and you're filling them with Subs we'd use the cost associated with those people to uh offset the subs we did not double count for that area uh tuition was uh within $900 almost unemp employment B is basically based on use we had budgeted 100,000 we had only used 42,000 workers comp uh we anticipated more workers less at workers comp than we actually had I'm sure some of that was related to co and or were other injuries that occurred at work um the income protection is just more of a timing issues to when that $51 would could be come

103in and put out because that's really a pass through item and the add other benefits that were unanticipated about $2,716 we on to the next slide we get into the building expanders most of your buildings would be favorable to their budgets as I anticipated the total is about $149,000 uh the high school being a largest at $52,500 uh clearly graduation did not happen we had Outdoor Ed that did not happen and a multitude of other areas that uh covid shutdown had actually been uh canceled some of the events that were planned for different buildings um also supplies were not needed consumables were not needed and all that would fill into why we had $150,000 on most of additional expenses saved in the buildings when we look at the Departments you can see that each of

104the different departments has certain things facilities had a favorable balance of $210,000 that goes into the transfer that we spoke about previously uh that would have been removed gone back into offset $127,000 that would have offset that so that would have been reduced and come in more on line pupil Services right here of about $600,000 that's due to the inability to you know in a virtual air in a virtual there's certain instruction that could not be done with Professional Services that we needed to hire um but the main driving force and all of our uh surpluses comes down right here uh which is transportation that's about $1.6 million of the 3.2 basically half of our Surplus comes into the Transportation uh you put in the other 600,000 had noted up here now we're looking at

105roughly $2.2 million of the Surplus again we put in the subs and the other things that have factored into the co area um remind you that when we did our last uh forecast associated with this we're looking somewhere between an $800 and $900,000 surplus at the time with the need to still have uh Subs come in which would have reduced that potentially further so if you put these two items together I do not believe the Surplus would have been nearly as bad as it looks on paper but a lot of this is main is driven by covid uh and this $16 million right here that is post paying for 50% of the routes associated with first students uh uh per their request and under payable under the act that the government had provided us the

106leverage to renegotiate our contract we go into the next slide here we go into debt debt real quick just so go real quick let me just sit there and say it was about $60,000 favorable the debt comes into the business office right here so the debt is really associated with the business office right here but in order to provide Clarity on where the debt is I wanted to break it out for everyone so that you could see where we had debt so we have two forms of debt we have a lease which is associated with the Esco payments um prior to having a full amortization schedule this area was an annual number that was put in I now have an amortization schedule I was able to track down from the company and will be these

107will be actually even numbers and this variance here will go away that will not be there in the future obviously we hit the principal right on and the interest would have been changed to the refinancing Bond that the board had approved otherwise thatb pretty much goes in as budgeted and comes out the same way there's really little short of taking on either new debt or restructuring debt there's very little variance in those items because they're very predictable for us finally just to give a summary on everything um as I said we have a $3.2 million uh favorable variance or surplus of that you know when you look at the department is 2.5 just short of $600,000 that benefits another $700,000 in variance so when you're looking right here that $1.6 million of transportation is really

108forcing a lot of this the $150,000 here again also covid related uh these benefits right here would have been down much more had we hired the subs and transferred the funds to the subs that process was working and going along the correct path as we had hoped basically I would believe based on where we were at the forecast our Surplus would have been under a million dollars um but due to co we were significantly impacted again not to keep throwing the transportation that $1.6 million uh would have never be out there had we run the buses the way we did uh taking on fuel and all the other costs associated with that and when I say we didn't run the buses we didn't run the buses for the normal routes we didn't run the buses

109for the Athletics and didn't run the buses for any field trip so all that kind of is how you get to the $1.6 million it's not that the amount is that extreme it's just that we just really didn't run our normal course of action due to co closure and at that point I can answer any questions that may be there yeah there are questions for Mr Bricker or for Don from Mali regarding the overall audit or um specifics on the Surplus uh any questions U Mr wers no I just want to thank Tim Tim for putting that together I know that we it was very uh late in the year that we did that this this past year so it's much clearer and um I I guess the earned income I just want to point

110out that the the earned income was $7.3 Million um and I believe from a budget perspective we put in um maybe 10% 12% less of that for this year's budget so based on expectations we put 10% less than the the figure that was provided to us which was about $7.2 million uh from Burkheimer uh that was their original estimate and they uh had recommended somewhere between a 10 to 20% reduction in the uh in the Earned Income Tax we went with 10 some of the neighboring school districts went with 15 some of the very conservative ones went with 20 uh we felt that there was a pretty good ability based on the number of top 10 Employers in our area that a 10% reduction would be more in line with reality in the last update

111provided by Burkheimer that seems to be right about where we're going to be is about a 10% reduction obviously employment economy and everything can change and impact that drastically yeah so Tim I didn't write the difference in the uh the earned income element there but so we were more or less on budget despite the three months of covid yes because that runs a little bit in a rear so the U the first quarter would have been paid in May [Music] okay that's all I have thank you thank you Mr wyers other questions from members of the board have one quick one in reference to I think when we looked at the unfavorable for technology I don't think you explain where that difference came from are you talking the I believe you had it on slide

112number six no on slide number six where you show the um unfavor unfavorable you showed the facilities and maintenance and also technology you just passed it number six Tech this is Staffing this was due to a staffing uh classification we had an individual that was not classified in technology therefore when we did the budget they weren't included in the budget for technology they correct the this the spending was in the right spot but the budget was not in the right spot for that individual okay other questions from members of the board not see other hands thank you Mr bicker thank you um representative from Mali uh for for your work this evening and your presentation again the uh the adoption of the budget will be on for the board's consideration at next Tuesday's meeting thank

113you very of the audit yep thank you I appreciate it and it's the adoption of the audit uh that we'll have for Tuesday correct yes the next uh the next item on the agenda is Administrative staffing recommendations bear with me a second till I get that uh Square get that set up so this evening I want to present uh my administrative staffing recommendations for the board's consideration here is a partial representation of the top level of the organizational chart as approved on 1126 20 9 by the board showing the nine elected Board of school directors the superintendent and the department directors under the directors you not shown on the chart here but is typically found you will be the uh level supervisors or the program supervisors on the building principles this for all all intents

114and purposes a pretty flat organizational structure in terms of uh challenges uh covid-19 has been a significant challenge to the work that we do every decision is new there is very little that we can reach back in our experiences to make determinations there is a greater need for communication to staff greater need for communication to our parents and to the community and there is a need to make decisions and more timely basis the whole covid matter has exasperated an already slim administrative team our ability to manage uh with open post is is not working so let me just talk about that for a few seconds uh we certainly uh created an office of diversity equity and inclusion and we just you know having just created this we've also made need to make a very thoughtful

115and appropriate determination as how to best staff this in order to realize some uh appropriate change we have had an ad hoc Committee of the board working with me and tonight I hope to to share our recommendation assistant superintendent we've been talking about this post for about 7 years and I I must tell you that I cannot do the things that our community demands uh without some assistance uh we need to post and uh this uh and fill this position immediately secondary curriculum supervisor we established this post more than a year ago staffed the post and had certain matters delay the implementation we kept a position on the books but did not allocate budget dollars for this position in the 2021 uh school year in order to make our targeted reductions and Technology director I

116got to say thank goodness uh that we moved moved Dr Landis to the technology office when we did just a month after that move covid hit and while technology has not been perfect I commend Dr Landis for her leadership and for all the efforts that she's made today but in terms of addressing uh these areas many of us including myself have taken on some aspects of all of these roles and it is not only challenging but to be quite Frank it's nearly exhausting in terms of the structure and duties and task one of the key elements to a successful people-based organization is having appropriate supervision and evaluation of staff to be able to provide the mechanisms and the time to attract keep and grow the staff at all levels covid and the vacant positions uh

117place is me in the middle of handling many day-to-day matters that simply should not be at my level this takes away from the strategic planning the visioning communications and a number of other matters that are crucial for moving this District forward we need more focus on organizational development School Improvement and student growth employee relations and morale in fact part of what we continually face is the fact that uh with absorbing all these additional responsibilities that would be done other by Otherwise by other individuals we struggle with timely Communications to our staff to getting our professional development schedule well in advance uh to our teachers and really the list goes on we cannot simply do better by continuing to do the same things so this evening my recommendations will address the administrative structural duties and task

118challenges we'll provide more more effective efficient timely support to building administrators and staff will provide a focused and consistent strategic Improvement planning and implementation efforts and will place the emphasis on people as a as the greatest organizational assets my first recommendation in order to move uh this organization forward and to address the challenges that I've shared um it's important that the uh the district consider allowing me to continue the work with the ad hoc Committee of the board but also as part of that work to date engage a gentleman by the name of Dr Bruce Campbell and Bruce Dr Campbell uh has done a number of uh of Consulting engagements on the matter of diversity Equity inclusion around Montgomery County but across the whole Commonwealth and he is currently a Prof Professor uh at at

119at uh one of our local universities and we know that from speaking with him and the proposal that he has shared with us that we can move forward in allowing him to assist us in developing A diversity and inclusion committee developing and facilitating an equity audit for the district to facilitate monthly diversity and inclusion committee meetings and assist in directing diversity inclusion committee subgroups as well as assist in developing an action plan uh for the leadership and Staffing of our Dei office so if it is the the uh will of the board to accept uh recommendation one I have a proposal that I've received from uh Dr Campbell it's been reviewed by the ad hoc committee and um if uh if there's no objection to it this evening I'd like to be able to put

120that uh proposal on the agenda for consideration for next Tuesday's uh meeting we can certainly uh you know invite uh Dr Campbell if if that's uh recommendation of the board but I know that our our atoc committee has already met with him and I I also understand that uh the local uh Dei task force within the methan community has met with uh Dr Campbell and I believe that they are also equally impressed by his credentials and his his ability to uh to potentially support uh the meaan school district the next recommendation in order to move this organization forward and to address the challenge that I've shared I'm recommending Mr Chay Regina be appointed uh by the board to the position of assistant superintendent effective January 1 2021 Mr Regina is a trusted confident knowledgeable and

121respected administrator his work over the past several years along with his previous work experiences make him the most appropriate for this role where he will handle the day-to-day matters staff discipline lead the supervision and evaluation of all staff be our Title Nine coordinator our school safety officer and be the administrator in charge in the absence of myself the superintendent recommendation number three considering that the assistant superintendent is appointed as recommended there will be a need to replace Mr Regina in Human Resources office this position will handle all the HR matters and take on the responsibility as the right to know officer in the district the fourth recommendation keeping true to the reason that this position was established in the first place being our fundamental mission is to educate students and we we do that through

122the use of our curriculum and through the leadership of our principles and the instruction provided by our teachers who need the proper support to provide an effective efficient and timely curriculum uh delivery at all levels we need to advertise for this position I would like the board to give me permission to advertise and present for their consideration in January of 2021 a candidate for the supervisor of a secondary curriculum while this job description has not changed I will if this is approved change uh change to uh a recommend a change to have all professional development be run by both the supervisors that's a supervisor of Elementary instruction and the supervisor of secondary instruction in conjunction with the building principles and change the title of the duties of the supervisor of professional learning and continuous Improvement

123to the supervisor of continuous Improvement by also adding to them uh responsibilities of uh data management the uh pims reporting and the state reporting responsibilities and the uh the the the the last recommendation uh that I have for you this evening is in March of 2021 assuming that all the other recommendations uh have been uh uh established and and move forward uh I will come back and ask uh for the uh the board to allow me to advertise for the replacement in the technology office with an appointment due in May and June of 2021 in terms of the organizational chart uh we take the existing chart in its entirety um and uh notice that uh we're adding one element uh to the overall structure that is to uh provide a little bit more higher in

124the in the structure in the reporting process where the Director of Human Resources will report to the assistant superintendent and the assistant superintendent and I will will directly supervise the building principles in the district the timeline for this in November uh I'd like to uh H ask for the approval of Mr Chay Regina for the assistant superintendent and I believe that this will then uh perpetuate all the other pieces as recommended um we would then go go to advertise for the replacement of the Director of Human Resources and then we would adverti for the position of supervisor of secondary uh curriculum with a Target appointment for the HR Director and the supervisor for January of 2021 and then again in March of 2021 U asked for the advertisement of the technology operation supervisor with a

125targeted appointment in May and June in terms of the financials it is projected uh with these recommendations that the impact to the budget on the for the 2021 fiscal year uh beginning January 1 is uh projected to be in total both benefits and salaries and consulting fee of $38,000 h27 that includes 30 $30,000 for the Dei consultant fee as uh as as uh as outlined in The Proposal from uh Dr Campbell 180,000 uh for the assistant superintendent 150,000 for the Director of Human Resources and an estimate of 150,000 for the uh uh SEC uh secondary curriculum supervisor and then for projected 2021 fiscal year and forward cost it would be projected about $682,000 in salary and benefits inclusive of 112 ,000 technology supervisor position so our impact to the budget uh in in the long

126term is about $682,000 now now recall these were positions that uh some of these were positions that we had in the budget uh in in previous years and as part of our budgetary uh process the this past year uh we made some some decisions and I made some recommendations uh to think that we could do away or or or or I'll say pause on the on filling those positions but as I mentioned under the challenges it's become rather clear that you know with covid and with all the stuff that is is new to us uh like it's new in every other industry um it's just it's just not going to be sustainable um if we keep going uh in the direction that we're going and asking uh everyone including myself uh to spend all their

127waking hours working and and I and I mean that I know that sounds Maybe silly but uh you can ask any of the directors on this call um you know they they' they've given uh more than their uh their appropriate time for the things that we need to do um both both evenings and and weekends and uh uh you know we're we're we're really in a position where this is an opportunity not only to address those challenges but to allow us to help ourselves and move the district forward with that said U I'll I presented this here this evening um and I'm seeking any other feedback and per permission from the board uh to put four of the five recommendations uh all of them except for the technology one on the agenda for your consideration

128uh next uh next Tuesday so with that said um I'll open the floor up to some questions any questions uh from members of the board Mr wyers only one talking tonight I guess um I I I think Dr Zerby should be commended for a i i i support these I have one question here but I I I do believe uh I know my experiences at work uh the stress that is put on the workplace um and people trying to keep their head up no matter if they're a teacher if they're an accountant or whatever they're doing the stress is on is on all of us um the the staff and all those employed by methacton have stepped up through this process but I think your ability to acknowledge that there there is some needs here

129increasing the trust and the respect and the effectiveness of all the interactions and the recommendation of putting a strong individual H into the process to support that is what we need in the district so um I support that I the one question I had was on uh can you comment related to the director of of Human Resources was that an internal and external or just an external and if it was just external uh what was the reasoning behind that yeah in the in the presentation and as part of my recommendation uh I believe that uh the uh the positions being recommended for advertisement both internally and externally uh and I and I and I say that because uh there may there may be uh there's not an apparent uh individual within the organization that I

130I'm aware of at this moment in time that could jump into an HR position uh but certainly there are uh some individuals that might be interested in that that have that have served in other administrative roles that could uh learn from for example from Mr Regina as part of that process but uh we also recognize that uh there may be some individuals uh you know outside of our organization that could come with those skills already uh in place and be able to allow us to hit the ground running right away you know one of the things that we we need to be uh very cognizant of is um making sure that part part of the challenge is making sure that we provide opportunities for our staff internally and one of the things uh that I

131shared in the presentation was that in terms of the supervisor of uh a second curriculum uh my recommendation is we advertise that internally there are there are are clearly in in in my opinion a number of individuals that are quite capable and hopefully are are willing to uh step up to the next level of of administrative responsibility to take on that role and we'd be a great asset to Dr Walsh's team thank you other questions from members of the board Miss re I don't I don't have any questions I just wanted to first of all thank thank you for your cander you know you you you you said some very important things that's communication with staff Etc I will reiterate what Paul said um you know everybody's working harder um from a to z um

132but I did also want to reiterate what you said about the fact that because we were trying to get our budget within a certain number we didn't fulfill some of these some of these position and and you know hindsight's always 2020 you know ad administrators no offense are expensive so that was easy to to cut and you think it affects children the least all top um so M Mis just so you know at my end you were breaking up so I W I didn't hear everything that you said but I I would like to comment on the stuff that I did here and the one thing that you mentioned was uh you know I I have to take some responsibility for uh these positions not being filled because I did make the recommendation as part

133of the budget assuming that like we've done in the past uh we've taken uh a position where instead of uh allowing uh budget cuts to uh affect students directly into the classroom uh by either not purchasing equipment supplies or or other things uh We've uh we've tried to cut back in the administrative realm in order to uh you know meet meet a Target budgeted amount without without impacting children directly um and and while we've done that over a number of years and and that has worked um it is quite clear and and obvious that uh with covid added to this whole old challenge um it's it's it's so it's showing showing some of the shortcomings of being able to fill in all those spots um you know not not only for myself but others who

134have been filling in so while those positions aren't filled Dr angstead Mr Regina myself uh Mr Bricker like we're all pulling you know additional weight that would normally be done by other individuals and and and we we're not gonna we're not going to move this organization forward uh with that type of uh that type of effort it's just PE either people will go uh and leave and or you know you know they'll they they'll burn out and and they'll be uh they they'll leave for you know medical reasons or something of that nature so uh I'm not trying to paint a grim picture here I'm just saying that uh you know I I need your help and and I think this District deserves uh better I think you know that we can do better um

135and we can do better if we have a stronger team and uh you know you know part of part of you know making this recommendation gets Mr genug into the spot that we need him uh to focus in on uh making people first and by making people first we fill in these other spots that make us a stronger team uh and uh and and not only for uh you know you know reporting uh processes to to the board and to the community but to all the way down to the teacher level by us being more effective in Central and being more communicative communicative in central it makes the lives of our principles and teachers that much better so so I I I ask that uh you allow us to move forward with this so other

136comments questions from members of the board the only other thing I'll say is I know um how what a great job Mr Regina has done but I was not part of his hiring so um I needed to kind to be remembered of his um resume um his teaching experience his principal experience his director of Athletics experience so again I support this and uh look forward to hopefully this uh going through thank you Miss ree uh other questions or comments Miss abise thank you Dr Zerby I just wanted to um reiterate something that came up when you and I were discussing this um that maybe not everybody on the call would necessarily know and that is that um a lot of districts of our size have an assistant superintendent so while this is something that is

137new to methacton um it is not unusual for District of our size to have an assistant superintendent and in fact I think it's more unusual that we have not had one previously um I I don't know if we've ever had an assistant superintendent I an assist 10 years years ago superintendent but there was yeah there was there was one 10 years ago okay um so yeah we're we're well overdue to fill this position um and I know it is something that we have talked about many times over the 5 years that I've been on the board um and quite honestly I feel like Mr Regina came along at just the right time to our district um and is the the perfect individual to step into this role so I'm really happy that we have him

138and that we're able to um to really use his talents um in a new and exciting way so I I fully support that thank you uh Madam president other comments from members of the of the board or questions uh Miss Hall well thank you first for all work on this presentation and I do um think that these administrative changes are are needed at this point because we've seen the the struggle that we've had in in dealing with many different issues but I did want to ask in um I'm not sure if the correct attachment was included with the agenda tonight but I just wanted clarification because it says on the director of human resources that it requires a PA certification for superintendent or assistant superintendent I was not certain if that was correct or not

139we'll we'll re we'll review that and and and take a look at that okay thank thank for pointing that out any other questions Miss krro no all I wanted to do let just say that I am also in favor of this I think it's something we need to do to move forward to strengthen our district I think I've seen all of you work extremely hard um and I think one of the biggest things is hearing from staff and principles that they need handson they want to be heard they want to carry through what they want to do so to help develop our staff develop our leadership I do believe that uh Mr Regina would be a perfect person to take on that role um what he's brought to our district has elevated us so quickly

140to have open communication with our District employees um and I think it will allow us to really have more handson for coaching and development and what we've always wanted to do is Strive to educational Excellence so I support this and and I'm glad that we're going to move forward with these positions thank you Miss K appreciate your comments uh other any any other comments or questions Miss Drummond yeah could you just speak a little more please about the um the data work that is going to be done um with some of the professional development now being done under the curriculum directors yeah I I think I think what's U most critical in terms of uh the responsibilities associated with professional development is that uh the the principles and the uh supervisors for the the appropriate

141levels work together uh to ensure that uh the proper types and uh uh and and um uh areas of professional development are are delivered planned communicated and implemented in a timely and effective manner um certainly uh for a long time we've had uh we've had one person in charge of professional development um and then uh you know it's just it's a it's a larger task for one person to to to manage in terms of all that process uh but equally important to the professional development is the fact that um we are reassigning uh the person with in the uh current position as a supervisor of professional learning and continuous Improvement to the overall oversight of our data and pims Reporting and uh quite frankly uh I I it may not be readily apparent to folks

142but the reporting uh and and the accuracy of that reporting has a significant impact on things like our our uh our district ranking or our school rankings uh when those things uh while over the years we've made corrections to some uh reports from from time to time those Corrections don't necessarily get reflected in a in a press release for a uh a ranking uh determination uh so it's it's almost you know you know years in in in the in the in the in the back so I know that might be more information than you were asking for but I wanted you to know that uh uh having the supervisors and the principles at their respective levels uh collectively plan uh for the professional development in with respects to the Act 48 committee and also uh

143with with the teachers uh at their appropriate Level under the direction of Dr Walsh uh will allow us to uh be more effective and efficient and more timely for the needs at at those respective levels thank you that that actually that is what I was looking for and I know from my time on the Act 48 committee um that sometimes the professional development the feedback is that you know sometimes it's more applicable to certain levels and not others as much so I think this is um this is good going forward that we're going to make sure it's tailored um to the needs that we have thank you yeah and I must say that you know a lot of the uh supervisor of curriculum recommendation is also you know strongly supported uh by our new director

144of curriculum Dr Walsh uh certainly um you know being able to uh actually direct versus doing a lot of the elementary or secondary work will be instrumental to uh you know making and moving our district forward in improving not only student growth and performance but also uh matters of like like District ranking and so forth so uh you know there there's there's some uh subtle but very important uh uh subsequent matters uh by making these changes that will be positive for the district other questions uh comments not seeing any oh Mr neverett thanks um I guess thank you I guess to to reiterate what Andrea and Paul said I appreciate your cander uh in coming forward with us certainly I know we talk about covid and how that exacerbated a situation but I think it's

145important to realize that this Administration team was already operating lean and it's and quite honestly remarkable what they've gotten done with the team that we've had and I know I sound like a broken record when I say this because I know the rest of this board and you have heard this before that but when you know when I walked onto this board in day one and we did our uh our tours and we met with each the individual departments I was I was shocked at how few people there are specifically in the area of curriculum so I'm glad that we're taking the steps uh forward to address uh some of the uh the shortcomings in the administrative team because I think that probably has a lot more to do with the uh the rankings that

146people talk about than Greg configurations um from the top I'm glad we're addressing I'm glad we're taking the first steps forward uh towards filling the Dei office I know Samir and Liz and I have had uh more than a couple discussions with Dr Campbell and with the Dei task force um personally I think it would be good for him to come and present to us and and talk about exactly what it is that he plans to do I know again lizen Samir and I have heard it uh multiple times and I'm entirely comfortable with what he's going to do but I think it'd be good not only for board but the administration and the public to hear uh exactly uh what we want to address there and and how we plan about going about that

147um where this assistant superintendent is is concerned um you know Chay I'm I'm I couldn't be more thrilled uh to have you here on a more permanent basis and in this role we've heard nothing but uh glowing things about you uh since the day you walked in and um you know I think I think probably the most important thing that doctors Herby talked about is that trust um so I'm glad that uh hopefully we can get this we can get this done and and um have you here in this assistant superintendent role the role itself is something that I think we've all identified has been bacon for a long time um and then when we get to supervise our secondary curriculum I'm glad we're going to fill this position are there any more um I

148guess changes or restructuring I know I know Matt's only been here for uh what two months now month and a half um I'm sure he's going to have ideas as we move forward and certainly get into the hopefully transition soon into non-id Times um but are do we expect more more changes on that front from the curriculum Department well I I think uh part part of our conversation is how do we best leverage uh the curriculum coordinators and uh and the and the department coordinators across the district uh certainly they um in in in in my conversation with Dr Walsh uh they are really a uh a resource that you know has has a much greater potential than than what maybe we've been leveraging them for and and I think he's trying to ascertain what

149it is that um they've been responsible for doing and how better to leverage their expertise in in supporting the curriculum office because when it's all said and done they are you know the teachers in the classrooms they are the the ones that you know will will get the work done and and certainly uh um you know having them in in as a critical aspect in their conversations about what we do and how we do it are going to be instrumental to getting it done thanks I'll just add that I'm I'm glad we're g we're looking to fill this position internally again because I think that in itself uh opens up a lot of doors within the organization for others and I think it's important that um teachers and principals and Specialists all see that there

150is a progression here within methacton uh for them here that uh we want to keep our good talent here so thank you thank you Mr neet are there any other comments or questions before we move on to the next item on the agenda so hearing no objections at this point uh I'm going to add these recommendations the four of the five uh to the agenda for your consideration uh at next Tuesday's uh uh voting meeting hearing no no objections on that uh we'll we'll do that the next item that I have on the agenda is Athletics activities and Facilities used discussion um when I originally placed this on the agenda this was back on uh on the 12th of um just bear with me this was back on the 12th and if you remember on

151the 12th I sent a letter to WTH Acton families uh indicating that in an effort to mitigate the trending increases in covid-19 positivity and incident rates in Montgomery County and especially among our families in Lower Providence and war war sester townships I was issuing a a notice to all the families that be on Monday November 16th and through uh December 6th that all students in all the different groupings uh uh will receive instruction online uh with that said I also went into some of the specifics about why that that was and and I'd like to share with you uh why why why some of those specifics and kind of an update to some of that as well and then that'll lead us into the conversation about Athletics uh activities facility and Facilities use discussion so

152uh you know I came to that conclusion based on the mitigation measures presented and on the 12th and then eventually enacted on the 13th by the Montgomery County Department of Health requiring all Montgomery County Schools both private and public uh to revert to online learning right before the Thanksgiving holiday so that's starting uh November 23d through uh December 6 uh and then also the fact that methacton school district has had only one week of its inperson on premise hybrid instruction meaning that we were doing the I'll call it the phasin approach um and at the same time uh the fact that methacton school district's two townships combined had the highest covid-19 rates in Montgomery County and just to be more specific about that uh for the twoe Peri period prior methacton positivity rate was 88.2%

153with an incident rate of of at the same time of 11 14.6 per 100,000 the county was at a 5.2 2% and a 106.9% uh per 100,000 respectively so while while the county was was Rising we were rising at at at at almost two possibly or actually three percentage points higher in terms of positivity and nearly uh you know you know you know 10 additional percent by uh respectively for the incident rate and it certainly was clear to us that the county and the local rates uh were were escalating over the over the past three weeks we we created that dat data dashboard and we have the the chart showing you know where that's going and that that data comes from the county directly um and furthermore at the time of the decision um on

154the 12th we knew that the daily positivity rate in the county was a little over 11% So based on on what the chop doctors were telling us uh at a meeting uh with the superintendents uh in Mont gry County is that it's only a matter of time before we get beyond our 10% threshold uh that we had established for ourselves as as a chart uh with from from pte uh to to move to all online uh uh instruction now the problem was you you know us in in in our estimate and talking with the county we were about a week a week and a half ahead in terms of positivity and and incident increases compared to our neighboring uh districts and to the county as a whole so the fact that uh you know we

155uh we we had the substantial range for two consecutive weeks um as as we had in our approved uh health and safety plan and the fact that the county and the district specific data trajectory is was poed was poised to be off the chart in about another week the fact that we had 10 positive cases at that time uh we now have if you've noticed there was an update today to to our data dashboard uh we now have a total of 19 cases and that means there's three staff members and 16 students and the fact that uh our staff are either self-reporting symptoms they are in quarantine or in isolation making it very challenging operate daily and and and while we're at it uh Mr Regina I think you have a summary that you can

156share with the board about some of that those Staffing challenges if you would please sure I I I think that the timeline of the way things occurred just quickly you as we were looking at the middle of the summer um what we had recognized was there was the onset of this was a a medical and FMLA concerns um there was a certainly a fear associated with coming back uh there were a number of individuals that were concerned about that um and as we shifted into the start of the school year it became more of an we still had the medical concern but then FFC started to play uh a factor which essentially was uh FFC number five is essentially related to child care and schools that would be either in hybrid or online um would

157be offering uh we would be able to offer FFC what we're falling into now was and what we recognized last week really quarantine started to play a major role in our staffing issues um so as as you can see and the other ones don't ever go away so so this has kind of been a certainly a waterfall approach to some of the concerns that we had um to date we had 51 individuals that have requested leave in the district now that's both support uh and professional staff um 20 of which were FFC requests uh and FFC number five request remember at this moment in time FFC will conclude December 31st um that that is provided that there is no extension um it is a federal law so it would it would have to be a

158federal uh extension uh for us to still utilize FFC of those 51 48 individuals requested Tela workk 41 of those individuals uh were approved to Tork if we were were not able to find a substitute 21 of those individuals did not require a substitute for their position so for instance it might have been an individual that was co- teing we could keep one individual online while the other individual was in person so we we tried to manage that the best we could so that leaves 30 positions that were required for a substitute and a proctor at the start of this we had 16 substitutes as you can imagine the substitute battle um was quite difficult amongst the districts uh there's happens to be would say probably the closest thing to a bidding war for substitutes

159that I've ever seen before in my career um and uh and substitutes to be quite honest were were at a premium and they still are and uh we we left with 14 unfilled positions and when we started last Monday and essentially what we did was we used large group areas we uh used coverages of our existing staff and then we got very creative with some of our support staff and administrative staff to help with that coverage as well um and that's where we are today thanks and and just to you know in all disclosure we actually use started we started to dive into using Central Administration staff is that right Mr Regina that that is that is correct so yeah so you know it was it was certainly uh you know a challenging period of

160time so um my my main concern about uh that that process uh was that um you know I had to consider knowing that the county was going to make a recommendation to uh uh go all virtual starting the 23rd uh I had I met with my administrative team and and we discussed what what the inherent uh value would be to continuing this path um knowing all what that we know in terms of uh the increase in positivity and and incident rates as well as uh the challenging challenges with staff were likely to continue um and and the fact that we were already dipping into using some Central administrative staff in order to be Proctors it it just it just appeared to be a much uh more appropriate uh response uh by from from us as

161a district uh to revert to online learning an extra week ahead of of the rest of the County schools and the and the reason for that not only not only from what I've shared but my hope is that as per the chop doctors have have consulted with us on um you know if if it if it took three weeks to get into uh you know spiking uh it's going to take you know four to five weeks to get out of that and um and and so you know we were we were much further ahead in terms of uh our incident rates and our positivity rate we're going to need more time to get down to a better level so that was you know another thing that that I considered as part of that that decision

162making so some of the other key aspect to all this is that the county has indicated that on December 2nd uh the county health department will provide an update to the mandatory virtual instructional requirement so while uh we went a week earlier we also are going to be uh uh doing the all virtual you know you know following the mandates from the the County Health Department uh on the agenda for this evening was the Athletics and activities uh for the board for board discussion um we can certainly talk about Athletics and activities but given that the county mandate also restricts the in-person Athletics and uh inperson activities for the same period of time I felt it reasonable for us to uh at the very least uh take up the conversation about the use of facilities

163only and then allow for uh you know where the County Health Department goes where we see uh things going from PIAA and uh you know continuing with our our health and safety plan that the board approved unless you know some other things uh so suggest that we should do otherwise and then keep the the board apprised of that so so basically what I think is important um for the board to understand is that these these next two weeks um our facilities especially over the Thanksgiving holiday are used heavily uh primarily by uh Community organizations uh that uh provide a recreational uh youth uh uh Athletics uh particularly basketball uh to school AG uh children uh within our community and uh with and and while we have other activities like swimming and and and and so

164forth that is that is run by other outside groups and we've approved the use of those things uh at a previous meeting um I I just want to make sure that um you know I'm I'm giving whatever direction that the board uh wants me to go in here uh how do we how do we proceed forward over this period uh there isn't it isn't clear to me that uh the use of facilities is restricted by this order uh nor is uh the use of or the the Restriction by groups like AR and uh and the Mac are are it doesn't appear to me that those things are uh restricted uh during this period of time and some of the things that we would would want to consider is what we're doing right now in terms

165of of this is a mitigation strategy uh the idea being that um we're taking reasonable steps uh to help uh reduce uh the the likelihood of continuous uh spread um I I don't know if I'm certainly in in a position to recommend that we stop everything uh that that we are doing as as a district uh but I also know that um part of my obligation is to you know share this concern because a I I certainly don't want to uh not provide access to these outside groups uh but if the board feels that we should I certainly will um one of the challenges is that this period of time is probably and given the fact that schools will all be online this is the only period of time that these outside groups you know

166will will be able to have another Outlet other than being at home uh but certainly it's clear that the the rise in rates is not due to what is going on in school um our Rising rates um higher than other uh County districts U has nothing to do with our our schools so it has everything to do with you know what else is going on outside in the community whether according to the Chop doctors and to our our County Health Department uh who do all the contact tracing they're saying things like car pooling you know uh you know you know uh neighborhood events um uh act things that are happening outside of of the activity so so you know the statements that are shared with us is you know it's not the it's not the

167sport of of playing basketball it's the Gatherings after playing basketball that are are causing uh the the challenges and that's what they're seeing through the the social tracing process so um I've said a lot uh I think we should open the floor up to some questions and conversation um just trying to get some idea so that I can provide appropriate Direction uh uh on this and and communication to our our outside groups or or we can certainly talk about Athletics and activities as well so um yeah M re I was going to say a couple things one is just to reiterate what we said about about schools you know we got some some nasty comments and and and and disappointed emails about the closing but we had no choice and we're not going to reiterate

168your letter and what you said tonight but I did want to reiterate as an educator that I first had students last Thursday in where I teach for the first time in person and on my very first day of teaching in person I had to go cover for a teacher who was quarantined so this is real it's very very hard to run a school without the staff that works in the school so I just wanted to reiterate that again because I'm living it and although I'm very pleased I can see my students this week I understand why I cannot see them next week as far as the Athletics let's go there first I think we have to wait for PIAA just like we have all along I will say that I'm very proud of our families

169of fall Sports if you think about it we and I'm not saying we're you know we're the best woohoo but we did an excellent job during the fall with our Sports we our families our coaches our stud student athletes did an incredible job from our Cola on up to the high school so I think that that is notable and commendable um as far as winner the win winner PIAA sports for schools like I said I think we need to wait for PIAA they've already not already but they did go from November 20th to November 30th and they did that for multitude of reasons so we'll see what happens as far as the use of our facilities um you you know we go to that whole mental health aspect and as long as those people are

170following the rules I would like us to continue to share those facilities because they're already following the rules now as you said who knows what's happening after but they are following the rules in our buildings um because we've seen it um so I would personally as long as the county like they haven't stopped the use of gyms and things like that as long as they're following the guidelines I would like to see our facilities be used um because we have the custodians in place we have the safeguards in place and there isn't staffing issues and those kinds of issues that we're also dealing with that's my personal opinion but um for the mental health of the of people involved I think it's as long as we can do it we should do it I know

171that that may not be able to go on forever hopefully these other mitigating mitigating um uh procedures in place will help that to continue thank you Miss ree for your feedback I appreciate that are there any other comments or or feedback Direction you miss Reese or um Miss Aubrey Laren yeah thank you um obviously this is not the direction that we had thought this conversation was going to be going when we first first talked about putting it on the agenda um I have a couple of questions about the use of our facilities for outside groups and I forgive me if we've talked about this but um we've talked about a lot in 2020 so I can't possibly retain all of it every time but um are we have we changed the way that we are

172scheduling the use of our facilities for outside groups for example um are we allowing if we have for example um arra using a gym followed by another group using the gym are we allowing for more time in between those those bookings or are we um booking groups back to back U Mr Jones can you help me with that yes uh right now we just have individual groups so typically in the evening it's AR and then uh also on the weekends in some of the schools we have another organization there but they are not cohabitating or um back to back okay so we but we also then don't necess necessarily no because it's up to each individual organization so for example if AR has a gym booked for three hours and they have three or four

173different teams coming through we don't know how they're scheduling it to I'm hoping I'm assuming that as part of their covid plan they they are allowing for transition time so that we don't have too many people in the facilities at a time but um they they have been following the numbers uh exactly so we've had no issues with uh um them uh having too many people in the building at one time okay so we're monitoring that closely good that's good to hear um so then the other thing that I was I was thinking with this is that rather than assume that the county has not restricted the use of the facilities for outside groups and that the continuation of a Athletics um I I think we should seek clarification um I I don't want to

174put us in a a situation where um are abruptly having to put things to an end because of a communication from the county I would rather find out on the front end um and be able to handle it appropriately um I can do that and um I know we don't have a whole lot of attendees on the meeting tonight but I I want to reiterate um as I think we've talked about many times before that we need to as a community be doing everything in our power to try to slow the spread of covid um we need to be wearing masks we need to be practicing social distancing I know everyone's tired of hearing it everybody's tired of talking about it myself included um it's it we've heard from the chop doctors over and over

175again it is not the activities the that are being these activities are carefully planned carefully monitored I have seen it firsthand and up close the the kids aren't getting covid on the the playing field it's the stuff before practice it's the stuff after after practice it's the sleepovers on the weekends it's the birthday parties that are still continuing to happen and I'm I'm seeing it more and more and um it's got to stop if we want to be able to keep our kids involved in any sort of activity um and I I do believe it's very critical for their mental health to be able to to find these ways to socialize and be with each other um we have to follow the protocols and we have to be vigilant um I also am concerned that

176there is a slippery slope that develops and I I say this having fallen a little bit down this slope myself there is a false sense of safety that I think we we get into where um we feel like because our children are together for an activity say they're on the same sports team well then it's okay for them to get together in the weekend and and hang out because while they're already seeing each other at sports um I think that that the school environment there this is purely my speculation could be creating the same sort of a scenario with um some districts and some schools going back to inperson learning that there's a sense of you know you've expanded your bubble you see these kids in school you see these kids at practice so therefore

177you can get together on the weekends and socialize um and I have felt myself starting to to think that same way about my own kids um but I think it's it's a dangerous road to go down and I think that um as hard as it is to say no to our kids um it's for everybody's safety that we do so so I think these organized activities that are are monitored and structured and and are run in as safe a way as possible are the way to go um that the other stuff that the get togethers at at people's houses on the weekends um that the things like that that are still persisting in the community that that's where we have to be more Vigilant we have to to scale back we have to we have

178to be more cautious um so yes think that as long as we're continuing to to monitor the situation and again check in with the county to make sure that that this you know I I think we need to clarify with them that this is okay yeah I I I certainly can do that the only thing oh sorry the only thing I'll add I can't speak for AR because my child has not started with ar yet my other one aged out but I can speak for Mac that they in answer to your question Kim they um have fit they 15 minutes before between each group um just because they're following incredibly strict guidelines and I would imagine so is the other but I don't want to speak for that but I know that they had to

179submit a plan so I did want to say that um Mac certainly has 15 minutes between each yeah I mean I know it's something that FC monco has done um all season long but I you know I don't know what the the different organizations are doing when they're indoors um so I'm just kind of double checking that one yeah and and I know that there may be you know even more opinions on this conversation and I think that maybe if I could so we've had we had M Ree and Miss Obby L speak on the fact that you know we keep these uh uh facilities open um are there are there any objections to to that uh assuming that the county after I check with the county is still okay and that's I mean if

180there's no other objections to kind of moving forward in that direction then uh you know I we we'll keep down that path Mr mcginness yeah just a quick uh kind of following Kim's just to make sure uh you mentioned that you know the kind of doors swing wide open over Thanksgiving traditionally um we're not having any uh abnormally large multi-te tournament events anywhere on our uh facilities or anything like that or are we still maintaining just I'll call the arra the the current customers that's one thing I would like to make sure that we've checked the schedule that there's no large uh group uh multi-te tournaments that are planning on using our places that's all Mr Jones do you have any any response to that yeah at this at this point in time you are

181correct we do not have any large organizations and we're getting getting ready to get back to them in reference to what we are going to allow after Thanksgiving so once we have this conversation and Dr zby confirms with the county we will be contacting them the end of this week thank you thank you Mr mcus yeah Mr na yeah just add to that I don't have any objection but I do want to ask that you know we've said this before when we approved the health and safety plan but we have to have strict adherence to the numbers limits that we set forth previously you know that makes it tough for basketball because we're talking about 10 kids on a team and a couple of coaches and referees but um and that probably means parents can't

182get in the gym to see their kids play but if we're truly interested in in maintaining the mental health of our children and allowing them to get out in a structured environment um that uh those rules have to be followed without exception well said so so with with that um unless there's no other objection I will double check with uh the county if in fact the county says that we are not allowed to do this um I will communicate with the board and then we will communicate appropriately with uh the the groups that uh are are typically booked for these next two weeks um but if if there is if there is no objection to that we will also communicate with with them let them know that there's strict adherence to all the uh uh

183the safety requirements that they have in their health and safety plans and uh that they stay within the size limits and uh we you know we we'll be strictly monitoring those things as well uh just in in clear uh and uh uh transparent uh Communications with them on that so thank you for your feedback on that and uh we will be Miss kker I see you have your hand up I'm sorry not about the facilities only because you presented about the Staffing I just wanted to place a comment about that about sure please you know I one of the things that I wanted to bring up I know that we particularly what is our game plan we have a we're going to look back at maybe possible return on December 6 and as you know

184there were a lot of staff that were on on self on quarantine there was also support staff that we hired out such as the the security the Proctors the subs and they were there was a high number of quarantine on that as well we know there's a 14-day window for them to and then with testing to come back um my question is we've seen numbers in the classrooms now we know there might be some that are just seven kids some that are six so or you know and the numbers might be different I I really push forward because we're going to have staffing issues two weeks from now and I just really want us to be able to re-evaluate the class sizes that are in person um you know you take some creativity that I

185don't want us to not be able to go back to in person because of Staffing I understand numbers and I understand the metrics but we need to have a game plan to have Staffing addressed so I just really want to really push that as I know that's what we're trying to do um but looking at our classes and seeing what numbers are in person who's teaching virtual who's not teaching virtual and and look at that I know we're trying to say we're going to commit to staying with our teachers then we went to subs and then we're back with the teachers um we really have if if the numbers go down we're still going to be faced with staff challenges so um just to see what the game plan is of what we're going to

186do it would be great in future meetings so all thank you thank you Miss K appreciate that and along those same lines I think Jen um I was going to speak about that right before you chimed in and I think it's one of the things right I looked this week and I kind of went outside as the kids were coming off the bus um from school and you heard you know I didn't hear from one kid that when that was in happy to return everybody that went was happy to return back and it was just nice to hear like and I talked to everyone from the K to four level all the way up to the high school level and everybody they were just excited to go back to the building whether they were wearing

187mask or whatever it was or having to go down the hallway I know the ones that were new to the buildings that got lost and had to go with the One Direction flow of the traffic and everything come back again but it was just a nice experience for them to experience and along with what um Miss Cano said I think we're going to see the Staffing challenges and right along with Miss what Miss ree said because she's firsthand in there and see it but I think we really do have to evaluate that because December 6 is going to come around and parents are going to wonder and not even then they're already starting to wonder what are we going to do right I don't think we can sit behind it and and and keep if

188our numbers are good and it's within what we have in our health and safety plan we have to be able to look at that and see how do we address some of those challenges I think it's going to be really really critical and we have to have those discussions I don't know where or when those discussions have to happen but I really think we have to look at it so Mr Regina I don't know if you have anything to add as far as what you're doing I know we have some staff that are out now on leave and consider now we're back in a virtual environment I don't know what we're doing to address some of those issues yeah we we we had a number of uh I would say substitutes that were able to

189to come to us just uh last week uh we're working with some of the paperwork but I think probably the biggest move that we have going right now is we have 19 guest teachers that are uh doing paperwork we we had I want to say if I remember correctly around four to five to weeks ago um so I I think in a couple weeks we're going to be in a in a very good position um to have a larger Base number of of guest teachers to be able to utilize that the concern naturally is once they're available if we're not using them um someone else will so it it's that's typically been part of the game lately um so um as a strategy the one thing that we are planning to do is we are

190we are training them now we're committing to them for a number of days um that way we can keep them on the roles engage them in online activity um they'll be engaged with some of the classrooms and then that way as individuals may be quarantined or may have to go on leave um we can move them into a classroom quite quickly and they'll be very comfortable with the with the software that we're utilizing so um that's been our Focus I think that's it we're going to be able to be prepared for that a lot better this round but um as as you recognize there's just obviously natural uh issues that have occurred um throughout this process so uh when those challenges come up we'll do our best to to take care of them but I

191think we're going to have a little bit better group to choose from when we go back around the next time so how long I guess you say um in a couple of weeks we'll be in a good place I guess they're completing paperwork how long do we expect that will take what's the time timeline for that my much of it is is employment paperwork based on clearances they're STS employees they're not our employees so they have to go through their training program and uh now we we do adapt them rather quickly with our training program we have a two-day training program for our guest teachers um we will be doing that virtually they can take that at their Leisure so um if they aren't able to come in a specific day we'll be able to

192run them through that program um and then naturally what they're doing now as we're training them is they're getting the shadow experience at this time so um we're trying to do that as as quickly as possible naturally in a couple weeks our staff won't be in building so it won't be as easy to shadow um but we'll be looking to to revisit that once our staff is able to come back into the buildings um virtual or or in person um to make sure that we can continue that shadowing experience for them thank you so um I guess one more question or comment is um December 6 if the county comes back on the second and and they leave it up to I guess the school district based on our health and safety plan and our

193numbers I don't know where our numbers will be at because they they they're trending high but our numbers for some miracle comes back down are we in a position to start based on staff and based on what we have now and I know if that's going to change also but I'm just wondering so so I think that um you know typically in in the pte chart they they suggest that there's a two week Trend in the numbers and that two- week Trend uh will likely need to reflect the fact that we've gone under 5% or 5% or less of positivity and under I don't I don't have the chart in front of me but it's of of incident rate I think it's 40 uh I can't remember the number off top of my head I

194can I can tell you just give me a second um I don't I don't have access to my chart so I apologize but in the chart it tells you when you can you know in terms of incident rate and positivity rate when uh we should be considering uh moving into a certain instructional model uh but but it's not just because you reach that it's it's that you reached that for two consecutive weeks is when you should consider that um so we you know like I said earlier uh the fact that we are so much higher than many of our neighboring districts um I imagine it'll take us a little longer to get to a a stable uh level of positivity and incident rate and and and we'll have to look at that once we reach

195that uh once once we see those numbers and and of course once we get feedback from from the Department of Health on the second I don't know what you know let's just let's just be you know clear on on what's really happening right now there's a lot of speculation as to uh What uh the governor is going to do um you've seen that some of our neighboring go Governors have uh taken some additional drastic steps um it's quite possible that um our governor would would take some additional steps and uh change uh something uh with regards to our trajectory might might be headed towards in terms of coming back in a hybrid environment um I think there's going to be a lot to uh uh to absorb over the next couple weeks as as we

196come out of uh the holiday uh season Dr Lavine made it pretty clear today that she has no intention of intervening and I I don't know I'm not optimistic that that at at I know I know but that's at this time uh the CH I I can tell you that the chop doctors are are are meeting with uh the the state on a regular basis and that conversation is is a lot different than what LaVine had mentioned Mr wyers yeah I'm sorry I I lost my internet connection so if I'm repeating something when J Jen was asking related I apologize but uh uh um Mr Virgina the you mentioned 20 fc5 requests do we have 20 people out is that what that means it means that we had yes we had 20 individuals that have

197requested Child Care FFC leave based on and and you mentioned before if that Federal uh program or is not extended past the 31st of December in theory those individuals would have to make a choice also at that point uh of coming back um not not a good situation for them for sure but I was just curious if we actually had 20 active people on FC we do we we do we yes 20 active and then the other thing is um I don't know where this fits uh but on on our side with the sports I think it's something we need to consider um just throw it out there for maybe a new business but the the activ fund activity fee that we're charging this year is something that um I I think we need to

198consider if we want to do something differently this year related to that um things have obviously depending on what happens in each sport um throughout the year it's going in and out um seems like a you know it's a relatively small fee in the total budget perspective and maybe something we we should consider doing something with just threw it in here because we were talking about sports do yeah yeah yeah Mr W that's fine and in all in full disclosure Mr wers and I had a conversation about this in fact after Dr speek Who's on our call with us this evening uh and I had a conversation back I'm going to say in October or or late September early October about the same matter but by that time I can tell you that a lot

199of our students have already have already paid into uh the uh the activity fund as part of their requirement for being in one sport you know and only paying in for you know one time a year and Dr Speck I know that you're on the call if you wouldn't mind just unmuting yourself so that we can get some specifics in terms of of the dollars so it's my understanding that um we charge $75 and $100 per per uh child could you explain the the fee just so everybody knows what we're talking about yes it's uh $75 for all n9th through 12 students and $50 for any seventh and eighth grade student it involves the play musical marching band and athletic events okay and so what thank you and and so what I believe Mr wyers

200and I had had talked about was um in in light of all the uh uh the challenges with covid and some of the limitations associated with not only the Athletics but some of the other activities um is it really fair for us Le uh uh um imposing this fee on on on the students when The Full Experience is not being able to be realized and so um I said to Mr wyers that if in fact um it is the will of the board uh to for us to not collect that because this is in policy I forget what number policy is but it says that we will collect the fee and the fee will be you know established and and Dr Bex correct is $50 and $75 um while Mr bicker won't want to hear

201this um you know we can uh refund all those individuals that have paid in and then stop collecting for any any future um uh uh um events and activities but uh it would be it would be require a votee on the on the on the agenda um and for us to stop that uh which which is fine and that's something you can do uh for for uh for next Tuesday night but um if there's any uh I guess Mr wners if you're okay I'll I'll I'll make the recommendation here and and if there's any objection uh then we could put it on the agenda for consideration for next week just for the thought process the thought process is the busing much like uh other things there is busing savings that are associated with less events

202and so forth um so I I do believe it it it would be more or less uh Revenue neutral but yeah are there any objections to putting a recommendation to uh stop the activity for for this year and to refund any that we have collected I don't have any objection at all but I wonder and I don't know if this isn't if this isn't possible or if it isn't appropriate I don't want to you know add more complication but for example I don't I would choose not to have a refund if I was given that choice I don't know if you can give someone a choice or not and what I mean by that is three of my children were lucky enough to participate in Fall Sports and I feel like they got their money's

203worth but I again I respect and I like Paul's Paul's um uh suggestion but I don't want to make it more complicated but maybe there's a choice there if and if there isn't that's fine I'll take a refund but I I just meant for those that felt that way I mean you know I felt like although it was in a Bridge season that my arola student and students and high school student got got a fair share a fair deal but I do I'm I'm glad Paul brought it up yeah I I I appreciate your your comment M re my my concern is being fair and Equitable with all students and families and so if we were going to do it for one we should do it for all um and certainly families can choose to

204say make a donation to The District I'd prefer if they would make the donation to The Education Foundation instead and that way that can you know you know that that might be you know a more appropriate way to do that or make a donation uh to the uh a backpack program or something to that effect um but but that's that's just that's just my two cents in this in this whole matter com I'm Sorry Miss ree go ahead no I was just gonna say that's a great idea that you know I'd be happy um to do that and people can make their own decisions thank you Mr naet you you would a comment no just saying I I have no objection to it I think it's a wise idea we talked about it before we

205don't want to do it because of the complexity of it but I think we're come to the point let's just do it helps everybody out yeah I I do have sorry I just had one concern with that though um this is something we can discuss this as a board but I don't think it's something that we should vote on as a board and possibly we have the solicitor to weigh in on but um it it impacts several of us financially I mean obviously I I don't think $75 my pocket is going to make a big difference in the grand scheme of things but um I I just I want to make sure that we're cautious about board members voting for something that puts money back in our pockets that's all I will I will check

206with the solicitor on that but um yeah it yeah I understand what you're talking about my only statement though is I really do we've already voted these coaches in and I know already that even in the winter sports these coaches are like they could zoom with them they could set protocol exercise exercises they are they should not be calling the season off there's a way we've been virtually teaching these coaches should virtually coaching and and allowing them mentorship and whatever advice they can to develop their skills even if they're not hands on yeah I agree with you miss canro um when when Mr wiers and I had this conversation it was more it was the whole was the whole approach to the activity so while the there can be interaction between the student athlet and

207the coach um to the same extent as there was in a regular non-id season the fact is you know they're not having the experience of getting on a bus uh going to the away games they're they're not you know having the uh you know the the performances uh and and and all the experiences associated with with with the with what was generally considered the fee uh that's collected and and Mr bicker I guess it's probably appropriate if you could tell us what estimate what the fee is usually on on a on a yearly basis so that this board know knows what we'd actually be in in in in projected totality uh you know you know not taking if you're looking at just the activity fees alone it's probably close to 60 to 75,000 anyone what

208events we run okay thank you are there any objections for me uh a talking to the solicitor B uh if it's okay putting it on the agenda as per uh the recommendation from uh Mr wyers hearing no objection we'll move forward with that and believe it or not that ends uh the guests and schedule speakers uh for this evening yes um I had intended to actually make a statement earlier this evening but it flipped my mind um I'd like to suggest that we take a brief recess before we dive into the rest of the agenda um just 5 minutes for us to you know get a glass of water and whatever else we need stretch our legs but um it's 9:56 so we'll come back on around I'd say 10:01 okay okay 10:01 10:01 it

209is thank you thank you e for for I I have 101 does anybody else have something different than 101 I have 101 also okay here they come I'm back all right everybody's back I'm I'm just going to jump into uh where where we left off uh again then on on next Tuesday we have the Award of Excellence Sky View uper Elementary we also have some Sky View uper elementary students uh to share some of their thoughts with us um we have uh not that we have specific presentation uh available uh but kcba will be available to answer any last questions that the board may have before the vote on the arrowhead matter um and then uh if there are any other updates that we have on the hybrid virtual instruction by that date uh we

210will present them as well but at this point in time uh the only you know complete presentation that I have is on the Award of Excellence uh for for your consideration um and then we have obviously the reports uh public comment and then uh we go into uh the fiscal items Mr bicker thank you Dr Zerby this month for the approval we have the list of bills Treasures report budgetary transfers uh financial statements and single audit report approval an easement to approve the temporary easement as requested by Lower Providence Township in the amount of $500 um there are four motions for the Arrowhead Elementary new construction the first one is to approve the general contractor for a base bid of 15 million 381,000 and Alternatives toing $320,000 the second one is to approve a mechanical

211contractor for the amount of $3,467 1884 with Alternatives totaling $39,995 the third one is to approve the electrical contractor for 300 $3,461 th000 um and that includes Alternatives of $105,000 and then finally to approve a plumbing contractor in the amount of $1,524 67 we'll also have the AL Arad Elementary espes abatement which is to approve first capital instulation of York Pennsylvania in the amount of $7,150 which is a base bid of $66,500 and 300 $3,750 of allowances we'll have the houre Head Elementary fiber line relocation which is to approve trim group of Canada Square PA a quote amount of $18,900 to carry out the relocation of the existing fiber line to the existing building of new Arad elementary school project and finally we'll have the Arad Elementary playgound relocation which would be to approve Buzz

212bugger of Phoenixville PA in amount of 15910 to relocate the existing playground equipment outside of the new building limits for the disturbance of the new Arad Elementary project thank you Mr bicker and for the board's uh understanding um you know all these matters have been uh have gone through the property committee but letters g h and I are really only needed assuming that um letter F is approved in full so it's dependent on on those on on letter F being approved any questions from Mr bicker on matters of financial um just one uh from only difference from property that I see I know we had questions around the playground relocation so that look number looks like it's been adjusted and I assume it's based on our conversation that has been decreased if if I'm correct

213um Mr Jones is that is that number decreased from the conversation at property uh no that is the correct number okay and and but but in in in terms of what Miss ree had mentioned uh there was a conversation about whether or not uh the total uh cost uh for this particular playground move would require an an additional move thereafter its first move and how would that all be taken care of uh the answer to that for the members on the property committee that remember what I'm referring to is that uh there will only be one move and the move will be to located in the the spot that is at the temporary location closer to the front of the property which will be fenced in and then the uh the the second uh matter

214associated with that is there will likely need to be either a third-party provider to do the demolition or we uh get a change order uh proposal from the general construction contractor to uh uh uh destroy destroy the the playground uh because it's it's not being relocated into the space that is destined for the final location of a playground on the arrowhead property so we would try to get we will get the best number at the time to do the demolition any other questions for Mr Bricker on matters of of financial seeing none we're going to Personnel Mr Regina thank you Dr Zerby uh number of items for the board's consideration this evening uh we have two items for administrative job descriptions we have one item for professional resignation uh this individual um had the the

215opportunity to move on uh it's a very positive experience here in the district and I know sometimes the board likes um to have an update on why individuals may resign but this this was just a an opportunity for her and her personal life to move on so just a very good experience and had a great conversation with Laura about a week ago so we're we're happy for her and we hope wish her well we have one item for change of status for classified uh this is the employment of uh Beth rutage uh for the secretary to the superintendent of schools position and replacing uh Mary mandia um and some of you had the opportunity to meet Beth um and we're very excited about this appointment uh we have two items for uncompensated leave for professional

216we have one classified uncompensated leave six supplemental contracts including some activity and supplemental contracts along with the appointment of an indoor boys track assistant coach we have two additions to classified substitutes one volunteer list attachment and one item for Community Education uh with the acquisition of a lifeguard swim instructor thank you I do any questions for Mr Eugene on any manag of personnel miseries just a quick comment um I did not know that Miss rutage was um going to possibly be your uh the board assistant and the superintendent assistant uh although I'm you know wish Miss Mand very well and we will miss her um I think I um happen to know Miss rutage and I had no idea so I'm thrilled I think you're lucky we're lucky that we were able to find such

217a wonderful replacement because Miss mandia would be hard to replace so that's aw I was excited when I saw this on the agenda a few days ago awesome yeah Andrea I had I had exactly the same response when um when I saw her and Liz and I had the opportunity to meet with her with Dr Zerby in our regular weekly meeting last week and um yeah I've known Beth for years um and also you know now now I'm getting to see the professional side of her and yeah I mean Mary mandia is leaving a a definite tough shoes to fill there but um but if there's anybody who's up for the task it's Beth so yeah I'm really happy that we're going to have her thank you for those comments um any other questions oh

218miss Hull well we then have a board action item in December to approve her as board secretary then how do we move forward on that that's correct Miss Mand will will remain the board secretary through the uh I believe it's this December 7th meeting I I whatever whatever the first uh Monday is or whatever our first meeting is in December and then we will uh put Miss rage on on that agenda for December thank you any other questions I'm seeing no other uh questions we move on to the next it under curriculum programs Dr wsh thank you Dr Zerby um for your consideration and approval we are looking to remove the high school um proposal for four courses consumer decisions uh family consumer science of life life focus on Foods International American Cuisine and in

219addition um adding six additional courses you can see the descriptions there Consumer Finance Child Development textile and design Advanced personal finance dual enrollment women in America through the mon County Community College and photography too this is this was discussed at the October Ed committee and we're moving it forward for your approval and consideration um which will be part of the program of studies which will become active next month than yep any questions for Dr Walsh on any of these matters Mr wyers I believe there's been a lot of uh confusion about the the removal of these class can you go through just real quick for those that are uh on the in the audience on why we're removing those classes and what we're replacing them with in the fcss program yes there's been a shift

220from um more about the the way from the foods to more of the personal finance um you know it's actually been evolving over time not only mea but other districts as well um and more into the child development and you can see that there really is a um a strong focus on um you know the the grades 11 and 12 of that development course as well as the Consumer Finance so it's more in that personal finance part of the requirements and financial literacy also wasn't there a participation element or these class under under subscribed courses over a series of years as well that's correct and that's part of the curriculum review um you know we're always uh examining those under subscribed courses as well as uh Trends from the state and recommendations not only from

221Montgomery County but just Harrisburg as well on what uh College and Career Readiness should look like so is it fair to say the four classes that are being removed are replaced by the four classes that you see uh uh almost as a one for one very similar that is correct thank you and you know I just wanted to add I have the I we went over this with Dr serini in the October education and those three courses there was six enrolled out of the class there was nine enrolled out of the FCS class so they looked at that and they looked at the trends of the past couple of years so that was underdescribed so he reviewed this pretty extensively Dr serini and like Dr Walsh is explaining that these new proposed courses um but

222I will also add they're still maintaining the the cooking the other FCS courses so there are exploratories that are talking about the focusing of cooking and food and and and and the Child Development so there's there are more out there these happen to be courses that literally only six people enrolled in nine enrolled in they're really low numbers and it's requirement of 15 to be in a course so um he did present all of this information as well so and I will just add um that I was opposed everyone knows to the changes at our col with FCS but I was happy to see that some um thought was put into the high school FCS courses and some revamping um to be a little more um with today's needs um with the fact that a

223lot of people are getting um food education um from different Avenues in our world now um so for me who was disappointed with the uh changes at FCS at our Cola I was pleased to see them update FCS at the high school and to put some focus on it thank you thank you Miss ree are there other questions uh from members of the board for Dr Walsh Miss aues yeah it's not so much a question as it is just a I guess a comment I I wanted to the other board members have already addressed the the comments that I had about how this isn't these are typically under subscribed classes um and so that's part of the reason why we make these decisions but I would also like to reiterate that we have um a

224pretty great program for clubs and activities at our our schools and if there is sufficient student interest in in these topics that you know maybe are not being met by the FCS curriculum anymore there's always the opportunity for students to look into um creating um clubs and activities um so you know I I hate to see opportunities be taken away but if we kept every class that was under subscribed we would have um the the scheduling uh nightmare that we already have would be 10 times worse I'm sure so um I am sorry to see some of these go but I do think that um you know our process is sound for for making these decisions thank you m any any other comments on stuff for Dr Walsh seeing no other hands we'll move on

225to the next item policy uh there are seven policies for first reading but for your approval next week there are seven for second reading including accident Insurance student complaints Student Government student fundraiser hazing bullying cyber bullying investment of District funds any questions on any of those uh policies uh for your consideration next week seeing seeing no hands on on those items under others uh at this point we have no gifts or donations or trips then we have dates for board members calendars and that is my signal to turn the meeting over to our board president thank you Dr Zerby um so at this time we will take public comment um I'm sorry courtesy of the floor this is an opportunity for members of the public to come forward to speak on um any M matter

226that may at some point come before the board um we we ask that members of the audience keep their comments to four minutes or less and if you could um when I call and you just introduce yourself with your full name and municipality um I have a list of uh community members who have pre-registered to speak so if you have pre-registered if you could please raise your hand so that I can find you more easily in our list and we'll get started so first I have U Jim mik oh it looks like Dr Zerby I do not have host privileges so I can't let anyone in so does that mean we have to not have courtesy of the floor this evening I thought I thought I made you co-host so here we go see there

227we go now I have the buttons I was just I was just being silly I know you are okay Dr molik you are in whenever you're ready you hear me okay yes I can thank you Jim mik War sester um by all the glitches that have been going on in this um Zoom meeting it's time to go back to inperson meetings uh I lost the connection about 40 minutes ago for about five minutes and I checked with other people and they lost connection as well uh there's no reason why we can't meet in public why you're not doing it is beyond me um you mentioned a Dr LaVine as someone you guys appear to be relying upon he's a pediatric psychologist who packed nursing homes with infected covid patients why you would want to rely

228on somebody like that who's not qualified and who's got a proven track record of killing people is beyond me um Dr Zerby states that the rising uh rate the covid rate has nothing to do with methacton and even you said the same thing Miss Miss uh chair or Miss president um my understanding is that Dr Zerby already had covid he was in a committee meeting around me coughing potentially exposing me to covid and I never was contacted there was no contact tracing so if you really want to know where the problem lies the problem lies with you guys not with people at home and what kids are doing at home and kids are going to birthday parties you guys aren't doing your jobs uh cases mean absolutely nothing when it comes to whether you should

229have the schools open or not I would suggest you look at the Brown University study that was just published I don't know a couple months ago that will will tell you everything you need to know um so you need to to kind of brush up on some basic knowledge I think it's shameful for Miss Larsen to blame the kids for the bump in covid numbers and Miss L you're not a health care professional you have no medical background but you're arrogant enough to give us all a lecture about covid and what kids should do and not do outside the school I find that to be really insulting um and uh I I think you need to re-evaluate that kind of a uh approach um according to Mr Navarette it's about the whole thing's about following

230the rules and that's what it really is you guys exerting your power enforcing your rules enforcing whatever you think is the way things should be done on other people um you know I think uh people have individual liberties that have to be honored um as far as appointing Mr Regina as the uh assistant superintendent Chase one of the nicest guys I know but he's an absolute disaster as an open records officer and I can't just blame him because he's taken all of his orders from your solicitor they're an absolute disaster but you know to to to have all these glowing things being said when Chas just an abstract failure at the right to no process I don't agree with um Dr Zerby talked about the budget cuts affecting students in the classroom how can that

231possibly be we've had $3 million surpluses what budget cuts are you talking about $3 million surpluses for five years and somehow kids are being affected in the classroom uh I don't understand that and as far as your diversity and inclusion committee it's an absolute joke are you suggesting that MAF facton school district is racist are you suggesting that thank you Dr mik that's four minutes thank you next I have Kelly Arnon Miss Arnon you're in whenever you're ready hi this is actually Anthony Arnon um Lower Providence Township um and I wanted to first uh thank you for following the the outlined health and safety plan and taking consideration the health and safety of uh the students the teachers and all other staff uh at the school and within the district um I did have a

232question just regarding the the most recent uh PA mask requirements that Dr LaVine had gone over today and wanted to know if if the uh requirements that she outlined were going to be followed um for anyone that would be allowed to participate in activities or events uh such as Sports uh like AR uh in the facil facilities if they would be requiring masks for uh even those playing coaches I think that's that's how the statement was was put out today and just wanted to see if that would be followed a kind of adjustment to the health and safety plan for um outside groups using the facilities um with regards to the arrowhead forward uh project I did have a question um on the distributed antenna system um I believe believe I believe that U Mr

233Kelly had mentioned that it was for private Cellular use and not necessarily re requirement of uh for First Responders or for emergency response cellular system uh so I just wanted like a clarification on that because that would be a code require that that is typically a code requirement for specific buildings but I don't think it applies for this particular building um so if it is only for use on private cellular it seems like it may maybe a little bit uh Beyond uh maybe the necessity of that building and I would urge some consideration and maybe look at options for prepping the building for it but maybe not implementing it day one um as something to look at uh I know back when uh considerations were being made for the arrowhead forward project and some of

234the discussion of uh furnishings and equipment that that was being uh carried I think that's $750 ,000 number that Mr Kelly had mentioned is being held for that U I did want to ask I know like last year I believe there was a discussion of upgrading to VoIP phones and some of the network systems that were going into the current buildings and see if that is actually in that 750,000 number or if we're able to offset some of that number because of equipment that may have been purchased in this last year and even some equipment that maybe was purchased as part of the covid response um you know if there is equipment that is already available and wouldn't need to be in that big number um so just a couple questions and looking for clarification

235on that but uh again thank you uh for taking the health and safety seriously of all the students and everyone in the district and uh I'll yeld the rest of my time thank you Mr Arnon okay next I have John Andrews John Andrews Lower Providence I still oppose the arrowhead project my view is global not insular what I mean is we don't need the arrowed space with option C and only option C restores our quality of Education that we had with the K to5 and 6 to8 setup before Sky View when Sky View opened we changed to the present setup I claimed at the time grade five belonged in the elementary schools and AR Cola should stay as a 6 to8 school instead an educational decline or perhaps a plummet has occurred our high school

236rank has dropped from the teens to 65th so I strongly recommend a return to option C no matter how pretty or fancy a new elementary school should be schools with our present grade set up are rare only three out of the 61 districts near Philadelphia have it option C schools are most popular 29 of them and their high schools mostly rank well Dr zerby's proposed strategic plan revision of January called for improving our high school rank but lacked any solution option C is the sure way for you to fix the rank or education quality as directors Arrowhead or full day kindergarten ideas won't do it among the top 30 districts in the four counties around Philly the 13 option C districts averaged a much better high school rank than the other 17 top districts th

237those same 13 districts had an average enrollment gain of 6% over the last de decade versus the other setups having an average gain of only 3/10 of a percent methacton has the worst enrollment drop in the county at minus 10% over the decade home buyers clearly favor option C schools option C also saves $50 million improves building utilizations and avoids delaying needed master plan projects by three or more years what a bargain I've submitted numerous hearing document supporting option C and more since then hopefully you will consider effects not sales pitches and choose option C ahead of the unjustified want to put Arrowhead out to bid if you ignore the H public hearing inputs especially the 5:1 rate of opposition to the new Arrowhead School it's a sham just like a new arroe head as

238a retired rocket science scientist I've peppered you with more than 60 documents based upon science reason and financial and educational factors for 24 months already perhaps you didn't listen or read or perhaps you just use your power to play politics also consider the wise and frequent inputs by beckelman mik and ernshaw I feel like the ancient scientist Galileo who was called foolish and absurd and punished for his radical but correct realizations of which body resolves around the other in the skies above us thank you thank you Mr Andre uh next I have chunling ma whenever you're ready hi chma oror Township uh I also have question regarding arrowhead's new new school um I got involved got to know this in September uh when I heard the public hearing before that I had no idea this

239project was going on um because I I also asked my neighbors and very few people knew it so there was very little publicity about this project anyway I know uh the board asked us to on September 8th to collect public comments uh up until October 8th and I spread the news to my neighbors and and start to uh having them sending in comments and I told them the board would have a vote on October 27 so but on October 27th the board meeting uh the superintendent told us uh the vote was not required I we were like the public was like what is this I mean you guys asked us to collect comments we did and then and you guys told us there would be a vote and then when the day came then you

240said oh sorry we we didn't need to vote I just don't think it's responsible or professional behavior on this uh School District or the board or or the administration I don't know whoever should be take responsibility for this and on top of that after October 27th and and I I know people like John Andrews um Brian hershaw and J mik um Joe might been asking about this project and about the comments collected and uh on top and uh the administration or the board never gave a a direct public answer to what exactly what kind of comments you collected and what was the ratio of opposing or supporting uh what what kind of comments Ty typical comments basically there was no feedback on the comments you received and what's the point if if you ask us

241the public to col collect the comments and then you don't to give us a feedback or and everything in this project I just went along moving along at a full speed as if nothing happened and in fact uh I had a people including myself we uh Ted the comments on our own we found like uh uh from the comments we received 60% uh opposing it and the 40% uh supporting it and uh on top of that I had a um LED effort doing a petition of opposing this Arad new school and there are 200 more than 200 people signing the petition and this was all seems to me all ignored by the board I just don't know if the board were elected to reflect the uh com uh the resident's Voice or are you really

242represent us our interest to me it just like we're like a being tricked or something it's just that feeling I'm not saying you intended to do that but appeared came across that way uh so I just don't think it's right the way you handle it because today you're talking about the bid uh it's about talking nuts and boats about the project I think first of all you need to first first to consider the Public's voice whether to build the school or not then next you you discuss how you're going to build a school with with this much opposition you just as if nothing happened just still go along and when along everything you know with the full speed to build it I just don't think it's it's a responsible behavior in front of the the

243residents and I and also the school district should focus more on the education quality it's very unsettling uh from 200 13 our high school ranking dropped from 11th to the 65th when I bought my house eight years ago I like this place because the the school ranking was pretty good but now I'm I'm going to have to cut you off there it's four minutes thank you so much okay next I have Brian ernshaw brianw La Brian eraw laow Providence um first regarding the results from the 201920 fiscal year I note the surplus of 3.1 million um this is at least eight years in a row the district has posted a surplus in the last four years alone those surpluses have totaled approximately $10 million which is equivalent to five and a half years of revenue

244from tax increases at the Act One index um all these surpluses I also note that the amount return to taxpayers is zero and Counting um and given the schools are closed this year at least probably for half the Year we're leading to another Surplus and I'm questioning whether or not any of that would be returned to taxpayers um the Surplus has been set aside for Capital spending and most recent year increase in P's costs which now looks like based on Mr 's comments will not materialize so my question is will any of that money be returned to taxpayers um as Mr mcginness notes the district can borrow money at an extremely cheap rate um accordingly the most efficient use of those surpluses is to return those those funds to taxpayers taxpayers could use that money

245to pay off mortgages High interest rate credit card debt uh fund college education or other whatever other needs they may deem deem um most important to that um without returning that money they have no choice so you really need to consider what's happening with these surpluses uh I note tonight you're very quick to return activity fees to parents that have kids in a school but you refuse to return Surplus to the taxpayers um I thank Mr bicker for explaining the budget variances um but two questions he noted a significant variance in Social Security and retirement expenses um which he had something to do with um substitute teachers which didn't make sense to me uh so if that could be explained better that would be appreciated there's also a tech salary budget variance as a result

246of account classification where there was no offset highlighted elsewhere it should be a net zero of its budget classification regarding the admin Staffing recommendation um there was no discussion of how that will be funded in the current Year's budget and in next year's budget where the cost will exceed $600,000 I also wonder why there's Not Gon to be an external search done for an assistant superintendent why Mr Regina may be very qualified there could be somebody out there who's better regarding Arrowhead um I sent an email to the board um on Sunday with various questions that I think should be considered before the board commits to spend $50 million at next week's meeting I thank the one board member who responded to me um others I've heard U I've heard nothing in that email I

247think that the Board needs to address the stale data on which this decision is being made um including the enrollment projections which contain errors has been communicated many times and those errors are even exacerbated by when you look at the current enrolling of k for projected versus actual actual being nearly 8% below um I'm wondering if the board has any concern about $50 million being added to the debt service in the district's budget which is a 70% increase and extends the debt maturities by an additional 11 years to the year 2046 um there's been no projections or any budget Outlook considering all the expected master plan spending um as highlighted earlier um there's been no discussion of the ACT 34 testimony um quite a few uh taxpayers commented but there's no acknowledgement of the board

248of any of those comments for or against there's still been no long-term building utilization plans to address our col's building use at Le less than 60% utilization and a projected over 100% utilization in war sector within the next two years um regarding kcba um nobody really challenged why their estimate was off 24% on the general contractor costs um I wouldn't view their budget as conservative I view it as a a significant error um while there was some attempt to expl explain that tonight um it really it was kind of General a lot of anecdotal comments and no real information on why they were so far off on their estimate thank you Mr Ena thank you um and then last for our speakers this evening I have Amy Smith whenever you are ready Miss Smith hi

249Amy Smith War sester Township I have a a couple things here and I'll I'll be brief I just want to say um thank you to the board and Dr Zerby and to the district for making sure that these meetings are accessible for people right now I have family members right now who have tested positive for covid and uh we wouldn't be able to leave the house to attend in public meetings so I appreciate that this option is here and that I don't have to worry about anybody coughing in room or or being nervous uh when we're someplace in public to be able to hear this important information so thank you for making sure that these meetings are accessible and being responsible and making sure that everyone is is safe I also want to say um

250that in the course of of my job I do have meetings with the Department of Health as well and uh at the state level and I am aware that if um if we stay on this current trajectory in six weeks all of the P all hospitals in Pennsylvania their ICU uh floors would be at capacity and that's that's not only impacting people who have covid that need care but also people that that need other types of of care in the ICU so the fact that um you know the county has stepped in and and that we're being cognizant of our numbers in Lower Providence in in War sester uh is comforting so I I'm I'm thankful to Dr Zerby for for being proactive in in trying do what we can to control uh any additional

251spread in our community and I'd also like to speak to uh the Dei office I want to say thank you for um The District's work in not only approving this office in um in back in July but also the ad hoc committee's work with Dr Zerby to make sure that this continues to move forward even in these challenging times I recognize that there are districts around us that are moving forward with this and that there is research and data that shows the improvements for all Learners and all members of the community when there's a Dei F Focus Dei does include diversity equity and inclusion so we're we're not talking about any specific population we're talking about all populations so it's fantastic that the the district is putting an emphasis on this for everyone and I

252appreciate uh the amount of work that you're doing and and the fact that uh there will be a vote about about um Contracting with Dr Campbell next week I I think it's it's important and I also wanted to speak just briefly about Arrowhead and say thank you for the presentation this evening and for the years of work that the board and the and that members of the community have put into this project I have never felt that there's there's been a lack of communication um you know since this has become a project uh all the information has been available questions have been answered and I know that there's been a lot of publicity around it so I just want to voice my support for the project and say thank you for the work that's being

253done and and how diligent the board has been in uh looking at this issue thank you thank you Miss Smith it looks like we had a couple more um pre-registered speakers whove raised their hands um so um next we have Chan Yang you're in whenever you ready you can unmute can you hear me yes uh thank you so much the board member have such a wonderful opportunity to involve the community uh people to can hear uh great before you get started I just need to ask you to state your name in municipality uh yeah my name CH in Providence yeah uh uh great uh thank you so much great work particularly in the current challenge situation you guys uh uh put um personal particular family effort into that school district appreciate um the the way

254uh I just put some personal uh uh some input with already experience in the other organization right in our own employment some area in this challenge give a a lot of the U you know uh challenge to all the organization not on as School uh District um your challenge may be more specific uh but all the organization look at not only treat as a challenge but seems like there's a lot of opportunity um particularly um when we uh uh give some couple example in our organization we had original maybe five years digital digitalization uh uh project but we actually the situation put so much pressure our company actually uh getting account complished within the year so this is great uh um things come out from the uh pandemic another one is like um we had

255a facility issue also um originally many people talk about the remote working is is not allowed in the organization but because of this situation we actually put uh forc to be um remot working so what happened is that the situation the company seeing that uh we get a greater cost reduction so the the many individual people get a you know um personal working and family balance better so they're uh they're cutting the facility uh they looking forward not only the year looking forward there's a new way of working Development coming down the road so we actually uh doing that uh like five years planning and cut one third of the facility utilization so this is great opportunity I I just give you some uh outside perspective give you the leadership of our uh M second

256school district and looking the you know a new way of looking your planning uh there there may be some more opportunity uh could help get your goal uh accomplished but but of course school is is different situation so looking your um I I would say that's tying to that facilit planning around um the elementary school closing um I I suggested the leadership need to be balanced and looking forward not not only based on some uh data uh projected data is very outdated uh particularly when in the past uh 10 years we experienced the some kind of projection particular demograph uh demographic projection about students increase and not materialize and seeing the decrease say one way planning increase the the the student number and we create a um new uh Sky View and we we look

257like all the numbers going down we close AUD and now people you see again the number will increase we create a new Arad so the the way I would I'm Outsider I'm not kind of inside look at your work exactly but I I try to give you some different perspective that summarize this kind of pandemic may have give you more New Perspective give new more you know strategic planning uh utilize that get uh okay thank you I'm sorry that's four minutes I have to cut you off there no problem thank you thank you okay um next I have Jessica Bradberry um okay there you go now you're in whenever you're ready hey good evening uh Jessica Bradbury Lower Providence Township um question about the budget overage that I saw tonight in the technology space I

258think that there was mentioned that was the transfer I'm assuming it's um the uh position that was appointed on special assignment so does that mean that the person that was Prior in the role and qualified was making $90,000 less than our unqualified person in that role um I also think I saw a budget for 112,000 for the new director of Technology though Dr Zerby listed it as a supervisor regardless of what we're calling it that salary is woefully inadequate in this market um I work in it I I've done a lot of hiring recently please get some some Benchmark data and post that position with an appropriate Target if we want to get anyone with quality um given that we're in the middle of a crisis where the quality of education is tied to technology

259it's outrageous that that was ranked last not up for consideration next week not to be posted till March and prioritized after diversity equality inclusion and the right to no positions I know they're both important but I would argue Tech is the most important right now um on Thursday I listened to numerous ad administrators from other districts speak to the Board of Health pleading to be given autonomy and not swept up in a countywide closure but I did not see ath in administration anywhere I'm guessing you were hiding in your basements hoping the county makes the call for you um frankly I'm sick of hearing about Staffing thank you Miss canro for being the only voice of reason out there um no one said this is going to be easy and I realized there's a lot

260of moving pieces but I'm seeing it work in other districts so why can't we make it work here I know covid cases are rising and but schools are essential and they should be the last to close there is an article in the New York Times written by Dr Aaron Carroll professor of Pediatrics titled are we seriously talking about closing schools again I'd encourage you all to read it um essentially it calls into question the threshold thresholds that we're using to close schools pointing out the flaws because it's not based on statistical modeling or science um it talks about other methods and all of these methods are already covered in our health and safety plan I've heard you say you want the children back in the classroom but now tonight I'm hearing you say you hope

261the governor intervenes and shuts us down seems like you like the path of lease resistance whatever is easier for you uh can we please stop operating with the one- siiz fitall mentality we need separate consideration for our students with special needs and those in K through four there's so much data and behavior if you look at Philadelphia all the way to Europe suggesting that the risks keeping the youngest students completely virtually significantly outweighs the risk of bringing them in the classroom their mental health matters too their mental health matters too the safest place for them to be socializing is in the classroom I hear you say that it's important for us to socialize them but we can't socialize them so I'm not sure what you propose there they need to be in the classroom thank

262you thank you Miss Bradberry okay and then final um speaker tonight we have Hong Tian introduce yourself and your um your municipality hello uh my name Isen and I'm a la pin's Township resident and um I just this is my first time to uh join the meeting like this and first of all thank you all of you U hardworking and uh I know it's late hopefully I'm the going to be the last one who speak um um I just wanted to um to talk about the erad project and because um I got involved just like my neighbor chain was mentioned um I just received the uh like a postcard uh for this September 8th um board meeting and I was under impression that we're going to talk about this and you guys going to collect

263all the uh public comments and going to make a decision uh based on that but um but after listening to today's meeting when you guys gave the briefings and everything so I'm ending the the impression that the timeline was since July of this year you you guys already decided to build the new school for the Arad and uh for the September 8th meeting was just a information to inform the public that the school the the the new Arad school is going to to be build I I'm not sure if that's if I understand that correctly the timeline and also for the um October 27th when uh when we thought that you guys are going to have a board uh vote for this project but actually then somehow it just got cancelled or it didn't even

264were on the agenda and then on the 28th I think October you already get the building permit for the new Arad school so for me I'm just thinking I I just wanted to know was the uh um when you guys make the decision to build the new school uh was the data and was the uh the the the the things to support uh to support this decision like the capacity of the students the enrollment of the students and um and so forth and especially for this kind of like we're in this really difficult situation right now and uh yes a lot of uh parents working from home but we work we we are home but we have to work and it's hard for us to to manage our children's education and uh and work together

265so I'm just thinking that instead of putting $50 million on a new project can we just use this kind of money to like to get uh like enough ppes and get enough uh like to came up a plan how can we get our students back to school and uh to help the uh the parents in need and help the students in need and it it just my my only that that's my only um I don't know how to well anyways uh that was just um my two questions thank you for your time thank you thank you okay it looks like that's it for um courtesy of the floor this evening I just had a couple of things that I wanted to respond to um we've already spoken a number of times about a return to

266in-person meetings and um it's not something that we're planning on doing I I believe wholeheartedly that accessib for all is important and as long as we have Co and as long as there are restrictions to public gatherings I think that it's important that we continue to meet in a virtual environment to allow accessibility for everyone um particularly when I know for a fact that there are members of our community who um publicly advertise that they won't wear masks um I'm not putting our board and our staff into situations where they they could be potentially exposed to someone who has a Cavalier attitude like that about covid um any allegations about potential covid cases within the the organization I I just I don't even know how to respond to that but I will say that the

267contact tracing system does work um we had a family member exposed potentially um early on in in covid um back in March and we got a call from the public health department and everything worked exactly the way it was supposed to so I can attest that any potential exposure ures would be contacted um regarding our our Arrowhead project um I I need to reiterate that the ACT 34 hearing and that the comments and the feedback that we received is not the same as a referendum it is not the same as a survey it is not the same as a poll it was it is a a legal mechanism for us to collect feedback we have also collected feedback from a lot of other mechanisms um in the years that we have been discussing this project

268um I know that there's been a lot of talk about you knowly and rankings but I've got to say there are so many variables that have changed over the course of the last 10 years in our district that to pin our rankings to something like grade configuration without having any sort of a scientific study done um to me is just not accurate we've had other things that could directly impact student performance such as the elimination of the T1 program such as changes in our curriculum throughout the district um there are any number of variables that that we could point a finger to and say that's the reason um but the truth is we don't know if we knew exactly what it was that that changed our rankings I'm sure we would have done something to

269address it by now um I think that's all I have for this evening if any other board members have anything they'd like to say before we adjourn Miss Hull sorry I just um I had one comment there was a question about use of facilities and um policy 707 does include as a prohibited activity conduct that would constitute a violation of the Pennsylvania crimes code Andor local state or federal laws and regulations or existing board policies so I think that would clarify that um use of facilities should include whatever orders have come down from the Pennsylvania health secretary thank you Miss Hall and yes uh Dr Rachel LaVine does continue to be an excellent source of information health for Pennsylvania uh anyone else before we adjourn all righty um then I will take this opportunity to

270adjourn this meeting thank you everyone and