MCSD School Board Budget Meeting

001I know I'm not I don't think line. All right. So, before we move this into a call to order, our board secretary, Mrs. Lewis, is going to lead us into prayer, which will be followed by the pledge of allegiance. Any of those who do not wish to participate is not obligated to do so. So, with that being said, Mrs. Lewis, >> Father, we lift up those who serve as part of our district school board. We pray for your guidance and direction to fill their days. May they work together for the good of our schools and community. And may they be filled with your wisdom, discernment, grace, and guidance. May they have open minds and hearts to listen to one another and the needs of this school district. And may they lean on you for every

002decision they make. In your holy name we pray. Amen. >> Amen. >> Yes. 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. >> We're going to call this meeting to order. Roll call, please. >> Mr. Baker, Mrs. Barl, Mrs. Bumgardner >> here. >> Mrs. Dixon >> here. >> Mr. Herb >> here. >> Mr. Harshburgger >> here. >> Dr. Ketchum >> here. >> Mr. Styers. >> Mr. Wyan >> here. >> All right. Communication reports. Uh, school board secretary, Mrs. Lewis. >> Just for our visitors, if you haven't signed in, um, there's a sign-in sheet out front. I just ask that you sign in before you leave. Thanks. >> Thank you, Mrs. Lewis. Uh, school

003board members. >> Yes, Mr. Wyan. >> Uh, this might be for you, Mr. Barner, but, uh, what's the process if we wanted to remove action items A through B? Yeah, I think when we get to the agenda after public comment, which would be D, before we go to section three, I'd recommend making a motion to recommend withdrawing all budget item options A through B. And that would take them all off the those 22 budget saving options then would remain in the budget for 2627 school year and they would be funded. >> Okay. Thanks. Any other board members? All right. Our superintendent, Mr. Varner. >> I have nothing. Thank you. >> All right. So, we'll go ahead and move into the first public comment. So, the general rules for public comment is that before you start,

004you must state your first name, last name, and the town of your residence. Um, individual public comment will be limited to 5 minutes at a time and the entire public comment section will be limited to a half an hour. And for this first public comment, it has to pertain to what is on the agenda. So, at this time, I'm going to give the public uh three minutes to gather at the microphones if they wish to participate in public comment. When we get to here, Melinda can go over her p her pages. >> Okay. Any more volunteers for public comment? All right, I will go ahead and start out on my left. Adam Runk, Lewistown. Good evening. My name is Adam Runk and I live in Lewistown. I'm a parent in this district. I'm a financial

005adviser by profession. I spent the past week reading the district's books. What I found should make every taxpayer in Mifflin County angry. You're about to cut teachers. You blame the state. You might blame CH cyber charters. You might blame the pension system. You might blame the end of COVID money. Every one of those things are real things. None of them is the reason why you're trying to cut teachers. Here's the numbers from your own financial annual financial report. I analyze Mifflin County School District against a cohort of 22 other similar school districts that rely on similar amounts of federal a and state aid uh and are in rural areas. Mifflin County School District is very comparable and managed very well in many of those areas. There's one thing that stood out to me as being

006very different. Mifflin County School District spends 7.8% of our entire budget paying off money this board borrowed. The typical Pennsylvania district our size spends 3.6%. We pay more than double the percentage. Out of 22 peer districts I compared us to districts of similar size state funding and pendings, only one pays more in debt service than we do. The extra debt that we carry, roughly $4 million a year, more than a normal district our size, is almost exactly the size of the budget gap you are trying to justify cutting teachers to fill. Let me walk through the timeline because I think you'll find it interesting. Mifflin County School District has 57.6 6 million in outstanding bonds. The older bonds, 2016, 18, 19, and 20, paid for necessary things: roofs, heating systems, building renovations, things schools have

007to do. Then, in just the last 18 months, this board took out three new bonds totaling more than $32 million. Series 2024, series 2024A, and series 2024B. The main thing that money paid for was the new stadium, Kishbank Field and the Donald Chapman Third Stadium complex. Here's the part the public needs to hear. In May of 2025, the Mifflin County Commissioners had to step in and redirect $3 million of expiring state grant money. That money was awarded to upgrade the VOTE building. In an age of AI where white collar jobs are increasingly disappearing, blue collar jobs, they're necessary for the trades are increasingly important. We were awarded that $3 million grant to improve the VOTE building. The school district, this board, the members of the administration rerouted that money towards the stadium. That's where the

008county trains kids for welding jobs, diesel jobs, the construction jobs this country county actually needs. The academy is a 60-year-old building. Commissioner Kotish said it publicly. This district had hit the pause button on the VOTE building. Over a million dollars spent for designs wasted because if the grant money wasn't spent on something, it would have expired. The workforce training building, the one that prepares Mifflin County skids for actual careers, got paused. The stadium kept getting built 11 times. 11 times this board approved change orders on the stadium project, including $100,000 just to extend the upper deck of the home bleachers. There are people sitting on this board tonight that authorized that stadium in October 23. Two members voted no and Director Baker is one of the ones that voted no. Not here tonight to attack

009board members that tried to stop the stadium and put the focus where it should have been. I'm asking the people on this board that voted for the stadium, the members of the administration who did not bring it to the public's attention to explain their actions. To explain why you think a stadium is more important than teachers, to explain why taking on this debt, it's not difficult. You don't need to be a professional financial analyst to understand that when you take on bonds, you take on debt. you will pay interest. I would warrant and I hope that most of the students in this district would understand a concept like that. We were locked in to 20 years of extra interest spending. That money could been used significantly better. I would have supported a bond that went

010towards bettering our education system, towards providing students the necessary apprenticeships that they need. I do apologize but your individual comment period is up. >> I understand and I also understand why 30 minutes was allocated. This is a very important discussion and I think the board needs to seriously consider listening for additional time. Thank you. [applause] >> [applause] >> I'll go ahead and move over to public comment on my right. Okay. Uh Monica Cox. I live in Belleville. I'm also a fourth grade teacher. I'm doing my two-minute version to save time. Um but if you would like the fiveminute version or citations, I made copies. Um many options are being discussed tonight involve increasing class sizes, which is by focus this evening. Class size is one of the most studied education policies, and the general consensus

011is that smaller classes promise to facilitate increased student interactions, improve students academic achievement and student engagement, allow for more individualized instruction, and also decreases time spent on discipline issues. The clearest evidence of the positive effects of smaller class size was seen in primary grades and with disadvantage and minority students. And this is important for our board to consider because Mifflin County has an economically disadvantaged rate of 59 a.5%. [clears throat] Which is well over half of our students. Additionally, 7.1 17.1% of our school population receives special education service and that number is rising. Research also shows that smaller class sizes help these students be successful. An ideal number of students in elementary age classrooms is between 15 and 18. We know that realistically we cannot reach that in Mifflin County, but just please note that

012we are already in the zone of less than ideal class sizes and these proposals will increase them even more. Larger class sizes have documented negative effects on the well-being of students. It affects student attendance and skill accumulation. Larger classes may increase social complexity, peer conflict, and exposure to noise and disruptions. And our disadvantaged students, which are most of our students, are especially sensitive to these effects because of the dramatic change in student learning behaviors over the last 10 years, such as decline of student focus, inability to attend to tasks for longer periods of time. Higher need for assistance with basic tasks. Larger class sizes will decrease our ability to provide every student with what they need in the classroom. To review, research shows students perform better in smaller classes. And this has been proven time

013and again with disadvantaged students. Research also shows that teachers are more effective with a reduced class size, which just makes sense because that gives teachers more time for each individual student. A vote for larger class sizes is a vote against the findings of research. Larger class sizes may sound enticing economically, but it is to the detriment of our students and their learning, which should be the main focus of our school board. Thank you. [applause] I'll move it over to my left. Diane Stewart Lewis Diane Stewart Lewis Town. Um 30-year classroom teacher, 5-year administrator, four-year school board member. Um Mr. Run's numbers are correct. I equate them to a home equity loan or if you're buying your first house, the loan, you have to have bonds. this district does not have the money without taking out

014those bonds. Um, you're either being proactive or reactive as a school board member. Unfortunately, probably somewhere in the 1990s to early 2000s, we had administrative team and school boards that were not proactive, thus causing future boards to be reactive. you are sitting inside the auditorium of a reactive event because of those years. Some of the bonds that he mentioned are directly related to that. Um the athletic facilities which I did proudly vote for. I have all of the numbers and I will gladly share them with anyone who wants them. We're all in open session. This board did not vote. They don't have the information. And if any of them sit up there and say, "Well, I wouldn't have voted for it." That's not responsible leadership because they don't have the numbers. None of them were

015at the meetings. None of them attended all of the information. Um, I have it. I'll gladly share it with you. It's public record. Um, the athletic facilities were both reactive and proactive. So, Mifflin County doesn't find itself behind the eightball again in a few years. Um, what you may not know is Mitchellfield is 100 years old. So is everything underneath Mitchellfield. Mitchellfield is not and was never going to be handicapped accessible. There are things there that I can discuss with you, but I'm not taking the time from the five minutes because I want other people to have a chance to speak. The academy numbers are correct. I served on the academy board either as an alternate or on the board for four years. Um the academy is not a number issue. The lack of structure

016down there when I came onto the board we had Dr. Petushnik followed by Mr. King followed by Mrs. Hicks who is leaving and followed by to be named later. You have four administrators that you expect to build on to an academy project that could be $3 million, could be eight, could be 10. You have a fund balance. you have information for that. It was never the academy or the stadiums or the field. It was never that. So, anybody who thinks it was that, that is not correct information. Um, the information for the academy is it started with let's do heavy equipment operator. Oh, you have to be 21 to do that. None of our students fit that bill. Are we going to do adult ed or we going to do student ed? Many of us

017chose student ed over adult ed. The second option was um diesel mechanic and that switched to diesel mechanic and HVAC. Great opportunities, no instructors. Point in case, we have the top-of-the-line state-of-the-art welding program down there and two years we spent without a teacher because they can't make the money as an academy instructor that they can make out in the general world. So those are not money issues, those are people issues. Um, it was never academy over athletics. There are variables in the budget, insurance, fuel, materials. Mrs. Kap and Mr. Varnner budgeted conservatively. Not once while I was on the board did the state pass their budget prior to you having to have one in. It's a hot mess. It's a guess. They did the best they could. And because they did that, they're sitting on

018a fund balance right now. Congratulations to both of you for that. Um, if you want to be concerned about something, I'll tell you what to be concerned about. It's policy 011. It's the board governance. It's the policy that you I hope you all will look it up. It says um basically how the board should be governed. This board needs to be very transparent. If you're voting no for something, if you're voting to table something, you need to tell the public why. You can say no and you don't have to tell them, but that's a lack of transparency. Um, board members need to be ready to vote when it comes time for a vote. If you say, "I'm not ready. Let's table it." You're putting the entire district behind a month. That's not fair to the

019students or the staff. The board needs to act ethically. No authority outside the boardroom. It's stated in policy 011. There are repercussions for that. If that happens, I would expect those repercussions to happen. It says, "Respect the superintendent and experts." >> Oh, didn't I make it? >> No, you did not. I >> Gosh, I tried. >> I tried. I have more. [applause] Moving on to my right. Hello, I am uh Lane Hunter. I live in Lewistown. Um, first to the community, if you're not already watching these board meetings, please start. Issues like these show how important informed school board election elections really are. To the board, I've watched your meetings. Mr. Styers, I appreciate your acknowledgement that this board has struggled with long-range planning. Mr. Wy, thank you for advocating for what many of us

020believe is the best solution, increasing property taxes instead of cutting our teachers. And Mr. Baker, I appreciate your concern about overloading our teachers. What concerned me during the last meeting was hearing teachers discussed mainly as expenses to be cut. Our teachers are not the reason this district is facing financial problems. They've become the scapegoat for poor long-range planning and the refusal to raise taxes when necessary. In reality, teachers are one of the district's best defenses against future financial strain. You've discussed concerns about charter schools. Charter schools promise smaller class sizes and more individualized support. If you approve these cuts and increase class sizes, you risk pushing more families towards charter schools. Mrs. Marsh explained how RTI helps students succeed without needing more costly special education services, and how behavioral interventions can prevent expensive alternative placements,

021but those systems only work when teachers have the time and the capacity to provide those academic and behavioral supports. And now, five building substitute positions are on the chopping pl. Mr. Barner already explained that when substitutes are unavailable, interventional specialists and special education teachers are pulled away from those responsibilities to cover classrooms instead. These cuts could destabilize the very support systems this district depends on. Supporting teachers is not separate from solving financial problems. It's part of a solution. Our teachers are not simply expenses on a on a pie chart. They are one of the district's most important long-term investments. And if you can't stomach the sight of their salaries and benefits in a pie chart, then you don't deserve your seat on this board. Thank you. [applause] >> Moving on to our left. >> I'm

022Dell Fuller speaking for AMCE. So, I've been to quite a few of these board meetings, and nothing seems to drive people to show up like an announcement having something to do with sports or scrutiny of athletics. I never expected to see this kind of turnout for something budget and academic related tonight. However, these budget meetings every year are meetings that should be given greater scrutiny. These budget meetings tell us what school boards value from the meeting last week where we are losing four positions through attrition and I just learned tonight of a f a fifth one for next year plus the options to possibly furlow 15 more teaching positions tonight. Three principal positions and a nurse position for a total of 24 members of our faculty and staff this year. We can clearly see that

023the value is not on educational opportunities for every student in Mifflin County School District. It is not the priority because we don't plan to fund the district adequately. And to sit here and say that admin is the one pushing these is not what I've been hearing from Mr. Varnner when Mr. Briglesworth and I meet with them every single month. I've been hearing nothing but no furlows, no furls, no furlows. So I don't know where that that line came from. So two years ago we sat we settled a contract speaking about attracting teachers to come here. At that time I thought we had a really great offer. It was and it was a good offer. Then I started looking at some of the uh salaries around the state. Last year, our topofcale salary for a master's

024degree was $11,06 behind the statewide average for our teachers in this district. And we wonder why it might be hard to recruit. Just heard about a couple welding positions and so on that we could not fill. So, because the board refuses to fund education, we can't seem to attract teachers, you know, and god forbid we have an educated society. Last year we cut a music position through attrition. Why? To save a few dollars instead of raising taxes to the end index. And what did that cost the district? Students at the middle school receiving half of the music instruction that they used to receive. We also plan to cut a position at the high school through attrition for wood shop this year to save another few dollars and not raise taxes. $5 a month per parcel.

025No student. Now students come to school just because they had wood shop don't have a reason to stay in Mifflin County. So we are we are also cutting speech language pathologists through attrition. This will limit services provided to students who have issues verbalizing language. A couple years ago we did not have enough SLPs to cover the case loads. So we ended up hiring a SLP at $150 an hour for the full year to cover those case loads. So now we have 15 more positions on the agenda tonight to cut through furls, elimination or attrition. The values are glaring and they are not on the side of the student nor on the parents of those students. When taxes are not raised for seven years and only one time in 12 years, it erodess the base of

026the district's ability to hire the best teachers or even keep teachers in our district. It causes the district to cut teachers to balance a budget deficit and lose programs that keep our students in our schools. Go ahead. Continue to cut programs and services until there is no reason for a student to want to attend the few or programs that we do remain. Is that what we want? No opportunity for our students. It is time to raise the taxes to the index for multiple years to fix the problems that have been kicked down the road for the last 12 years. Thank you. [applause] Moving over to my right, Carson Moore from Lewistown. And I'm here for athletics, but I think charging $100 per player isn't the best idea because our lacrosse team didn't even have enough

027players this year. And I know next year if we charge $100 per player to play next year, we might not have a team because you still have to buy your stick, your mouth guard, and your um helmet thing. Yeah. Um and plus, we've already done like a lot of fundraisers and everything, so I don't really get why we had to pay $100 if we're already doing fundraising stuff like that. So yeah. [applause] >> [applause] >> Moving over to my left. >> Hello. U most of you already know me, but I am JC Zerby. I'm from Mccclure. I understand that um balancing and maintaining a budget year-toear for a large public school district is a grand undertaking, and I do not envy that task. However, when our go-to solutions are to decrease staff positions um and

028take away the little student resources we already are grasping at straws for, there's a call to pause and reflect on what we truly value in this district and community. And that's what this song's about. Less is more. Are we so sure? Cuts might balance what's on your papers, but our community pays those costs years later. When we lose teachers all their time and care, the cost is more than we can spare. Less outdoor ed, more classroom walls, mismemories our kids would have loved to recall. Less right now is all that money to spend. But you're not appreciating the road that will [music] end. Without job safety, we walk away. [music] More good teachers choosing not to say. Unsupported. [music] Burnout so near. Staff and students feeling unwanted here. [music] Less today is more tomorrow. More

029gaps, more fear, more sorrow. Less is more. Are we so sure? I think our community deserves so much more. Thank you. [applause] [applause] >> Moving on to my right. Hi, my name is Lacy Carmony from Lewistown. Um, good evening board members, parents, community members. We've talked a lot recently about deficits and what we can't afford. So, let's take a moment and look at this from another aspect because true financial leadership is about finding ways to leverage the assets that we do have. And we are currently sitting on a $32 million asset. I am proposing that the board consider monetizing our new stadium complex as a regional entertainment venue. We have a state-of-the-art facility with a 4500 plus seating capacity. It is perfectly positioned to host major commercial events, regional festivals, touring rock groups, country acts,

030and large-scale community expose. But before immediate push back, let's look at how it would work in the entertainment industry with it. When a commercial promoter wants to bring a touring act to our facility, the district does not pay for the event. The promoter does. In a standard venue contract, the promoter is legally and financially responsible for the entire footprint of the show. They pay to rent, transport, install, and tear down professional stadium floor decking to guarantee our turf remains completely undamaged. They pay the district a premium flat rate facility rental fee just to unlock the gates. They pay for the private security, the staging, and the insurance. The district takes zero financial risk while unlocking massive non- non-t tax operating revenue. Think about the math. The promoter covers the overhead and pays us a rental

031fee while our school booster clubs and such and district programs split 100% of the revenue from the concessions from thousands of hungry and thirsty ticket holders that have paid to be here. A single successful summer concert event can bring tens of thousands of dollars directly into our general fund. Money that goes straight towards keeping teachers, classrooms, substitutes, buildings, field trips, improvements, and so much more on the calendar beyond the events that they would do. This asset can work for us. Let's start running it like it's a premium regional asset like it is. Thank you. >> [applause] >> Moving on to my left, >> Ashley Crossen, Reedsville. Three years ago, Senator Ward and Representative Benninghoff met with Mifflin County students in the auditorium here. A senior asked how they intended to address the fact that our

032students were at the time underfunded by $5,000 per student per year compared to their statewide peers. Representative Benninghof, a Republican, directly identified our problem. He explained, "We need local constituents to contribute their fair share to the bill. It's up to the school board to generate a tax revenue that adequately supports the education of its community." So, how did this happen? Who is to blame? And what happened to our tax revenue? Anyone who has paid attention to our school funding for more than the past four days on Mifflin County Alerts can tell you the truth. There is no fingerpointing to be done here tonight. First, the new athletic complex is not to blame for this crisis. That project is not more than our wallets can handle, and it's certainly not more than our kids deserve. Our

033stadium was a century old. Other venues were barely more than spare land with portaotties. Some fields were so bad that opponents asked to forfeit rather than risk their safety. When we consolidated our schools, our athletic upgrades got left behind. A real school campus fully equipped with modern amenities is not a ridiculous dream. Rather, it was one supported by millions of dollars in sponsorships. 11 days from now, we will finally graduate the first class of Huskys in their home stadium. It should be a proud day for every resident. Also, not to blame, our administration and staff. Some have taken to their keyboards to criticize educational quality or to demand that we save money by quote unquote starting at the top. Our district is not overstaffed. As our budget has been spread thinner thinner, critical support roles

034like our math, English, and technology coord coordinators have been whittleled away completely. There is not a single employee in MCSD who isn't putting in a full day's work and then some. And lastly, I will not blame this school board. While I wish that they had voted differently over the past 12 years, they are our elected officials and they represent the voices they hear. Four years ago, the board voted for that athletic complex based on the will of our families. One specifically said, "I did not make my decision until hearing you all speak tonight." Another said, "We don't all agree, and that's okay. Keep showing up. Tell us what you want." If we want to invest in our kids, in our schools, in our future, then it's up to all of us to make that known.

035History proves this board will listen. With no one left to blame, we can shift the problem to the solution. I am a graduate of this district. I'm a 25-year resident. I am an educator and a homeowner in this town. I know exactly what everyone else in this room knows. In Mifflin County, we take care of our own. Local taxes are local investment. The extra $60 a year doesn't go to Harrisburg. It doesn't go to DC. It stays right here. It goes directly to our children's classrooms, to their teachers, their buses, their field trips, their team uniforms, their elementary book fair, their senior prom, and their outdoor school. By freezing taxes for 11 of the past 12 years, we have prevented our families from fully contributing to the education they desire for their children. We have

036asked our schools to do more with less, and we have asked our students to settle. This death by a thousand cuts must end. Tax increases are challenging, but there are ways to mitigate the costs for our most vulnerable residents, and modest increases are responsible. It's what Juniata does. It's what Huntington does. It's what Representative Benninghoff told my students. is we must do too. School funding is a long-term vision, but we have proof of our return on investment right here. Becky Connor, Mifflin County alum, was recently recognized as one of the best teched teachers in the state. Ben Matthews, the validictorian of my class. He went to Harvard Medical School and returned to practice rural medicine. Laya Duner and Ryan Cherry, class of 2007. Their successful business is rejuvenating our downtown. 2004 graduate Cody Yoder credits

037the LHS media studio for his prime time Emmy. Lewistown grads Adam Runk and Emily Giddy took all of their efforts this weekend to galvanize our county. These are just the examples that quickly come to mind and I know this town is filled with stories that serve proof of what happens when we consistently invest in education. Mifflin County is an incredible place to raise a family. These challenges are not insurmountable. Successful schools create successful people. They build successful communities. I encourage you to end this tax freeze and to mo promote our prosperity as wholeheartedly as we all believe in it. Thank you. [applause] So, unfortunately, we only have time for one more public comment. I will go to the nice lady over to our right. My name is Carrie Cobalt. I am a citizen of Mifflin

038County, a parent with children who are in Mifflin County School District, and I have a child with special needs, actually three in different areas. The absolute last thing that I think personally that we need in this school district is cuts in education in any form. We have three principles at the high school. We have three principles at the junior high school. How about we take one of those away at each school and keep one of the teachers that are actually making a difference in our students life? I don't know. I'm hearing, and I don't know if this is true or not, that they're thinking about taking away Mr. Crossson's position at the academy. I'm looking at the statistics from the website for this school from 2024 percent enrolled by student groups. Do you know what

039the largest group is? Economically disadvantaged. That is 63.9% of the children in our school district. The taxpayers assisted in funding this football field out here that I'm not real sure exactly how many students actually participate in it. But the last thing that we can afford to do as parents in this county is pay for our kids to be able to play on a field that we're all paying for. There is so much that goes on in this school district that this board has absolutely zero clue, which I'll go to at a different meeting. But the last thing we need to do is be cutting positions when it comes to teachers. I want to read an email that I got and I'm sorry I'm shaking. I'm irritated. I'm upset. I'm sad for our kids. I run

040a nonprofit organization in this county where I deliver pet food at least 3 to five days a week. And we're talking about charging these kids to play on this field. We have a ticket booth up here. A whole entire room that is a ticket booth. We live in Mifflin County. We don't live in Center County. That is obscene in and of itself. I was sort of curious if we were going to have to pay a fee tonight. I asked that my child's seat be moved in the junior high school. I can tell you that I had been to the junior high school several times about the bullying. These are the things we need to worry about. I changed her seat a week ago when I asked. >> I'm sorry, ma'am, but the discussion has to

041pertain to what is on the agenda. WELL, BUT IT IS because you're wanting to cut teachers. >> Unfortunately, a disciplinary issue does not >> No, no, no, no. This is to address a situation. I asked for my child's seat to be moved and the words from my the my child's teacher says, "The separation of a desk or two is the best I can do because her room's not big enough for her to separate students." >> Ma'am, I'm sorry. I am going to have to cut your public comment short. We need to stay on topic. >> Do I STILL HAVE TIME THEN? IS THAT WHAT YOU'RE TELLING ME? I STILL HAVE TIME. >> You have not state you have not complied with district policy staying on topic for the first public comment. >> Classroom size. >>

042IT IS CLASSROOM SIZE. MY CHILD COULD NOT BE MOVED MORE THAN TWO DESKS. This meeting is about budgetary issues. Unfortunately, I cannot allow you to continue on a student related issue. Yeah. I'm wanting to increase classroom size for teachers who are already overloaded WHO [laughter] PEOPLE WHO TEACHERS ARE ALREADY ATTEMPTING TO TRY to be able TO DO WHAT THEY NEED TO do for THEIR STUDENTS. WE GOT KIDS THAT CAN'T TELL TIME ON A HAND. I'm sorry. Unfortunately, I'm going to have to ask the public to return to their seats. This public comment unfortunately has expired. >> All right. So, >> so we're going to go ahead and move into the budget action options. Uh, Mrs. KB, do you want to go over the presentation that you have? >> I will. >> All right, sir. You

043need to settle yourself down. One more outburst. I'm gonna have to ask you to leave, >> Mrs. Can. >> Okay. Thank you. This is our third budget meeting for the 2627 budget season. So, this slide is exactly where we left off at our May 7th meeting. This is the last slide from my May 7th um presentation. It was where we were on that day. We were winding up with a we came into that meeting with a preliminary deficit of 5.4. But earlier that very same day, we had had a meeting with our um benefits consultant and he had told us that uh instead of a 10% increase in our health insurance, which is what these projections had included, we were going to come into closer to a 20% increase in health insurance each month as

044he's getting the rolling 12-month projections. um the health insurance increase was our health insurance um actuals were not getting better, they were getting worse. So he said for our October 1st renewal, be prepared for a 20% increase, not a 10% increase, which I had originally projected. So I informed the board that um instead of a 5.4 deficit that I had prepared in this presentation, we should be prepared for a preliminary deficit of that closer to a 6.4. uh million dollar deficit. Um so at that meeting though I had informed the board just like all of us um when we're looking at our finances we have options. Uh we're Mifflin County. We're a bluecollar county. We grew up on tight budgets, right? Uh there are three things we can do. We can do nothing. we can

045uh just cross our fingers, hope that we that our reserves will carry us through. Hope that our projections um come in better than that the actuals come in better than our projections and hope that we can ride it out. That's that's our first option that we can do when we're looking at this type of thing. The second thing that we can do, we can raise revenues. uh you know hope that we can do something be proactive we can raise revenues on on that side of the equation the other thing we can do we can lower expenses that's the the other side of the equation so those are the three things we can do so the board asked me to do some calculations um on the revenue side the we have very limited options how we

046can raise revenues we're not selling anything um our revenues come primarily from uh the state and from tax increases. So I uh told the board I would come up with those calculations and then the board asked for if we could come up with a list of um cost savings. It was just a list and that's what administration did. We just um came up with a list. It was simply a list of ways that we could lower expenses. It was not recommendations. It wasn't here's the greatest idea. This is what we need to do. It was simply a list. Here's what we could do to save um this amount of money. This would save this. This would save that. It was simply a list. and it was put on the agenda and unfortunately Facebook ran with

047it. So that's where we that's where we landed um today. But uh that's where we're starting off. Um so this is the pro the progression. This is how I typically start the meeting. I show the board uh where we left off and and where we are. The budget, it's a work in progress. We start the work in December. Um so we were at the 5.4 where we started from our last meeting. When I took the information uh for the 20% increase in health insurance and I actually ran it through our actual model, the million turned into an actual million53 um additional expenses for us. Uh we have you know over 600 employees that that would impact. Uh we did have an additional um uh uh res uh person resigned. So there was an additional position

048that we were able to save through attrition and then the academy uh ran the health insurance increase through their books. So unfortunately uh our portion of funding for the academy was increased. So we basically ended up where we started off uh uh today. Uh we're at uh we're back to $6.4 million deficit. Um we had planned on taking 1.3 out for uh an assigned technology balance that we've been saving money. We have it on the balance sheet. We have $125,000. We're taking out the balance sheet for uh some security expenses that are in the budget. Um $2.5 million we're hoping comes through from the state. That's not uh for sure, but we are hoping that that comes through. We've gotten two installments over the past two uh state budgets. We're hearing that it's promising that

049that's going to come through for for the third uh installment for 2627. If that in fact does, we're looking at a net deficit of about $2.5 million. Payroll makes up uh salary and benefits makes up 64% of our budget. So for the the numbers that I have for you this evening, this um and we're talking about the proposed final. The board has to pass a proposed final budget for us to um post to PTE and also post for have available for public inspection for 30 days. um uh we have to pass that budget this Thursday. So in this proposed final um we have 636 positions and they're listed there for you. There are five new positions in this budget and also five eliminations from where we stand today in the uh 2526 actuals. This is

050a list of um the total budget. It's a year-over-year comparison. It's um budget versus budget from the current year that we're in and uh versus the proposed 2627 budget and the changes for each of the function. function is um really the school district equivalent of a department. It's the chart of accounts that's established by PTE um Pennsylvania Department of Education and it pretty much just uh is a listing of each of the school districts departments. So this is just showing um year-over-year uh the difference in each of the different um function categories. >> [cough] >> Excuse me. So, the biggest changes you're going to see are in um basically salary and benefits are what impacted most of the departments. Um I have uh a breakdown uh like the biggest changes. Obviously, you'd want to see

051it in regular instruction, 1100, and you know, that's where most of our teachers are. So, the biggest changes in that function are in salaries and benefits. Charter school is also in there under um regular instruction. some of the other larger items. Um, under administration, obviously that's adding the principal, the extra principal that was approved at East Dair. Under operations and maintenance, that's a larger number. Um, we increased the electricity budget by 150,000 for the upcoming year. Um, and we had some security purchases budgeted for 2627 127,000 in extra security purchases that we did not have in the prior year. Student transportation that 372,000 that's as a result of our renegotiated bus contracts. This uh current year is the first year of those new contracts. Uh so that's you can see the increase there. Um the

052business office you can see that's a decrease that's because uh in the current year we had budgeted uh some overlap for our new CFO. We're actually uh have six months of of overlap uh dual position for training for our um CFO who is retiring. So we had uh two positions in there. So there's a decrease in the business office for for next year under debt service. Um the increase our debt service is actually that one is deceiving because I had neglected to include in the current year a $515,000 contribution for the stadium project. I included the contribution as revenue. I did not include it under debt service as principal. So really our um debt service is increasing about $123,000 over the prior year. Um it looks like it's a larger increase because as I said

053I did not include the $515,000 principal um in 2526 budget. It was an oversight. Um and the budgetary reserve uh I've discussed this at prior meetings though a million5 in the prior year we had done that it was a strategy that we used uh last year we had added 14 and a half positions I actually think it might have been 15 and a half positions and we weren't even sure if we were going to be able to find 15 and a half people to fill those positions so instead of sprinkling them into the various departments we just put them all into budgetary reserve and we were able to keep them out of the charter school tuition calculation by implementing that strategy. Um, but it does kind of skew the year-over-year comparisons. Um, but it saved

054us on our charter school tuition by doing it that way and it's perfectly acceptable strategy. I do want to point out I have an asterisk there that as far as the operating budget is concerned the stadium project interest is that's included in this operating budget is $226,000. Um so that's the impact of the stadium project on this budget is just $226,000. I would like to point out also as a matter of public comment and I do think it was some in information that was circulating um the we did not take out bonds to fund the stadium project. We took out a note payable from Kish Bank. It was $5 million. Um I have the audited financial statements with me. They're also available on the district website. The bonds that we took out in 2024 will

055were all for refinancing. Um I'd be glad to talk with anybody about that um at any time, but uh there were no bonds that were taken out for the stadium project. That's just simply uh not factual information. So the next page is just a picture representation of the function. And as you would expect, the um the largest piece of the pie is our 1000. That's our instruction. That's exactly what you would expect uh from a school district. The next page, it's the same information. The numbers don't change. The total is our total expense is $16 million, but it's sorted by object. And that's just a different category of expense that um PTE has us categorize our expenses by. It's um just a better description of our expenses. So you can see there um just the

056description of of what they are year-over-year comparison of each bucket of expense. So there you can see um you know the $2 million increase uh well $3 million in benefits, $2 million of that is the health insurance increase that I alluded to at the beginning. And again, here's the pie. The biggest pieces are salary and benefits. Then we go to revenues. Here's the revenue budgets uh year-over-year comparison. LA the in the current year we we had budgeted $96 million in revenue for 2627 we're budgeting 99.6. You can see the biggest uh change is in the state sources of revenue. So here you can see we do get our biggest source of revenue from the state 57%. 39% from local and just 4% from federal. I realize this is very difficult to see. Um this was

057also in a prior presentation. What I wanted to to point out on this slide was that our uh local revenue has just kind of been steady, just kind of creeping creeping along. Um we did get a little bump in 2025. Uh we got $2.2 million from the fundraisers for the uh stadium project. Uh we've gotten a bump in our interest income there in 2024. You can see we had almost $1.7 million in interest income. The rates went up. So, we've done really well with that. But, uh, local revenue has just kind of held steady. What's really been, uh, positive for us in recent years is the state sources of income. Um, and I'll just go on to the next slide so that hopefully you can see it a little bit better. This is a summary

058of of of that of that revenue. So 2023 was um uh Governor Wolf's legacy budget. It was his last year in office. He went out with a bang. He really supported public education. So you can see our state sources of income rose from 42 million to close to 46 million. And in 2025, we went all the way up to close to 55 million in state sources. What I wanted to point out on this slide is that um it's 57% of our income, but we never know what we're going to get. So, uh, in 2026, I am projecting that we're going to receive, uh, 56 million in revenue, but we could only budget 53 million because uh, the state budget was 135 days late. We never know how much we're going to get it. it. We

059don't we so we always budget conservatively. We budget what we receive in the current year. If the state comes through with more, that's fantastic. That's the goal. We hope that they do. Um so you can see in 2027, I'm budgeting the amount that we expect to receive in 2026. Well, I know what I'm going to receive in 2026. Um you know, those spreadsheets are out. So 20267 I'm budgeting what I receiving in 2026 but um we're always a year delayed and that's the problem with receiving 57% of your revenue from the state. Um it's hard to project future revenues when we don't know what we're receiving. And certainly we don't want to get bold and say, "Oh, for sure we know the state's going to fund us this year." The state is not in um

060they're in a similar situation in that they're using their rainy day fund. Um you know, one side of the aisle is saying, "Oh, they're going to bankrupt us. They need to stop using that rainy day fund." and the other side of the aisle is saying they need to stop hoarding money like they they they you know it's there. They need to use it. So the state has um a problem on their side too as far as how they're funding um you know us. So uh we can't make assumptions about what the state is going to do in the future. So we just kind of hang back, wait to see. and we're a year behind in knowing what the state is going to do. This is uh just to show you the shortfall in the state

061funding as far as our expenses versus what the state is funding. So these uh Mr. East used to always refer to these as unfunded mandates. So, this one shows you special education and these numbers are way too small for me to see, but um you can the orange bar is showing you our expenses and then the gray is showing you the state what the state funded. So, you can just see how that has grown since 2010. We're only getting the gray bar and our expenses are growing by the orange bar. So all of that is coming from local funding because it's not coming from the state. So that's special education. And um we've already run the numbers for this goes up to 2024. We've already run the numbers for 2025. This has grown by 1.6

062million in 2025. And this is a similar visual for pension. Same thing. So, the state is funding us for some of our pension costs, but our costs are growing uh far outpacing the state reimbursement. So, all of that money has to come from local. It's not coming from state. So, back to our current uh discussion, just year-over-year comparison on the revenue side. This is um the local uh comparison 2526 budget versus what I have for 2627 budget. Um I'm just showing a slight increase and mostly it's uh the real estate taxes. This is just status quo. This is with the current millillage. Um you know we always we have a slight increase in assessed value every year. Um and then there is just uh you know just a few changes here and there throughout our

063local revenue categories, state revenue. Um the biggest thing on here would be the function 7505 ready tolearn block grant. This is the 2.5 million. This is the adequacy funds. So we have gotten two installments of adequacy. This was the lawsuit that was brought about um from certain parties to against the Commonwealth staying saying that rural school districts were inadequately funded. the uh we won that lawsuit and um uh you know they said that Mifflin County was underfunded by like $29 million and um they're they're funding that uh they the judge did not say how that money had to be paid over. So they've been paying it in installments, but the governor has to include that in his budget every year. And so far he's included it in two budgets since the um uh lawsuit uh

064was handed down, but there's no guarantee that that will continue or that as the parties change that they will um you know agree with the decision. But so far we've gotten two installments of that. So that's why our I've budgeted um an additional 2.5 million for next year. And that's a picture of our federal revenue. So this is the bottom line back to where we started. 6.4 million is our preliminary deficit. We've saved money. We plan to use uh 1.3 for technology, 125 for security. Um, and we're hoping to get that additional two and a half inadequacy, that third installment that would give us make us short two and a half million. So, what do we do about it? Okay, back to the options. We could utilize fund balance to cover the deficit. Here's our

065fund balance. So we have about 21 million in assigned fund balance. These are all different categories for which we have set aside money over the years and this money is available for us to use. So the sky is not falling. We have this money set aside. We also have unassigned fund balance of $8 million. Um, and that's limited by uh the state. For a district our size, we're not allowed to have more than 8 million 8% which would be $8 million in our case in unassigned fund balance. So at June 30th, uh, 2025, we had that balance that you see there, just under $29 million in fund balance. So that balance is available to us. We can use it. We also have capital reserve um of about it's a separate fund completely separate fund. It's

066to be used for capital improvements. The district's um capital threshold is $5,000. So if we wanted to buy something that costs more than $5,000, we could use this capital reserve fund for it. We've got $8.9 million in that fund. Um, these are items that have already been committed to be purchased from Capitol Reserve. $2 million has already been approved. And then we have some things that have been requested uh uh by the buildings from the budget process. So, I have those things listed. Those have not been approved by the board, but those have been requested. 118,940. So, $2.2 million has been uh requested uh committed or requested to be used from our capital reserve fund. Second option would be raise revenues. I show this visual um all the time at every single meeting. It's the

067history of our real estate mills. So, this starts with the reassessment that we did in our last reassessment, which was in 1999. Um, so I don't know what our history of tax increases were before then. My chart starts with 99, but since 1999, this school district has increased taxes seven times. So the last tax increase that we had was in the year 2019 2020. So you can see there, you know, in what years we've had tax increases. seven in 26 years. And in addition to not increasing taxes, we passed along homestead farmstead inclusions. This was something that came about um it's uh gambling revenue uh that's passed on in the from the state in the form of a homestead farmstead exclusion. So this uh exclusion has grown in recent years and um to the point

068where since 2223 for the 10,000 uh parcels property owners that have been approved for the homestead farmstead exclusion, their taxes have actually gone down by $14343. So, we have about 22,000 taxable parcels and there are about 10,000 about half, a little less than half are approved for the homestead farmstead exclusion. And that exclusion has grown to the point where um we get the money from the state, we pass it on to those homeowners who have been approved for Homestead Farmstead. And the gambling revenue has grown so much that those um taxes have actually gone down by $14343 $51223 an additional $482425 an additional $442526 and I understand like nobody notices when their taxes go down but it's true if you check your bill you'll notice that that that's a fact that actually happened. Comparatively, if

069we take a look at other districts around us, um these are the millage increases in those districts. So, we we are the lowest by far. The next largest districts, you know, are double to what we are. And um you know I understand that nobody likes to talk about tax increases and but unfortunately that is the way public schools are funded and that's the system that we have right now and um you can see other districts are taxing considerably higher than what Mifflin County County is. This is this is showing you the increase the total percent increase in the past 10 years. So these are the scenarios that I have uh for the board. Um our current millage is 34.52. The assessed value is 875 million. There's our number of parcels, 22,349. So, it's an average

070assessed value per parcel of 39,000. So, that's an average. Um, I mean, an average doesn't really work because, you know, we've got first quality and then we have, you know, someone uh like my house. So those are very different, but I mean we're we're working with the same um you know the same duplicate. So it's just an average. We're just putting them all in the same bucket and taking an average. So the average is $39,172. So if we look at that, our act one index for the current year is 4.8%. If we were to raise taxes to the index, it would be 1.657 mills. Um, so you can see there it would be an increased revenue to the district of a little under $1.4 million. The annual average increase per parcel would be $6161, about

071$5 a month. So that would be for someone that had an assessed value of $39, uh,172. So if your house was assessed at more than 39, your annual is going to be more than 61. If your assessed value is less, you know, obviously it's going to be less. Um then I just did the math on one mil 75 mil point a half a mill a quarter of a mill. So you can see there you know the different the different scenarios. So that was one side of the equation. Well actually we just talked about two sides of the equation. We could do nothing. You could do you could use fund balance. Obviously the problem with using fund balance is the fund balance is not going to last forever. you're going to run out eventually. Um, you

072can raise revenues and then you can lower expenses. So, you know, these were just ideas that you could use to lower expenses. Um, these were not recommendations. These were not have to have we got to do this. These were simply here's here's uh a list and here's how much um each of these things would save. So I mean I know when my kids went to outdoor school, my daughter graduated in 2018, I paid for her to go to go to outdoor school. I think this is something that goes in and out of the budget. Um, it must come and go because I know I uh I paid I wasn't on the I wasn't working for the district when my daughter went to outdoor school, but I definitely paid when she went to outdoor school. I

073mean, they did fundraising for the uh home and school. But anyway, um it comes and goes, I think, but so there are the options that the board requested that we bring them a list. We brought them a list. Um, and that's all that I have. Mr. Harshburgger. >> Thank you, Mrs. Kap. Uh, is there any questions uh from the board? You want to keep asking questions on the budget? That's up to you guys. >> I'll make a motion to the floor, Mr. Harshburgger. Um, I'd like to put out there uh to see that we remove items A through V from the agenda. Um, that there would be no cuts from that. >> All right. Do I have a second? >> Second. >> All right. >> I'd like to have at least a discussion on A,

074B, and C and possibly comments if that's all right. it would be a part of the discussion since we're um considering removing all the items. So that would be allowable. >> Okay. >> Uh my time. Thank you. Um just more of some questions for understanding and also sorry also some comments. Uh I'm going to start with uh item C which is number three paytoplay. I'd like to con um applaud the student athletes who came up and one of them spoke [applause] and I can tell you some of them also I know personally through my kids and uh they gave their opinion. So good for them for actually coming to me and coming to public comment and speaking their opinion. Thank you for that [applause] question about B or option two. The increase in ticket sales

075is is that per student or is that >> that would be per spectator. So right now we only charge admission for the football events. What item B would establish is ticket prices for all sporting events. jump just >> just okay >> just to clarify what this is about. Um there's there's some options here for charging. Um currently we permit uh I believe each family gets two free tickets. So there's an option you could you could eliminate families getting free tickets. We talked with the athletic office about some options that we could do with this. we could give the two free passes to the families of only seniors. Um, and I do believe in the athletic regulations which will be coming to the board this month, students are going to have to pay. This past year,

076we allowed all students into games free. So, those are some of the recommendations to raise the revenue >> and which, if I understand that regard was the plan all along to to reactivate student fees, >> the students. Yes, that's correct. Uh the other thing that we talked about with the athletic department was it do we continue to give two free passes to every family. Uh you think about a football game, the parents in the band, the parents in the on the football team and the parents um of the cheerleaders are all getting two free passes. If you charged, you're going to generate some revenue. Not and again I'm clarifying. I'm not saying any this is a good idea, but these are there's where our minds were going to start. So, we're going to Thank you.

077So, so we're going to actually discuss something to this regard with regards to the athletic policy in the future is what I hear. Um outdoor I'm okay with that. Thank you, Mr. Arn. And a item a eliminate outdoor school. M I heard Mrs. cap say that at one point that was not on the budget and that was something that was uh paid by parents but also fundraised in terms of paying for that expense. >> Correct. Cuz I think I went on the >> You would have been in the same class. >> Yeah, I would have been in the same class and yes, my uh my parents had to uh pay for me to go to outdoor school whenever I was in fifth grade. It's just a matter that the district took on the uh expense

078of sending our kids to outdoor school >> as they should also as a parent. >> Okay. >> I'm sorry. Can we please settle down in the audience? >> Thank you. >> I'm I'm simply bringing this up for discussion. That's all. So, I would uh if any of my colleagues have any opinions on this, I'd like to understand those. So, I have a question on that. >> Mr. Moore, there um if there are students that can't pay, did the district cover those if they weren't able to fund raise or how was that handled? >> Mr. Barner, do you have that >> the booster club the uh home and school did the fundraising? >> Yeah, I think one of the things I remember back when Mr. Eastep was here with the um what happened was the belief

079was it was easier for some of the parents let's say at the Indian Valley Intermediate School to fund raise than maybe some of the families at the Louiswistown Intermediate School. So I remember the board saying for equality purposes let's just make it the district would encumber that and so it keeps it even across the district for everyone to have the opportunity to go and it's not a financial burden for a certain group of parents versus another group of parents. >> Okay. Thank you. >> [applause] >> That's all I have for >> Is there any other discussion from the board? >> Are we discussing? >> So, we're discussing adding to the agenda the removal of options A through V on the budget options. >> Are we done discussing the the presentation or can I still discuss

080that? >> You can still we're still like discussing the presentation. Yes. >> I just want to So, we have three different options. she went over um the one option for the fund balance, you know, um that can be is that enough to cover the deficit for this year? >> Yes. >> Okay. So, because I mean, you know, I I listen to this the public comments here and and you know, I've heard the saying how the board in previous years have been always been reactive and and also congratulating on this fund balance that we have. It's great. It's great to have that fund balance. So we could and there's an old adage um if you fail to plan you plan to fail. So buying time to do a thorough 5 10 year plan you know that

081we can go and and not just not just chase you know the the next year but [clears throat] look at something like where do we want to be achievement wise district-wide where what are our academic goals class size goals everything that we're talking about concern right now [applause] yeah uh you know how how do we increase um you know compensation to make sure we retain the best, right? So, having a really longer term vision and then back into everything we're talking about today. Um, you know, and that includes the the sports complex, you know, that can if if that if that was part of a holistic plan, it would be wonderful, right? You know, I mean, it's really nice to have. So if we if we take maybe that approach and use this as an

082opportunity, the good work that they've done to create the fund B to to save this money and use it to become to switch from being reactive to more proactive. That was just >> the big thing for the public to understand. You know, we have three budget meetings. So what's going to happen is we have to have 30 days between the approval of what's called proposed final budget. So that's going to be the 21st. And then what's going to happen is we have to, you know, post it for 30 days and then at the end of June, um, we have to approve our final budget. So [clears throat] between tonight and then basically 3:00 Wednesday when we post our agenda public, Mrs. Kep and the administrative team has to know what to do with the budget.

083So, you know, we're not voting tonight on a tax increase. I mean, the job here of Mrs. can in and the administration and the board to present what it would look like, what our options are out there and to kind of go over our fund balance. Um, you know, we're kind of moving backwards, but we have to know we walk out here tonight what to put in the budget for the May 21st. And the one thing that's kind of like worries me a little bit is we have a nice fund balance, very robust. I mean, I know you know when Mr. EEP came, it wasn't much at all. >> No. >> Um, >> less than a million dollars. less than a million and you see what we have now. So, you know, it's it's a

084the school board over the years have been, you know, good stewards of the money. Um, you know, we we've done some cuts here and there trying not to hurt education. Um, [clears throat] I mean, I I don't want to see, you know, any of those that's on the agenda tonight. But that's that's a list. But here is what a couple numbers that do worry me. You know, I'm looking at 2728 school year. So if you don't raise revenue now and you're taking you know fund balance or savings account let's say you know salaries alone for 2728 are going to go up an additional 1.45 45 million. That does not include the professional support contract. They have negotiations going on next year. Insurance this year we were hoping for a million. We end up getting 2

085million increase. So if we just bank on either a million or 2 million, we already know our contracted salary increases without the pair of professionals, the um LPNs, the um secretaries, etc. We're looking at either a $2.45 million or $3.5 million increase for 2728. That does not include transportation cost increase, cyber charter school tuition cost increase, placement tuition. We place some students with special needs. Um electricity, heating, cooling events and cost, they keep going up. So that's one thing I do worry about. We have great savings. Yes, we could save it. We could b balance everything coming up. I just worry about going forward what's this going to do for us for 2728. just that's what I kind of wanted to talk about. [applause] >> Is anything um 42728 on this budget proposal? Is there

086any performer to go out and look to the future to help us make that decision now or is that I I didn't see it in here. I >> No, that's only the operating budget for 2627. At the May 7th meeting, I had put some numbers um looking forward like Mr. Mr. Barner had uh mentioned the contracted uh salaries that we that have already been negotiated. Um those were referenced on that presentation >> because without really looking further ahead it's it's a it's really a challenge to know where we're really aiming or targeting, you know. So like if if if we if we're only looking out that far, it's it's a challenge to be able to make an educated decision right now. >> Well, we know that we have 1.5 million in negotiated salary increases. Um

087we don't know what our healthcare is going to be. Our transportation costs are um the formula uses CPI. So we would need the CPI to know what our trans our transportation increase is going to be for 2728. You know, we could certainly make an educated guess, but >> well, there's and I'm sorry to inter the the the whole idea of the the reason why we'd need to start tax increases now instead of waiting for a plan to be able to better plan our tax increases for the next 5 10 years would be because you can only increase so much of a time. >> That's correct. >> To keep up. Is that what Okay. >> That would be unless we were to what is it? it's passed a resolution or act one. >> Yeah. It would

088have to go to the public um if I remember correctly to get their Yes. A referendum >> to get their permission to raise taxes higher than the act one index. >> Yeah. I'm not sure we can even do that because with the adequacy funds I think we lost that option. >> Wonderful. So the max we can raise in, you know, you're looking at your 1.3 and we already know we're going to have 2728 2.4 to 3.45 with not including the professional support contract and and some of the other 2829 without including the clerico. Again, we're looking at $1.47 million increase just for contracted services. And then we really can't go out to 28 or 2930. Um because then we have open up the teacher contract by then. It's still the clerical. So we can only

089really go out to 2829. But 1.45 1.477 over the next two years pass. >> So So then what what is like the minimum amount of the the fund that you can keep there and feel comfortable for rainy day material? because, you know, I really I I feel that um it's hard to really make an educated decision without really looking out a little bit further in the future and we can then back into how we want to achieve our goals and not just look at how much things cost, but actually like what are we buying for that that cost? What are we buying? Are we buying better student outcomes? are we buying, you know, better better teacher every every aspect of the district. If we can look out and say, "Okay, this is what we're going

090to get eventually and we're going to get it there by doing this this and this and this is the taxes and everything it's going to take, then then we could but but I don't want to do too much of anything right now until we have a better clear understanding of what what where we're headed, right? You know, long term, not just next year. So is there is there a minimum amount uh that we'd be comfortable having given the understanding of how the taxes are increased incrementally and we need to make sure we stay out ahead of any any uh you know major shortfall because of the increase in cost that we're seeing. I mean, there's not really a a benchmark for assigned fund balance. Uh we had the money that we had saved uh with

091the ers funds, the co money, that's 11.5 million. I mean, pretty much that was extra money that had come into the district. I would say, you know, that that's available uh that's available for use for budget shortfalls. We're just going to get to a situation 3 years down the road if you don't raise revenue, the fund balance is gone. This is going to be the tip of the iceberg of what cuts would have to be to balance the budget. I'd like to say something. >> Yes, Mr. Baker. >> Uh, is this thing on? Okay. I'm not a tech guy. Um, first of all, we can't go back we and fix whatever happened in the past. So, we need to get past that. The next thing is I can tell you I will bet after listening

092to Mr. Varner for a minute, we might if we don't do something now, we might be there here at the same spot next year. And chances are we probably will be. Um, you know, so we need to do something. And as far as I'm concerned, I think Dr. Ketchum has a good idea about the planning ahead. I think we need to do a better job at that. I think we need to look at our whole budgeting process. And we have three meeting, three budget meetings, okay? And we get this information in end of February, beginning of March. I think that we need to be discussing our budget starting when we're done passing the one we have now. And those discussions need to continue throughout the school year. I'm not even sure it wouldn't help to

093have a finance committee. I don't know. But those are some things that could be talked about down the road or later. I do think as far as I'm concerned, I don't want to see any of the uh reductions that were put before us. I I [applause] the the majority of the there might be a couple things on there I could get on board with, but the majority of those reductions, no. I don't want to see us reduce teachers. I don't want to see it affect student learning. I don't want to see kids paying to play sports. None of that stuff. >> [applause] >> With all this being said, you know, we have worked the last several years to set money aside as uh Mrs. Kap said for budget deficits. The we saved over 11.5 million

094as a result of funding that we got through COVID funds. we were able to bank 11.5 million dollar and the original intent of that money and you can correct me if I'm wrong but was supposed to go to help if we did start to incur budget deficits. I don't like things sprung on me and I don't like to spring things on on other people. And I think now I would be willing to take the money out of our CO bucket. That's what Mrs. Kep calls them, buckets. I think we should take the money out of our COVID bucket to cover our deficit. And what we need to do is start right here and right now by telling all of you people sitting out there that we need to start doing three things when it comes

095to our budget. We need to maintain that fund balance in case we need some of it. Unfortunately, and I don't like the idea any more than anybody else, but we cannot operate and run forever without raising taxes. [applause] In fact, I I don't care what entity entity you are when when you work off of funding like we do. I mean, we you just can't go forever and not do it. And and don't get me wrong, I don't like paying taxes or increases any more than the next guy. And I'm going to tell you too, the third thing is we do have to look for areas of opportunity whenever it comes to finding some cost savings. However, those cost savings can't come to the detriment of our students. Okay. [applause] So, that's where I stand on

096this whole issue. And the last thing I want to say is, and I'm not a Facebook person, none of that stuff, but I know there was a lot of different things going on. I do want to thank Mrs. connect because she did clarify these uh budget reduction uh ideas. They did not come from any of the board members sitting up here. Okay. She said she did they did what we asked at the last board meeting and I was one of the people. What can you guys do to save cost and they did it. These were the ideas that were presented to us and she told you all that. Okay? And you know that that's where we're at with those. So I appreciate her explaining that to you all. And you all know after I would

097think after I'm done talking where I stand and what I prefer to do. I don't want to do a tax increase. this year, but the people in the community need to know starting after this budget's approved that we are going to be looking at that. So, you need to start planning ahead for that. You know, I think it's only fair to do that. So, I'm I'm done. I'll shut up now. >> [applause] >> Is there any other discussion from the board? >> Just one comment. So listening to Mr. Baker and Mr. Ketchum, u I'd just like to emphasize the fact that the board and the administration in total, now's the time to start looking at any savings we could get throughout the year. I agree with Dr. Katchchum's idea of better planning ahead. Mr. Baker

098also touched on it. better planning ahead. Um, I'm not going to comment any further on my thoughts, but those are what I wanted to convey at the moment. >> Is there any other discussion from the board? >> Are you ready for a recommendation? >> Well, we're still technically already on the um discussion for removing items A through V. Do you want a recommendation after that for increase no increase going into Thursday? >> No. Well, let's just >> We have to get A to V. If you're going to take that off, let's get a vote on that. >> Okay. >> And then if you guys want to We can't take a another vote on that for the tax. I mean, maybe you have some discussion. >> We can come with a couple different proposals. We can

099come up with the budget. give us. >> We at least need to get through this item first. >> Okay. >> Any other discussion? >> All right. So, roll call to add removing items A through V to the agenda. >> Yep. >> Hello, >> Mr. Moore. >> Mr. Baker. >> Yes. >> Mrs. Bumgardner. Yes, >> Mrs. Barl. >> Yes, >> Mrs. Dixon. >> Yes, >> Mr. Herb. >> Yes, >> Mr. Harshburgger. >> Yes, >> Dr. Ketchum. >> Yes, >> Mr. Styers. >> Yes, >> Mr. Wyan. >> Yes. >> Motion passes. >> All right. [applause] So the recommendation to add item add the removal of items A through V has been added to the agenda. Do I have a motion to approve it? >> Second. >> I'm sorry. Who was the first? >> Who was the motion?

100>> Mrs. Barlup. And then Mrs. Bungard was the second. >> Thank you. >> Do we have any discussion? >> Roll call, please. >> Mr. Herb. >> Yes. Mr. Wyan, >> yes. >> Mr. Baker, >> yes. >> Mrs. Barlip, >> yes. >> Mr. Harshburgger, >> yes. >> Dr. Ketchum, >> yes. >> Mrs. Bumgardner, >> yes. >> Mr. Styers, >> yes. >> Mrs. Dixon, >> yes. >> Motion passes. >> All right. So, let's do this. We have Mrs. Kep has everything she needs. Uh, let's do the budget. for this Thursday. We'll do it just like Mr. Baker said. Let's just use the fund balance for now at the June meeting. So that will be June 25th. That's the meeting where we decide if there's going to be a tax increase or just go with what we're going

101to do on Thursday, this Thursday, with balancing the budget out with withdrawing from our fund balance. And remember, that's kind of like our savings account and we'll go underneath the co where we have that extra money there. So that's that's kind of be what Mrs. Kep and I recommend to do. >> Pass the tax resolutions in June. >> We'll pass the tax resolutions in June. >> All right. Is there any other business that the board would like to discuss? >> I just I just want to say one one final thing. I was serious. I mean, I'm serious about these budget discussions taking place long before what they are. We need to be talking about this stuff throughout the course of the year and updates and so [applause] I need to be a part of our

102meetings. All right. Uh is there any other business? All right. So we'll go ahead and move into the second public comment. So, the same general rules apply as last time with stating your first and last name and the town that you reside in before your public comment. Uh, 5 minutes per person, 30 minutes for the general session. This can pertain to any district function. So, for those who are interested in participating in public comments, I'd appreciate if you'd line up. And it looks like no one's occupying that mic. So we'll start up here. >> Adam Ruck Lewistown. Wanted to say that listening to the meeting, it was glaringly obvious that we need to raise property taxes. We talked about long range planning. Uh and there was a lot of discussion about rating uh the savings

103bank as if that was a solution. Uh, it's great that the money is there, but I don't really think an appropriate use of those funds are to sustainably fund a budget deficit. Uh, it's pretty intuitive in business when your expenses sustainably rise and you have revenues, they should sustainably rise in line with expenses. The board needs to be clear about what the right solution is. It's to sustainably raise property taxes. It's to increase the level of education, not just to fund a gap from increased expenses. We should all be asking ourselves, what do these students need in the future? They need a better vote program. They need higher teacher salaries. They need more attention. We need smaller classroom sizes. We need to have the guts to do what's right for the kids, not the financial

104cowardice to keep our rates at 0% while inflation rises every year. >> It's staring you all in the face. Have the guts to do what is right by our children. That's what people remember. What is best for the children. That's what we should all be focused on with everything we do. How can we help those kids? And I can tell you it's not by making them pay more money to play sports. And I know that was just a list of expenses. I get that. But that said, when that's what you're coming up with, when that's the only options to cut costs, it should be glaringly obvious. There's not millions of dollars of waste in the system. There's not. Okay. Where the waist is is dragging our feet going through mental gymnastics on how there's some

105secret plan or some secret money in the sky that we can pull out by intricate planning. The plan should be to raise taxes at the maximum for several years until this is a school district that has scores in the upper cortile. until this is a school district that people say, "Wow, it's unbelievable how well these guys did. Look at the turnaround." Talk to the teachers. Talk to the students. Talk to the parents. Do what you need to do and fund our schools. [applause] Diane Stewart, Lewis Town, uh Dr. Ketchum, you said long range plans. You don't we've talked long range plans for four years while I was the board. Every single board meeting there's a financial discussion. That's where the planning comes in. That's where your financial advisor. That's where the board members ask questions.

106It happens every single meeting. So another finance committee along with a sports committee, another ad hoc committee is micromanaging what the experts at the table can tell you. That's my opinion. Secondly, all you have to do is look at the academy. the $3 million that was set aside that the county commissioners put in, that $3 million isn't going to do what the academy needs. If you don't use some of that fund balance to do what you need to do for the academy, for the maintenance shed, and you all have been in the administration building, it's falling down. If you use the fund balance now, so you don't have to raise taxes a very minimal amount, shame on you. That's my opinion. >> [applause] >> Next, you have three groups of people as a board you

107are responsible to. You are responsible to the students. You are the second or third largest employer in Mifflin County. You have a very large and dedicated staff. And you're responsible to the taxpayers. You're not responsible to the taxpayers to say, "I'm not going to raise your taxes." You're responsible to the taxpayers to say, "I'm going to do the best with your tax money that I can. I'm going to use my tax bill. My tax bill is average. Last year, my tax bill was $324 less because of the Homestead Act. I paid $324 less than the standard. Most of you probably have the Homestead Act. You don't have to have a farm to have it. Look at your tax bill. You're all paying less than the standard amount. Raising taxes, you can raise the taxes the

108full amount. I'M STILL PAYING $200 LESS than what my taxes should be. So, you can consider that part of it. And finally, I want to say um I love seeing you all here. By the way, the academy meeting, the committee, the whole meeting, and the board meetings. Wouldn't be a bad idea to have him here. Then people could come. If you're coming, let them know. I'm sure Mr. Barner would move it. But next um I worked very closely with this administrative team for four years and for four years I will tell you they are topnotch. Micromanaging your superintendent, your academic, your chief operations officer, all of those people is not your job. [applause] >> Uh we'll go to the right here. I'm Christina Arts from Mccclure. Um a as a parent to multiple kids and

109multiple different schools in this county. Um I wouldn't mind having to pay the extra and all that and even have my daughter to play. I wouldn't mind paying. But if it was going to where it's actually supposed to, I go and volunteer at multiple schools every year and I hear from teachers repeatedly, I'm only here for my pension. I'm only here for my check. I don't have to deal with this. Now I've had this is from not high school so elementaryaries multiple and I have talked to Mr. Barner. I have talked to multiple people in your in the superintendent's office about certain things including a medical bill that has never been paid that was due to my daughter's broken arm by negligence of teachers and the staff. So cutting certain teachers I don't have a

110problem with but replace them with teachers that actually want to make a difference and be there for those kids. That's all I say. Moving over to our left, >> Erica Snider, Lewistown. Good evening. Um, I understand that was being discussed tonight was presented as a list of possibilities, but even possibilities matter. They signal direction and they reflect what's being seriously considered of our schools. Thank you for taking the eliminations off the table tonight. I appreciate that. However, going forward, just because they were taken off tonight, as Dr. Ketchum said we need to have forward thinking because we could be here years years from now. So what I'm about to say, I want you to put that in your perspective. Keep it in the back of your mind as you all represent us for the school

111district. I'm a parent of student at Strods Mills Elementary and I'm concerned about options like increasing class sizes, reducing staff, and changing to building leadership because those choices look like a classroom dayto-day. Teachers already carry a significant responsibility. When classrooms get larger and supported res reduced, it doesn't just shift numbers on a spreadsheet. It changes how much time and attention each student receives. My child is diagnosed with autism and is in a general education classroom, and I am so proud of him for that. The one-on-one time and support he's received from his teacher has made a real measurable difference. He has been able to grow, stay engaged, and succeed in ways that wouldn't be possible without that level of support. That kind of progress depends on time, attention, and capacity. And those are the exact

112things that become harder to provide as classrooms are stretched thinner. Just this year, the incoming kindergarten class size, the entire group of kindergarters that came intomemes was 66 kids. Had they not hired that fourth teacher, that would have been 22 students in each classroom. Thank God, by the grace of God, that teacher was hired at the last minute. And that's that reduced significantly to 16 students per classroom. And that is still not a workable number if you think about it. Back in my day, when I was in elementary school, it was much more manageable. But when I came into the school with my child, I was concerned about possibly needing a parah. And I found out that that school only has four paras to cover each grade. That is not going to help when you

113have special education needs to cover each child and try to make sure that they are strong in their education. Strong schools depend on strong support systems both in the classroom and in leadership. When those systems are reduced, the impact reaches every student, not just those with additional needs like my son. I ask that as you move forward, not just beyond tonight, but in the coming years, that you keep the real classroom experience at the center of those decisions, not just the financial side, but the long-term impact on those students, teachers, and quality education in this district. I am one of those homestead and farmstead homeowners. I would rather my taxes be increased this year if it meant that my son could thrive in his classroom. Finally, I would also like to address I am happy

114to see this room full of parents, teachers, and community members that are sharing our concerns for these proposals because that is what is meant to be presented to vote on. And the community input needs to be a part of that. Regardless of how it was communicated, we came together and we showed up for you. Thank you. Moving over to our right, >> Carson Moore from Listown. Um, I know the possibility is still can be scary, but also like you guys say like we're a blue collar academy, whatever, but that's why we shouldn't be charging the students $100 to play. And also like not a lot of parents make a lot of money and I know that and I know a lot of players wouldn't be playing the sports they're playing if they have to pay

115$100. So I don't really like >> Yeah. So, um, and also like the obese obesity like we want to keep the obesity down so kids like aren't unhealthy or whatever. So, that too. YEAH. >> Over to our left. Hi, I'm Josh Looney from Reedsville. Um, I didn't have any prepared remarks coming tonight. Um, I followed the school board for a long time. Um, big shout out to Melinda for every year coming in with um, so much preparedness. Uh, you're going to be really missed when you retire. Um, I I find it very concerning that we came here tonight to discuss cuts whenever that was clearly an unserious proposal. Um the unanimous vote to get rid of the items on the agenda uh clearly show that uh that we're not working together with administration um closely

116enough to make sure that we have these serious proposals come out that uh we can be engaged in. Um, I don't understand why why we're at this point where we're talking about cuts whenever we are not in a financial crisis. We're not in a recession. This is not, you know, 2008, 2012. Why are we talking about cuts when we need to be talking about filling the revenue that we are missing that we have clearly been missing for a long time? Our revenues have stayed flat. You could see that in the presentation. 57% of our funding comes from the state. We know, we saw what happened. We saw what happened back in 2012 when my mom was one of the nurses that school nurses that was laid off. We saw what happened when we rely on

117the state. We need to be increasing our amount of funding that we're bringing into our school district from our local bodies that have come here tonight to tell you that please please help us to close this gap. Offer more. We have seen it over and over again. When I grew up here, I was not proud to live here. Whenever you saw the Mifflin County development happen around us, the downtown transformation, I was never more proud than I was this past year during Goose Day. See the whole community come together and put on this fantastic event. Why, when we're seeing that we're worth more, are we saying to our students that you deserve less? It doesn't make any sense to me. Thank you. Moving over to our right, >> Amanda Baker. I live in Jaggertown. I

118work in the district here and I have twin boys who are juniors this year. And while I'm grateful that the items that were proposed are off the list, I do still have a concern. Um, I work at the high school, so I can see the changes that may or may not be happening through attrition. And, um, my boys work really hard, and I'm proud of them, and they're good students. But there's also a concern that some of the courses that they would like to take next year may or may not be offered because through attrition we have extra strain on departments at the high school. And when we don't replace people through retirement and leaving for other opportunities, whether or not it shows up on the things that end up on Mifflin County alerts or

119not, it does take advantage or it it offers disadvantage for our students. My my sons are hardworking and high performing and I would like for them to have the same opportunities their senior year that some of our other students have had through their senior years. I am maybe a mean mom and I don't want them taking their senior year off. I want them to be academically prepared for college and taking the bare minimum and leaving for early release or late arrival or co-op does not maintain the academic muscles that they have built over the years. And when we don't replace teachers and we limit options for any of our students, whether they are needing extra support in the classroom or they're high achieving, we're not educating our students to our best. And so that's something

120I'd like you to consider. Not just not proposing the cuts, but whether or not the attrition is necessary. Thank you. [cheering] >> [applause] >> Moving over to our left. >> Hi, I'm Courtney Singer from Lewis Town. Um, I'm a proud uh benefactor of this education system. I grew up here and um, also along what Josh was saying, like growing up here, um, at the time we did, I didn't know to be proud of this place. Um, but when I left, I saw how compat how competitive I was. And when I came back, I saw Mr. Varner on the national news. I was in California and I heard the call to serve, so I came back. Um, thank you for that. Um, but I am concerned with the the money ratio. So the average cost of

121spending on a student when I graduated in '08 was $10 to $11,000 per student somewhere around there. And I think that the average now is somewhere around 15, which means that we're being outpaced by the rest of the state and the country to spend as much as these students deserve. And I hope that you seriously consider um the tax increase because the kids deserve all of this and [applause] and more. And so does this community. This isn't child care. This isn't about like I don't have kids in this district. It's about providing a service to our community so that jobs want to stay here so that our populace is educated and willing to lift each other up. And so that's an investment. It's not a sacrifice. So, um, and you have a great resource here

122of people that I'm sure would be happy to talk about why these increases are investments and not sacrifices. So, please work with us. We love teaching. Thank you. [applause] >> Go ahead. >> Oh, sorry. Um, can you hear me? Yes. >> Okay. Um, most of what I had had My name is Dana Moore. Um, I am a Mifflin County native. I was here in the Lewistown High School class of 95, graduated from our VOTE nursing program in 96. I am proud to be here. Our kids are proud to be here and I am a mom of four. And a lot of what I have prepared was actually before those items were taken off of the table. Um, time kind of stopped us. But that being said, I would still like it if you you would

123listen to my statement as to why and continue to consider our keep considering our kids in the future. Um, I have held rules in the community over the years here in this community for Mifflin County Pony League for Central Keystone cheer and football. Um, I still have one child in the intermediate school and one child in the special needs program at the middle school. He went the whole way from East Dair. Um, and he is currently in the middle school now. I cannot say enough about the teachers my children have had. Um, I have always been and still am a supporter of our school district. That being said, I have to say I was appalled at the current proposals to cut the already reduced school programs, including field trips, [snorts] outdoor schools, and our teaching

124and faculty staff, thus increasing class sizes. And I apologize, I didn't know it was just a list. Um, over the years, you know, supporters have questioned decisions made, but I've stood a supporter, as many of us in our community have. I support the football stadium. I know that was an issue or that was going to be brought up from what I had read. Um, and I also support the other fields being update. What I don't support is asking these parents and kids to play. Being on those other teams, it's hard to see someone come up for $45 for their kid to play, let alone a hundred. Um, I don't think a lot of people have really understood because we weren't we were told our taxes did not need to be raised. I don't want to

125pay taxes, but I agree our taxes need to be raised. they need to be raised now. Whether we use the fund or we don't in conjunction with I think we need to start now. Um due to the issues that we are facing, it is not it is not fair to take the easy way out to lay off teachers or make our children pay the price. Perhaps maybe you should sit in a classroom with 24 to 25 other kids and be told, "Oh, hey, you're not having a field trip. Oh, hey, you're not going to outdoor school because, you know, we just don't do that and you don't need to." Um, I have already been through cuts with my son, especially middle school. He is in special needs, but he does have adapted regular specials. Music

126was one of those. Um, his speech was one of those, but I thought, hey, if we all need to take a little bit of a cuts and make it better and better means in the end, then so be it. Um, or to be told that we can't fix up the schools that need to be fixed up. Um, how can we tell our children that, hey, you can't play sports because we can't afford it? How is this okay? Simple. It's not. Our children deserve more, not less. They deserve to have the outstanding teachers that nurture them and love them while they're away from home. They deserve to have those experiences with outdoor school school field trips, schools that are updated, and they deserve that stadium. It is the chosen representatives who are responsible for fiscal decisions

127and the community to figure this out. We all need a school system that we can be proud of. Students that can learn and have better scores and teachers who can leave the day knowing how much of a difference they truly made instead of being frustrated with their class size. And I thank you for pulling those decisions off the table. I hope future meetings they don't come back. Thank you. [applause] I I've stood here twice the whole time, so you can give me one minute. Okay. Go ahead. My name's Ken Manganiro. I've lived here 41 years. I live in Lewistown. I know most of the administration, and some of you know me. I've had three kids graduate from the school district. None of them still live here. They've all managed to get through college, have master's

128degrees, and doing pretty well for themselves. But the education they got here helped them. Um, I'm not going to go back to all the other stuff. I know you're out of time, but what I really would like to say is I think you folks need to do both. We need to increase taxes. And even if you increase them to the max, you're going to have to pull from your other funds. Clearly, that wonderful presentation on the budget showed us that it's time to quit sitting there and just saying, "We're not going to raise. We're not going to raise." Even if you only raise it a little bit, it's time. You have to do both. You're going to have to pull from reserve funds and raise taxes. This room is telling you what dozens of people

129have told me. If you keep not putting the money into this district, you'll be lucky to have any professionals here at all in a few years because we cannot recruit professional people and I was a doctor here for 40 years. How many doctors still live in Methlin County? They all live in state college. They don't want to live here because the one thing I hear from young person after young person is well the schools are better up there. If you look at the numbers that Adam Runk who went to school with my kids presented here, those numbers clearly show you we're not keeping pace. So I just came to say it's time to the other stuff you already passed. But even if you only raise them a mill or a half a mill, you got

130to start now. I don't think the proposal to just keep pulling that other money. Put it in the vote school. Put it somewhere. But you got to invest in this district and you've got to invest in these kids. I'm done. THANK [applause] YOU. >> Is there any other public comment? All right. This meeting is adjourned.