001I sure >> it's the temperature. The >> always section. We will have a bottle of water. Okay. Um, thank you all for coming. Um, I am not Kuni Rdnik. Uh, I am sitting in for her as chair for today's finance meeting. Um, so calling this meeting of the finance committee on June 2nd to order. Uh, first order. Let's uh rise for the pledge of allegiance. I alsy and justice for all. >> All right. First item on the agenda uh or next item on the agenda is the approval of minutes from the May 5th, 2026 finance committee meeting. Uh, can I get a motion? >> So moved. >> And a second. >> All right. Motion by Miss Ramich, followed by Miss Coin. Uh, any questions, comment? Seeing none, uh, can I get a vote? >> I
002The eyes have it. All right. Uh, all right. Moving on to items recommended for work session meeting. Uh, so the treasurer's report. >> Yep. So, uh, the April treasurer's report reflects, um, a total available fund balance of 100 Oh, glasses. 163 million point 163.2 million with dispersements for the month of 24,000 point 24 million.7 and uh cash receipts for the month of 6.4 million. I can get a motion to move this to the uh action meeting on June 18th. Right. Second motion by Mr. Bell, second by Mr. Kaiser. Uh, all in favor? >> I. >> Um, next we have budget transfers for the month of May. Um, you'll notice there's a lot of budget transfers on here for um some title accounts. We were moving things around in accordance with the federal monitoring that we
003had um last week. Last month, last month. This month. May. Yeah. two weeks ago. It was in May. Um, so we had a a normal process, normal cycle of monitoring for our federal grants. Um, and what we had, we had not caught up our general ledger budget with what we put into egrants. So, it was just a communications thing. And so, before the auditors came, we adjusted our budget to make sure our budget reflected what we put into e-grants. Um, just for edification, normally we don't do our federal fund. We get a number, but they're not they don't complete the federal funds budgeting process for the um title grants themselves until during the course of the summer. That's part of the summer work of how we're going to spend those federal dollars because we get
004the grant award very late in the year. Um, so we put estimates into the budget to account for those into the einance budget. Um and then the egrants budget which is the state system that we have to load everything in. We put in the actual and then we always go back and true them up. So um this is that movement of all those dollars is all inside of title. Um and that's what that represented just in case anybody saw it. It looked odd because it is several pages long this month. It's very long-winded explanation. Um and that's all I have on budget transfers. Can I get a motion? >> Second. Uh motion by Miss Coin, second by uh Mr. Kaiser. Uh any questions or comments? >> Just for just my understanding. So this what you're
005saying is something we will see something like this around this time of the year each year for that reason or was it just because of the the audit? >> So both. >> Okay. Um what we are trying to actually do going forward as we are trying to get the e we are still working on the e- finance budget and the title grants budget and we are trying to get those in by June 30th going forward into the federal system. Um so we're hoping to try to marry them up but next year you could see that again. Um, and we always, you'll see a resolution probably next month or I'm sorry, a a motion next month to allow us to do budget transfers for the purposes of our regular financial audit. So, in the future that
006may they usually all just happen at the same time, but this year because we had federal monitoring coming, we we moved them ahead of time. We moved the title stuff ahead of time. Um, so this year it was a little out of sync. >> Okay. >> So, I don't want to say yes or no because it could be both. Fair. Thank you. >> You're welcome. >> Any other questions? All right. In that case, uh, all in favor? >> Any nays? Seeing none, the motion passes. >> Um, the next two items 3, C, and D, I'm going to take together. So, we have had a um a taxpayer appeal. They went out and got an assessment. We wanted to get an assessment from our own appraisers or an appraisal assessment, whatever. Um, so we these are
007two agreements with Indian Valley for the two parcels listed in items uh 3 C and D. >> Do I have a motion and a second? >> Second. >> All right. Motion from Mr. Bell, seconded by Mr. McBain. Any questions or comments? In that case, uh, all in favor? >> Any nays? Seeing none, the motion passes. Um item 3E is an assessment appeal settlement. Um this will result in taxes due to the district uh of $9,554. >> A motion. >> So moved. >> Second. Uh motion by Mr. Rush, seconded by Miss Coin. Any questions or comments? All right. All in favor? >> I nays. The motion passes. >> Um the last item is 3F. This is an assessment appeal where we've agreed on the go forward value. So there is no change in retroactive change to
008any of past taxes. This would all be a reduction in the assessed value of this property going forward. Um mainly this has to do with um it's a retirement community and it has to do with their um residency rates and the rents that folks are paying and that's why they came to us and asked for an assessment appeal. Um we did I think last year we had brought to you the agreement to get it appraised. So we had our appraiser and their appraiser and we've come together with um to set a new um assessment value going forward. >> Can I get a motion and second? >> Move. >> Second. >> Uh motion by Mr. Rush. I think I think Miss Coin you were second. So seconded by Miss Coin. Any questions or comments? All in
009favor? >> Any nays? The motion passes. >> Um, okay. So, I am Wait, tonight we have we have three presentations. I'm going to do two of them um due to some health issues on both of the presenters parts and then but we do have uh Miss Flet Green who is our coordinator of food service um and Rockstar and she is going to present to you her budget for next year. Keeping in mind enterprise budgets are not in the general fund budget that you will vote on on the 18th um but they are a significant part of our district. So we like to present them to you. the next um I'll be doing I'll be talking about community education um and we will end the transportation budget which is part of general fund but for now
010we're just talking food service you good evening everyone um so I'm Melissa I'm the coordinator for school nutrition services tonight I'm going to highlight some things that are going on in our department talk about the 2627 budget um and then also talk about our summer program coming Um, so we kicked off this year um at Lincoln Financial Field to celebrate Walton Farm and North Wales being in the top 10 schools in the state to increase breakfast participation during the Governor's School Breakfast Challenge. Um we were able to bring a few students and staff from those schools to celebrate our program, celebrate breakfast, and it was a really great event. Um some of the other photos um on the screen are some pictures of our students doing some taste testing, giving us some feedback on our
011menus and some new menu items that we had this year. Um, we also sent out a survey to our students and our parents this spring that we will be compiling and utilizing to um, enhance our menus for the coming years. Um, in the center photo there, that is our district chef, Chef Warren Deeields. Um, he's been a great addition to our team. He comes once or twice a month to our schools. He's been working with our students and our staff. Um he's been meeting with small student groups and then also helping us do large school events, changing the menu for a day at certain schools um and really just getting student feedback and he's helping us with recipe development um to really enhance our menus as well. Um the photo to the right of that
012is uh two dietetic interns that we hosted this year. Each year we um bring in dietetic interns from Cedar Crest and Westchester usually um and they help with taste testing. They learn about our program and they're really great addition to our team temporarily. Um and then that bottom right photo um I'm going to talk about that in a little bit, but we partnered with the Giant Group again um and with their roundup program to support negative balances in our district. Um, and then not pictured here because it doesn't make a great photo, we also had um an audit this year from the Pennsylvania Department of Education and also a USDA audit. Um, and I'm happy to report that we had no findings for either of those audits. >> I just want to mention that the
013USDA audit was announced after the state audit and gave her less time to prepare and she still knocked it out of the park and did a really good job. And like she said, there were no findings over thousands and thousands of meals that we serve every year. >> Thank you. Yeah, it turned out to be the same month. So, that was Yeah, that [laughter] was but we got it over with all in one one month. So, it was great. Um, so this chart breaks down our revenue. Um, as you all know, we are an enterprise fund. So, all of the revenues that come in go um to um all of our expenses that we have. So, um as you can see, 44% is our largest revenue source. That's our federal subsidy. 20% is sales to
014our students. Um this is when our paid students pay for those meals. Um our state subsidy combined is 11%. Our commodities are direct food that comes from the USDA that's at 8%. 6% is all a cart. So that's anything the students pay for. Maybe it's a second meal, um a snack, a bottle of water, anything like that is in that category. 4% is other program subsidy. That's our summer program. Um and then 7% is in other um and that includes catering, adult sales, and other programs that bring us revenue. On the expenses side, um 46% of our budget goes to our salaries and our benefits to our staff. 41% is where we spend our food costs. Other supply costs is about 4%. That's our paper products, chemicals for the dish machines, things like that. And
015then our other costs are 9%. That's where we spend our equipment, small wares, um our district chef is bundled in there. Any memberships, professional development is all bundled into that section. This is a look at the past few years. Endofear profits for our department. As you can see, we have been profitable profitable the past several years. Um slightly more during our COVID years because our federal subsidy increased so much during that time. Um, we have been working on purchasing and maintaining the life of equipment and putting more money into our program so that our profits are spent down a little bit more. Um, and I'll discuss that in a few slides why that's important for us. Um, so along with our endofear profits obviously then our fund balance has also increased um over the past
016several years. Um we do have a regulation where we um can only have about three months of operating expenses in our fund balance um unless we have purposes and use for it to of why we have that much money. So in the next slide um every year we have to submit a child nutrition financial report to the state um and that at then that kind of keeps track of our federal regulation of the three months of average um expenses. So our net cash resource at the end of last year was 8.7 million. Our three months of operating expenses is about 2.1. So we have in excess of about 6.5. So that has been growing the past several years. So, we have had to put in corrective actions through the state which they have approved, but
017this is kind of showing um and kind of going into why we're going to be spending more money in our budget for this coming year. Um so, some of the corrective action plans that we've submitted are the chef that we've brought to our schools, some new school nutrition positions that we've created. I'm going to talk about the community eligibility program that we have at four of our schools. Um, and then a couple years ago, we did an equipment replacement plan um, for all of our kitchen equipment to see what the life of that equipment would be. And we've been working to um, purchase new equipment and replacing some of the older equipment in our kitchens. Um, and then we are always looking to increase the food quality in our program. So that's also an additional
018cost. So looking at our budget revenues for this coming school year, our budget does reflect the continuation of our four community eligibility schools which are Hatfield, NAP, Oak Park, and Northbridge. Um again, this program provides free breakfast and lunch to all students at these schools without any paperwork for the families to complete. this will be going into our third year of um C for those schools and we've seen participation increase every single year since then at those schools. Um we've had a lot of great feedback from students and staff um and parents um for this program. Um other revenues for next year is uh the continuation of the state breakfast program. So all of our students at North Penn always have free breakfast when they walk in the door. Um, and we're also adding an
019additional Montgomery County IU program. Currently, we um serve two preK programs that they have within our schools at Bridal Path and Montgomery. They reached out to us this year um for an outside of school location. It's it's called the Discovery Center. It's on Morris Road. Um they have a couple classrooms there and they asked if we would be able to provide meals for them there. Um, so it is within our driver's um daily route. So we are able to add that program to um our program as well. >> So I'm going to interrupt you, Miss Green, and this will not be deducted from your time allocation. So [laughter] just so we're clear, but for some of the board directors who were newer to us, um the universal free breakfast thing happened in 200 Melissa, was
020it 22? When when was it new? And Melissa was one of the pioneers in the state to kind of push that to Governor Wolf and she was there when he announced it, all the photo ops and everything. So she was at the ground level pushing that for the state of Pennsylvania, just so you're all aware, which is pretty cool. And it continues now into 2627. >> Thank you. >> Yep. >> Thanks. >> Um, so for next school year, we are not recommending any increase in our meal prices. The last time that we increased our meal prices was in the 20145 school year. So we're really proud of that. Um, as mentioned, breakfast is no cost to all of our students. Um, for our reducedpric students, um, it's also covered in that state. Um, breakfast program
021that free breakfast and free lunch for our reduced students. Lunch for our paid students is $280 at the elementary. Middle school is $3 and high school is 325. Um, but again, our community eligibility schools, those four schools that I discussed, they are no cost. So, free breakfast and free lunch at those locations. on our expenses for next year. Um for staffing, we are continuing to match the percentage increase districtwide um for our hourly employees. So that will bring our starting rate to um $1853 an hour for our part-time staff. We are also looking to add and elevate some of our positions in our department. Um so right now at the elementary level, we have a couple assistant team leaders. Now, we're recommending to have all of our elementarymentaries have assistant team leaders in our kitchens.
022Um, our utility supervisor position is to assist with maintaining our equipment, doing preventive maintenance on our equipment to prolong the life of that equipment, um, and also help with any repairs in our kitchens, and also, um, coordinate any um, outside repairs with outside companies. the transport and maintenance tech. That's really um a change in position. That's our delivery driver who will also be doing a little bit of maintenance now on our equipment as well. And then the training supervisor is a new position who will oversee all of our training for our new employees that we bring in throughout the year. Um and also assist in our required professional development for all of our staff each year as well. Um, and then outside of staffing, we're going to continue our chef program and student engagement with
023um our surveys, taste tests, our menu planning committee, working on our menus and enhancements, and then as discussed um putting money into our new and replacement equipment for our schools. >> Okay, this also won't count. I was just going to say we have said in other meetings when you weren't here, we are keeping our staffing status quo. Just want to reiterate what Miss Hower said at the top of the hour that this is an enterprise fund. So this is not from the general fund. Um and she has a $9 million uh budget surplus. So that's why she is adding some positions, elevating positions, spending some of that money down because of the corrective action. Is that what you're going to say? Great. >> [laughter] >> And then um in 2018, the state enacted Act 55,
024which was called the Lunch Shaming Act, and it required districts never to turn a student away if they did not have money on their account. Um so this chart breaks down the past few years, what those negative balances have looked like at the end of the year. You'll notice during COVID years, they were zero because all of our meals were free. So, we had no negative balances. Um, in the 2425 school year, we ended the year with almost $79,000 in negative balances. And although I acknowledge that that's a large number, I also want to acknowledge that that was 28,000 meals that we supplied to students that we did not deny them. Um, so we are really proud that like a student can come to us and say they're hungry or don't have money on their
025account, they can always get a meal from us. Um, so I just think that that's really important piece to highlight. Um, as I mentioned those giant funds from the roundup program, um, that helps bring down this cost each year. This year they gave us a check for almost $21,000 for our negative balance fund. And then looking at summer, our summer begins June 22nd. We have meal daily meal distribution Monday through Friday across 22 locations throughout the community. Um we are bringing back our school um summer meals van. We're actually expanding from one van to two this year. Um and also expanding how many locations that the van goes to. Um we have six stops this year instead of our normal four. The original four are staying the same. Hatfield Parks and Wreck, Culp Elementary, Oak
026Park, and Englewood elementary schools. The two new mobile sites are going to be Nap and North Wales. Um we are going to have daily lunch packs available and again anybody 18 and younger get meals for free through our program. And then our vans are also going to have fresh produce for families to take home when available, which usually it's a lot in the beginning of the summer and then sporadic towards like August because we're trying to uh finish up our our program. [snorts] Um but that's all I have for tonight. I'm happy to answer any questions. >> Hi Melissa. Um, we've talked in the past about uh the different ethnic groups that we have in the uh community and you've tried to introduce menus for the different communities. Could you speak a little bit about
027that? >> Sure. Yeah. Um so we have changed our menus throughout the the years um based on student input and a lot of it has been and has a lot of requests have been for international foods. So we've been been doing a lot of taste testing with that. Um we have a large vegetarian population in our district as well. So we've created especially at the high school um specific vegetarian lines for our students. Um, we've added a lot of international cuisine, especially at the high school. Um, Tara, she got to uh taste test last week. Our chef is working on a homemade veggie burger recipe that we're hoping to add to the menu soon. Um, we've always had veggie burgers on the menu, but they've always been um the Morning Star ones, and we just
028feel like we could homemake them better. Um, so our chef has been working on um a good recipe that is something that we could make in bulk, freeze it ourselves, send it out to the schools to make so that it would be easy for all of our schools to be able to offer that on a regular basis. So that's one thing that we're working on right now. Um, I don't know if they'll be ready for September. Um, but they were very good for the first taste test that we had. And I just want to say it was interesting for me not being ever done anything in food service. So he took the same recipe and cooked it in three different like three different thicknesses to see how it would hold up and how it would
029cook. Um so it was just really interesting. It wasn't just the taste and the mouth feel and what you're coming with, but it was also like how do we massroduce this food? So it's not just about, you know, anybody can make something taste good in a small batch, but how do you expand that? Um, and that's really what Chef has been helping with is taking some of these what we would consider a small batch recipe and apply it over like the the grand scale of 28,000 meals, you know what I mean? Um, so and yeah, I I am not a big bean person, but that was by far the best black bean patty I have ever had. Is not a substitute for a hamburger. It is its own food, but it was it was very
030good. >> Yeah. >> And I actually asked chef if he would share the recipe and he did. >> [laughter] >> So to give you a a tangible example, a few of you attended um the student collaborative at North Penn High School at the beginning of March with me and one of the students, her name is Heman at Northpen High School. Um she brought up the benefit bar. Is that what it was called? >> And that was I think you were all with me on March 6th. Um and I reached out to Melissa after that meeting and said, "Hey, these kids really like this benefit bar." She's like, "I'm so sorry. You know, the sugar's too high. We couldn't continue it." Melissa text me on Wednesday, just this past Wednesday, and said, "Just wanted to let
031you know I got a sample of an updated benefit bar with lower sugars. Wanted you to be the first to know that we're working on adding them back to the high school menu." So those types of the feedback when I get it from the kids, share it with Melissa. She always seems to find a way. So to Mr. Ves's point that she incorporates the student feedback into what we offer the kids. >> Mr. Bell, I think I saw >> So first, M thank you so much for bringing all this data and information to us. Uh this has been sneaky, one of my favorite programs in schools and one of the things that I think is so critical for a student successful day. Uh kids lose energy by the end of the day if they don't
032have great food in front of them. So thank you for the leadership to make this happen. Um and everything that you're showing us tonight shows that you're running a really successful program for our community. whether it is the increasing participation, um the strong management of costs, you don't see a balance sheet that looks like that without all of those components. And I'm I love the opportunistic nature that you bring to this, going out and finding resources beyond just the federal funds and the state funds, but really making sure that you're driving that down. Um I do have a couple of just curiosities and questions. So, first just thinking about the budget that you're presenting tonight as a recommendation for the uh upcoming year. You're showing a deficit position, which I think is strategic, right? Like
033that's the goal when you're at such a robust fund balance. Um it's odd that you get kind of weirdly penalized for being really efficient and really effective at your job by making more kids want to eat. And by being efficient with it, you can only have so much money. So, it's a really tricky program to be able to spend all the money. And this year was also supposed to be a deficit position budget. And as of at least last month when you showed us the enterprise funds, uh, Miss Hower, they we're actually doing better than anticipated again, which is again endemic of the fact that you've been doing a really good job. Um, so is that an anticipation that that is going to be a continued trend in this program that has continued to be
034effectively funded? It's one of the few things in education that remains effectively funded uh, year-over-year. Are is is that an anticipation that that may be a trend that continues next year? >> It may. Um I do really try to as you said it is very difficult because I try each year um to spend down those funds and I know we have to spend down those funds. Um I will say with the high school renovation um coming up I think there will be a period where we do see a deficit at the end of that year. Um, so we are kind of anticipating that. Um, there with the high school renovation, we aren't going to have a kitchen at the high school for several months into the school year. So, we are looking at purchasing our
035own mobile kitchen because we are anticipating that there might be renovations in the future that we could utilize that. If a hot water heater goes down, we would be able to move that mobile kitchen and be able to utilize it. and hopefully we always have a district chef um to be able to come and maybe do special events out of that as well. So, we are working with PTE because they are particular on what we spend our money on as well. Um but we're hoping that we can work with them and they would approve that um budget for that um and be able to utilize that, but it would come at a cost um which would help our budget in that sense. Um and then one other thing that we are working with the state
036on is does it make sense for the high school during that year that we don't have a kitchen to go C for one year um where it would be free for the students for breakfast and lunch. It would come at a cost we would probably lose close to $320,000 um in federal funding. Um that's kind of why we stick with the four locations that we have because that's something that we can manage and sustain. Um, but if it's something that we share with the community that it this is a one-year, it's a very particular situation. Um, so in that sense, I think that's where we're going to see the budget change a little bit. >> That's super helpful. I love the thought of a mobile kitchen, especially given all the renovations. Um, you actually led
037right to my next curiosity around C. I'm assuming that we have more schools with an ISP above 25% than just those four. >> Yeah. Um are there other ones that you have thought about moving to C structurally considering the advantageous position of the uh program? >> Yes. Um so we discussed this a little bit in our budget last year. Um we always are analyzing every C season. It starts in April and it ends in June. We have to um let the state know which sites we're going to have C. Um, right now the four locations that we have will qualify tenfold. Like it it costs us about $60,000 of federal funding loss to have those four schools because they're not quite at the you should be at 62 and a half% to be fully funded
038and kind of not be profitable but break even on C. Um, our our locations are less than that. They're in the 40s. um other schools. The next school would be York and then Penddale. Um I did analyze it again this year and it would come at over $100,000 extra loss for us. Um which is something that we could sustain but at the same time um the federal government is a little unstable with the regulations around C right now. Y >> um they're some people aren't happy with the 25% and want to change it back to 60% or a different um percentage. Um I'm just not prepared to share that to expand to be have then have to take it away. >> I'm pretty confident that the four schools that we have can sustain and stay
039where they are. I'm hoping with even a regulation change. Um, but I'm concerned about the other ones that we would have to pull them and I'm just not prepared to do that. >> I think given some of the uh discussions around those percentage changes, that's a wise move. So, I appreciate the detailed and thorough analysis and also being opportunistic to think about it when you look towards the renovations that may impact that and empower kids to be able to participate more easily along the way. >> Um, last curiosity, I'm so sorry guys. uh when we look at food service uh employee wages, it's one of the places that you really can actually move the needle more quickly than in other places. How do the district-wide uh employee wages compare to regional wages comparatively? I I
040appreciate the move in alignment with the match percentage, but how does it look comparative to the region? So, we look at um other school districts in the area and we are competitive with them, but then we also expand to where are our workers working when they're not working for us. Um so, we are competitive in that space. I think like on the higher end, we're um like Amazon and Targets, they're closer to $19 an hour. Um but other like local restaurants, things like that, we are competitive with them as well. And um I feel like uh school nutrition is very particular that we bring in a lot of parents who work for us [clears throat] which we appreciate and um their schedule works with ours like when the students are home when their kids are
041at home they're they're at home with them too. So we have a lot of advantages. Um, something else I didn't discuss is a few years ago when the health center healthc care center opened, um, we pay for our part-time staff to also be able to access the health care center, which has really brought in some great staff as well. Um, it's another added benefits. Even though you're part-time and you don't receive full benefits with the district, you can still have access to the health care center. So, we really try and push a lot of um different things that it's not just the hourly rate, which I think is a really healthy rate for um like a 4-hour staff. Um but there's a lot of other benefits to working for our department, too. >> It's outstanding.
042Thank you so much for uh fielding all of my questions. Um my biggest ask, if I could ask one last thing, is >> this program is going to continue to thrive because you're leading it well and because it's structurally successful. I would love to see uh a thought process of going into the start of next year of if we get to halfway through the year and it's continuing to do as well as it is right now, what are things that we can opportunistically do? Whether it is equipment, whether it is additional programming, whether it's Chase the mobile kitchen, whatever it might be, I'd love to understand what those could be to take advantage of in December so that we're not getting caught at the end of the year trying to think about how do we
043spend down a surplus. uh a little proactive planning may actually put us at an advantage. >> Yeah. >> But otherwise, congrats on the AR wins. That's great. >> Thank you um for everything that you do. Um on behalf of our students who are also vegetarians. As a vegetarian myself, I'd like to thank you and your team for developing that recipe and I would like it shared. If that's possible, I would appreciate [laughter] it. Um, but I want to um just I know that there have been a lot of changes in terms of accessibility and eligibility for food stamps and the burden that that places on families and you've spoken a lot about participation in these programs. So, easing a family's burden by having access to breakfast and lunch during the summer and during the school
044year. What are ways in which we can help support you in in promoting that and in supporting um access? And then I'm just I know that the commodities program has been really valuable to us and I feel like I've heard some changes and wanted just to see if you could speak to what it's meant if those changes have impacted the district and if so how. >> So um you're correct that a lot around SNAP has changed um and that will affect us down the line specifically with C. Um to qualify for C it doesn't take our regular free and reduced percentage. It takes only this the um direct certifications um in our schools and that is our SNAP program any state program. So the state kind of tells us what our percentage is. So our
045free and reduced it could be 34% across the district but if you look at the direct certification it might only be 29% um at in the state's lens. So that's how we qualify for C. C is on a five-year schedule. So, um I don't have to update our C percentage numbers um for five years unless it's advantageous to us. So, every year I look at it, I looked at it this year for next year and our um state direct certifications have decreased significantly. Not that we wouldn't qualify the for those schools again, but we would lose more federal funding if we updated those numbers, if that makes sense. Um, so as to what you are able to do, I would still recommend any um families that see if they qualify for SNAP um and then
046participate in our program. That's the best way um to help our program. I think word of mouth is also super helpful, especially for our C schools. Um, and for our summer program, we saw still um more increases in participation this year for our C schools compared to the first year. Even though we send out a lot of information to families, I think they're still just learning or getting comfortable enough with our program to want to participate. Um, so just sharing that information about our C schools, breakfast and lunch is free. um all of our families outside of the C schools can still um apply for free and reduced meals. And even if they qualify for reduced meals, they um will get free breakfast and lunch with our program. Um it is really difficult over the
047past several years to still qualify for free meals. As an example, a family of four making $40,000 a year um just makes the cuto off for free meals. So, that's a really significant um number across the district and to to know how many of our families qualify for that. >> I think I'm also really um concerned about families within our district who are going to lose eligibility and access to food stamps >> and making sure that that they still know that they're still eligible for free and reduced lunch. So, they may not be eligible for one, but they'll still be eligible for another. And sometimes I think families often assume we often assume that right if I lose one that I I'm going to lose the other but >> they may not helping to support
048them to lean into that. So >> absolutely you can you can qualify for free or reduced lunch and not be able to qualify for SNAP. They have stricter guidelines than we do for that. >> And I'm sorry I forget your second question now. >> The commodity commodities >> commodities. Um so we haven't seen a huge change in commodities yet. Um we receive about um between $500 and $6,000 worth of USDA commodities a year. Um what we have seen changed if you've been here for a few years um we have in the past received a lot of refusal items which sounds bad but it's just other districts have um denied or declined some of their commodities because they might not have the space for it. Um, we never know necessarily when certain truckloads of food are
049coming to our depots. So, we order our food uh a year in advance. So, we could order, say, corn, frozen corn for our entire school year. Um, but it could all end up coming in September and then we might not have the space for it for um the entire year or some other districts might not. other years it could be spread out where you get a couple cases every single month. Um so sometimes school districts have to decline their some of their order and then it would go on a refusal list for other school districts to pick up for free. Um so in the past we've gotten a lot of food from that uh refusal program. That has decreased significantly over the past couple years. Um we still do utilize it. Um, we also reach
050out to the state if we're running out of um, it's called DoD money um, for fresh produce. Um, and they've been very generous about giving us um, any extra that they have, but that has also declined over the past year or so. Um, but we do have the funds to be able to cover it. A couple years ago, we purchased um, an outdoor freezer that we have at the SSC building. Um, so we've been able to bring in a lot of our product and that helps us not be have to refuse any product um, through those commodities. So we've really still been able to utilize that program as much as we could. >> I think Mr. McBain and Mr. Tio had questions. Yeah. >> Uh, thank you so much for um, so much of this
051and answering our questions this evening, too. I didn't expect to go this long year, but here we are. Um, from a parent perspective, thank you for the, um, May cafeteria survey that went out last month. Uh, just obviously you're keeping in touch with what the kids like, but also it helped to facilitate important conversations about what we're eating at home, and that was always good to get a reminder to ask, you know, hey, what are you having uh, for breakfast? What are you having for lunch? U, and that's really good to have. Um, there's a lot of programs coming up this summer. Where's the best place? I'm I'm channeling the the parent Facebook group here. Where is the best place for parents to get information about where and what will be available through the summer?
052>> Yes. So, you can go on our school nutrition website. It's under our North Penn website under school nutrition and it's under summer meal programs. It might not be updated right this second. Um, we're still waiting for PTE to approve our new sites. Um, I'm anticipating them approving them um soon because we're 21 days away at this point or 20 days away. Um, but as soon as they are approved, that site will go live with our times. We usually have halfhour increments at each of the locations. This year, because we have two vans, we're expanding to 45 minutes to give families a little bit more time to get to the locations. >> Awesome. Thank you, >> Dr. Tio. >> Uh, thank you, Miss Green, for the presentation. Really excited to hear about the work that's
053going on. Uh, two wonderings. uh you alluded to some of the success and the effectiveness of the C program particularly around the participation rates and then also some positive feedback from students. Is there any sort of formal evaluation underway or interest from the district to actually find out if you know it's leading to improved academic outcomes or learning or is that on the radar? Is that something that you could take on? No, I can't speak to a pointed assessment of the success of those four schools as a result of the program. Something that would be fun to look into. Um certainly our assessment of uh student proficiency rates, growth rates, >> those things all happen, but connected to the C program. I don't think we've had that discussion. >> Yeah, I've talked to some of
054the principles just to get their feedback and there who who really talked about like the families reaching out and appreciating the program. Um, I can say that when we were um when we went to free breakfast, I had a conversation more with principles and they noticed a difference in the students um in like their behavior, less trips to the nurse, things like that. But that's on their visual, not really data driven on that information. >> You and I presented together at on PTE webinars through those years about the success of the universal breakfast program and student achievement results as well. Yeah, Dr. Bar, I'd love to have a conversation about how to maybe bring some wonder if this is a priority for you to think about evaluating the effectiveness of the programm test, all those
055fun things. [laughter] >> I don't know. I don't know. I feel like I'm getting quizzed all of a sudden. Um, the second wondering I had though, Miss Green, was uh and I think maybe your slide 12 around the end ofear negative balance history alludes to this to some degree. I'm curious how you are seeing uh the cost of living increases that our families across the district are experiencing and how that shows up. Um I think with our although we do work very hard on our menus and um in sharing about our program and things like that, I think part of our participation increases that we've seen across the district and even if it's our paid students who are coming in our serving lines now, um I just think that um seeing those increases over the
056years, it's not just our menus, it's part of the community and the economy. me of the state of things that it is cheaper to get meals from us. Um, and then looking at those negative balances as well, I think it's um, there's a lot of families missing that gap of being able to qualify for free and reduced meals and still not be able to afford our afford meals. So, they know that their student will get a free breakfast when they come in um, and then we won't deny them lunch. So, um I think part of those negative balances are families that just can't afford um those meals. >> I'm wondering if you or Miss Hower have a sense yet of what 25 26 numbers look like for unpaid balances if it's on the >> currently
057at 90,000. Um however, it is always usually higher in May and June. We do send out weekly negative balance letters to families and then um in June we send that balance over to the business office and we change our letter to let families know and usually at the end of the year we do get some um money back in for those negative balances but it might stay around that amount. >> Thank you. >> Any other question? So I I won't um I think everyone has shared their thanks about your your work and your team's work, so I won't reiterate that. Um but I I did have a question about shorts for you or for anyone else. What what are the ramifications of having the excess funds? Um I I understand that there are um action
058plans to mitigate it. Um but is there any impact that we have that we have to act on it immediately? Are there financial impacts, etc. Are there, you know, issues that affect the program or being able to have certain programs in our school? >> Um, so at this time, no. That doesn't mean that down the line they could change and say, you've been having this corrective action, you've been filling this out for x number of years, and now we're going to start taking some of those funding funds back. Um, it hasn't gotten to that point. it hasn't even been discussed at that point yet. Um so we're hoping that with the corrective actions and showing the equipment purchases that we've made, things like that, um that hopefully that will keep that at bay. >> Thank
059you. >> I think I just want to mention too that with the additional staffing positions that we are layering in, those are a continuation of spend. So, while you could buy some equipment and that's a one-time thing, by increasing staffing, what what the assistants are doing at at those schools is basically we're going to now compensate folks to be the number two. Um, where not every school had a number two. So, it was kind of like if the number one was out because people are out, there was kind of like that void. Well, now there's like a set number two and that person gets a little bit extra pay and then we extend that position. Um, and then that's a recurring cost. So, we're trying to find things that are fiscally responsible like the um
060preventive maintenance person and that kind of thing that will that will continue to that to use that spend and can continuingly. So, it'll be a constant um expense that'll help drive that down. >> No, that that makes sense. And just to re reiterate for the public, these are funds that we have to use this way, right? We cannot transfer them anywhere else. >> Yeah. All right. Okay. Thank you. >> All right. Uh well, I'll just say as a as a kid that grew up on uh free and reduced lunches, I very grateful for the work that you do ensuring that none of our students have to come here worrying at least about two meals that they can get with regularity and assurances. So, appreciate your all the work there. And um I think that was
061almost everybody. Um [laughter] yeah. Um and I think uh uh Miss Hower, I think it's for you on the rest of the way out for uh for the presentations. >> Thank you. >> Okay. Thank you, Miss Green. [applause] >> For the sake of time, since it is 650, I'm just going to call out a couple >> Dr. House or Miss >> This helps. Thank you. Um just so for the purposes of time like I said um I'm just going to call out a couple of things from transportation's budget for next year um and a couple of things from uh community ed. So for um the transportation budget, transportation is part of the general fund. Um I think uh we are as a district getting closer to our goal of having um alternative fuels in all
062of our all of our big yellow vehicles. Um some of our small um like passenger size vehicles are still traditional gasoline. Um but we are two buses away from being a fully um non-diesel fleet. Um which is something that um is a commitment that this district made. I will say that that commitment comes with a cost. Um the that propane buses range anywhere um they're several thousand more um than a diesel bus. Um I don't know that there's any financial savings of propane over diesel over the long term. There is some there is some but there is different um uh garage type needs that they that propane vehicles uh require that diesel doesn't. Um so the benefits are more um towards the environment and towards um the local community at large for choosing to use
063alternative fuels. Um there are a couple of grants that we are looking at for next year. Um but they are um the difference between the cost of a traditional vehicle and the cost of a non- non-traditional fuels vehicle. So we would get that difference. Um so we are looking at some um smaller fleet vehicles that we could possibly use that grant money for. Um not the big we the big buses don't qualify for this particular round of grant funding. Um, so because we already have that fleet, um, if we didn't already have that fleet, then we could capture some of that money, but we can do it for some of our smaller um, trucks, vans, and that kind of thing. So, we are looking at that. Um, the other two big things that Dennis did
064this year, um, he implemented a new student conduct reporting system, um, as well as Bushive. Um, there's a a little bit of, [snorts] um, some people really really like Bushive and some people do not. So, we're trying to to to bridge that gap with those folks in the transportation department. Um, that's the trip management system, how folks bid for and select their trips. So, the bus drivers use that to to assign their trips. So, um, it is new technology. It is um something that it's not paper and pencil and things are posted on the wall and you can pick your trip and you know it's you have to go into a system. So, we're get trying to get everybody used to that. Um, the other big thing that I wanted to mention this year, uh,
065you guys did, uh, approve a two-year extension to the first student contract with a 5% increase year-over-year. Um, so that will go into effect that will allow us to do the transportation feasibility study and get a really good RFP out um, for the 27 28 29 school year um, was when we would have either um, I don't know if student will win again, but they will go out for bid for that year. um starting in that year. Um we also did switch the majority of our routes from MCI contractors for special ed um from MCI contractors which MCIU sorry um to first student uh for cost. So part of the what first student offered us with bringing down that percentage is that when they have when we have onesie twoosy kind of kids where we
066have to transport them to a non-public school that's outside the boundaries um we often use uh a van service through the MCIU which was more expensive than for students. So we're going to swap some of those out to try to save some cost. Um so we are working with that. Um, next year's bid price for propane right now is looking at a$12 per gallon versus a$14 this year. So, that's a plus. Um, and we got diesel for next year at 211 a gallon um at probably about 45,000 gallons, which is still for some of our smaller vehicles. Other than that, the transportation presentation is in there. You guys can all review it at your leisure. Um, community ed. >> Could I ask a question, Tara? >> Sure. >> Um, there was some issues with where's
067the bus, the software package. Where's the bus? >> Uh, we would be changing out buses at the last minute when a bus broke down and and so the people would be using the program and they they had to put in the bus number to find out where the uh where the bus was and they weren't successful with that. >> Yep. What are your feelings about Where's the bus? Are we looking at that uh software package? >> Um I don't remember who the company is that makes Where's the bus? But we are looking at um possibly moving when that comes to end of life, we we're in a contract. So when that comes to the end of contract, which is either at the end of next school year or maybe the end of this school year,
068um but we would get an extension. we looking at getting looking at another program um that would work with not only our routing software, we would be getting new routing software and new communication software, a new GPS system um which would come with its own um parent app that we could look at. Um we are always going to have that issue um if it's a last minute swap of being able to change the route that you're looking for to match the number on your bus per se. So, you know, if we're getting ready to pull the bus out of the lot and for whatever reason it can't leave the lot and we need to switch over to another bus, that software has to somebody's got to make that switch no matter what system you use.
069So, um it's really just a um we'll have to look at that as part of the new pack of any new GPS software we would buy. >> Yeah. And we can um use our next year will be parent square, our new communication platform. We can um message by bus. So, we have lists for bus and that the company I think is Cal Amp. I just looked it up >> for Is that the GPS one? >> Yeah. Here comes the bus is what we currently have. >> Yeah. Okay. >> Any other questions about transportation? >> Um, so community ed, uh, Miss, uh, Miss Liberals put together a really nice presentation. It's in there for you guys to review. Um, community ed is our summer camps. They do uh fall and spring courses with anything from free
070to $180 for a course. Most of them are in $50 to $60 range. Um we have 15 new classes that they're offering including an in-person voiceover acting career. Like can I do that? I was waiting all day to be able to do that. >> So thank you. Feel like um I won't say it. I I don't sound as good as Mr. Gilmer, but there we go. Um, and also >> is he the instructor? >> I was gonna ask. >> He has to be. >> I don't know. >> Is he the in Can you ask him or if he's the instructor for the voiceover class? He's not. >> No. >> I don't know if I believe that. I [laughter] know. Right. >> Um, >> so, and I just want to say again, so community education is
071also an enterprise fund. So, it feeds itself. It funds itself. Um the salaries that are there are mostly for a piece of one of the assistants that works up front that spreads her time over the both the district and the enterprise fund. So they pay a portion of her salary to make sure that she can schedule all these things. Some of the increases in costs this year is we are having to cover more custodial because a lot of it we have to spread out because we can't use the high school right now. So costs are up a little bit to cover the extra custodial um cost because we wouldn't normally have folks in those buildings because we'd have them at the high school. So little bit there. Um but overall it's you know it's a
072wonderful program that uh a lot of districts don't offer. So it's it's it's fun that we have the ability to do some fun classes, some camps, things that are not your traditional, you know, 9 to2 school work kind of things. Um any questions or concerns about that? >> I I just have a quick question about um slide four has you know courses held and registrations. I just wanted to make sure I understood what the units are for the y-axis there. Is that >> I I don't understand that is is it courses held as the light blue and registrations is the dark blue and I wasn't sure. I think it's the opposite the opposite. >> I would assume that we are offering more courses or fewer courses than we have people. That's what that's what I
073because it says courses held first with the light blue first. So I just thought it was >> I will ask can get you an answer. >> Okay. That's okay. >> I would say that if you asked how many courses we offer through community ed 200's a good guess. >> Okay. >> Um so >> well that's good. So that's showing that we're offering more courses >> and just slightly less than before registration. >> Yes. Okay. Got it. >> All right. Thank you. >> And registration is still open. So we still have to register. Yep. I'll use my gold. Okay. Um, and with that, I think that's the end of my agenda for this evening other than public comment. >> All right. Thank you, Miss Hower. Um, >> big budget. So, I had planned to do an
074update on big budget tonight. Um, there has been some movement on both the revenue and expense side in the last two days, three days. Um, and I didn't want to confuse the issue by bringing you numbers that weren't solid. Um, so on June 18th when we go to vote, um, I think at this point, the good news is I was showing a deficit budget before transfers to capital um, in May. I I truly believe we'll be able to break even this year, if not possibly have a surplus that we can put towards capital projects because again, once we do the transfer to capital, we will be back in a deficit position as we expected. Um, so but the good that's the good news. The good news is I think that we've found a way um
075we went department by department, line item by line item um and clawed back about 800,000 of the 757 and then there might be some um additional revenue coming. So uh we'll have I'll have more on that on June 18th. We'll do a full budget presentation at the board meeting prior to you voting. Um and then we will also discuss the homestead farmstead resolution. Um and that then there's the the actual um tax levy resolution that goes along with the budget. >> Okay. >> Thank you very much. Sounds like good reasons to delay. Yeah. Yeah. [laughter] >> All right. Uh I think that brings us to >> Public comment. Okay. Uh this is the part where I get to read everyone's favorite lines. I believe they are. This is for the record this is the abridged
076version. Um because I gave Mr. Summers a hard time last month when I had to read it. Uh so we have shortened it. >> All right. So this is the shorter version. >> All right. Uh the public is hereby advised that this meeting is being recorded. Any students or taxpayers who speak must state their name and municipality. The comment opportunity is limited to three minutes per speaker. As a reminder, the audience of citizens portion of the meeting is not designated to debate or discuss with the board. when appropriate individual school directors may choose to respond to public comments that have not been made or have been made have have been sorry have been made once the audience of citizens period has concluded or request that a member of the administration follow up with the speakers
077after the meeting. Members of the audience shall limit their questions and comments to matters being discussed at tonight's meeting or matters that may have come before the finance committee. Do we have anybody that would like to offer public comment? I will note some folks just walked in that we are ending the finance meeting. So there will be another public comment opportunity and I won't even ask Mr. Laneir if he wants both because he will say you betcha. >> You betcha. >> So Mr. Laneir, take it away, please. >> Um I uh a lot of good information and I like the SNS. I was kind of bummed that she didn't bring any frozen yogurt or any other kind of uh delicious food because as I mentioned before when I went to school >> it was some
078sort of meat disc and ketchup is was sort of the extent of it and chocolate or regular milk right that's that's what you had occasionally pineapple whatever anyhow um putting that aside uh I'm interested in sort of the the b the belt tightening which was only briefly discussed uh been able to claw back $800,000 out of the the uh the budgets for all the departments. And last meeting I mentioned that that that the administration there's 62 administrators and that's each that's 17 teachers or 15 teachers per each administrator. That's a crazy percentage to me. It seems like we're a little heavy in the middle management there. I mean, we have 30 kids per classroom, somewhere between 25 and 30 kids per classroom, but we have 17 teachers per administrator. Seems heavy and that's a lot
079of money. And I think that needs to be uh addressed um in terms of belt tightening. And I I I just look at this in terms of all the the the source of revenues and and and futures expenses that are coming up. I mean, I know the Merc thing hasn't been settled in and their their reassessment and that could be devastating uh just from the information I know, but I'd mentioned before the uh the student projections go forward and I went back and I I pulled out this document which was the enrollment projections from 2022. And if you go into page 35, they show the different developments that they they were anticipating and the how it would impact the school. And of those, not one of them is what's currently going on now. So these
080the ones the the big ones that I had me mentioned before, there was roughly a thousand new housing uh thousand new residents coming up. None of them were in the projections. So that's a lot that that's a big increase of students. And I kind of broke it down with a with a hand of uh uh AI in terms of who is going to be affected the most and which which schools. And it looks like um I lost I don't have that piece of paper but from my memory it was Hatfield Elementary, North Wales Elementary, Penbrook and Penfield. Uh we're all going to see pretty substantial increases in students once this all comes to fruition. And what are we going to do about that? I mean that that's a we're talking roughly uh it was it
081was a lot bigger number than than was anticipated because um Mon also uses sort of an antiquated uh metric to to make that calculation how it was going to be affected and it was going to put 30 or 40 more kids in a in a in an elementary school and that's a lot. There's only four elementary schools that were really going to be dictated by these these all these major developments in this area and that's something that I think really needs to come up uh in a meeting in a long discussion form. I'll leave it there. Thank you. >> Thank you very much. Any other public comment Dr. Ber, do you care to address any of the comments? >> I do. Um and I actually agree with Mr. Laneir that uh enrollment and demographics study
082is something that should be done. Um that study that he's referring to was done in 2021, I think produced in 2022. Um and it showed significant growth um in the school district that hasn't necessarily materialized to date. But good news is uh we have embarked upon an enrollment and demographic study that just kicked off a week or two ago, Miss Hower, and meetings have started. I know it's on my calendar for next week that I meet with a demographer. Um, so we're excited about that and we absolutely will present those findings in a public meeting. Uh, could it result in some boundary realignment and some changes and ultimately with our facilities study and need for additions in certain areas? Absolutely. Uh, long range of course, not immediate, long range. Um, with that, Miss Hower, do
083you want to comment on uh staff versus administrators, those types of things? Because, um, like as a quick example, Mr. is talking about the number of teachers or students per school. And I can tell you that our elementary schools, for example, 13 elementary schools, they have one principal. They do not have assistant principles. There's one administrator in that building. There are special ed supervisors, things like that, curriculum supervisors. But Miss Hower uh would like to speak to that topic. >> Well, and I also think we need to remember that we have administrators like Melissa is an administrator. She doesn't administrate or she doesn't supervise any teachers, but she has the second largest or the largest department in the district. So, she has multiple employees at every single school over um the course of a day
084that she is responsible and she has one administrator for the entire food service department. Um Mr. Slaughter has two administrators in operations for all of the custodians and all of the mechanics and all of our trades people that go across the district. Two for 110 >> 120 people. So two administrators for 120 people. >> Huh? >> him and two. Yeah. Sorry. So three total. Um you know Dennis is the only administrator in transportation. Mr. Ryan is the only administrator in transportation. And I think we have in that trans in that presentation I think we had 75 bus drivers um and as well as routers, dispatchers and other office staff. So I think that it's not a fair comparison and we can have a conversation about it later to use the ratio of teachers to administrators
085because uh I don't I don't supervise any teachers. Um so but I have 12 staff in the business between the business office and um benefits. Yeah. >> And technology, >> beautifully said. Um, a lot of school districts also don't have SNS in-house. They don't have transportation in-house. They don't have extended school care or community programming, all of which have administrators in North Penn. And that's the advantage of our size. We can have a program and have it be profitable whereas a smaller school district might not be able to. But those departments that are not teaching and learning in the the most granular sense um certainly there's teaching and learning in all programs u but they have administrators supervising those departments. So thank you miss house. >> Yep. Y >> and we appreciate that those employees
086of those administrators are district employees serving our students and our members of our community. Oftentime the examples that you gave are often individuals that are employed by the district and live in the district. They're members of our community and we're so grateful that they are part of that North Penn um family >> and I've always been impressed by how efficient our administrative staff have been. I I I I look back on my corporate career and I say if it was a corporation, they would have uh an administrator for every four or five staff that they had. and and when I came to North Penn and I hear that uh you know your administrative staff is uh for for 20ome people or 30ome people per administrator. I'm amazed by that. It shows a really good uh
087it's the type of organization you want to see run you don't you don't Thank you. >> Thank you Mr. Ash. All right. Uh that we're nearing the end. Um just want to say thank you to everybody for all of the presentations today. Um and uh moving the the meeting along. Um just a note uh number eight for our next finance meeting uh that it was scheduled for July 7th uh is going to be cancelled. Um should we find that we need a finance meeting, we will schedule one on July 23rd. Um that will be advertised as of course but as of right now um no scheduled finance meeting for June or July. All right. Anything else? In that case can I get a motion to adjurnn? All right. That's it. Five minutes till the next
088meeting. Thank you. Great job, Mr. Chief.