001Still We'll see. Good evening everyone. And I'd like to welcome you to our May action meeting. And we will start with the pledge of allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for it stands nation with liberty and justice for all. Okay, good evening everyone. Thanks so much for joining us for the May action meeting. Um, it appears as though that yellow shiny thing in the sky does still exist. Uh, it's a nice night here in May finally. So, uh, with that, uh, something that the community doesn't perhaps know is that many of our board members volunteer at a variety of activities and participate throughout the school year. And a couple months ago, Miss McMerry contacted me and said, you know, for our student spotlight, could we please have
002the sharing excess club present because she volunteered at one of their events and just had a wonderful experience. Uh so it gives me great pleasure this evening to introduce Mrs. Hannah Salidis uh the adviser for the club and some of her students. So Hannah, thank you for joining us this evening. Good evening everyone and thank you for the opportunity to allow us to speak in front of all of you tonight. We're honored to share a little bit about our club and the work our student officers have been leading. And we truly appreciate the spotlight you're giving our student club at North Penn High School and the support you continue to show for student initiatives. Sharing Excess. They're a sound. Sharing Excess is a nonprofit organization that works to bridge the gap between surplus and scarcity
003by rescuing excess food from grocery stores, wholesalers, and farmers and redistributing it to communities in need. Their mission is to eliminate food waste and fight hunger by creating a sustainable, efficient network that connects excess food with hunger relief organizations through collaboration and innovation. Sharing excess empowers communities to ensure that good food never goes to waste. And so Sharing Excess North Penn is only a chapter. It is the only high school chapter um that belongs or is part of Sharing Excess, the overall organization. And so we are a studentled chapter. If we could go back to the slide. We are a student led chapter of the nonprofit organization based in Philadelphia and we operate within North Penn High School, the local area and community organizing free food distributions and community outreach events. We've also had have
004done food rescue which is we rescue surplus food from local partners such as Trader Joe's and Waivers Coupe as well and Amler and we redistribute it to those in need right here in our community. Thank you. Okay. All right. And so now I'm going to invite some of our students, our officers to come on up. We have Caitlyn Sally, our co-president, Ben Park, our vice president, and Nadia Eid, our publicity and outreach officer. If you could come up and share a little bit more about your experiences and roles, that would be great. Hi. So, I'm Caitlyn Sally. I'm a senior at the high school. Um, some of our key initiatives that our club has been pushing for are, of course, our food distribution drives. Um, we hold those, we try and hold those once a
005month and it's we just get free food from our parent company sharing excess and then we just have it completely for free. People can take whatever they need. Um, we've made care packages throughout um the holidays around Thanksgiving. We collected um foods like flour, baking powder, stuff like that. And then we made handmade holiday cards to give out to people in need so they could feel a little bit special. Um, and then to raise money for our club, since we are obviously a nonprofit, uh, we do holiday activities like, um, decorating pumpkins and stuff like that. Um, um, so our impact made through this school year, we have rescued over 4,700 lb. That is a lot of food. from our Thanksgiving care packages which is completely donated by students only. We got almost 100 pounds
006of food. So that was probably about 30 bags of food of like one gallon bags we were able to give to people in need. Um during our distribution drives we got around what is that 500 pounds of food donated from us donated to us from Trader Joe's and other grocery stores that have food that would have otherwise gone expired wasted and stuff like that. Um, we like to keep track of the amount of people that we're helping as well because that's important to us. Um, so we have like we log each person, we weigh each bag, and we have helped over a thousand people in the North Pen community get food that they need. So that was really important to us as well. Um last year we weren't able to complete this this year, but
007last year um on in April we partnered with the Montgomery Community College and we held a food distribution that was bigger than anything we've ever done before. We distributed over 2,000 pounds of food to students, um people in the area, just the entire community. Everybody was like there to come and support us. We had volunteers from Montco. We had volunteers from North Penn, our students. We had volunteers that were random adults that found out about this from Facebook and were like, "We want to help." And so that was a really amazing thing and we cannot wait to do this next year with our new officers. We also did um what we call food rescue. We partnered with a grocery store called Weaver's Way. And we have people that out of their own free time, free,
008no, we didn't pay them for gas, nothing. They drove out of their own free will all the way out there, picked up food, and then donated it to wherever it was supposed to go. Whether that be mana, a food pantry, they did it. And they did over 3,000 pounds of food to food pantries completely with no incentive or anything, which is crazy for high school students. Um, so just talking about myself a little bit. Um I was the corresponding secretary when the um club was started and I'm now co-presidents with uh Shriah Harahari Krishna who cannot be here tonight. Um but we plan every distribution, every collection down to the last detail. Um and these last few years have been a really impactful experience. Um since our first drive in 2023, I was really shocked
009and saddened to see how many people in our community have struggled with food insecurity and struggle to just feed their families. And while it was really difficult to see it, it was really it was eye opening and it also like it was something that we couldn't ignore. We couldn't let it just go by and let nothing happen about it. So we saw that need and we took it upon ourselves to fill it because we couldn't we didn't see anybody else doing it. Um it was a lot of work admittedly and a lot of coordinating thanks to um misalitis. Um but all the seeing the impact that we've had all the people that we've helped was definitely all worth it. Um, and like she had said, we're the first and only high school chapter, while there
010are other college chapters, we're the first high schoolers to do it first, the first high schoolers. And while I'm excited to leave and go to a new city and start my life after I graduate, um I and start a new chapter over at University of Pittsburgh and continue my work there. Um, I'm so excited to watch my um my juniors become seniors and become either presidents and vice presidents and keep growing the club as big as we can to help try and eliminate the struggle of food insecurity in our area. Um, and so I've talked long enough. I'll pass it off to Ben Park, our vice president, to talk about his experience with our club. Good evening. Good evening, everyone. So, as vice president, I do a lot of the like general work for sharing
011excess. Like for distributions or our meetings, I would send out signup geniuses or send out reminders being like, "Oh, we have a meeting this day or a distribution this day." And I think my favorite part about sharing access would be that we do a lot of meaningful work within our community. And aside from our distributions, like at our meetings, we we like Caitlyn mentioned, we assemble care packages to send out to various organizations to help people. And I think that being able to contribute to our community actively within our meetings and at our distributions. I think it's I think it's a great thing both as a student and a volunteer. And yeah, I'm very excited to work with Sharing Access next year and see what uh it brings upon us. and I'm going to pass
012it on to Nadia, our corresponding secretary. Good evening. So, as cor as publicity and outreach coordinator, my main job is really to document both meetings and distributions. So, I'll take pictures or I'll ask people questions and then I'll put together like a social media post or reminders for people in the sharing access community. And by doing this, I think it's it's really impactful because I get to see the direct impact that we're making on people, whether that's through talking to people there and asking them what brought them here or sharing our work with the public further. And like Caitlyn said, it's really nice to see people coming out and doing the volunteering even if they weren't asked to. And I enjoy my job to really highlight the work that people are doing. and I'm really
013excited to see what's in store for this club next year and in the future. I'm gonna pass it back to Caitlyn for some final words. So, thank you guys so much for giving us this opportunity to share with you how much how hard we have all worked to get the word out there. And as a group, as a club, as a district, we should be working so hard to reduce food waste and food insecurity in our community. And that's one meal at a time, one donation at a time, one volunteer at a time. Thank [Applause] you. So, I want to thank Caitlyn, Nadia, and Ben, and Mrs. Solinus for taking the time to give us this presentation. I person you're I'm glad you're here. The work that you do is farreaching. Um, and again to
014your point, Caitlyn, it's all all on your own. So, you should be really proud of yourselves and you'll take it back to the University of Pittsburgh. And to be the only high school to do this and to just do it from the grassroots with your amazing advisor, I can't say enough. So, thank you so much for what you're doing for the district and for your community. Can I add too? Can I just real quick just how impressive your presentation skills are, too. I mean, you all spoke very just extemporaneously. You you you I'm sure you had something prepared, but you were engaging. You looked right at us. And this is such an impressive club, right? Like I I had no idea that we had this and just the the initiative and the motivation that you
015all have to actually do something for your community and put the work in. Very very impressive group of of young people. So, thank you, Mrs. Mc Bertie, for inviting them tonight. I'm very impressed. All right. Thank you so much uh to the sharing excess club. And now before we transition to the rest of the the meeting, we will watch our news update. May 15th and time for your latest North Pen news update. I'm Jaden Phelps. Let's dive in. The class of 2025 danced the night away at their unforgettable senior prom. Held this year at the elegant Drexelbrook Event Center. Over a thousand students showed up dressed to impress under this year's dreamy theme, Midnight Sky. Between the glitz, the glam, and the glowing dance floor, it was a magical evening no one will forget. Bravo
016to the cast and crew of Children of Eden, who wowed audiences with four spectacular performances last weekend, and a standing ovation goes to Long Theater director Andrea Rooney, who took her final vow before retiring this June. If you missed the show, don't worry. A recorded version will be available this Saturday. Grab your tickets now at mpentheater.org/theater and enjoy the show from the comfort of your very own home. The courtyard at Nap Elementary just got a beautiful makeover thanks to the brand new garden club led by Mr. Kyle McKe and Miss Becca Lang. Students cleared out weeds, planted colorful flowers, and added fresh mulch, even bringing in two new picnic tables to create a peaceful spot for outdoor learning and lunch. Way to grow, nap. A big shout out to one of North Penn High School's
017Enack Club teams who crushed the competition at Montgomery County Environ. Congratulations to Samar Clair, Sarah Kavanagh, Lyanna Andrews, Aayushi Karnney, and Ben Tucker. They're heading to the state competition later this month to showcase their environmental experience. Great job, team. North High School hosted its annual career fair, connecting students directly with potential employers. Thanks to the CHIP program, that's the community hosted internship program, students were able to land part-time jobs and internships right on the spot. What an awesome way to build real world experience. For the 14th consecutive year, the North Penn School District has been named one of the best communities for music education, BMCE, by the NAM Foundation, a national recognition that highlights outstanding support for music learning in schools. This incredible milestone wouldn't be possible without the tireless dedication of our music educators
018whose passion and commitment continue to inspire students across every grade level. We also extend our deepest gratitude to the board and community for their support of our students and families for making music a priority in their lives. From beginners in elementary to season performers at the high school level, music is alive and thriving in North Penn. And this honor reflects the collective effort of an entire district working in harmony. NPHs gave off a warm and spirited sendoff to our incredible athletes heading to the Special Olympics at Springford High School. Congratulations to all the participants and a huge thank you to our amazing volunteers for supporting this inspiring event. Come celebrate creativity at the annual Night of the Art Show featuring stunning student artwork from K through 12. This show kicks off Wednesday evening and continues
019through Thursday NPHs starting at 5:30 p.m. And if you stop by on Thursday, be sure to stay for the spring chorus concert, which begins at 700 p.m. Don't miss it. Mark your calendars for Thursday, May 29th. It's the NPHs Nanotech Symposium. Our brilliant engineering students will present their year-long research project and showcase their findings at 7:00 p.m. right here at Northpen High School. Come out and support the future of innovation. and a little self-promotion. North Penn television students captured four prestigious high school student production awards from the National Academy of Television Arts and Sciences Mid-Atlantic Chapter during the annual awards ceremony held at Temple University. Northman High School earned nine nominations across 17 categories, standing out among a competitive field of high schools from Pennsylvania, New Jersey, and Delaware. This year's success brings North Pen
020Television to a total of 33 NATA's Mid-Atlantic High School Student Television Awards since the program began in 2003. Want more North Pen News? Be sure to subscribe and stay uptodate with all of our stories at youtube.com/mpptv. That's all for now. I'm Jaden Phelps and from all of us at MPTV, have a great [Music] evening. Welcome to our regularly scheduled action meeting. This meeting is being videotaped for community cable channels and streamed live. Individuals attending this meeting and intending to speak to the board should be aware that they are being videotaped. In order to meet the requirements of Pennsylvania Sunshine Law, it is necessary to record the names of all citizens who speak to the board during the meeting. To assure compliance with this requirement, it is essential that those planning to address the board state
021their name and municipality. Members of the audience will limit their questions and comments to three minutes. And now, please stand. Dr. Ba. Dr. Ba, can I make a quick statement? And I hope it doesn't. So, the what was just read still stands, right? regard. Okay, good. So, um I do want to uh celebrate the North Penn girls flag football team who once again are going to finals next Tuesday and they are playing again against Abington that have won uh twice in a row now. So, I believe uh it's our turn. Third times a charm. So, and these girls are phenomenal. I got the opportunity to uh watch them and uh you know we have a national team player uh a national team member on our team. They're phenomenal. So please send all the good vibes
022to the North Penn girls flag football team when they go next Tuesday. So, is there anyone in the audience this evening that would like to make public comment at this time? Good evening. Good evening. Uh, Jason Lansale. um wanted to first uh talk about the proposed uh tax increase that we're you're looking at at 4%. Did a little figuring on on what this meant uh over the next four years. So if we're talking this year through 2028 29, we're looking at a 14.6% tax increase if we stick to the act one index. What my I'm basically saying is you guys are taxing so much and we're not getting much out of all of the taxes that we're we're paying as citizens in this area. Uh let's I mean in terms of what we would be
023expecting is to have is to have uh uh higher proficiency rates and that's not happening. our profession see rates have dropped precipitously and I don't know why why this doesn't seem to to alarm any one of you but why why is it so when when you look at what the part department of education tells us this is PA department of education we are um our not basic proficiency or lower or below is at 66% in Penddale at 59% in Penfield and uh 55% in Pemrook. How how is it that we have such low proficiency proficiency rates? I don't understand why we're paying all this money to get that. Mr. Laneir, can you give us maybe a comparison to another benchmark district? What's the average we're we're And this isn't going to take out of my
024time, so I expect a little bit more, but sure. We're we're we're ranked 12th in Montgomery County. 12th. We're ranked 57th in the state and 12th in the county. So, I don't know, you know, we're we're paying more and getting less out of out of our our uh tax dollars. Uh that is actually, you know, the the Penddale rate is actually below the average in the state. We're five points below the average in the state. So, we we need to do a little bit work on that. So, the question is is what are we spending our money on? And uh it seems like we're spending a lot of money on um we have the the health clinic care clinic which isn't shown reflected in the budget ex in terms of an additional expenditure. But that's
025$700,000 we're spending on the healthcare center this coming year. Why? It's not beneficial. We're not we're not making money on it. We're not we're losing money and our premiums are going up. I know it was said it wasn't, but it's true. And what do you guys do? You keep passing policies. you and you pass them unanimously, by the way, some 2,000 votes unanimous and you pass uh statements on anti-racism and equity. And what has that gotten us? Can you tell me what the most successful school district in the country that has passed an equity program and how has it passed? I know the statement is uh Fusco said something about it being having to do with special education. Those are two separate entities entirely. We're talking about uh there's there's policy that is for special
026education. Mr. Ler, uh we I a little more time because of uh Cassa interrupting me and asking me a question midstream. So why is it that that uh we are we are continuing to do this without having the ability to show any beneficial results, zero results with the equity, yet we keep doing it. And what do we get out of that? We get hiring of people that don't belong in this the Thank you, Mr. Lineer. Would anyone else like to make public comment this evening? Good evening, Mrs. Burke. Good evening. Um, I'm Margaret Burke from Lansdale Burrow and tonight I'll be talking to you for the last time as a parent of a North Penn student as my child will be graduating from post 12 next month before you guys meet again. And I want
027to thank you for all that you have done for my child and my family. I really do appreciate all the programs that my um child with disabilities have has been able to take part in in the school district and how much you've supported him. I also like to um thank the board. I don't keep up as much as I should on the YouTube videos, but I saw some recent um videos about the high school, the prog progress and what's going to be happening and it's very exciting. And um Mrs. Mc Merrychie, I really want to call you out specifically. Thank you so much for integrating the needs of the special education students every time. You're sure to have them highlight and make sure that they plan with them in mind, which is so rare and
028I really appreciate all that you do. And it's not just that. You're also very fiscally responsible. You I cannot keep track of all this stuff, but you're on it with the questions in detail. It is so very impressive and so important to us as taxpayers that you're minding our money. All of you are doing a very good job of that. Um, as I talked about last time, keeping our bond rating so great so that we'll be able to borrow money at lower cost to the taxpayers. I so much appreciate all that you're doing while serving the students. And as I recall from I can't remember where I read the article about rankings of North Penn, our issue was that our building facilities had been left to crumble for so many years. And as I recall,
029um, that's why we don't rank well because our facilities have not really compared well to others. And so with your 10-year capital plan, I know you're always keeping track of all the facilities and who needs work and where. And I really appreciate that because I think in the previous board that was very much lacking. Um, and again, I want to thank you so much for partnering with me and my husband Carl um to help uh students with disabilities and bring a lot of great projects to North Penn like communication boards and um the apartment at Penddale that everybody uh still uses to uh train independent life skills. I have so much enjoyed being a part of this community and I'll be sad not not to be as involved as I was in the past. and
030thank you all and now good luck running again and I'm really excited um to see you and your running mates continue everybody vote on Tuesday. Um thank you so much. Best of luck to you all. Thank you Mrs. Burke. All right. Is there anyone else that would like to make a public comment this evening? Good evening, Dr. Durst. Hello. Thank you. You're welcome. So, I'm Dr. Durststein and it's fine. Um, it's not my last name. Uh, so one, I just wanted to thank and appreciate the um North Penn Foundation for supporting the Burke family's donation and the communication board. We at the beginning of the meeting, I was able to show Margaret how that board has been able to be specifically supportive of my child's communication needs. And so when members of our community stand
031and rail against equity and inclusion and access, they're specifically suggesting to me and moms like me that our children don't belong in this community, that they don't want to pay for our children to have access and participate. And that's deeply disturbing to me. And part of the reason that's disturbing is that I come from a Cole region family and I am the second generation I'm not first generation. I'm second generation college graduate. It was because of other members of my grandparents community paying taxes that my grandfather wasn't left to be in the mines. And by not being a victim of black lung like every other member of my family, my parents both went on to graduate college and subsequently every one of my aunts graduated college all because other members of our community through the
032New Deal invested in education. And so upward mobility happened because of what we now have labeled equity. So by allowing access to education, by allowing access to resources, my child's future is very different than children in his situation 30 years ago. And so investments in my family have led to me being called doctor. And then hopefully one day my child will go off and go and live to his full potential. So as an institution, our mission as a school district is to ensure that every child lives to their fullest potential and works to their fullest potential. So that makes sense that we would want to ensure access. So when folks are confused or upset that our money is being used in these ways, they're being used in training. So my children rely on something called
033total communication, which is um AAC, sign language. It's a combination of various things that has been trained and allows for improved outcomes. And so there's a lot of reason that your tax dollars are used in the way that they're used. So my suggestion would be maybe some adult education classes so we have a better understanding of what equity is. we have a better understanding of civics because in the state of Pennsylvania, the Commonwealth's Constitution outlines specifically a guarantee to education. So every time you raise taxes, it's to ensure the constitutionality rights. Thank you. Okay. Is there anyone else this evening that would like to make public comment? Okay. Oh, sir. Uh, my name is Deville. I'm sorry I talked over you. That's okay. I live in Lansdale Burough. My daughter uh goes to Penrook Middle
034School. I was kind of surprised to hear the statistics that were just quoted about the proficiency uh levels. Sorry, my voice is shaky. I'm nervous. Um I just want to say um I'll look it up when I get home. I don't have internet access here. Um I was kind of surprised to hear that just because I'm also a middle school teacher in a different district and I know a lot of um school districts um do algebra in nth grade, geometry in 10th grade, algebra 2 in 11th grade. A lot of the keystones are taken in nth grade. And in North Penn, one of the things I appreciate about North Penn is that students are not held back by grade level with regards to math. Even if they're not in a gifted program, even if they
035don't have some sort of um identified gifted IEP, if a student excels in math or loves math, they're continued to work ahead at their own pace. Um, and they're encouraged to do that by their teachers. Um, so my daughter loves math, not for me. And in fourth grade, her teacher encouraged her to keep working in math if she finished early. And she's in eighth grade at Penrook right now and is in geometry. Um, and last year as a seventh grader, she took the Keystone test, which is typically taken by students in the state of Pennsylvania in 9th or 10th grade. And I think that's phenomenal. And I don't know where those uh scores about 58% or 59% being basic or um below basic would come from based just based on the anecdotal. My daughter says
036there's something like three or four geometry classes um for eighth grade at at Penrook and and just as many in in um seventh grade for algebra. And I think that's pretty remarkable for this district. And I appreciate um the teachers all along the way um elementary through middle school that have encouraged her to pursue something that she finds interesting. Thank you. Thank you. So, is there anyone else that would like to make public comment? Okay, seeing no one else, we'll continue with our agenda. And next up on the agenda will be approval of the meeting minutes for both the April 24th and the May 6th action meetings. May I please have a motion? Second. Second. Mr. Fusco and Mr. Casa. Any comments or questions on either set of meeting minutes? All right. Hearing none. All
037in favor say I. I. Any opposed? Hearing none. The motion passes. Thank you. So, regarding the committee reports, personnel. Oh, North Monco. Sorry. Here we go. All right. Mr. Rush. Oh, every month is different. Mrs. Rdnick. No, no, we didn't meet. Oh, that's right. There's no report. Uh, they meet May 15th. Did you want to which is today? I was going to say it. All right. All right. Operator our operator are again. All righty. So, we'll move on to the Montgomery County Intermediate Union and that will be Mrs. Ramage. That I know for sure. Good evening. Um the MCIU board met on April 23rd. Um the board heard a presentation about the MCIU's communication strategy focusing on content and intentional storytelling to share information about um a variety of programs. Um the board had discussion
038and first read on policy approved um budgets for the office of innovation and strategic partnerships and the next meeting of the um MCIU board will be held on Wednesday, May 21st. End of report. Thank you. Next up. Sorry. Thank you, Mrs. Ramage. Next, also to the um North Penn Education Foundation. Yes. Thank you. The foundation held its annual online auction and once again met its goal of raising more than $10,000. Thank you to everyone who bid on the exciting items up for bid and those who donated to them. Foundation trustees also reviewed grants for the 2025 2026 school year. More than $35,000 in innovative projects have been approved. Letters will go out to recipients by the end of the school year. Also, the foundation welcomed a new trustee in April. Lansdale resident and nap parent,
039Mr. Mark Tio, um has joined the board and we look forward to working with him. If you have any questions about the foundation, please contact Christine Labroski at the ESC or visit npenfoundation.org. End of report. Thank you, Mrs. Mrs. Ramage. And next up is the legislative report with Mr. McBain. Thank you. We have no report tonight, but keep watching the news. Wow, that was that was an I a man of few words. Powerful evening tonight so far. All right. All right. And um next will be our solicitor's report. Mr. Summers, please. And I have no report this evening. Thank you. Okay. So, Dr. Bower, I have a report this evening. So, all right. First, I'd like to recommend the items listed in the consent agenda, which include the adoption of policies. the adoption of policies
040for a first read approval to advertise for RFP. A bid award for the 2526 musical instruments. A bid award for the 2526 physical education supplies. A bid award for the 2526 liquid propane gas and filling station maintenance contracts. Student travel gifts to the district. Student agreements alternative placements Gwynor Elementary Plankcon J. Oak Park Elementary playing conj small games of chance resolution for booster club groups and lastly the Burkheimimer earned income tax resolution. Thank you. I please have a motion to approve items consent items A through N. So move. Second. Oh, I'm sorry. Let me repeat that for um consent items A through O. So moved. Thank you, Mr. Fusco. Is there a second? Second. Mrs. stole second. Any comments or questions on any of these consent items? Okay, hearing none. All in favor say I.
041I. I. Any opposed? Hearing none. The motion passes. Thank you. Okay. Uh, next I recommend the personnel items as per the attached. May I please have a motion? So moved. Mrs. Stole. Second. Mr. Cassa. Any comments or questions? Hearing none. All in favor say I. I. Any opposed? hearing none. Motion passes. Thank you. And as a followup to that personnel action item, uh I would like to recommend approval of Jaden D. Waters for the position of ESY program assistant at the North Penn School District effective June 30th, 2025 through July 31st, 2025. Uh the pay rate will be $23.61 per hour through June 30th, 2025. A 2526 school rate of 2446 per hour will be effective July 1st through July 31st. This recommended candidate for the position is the daughter of our assistant superintendent, Dr.
042Deanna Waters. Um, similar to last month when we approved uh Dr. G's children for some of our summer support. Uh, this is Jaden's second or third year coming back to help us with our summer ESY program. So happy to have Jaden back, but our board policy does dictate that we separate out um the children of the cabinet level administrators or school board members or direct relatives. So okay, thank you Dr. Bower. May I please have a motion? Mr. Cot. Mr. McBain, any comments or questions? Hearing none. All in favor say I. I. Any opposed? Hearing none. Motion passes. Thank you. You're welcome. And thank you to Jaden for helping us over the summer when she's home from college. Uh, next I recommend approval by the board of a curriculum adoptions for the 2526 school year.
043May I please have a motion? So moved. Second. Mr. Fusco and Mrs. Stole. Any comments or questions? Just a quick comment. Uh, Madam Chair, uh, if you look at the list here, we're looking at secondary social studies and math textbooks and all kinds of different resources that really gets to the plethora of options and available courses for our students here. And I want to thank all the teachers involved in the administrative team for uh helping us to find the right resources for our kids. Thank you, Mr. McM. Any other comments or questions? Okay, hearing none. All in favor say I. I. Any opposed? Hearing none. Motion passes. Thank you. I recommend the adoption of the 2526 proposed final budget resolution in the amount of 322,6,74 per PTE form 2028 and authorization to publish notice to
044adopt the final budget budget, excuse me, in accordance with the Pennsylvania School Code Act as per the attached. Okay. May I please have a motion? So moved. Second. Mrs. Stole and Mr. Kasa, any comments or questions? Hearing none. All in favor say I. I. Any opposed? Hearing none. Motion passes. Thank you. Next, I recommend approval of the attached resolution establishing the rates of discounts and penalties on the payment of the 2526 real estate taxes. May I please have a motion? Second. Mr. Fusco and Mrs. Ramage. Any comments or questions? I'll just highlight that at the work session there the finance meeting there was a conversation about that 7.5% penalty versus 10%. Um Mr. Linderman mentioned that most school districts have a 10% penalty. We took ours down to 7.5 during uh the financial hardship of
045the pandemic. There was conversation about moving that to 10 this year. We're going to stick with 7.5 and if we were to make a change next year we would communicate that very early. Thank you Dr. Bower. Any other comments or questions? All righty. Hearing none. All in favor say I. I. Any opposed? Hearing none. The motion passes. Thank you. I recommend approval of the 2025 real estate tax installment payment plan as per the attached resolution. Second. Mrs. Stole and Mr. Casa. May any comments or questions? Hearing none. All in favor say I. Any opposed? Hearing none. Motion passes. Thank you. I recommend the client consent letter provided by the American Tower Corporation for additional work at least location for approval. May I please have a motion? So moved. Second. Mr. Stall, Mr. Casa, any comments
046or questions? I do have a question regarding the scope of what this is this additional work. Thank you, Mr. Slaughter. I timed you. You were faster this month. getting my wheels getting better. Yeah, your wheel's getting better. Good evening, ladies and gentlemen. Um, so, uh, RC American Tower, uh, at the cell tower at the high school, uh, has to request permission from us anytime they do work. So, their client Verizon is, uh, asking to put in an additional concrete pad, a new generator, a canopy, and additional antennas. So this is just a letter for us to provide consent for them to move forward with this work. Okay. Thank you. And it doesn't impact any of our resources or No, this is within the footprint of their easement which is surrounded by a fence. So it
047has no impact on any of the work that we're doing at the high school. Okay. So this is just more of an awareness or not an awareness, pardon me. They have to have our approval to do it. Correct. For anything that they do this site. Okay. All right. Thank you very much for that. All right. Any other comments or questions? When I thought about this, I said, "Does this mean that we're going to uh produce more revenue from the uh tower that's operational?" So, there there are clauses that we get paid a percentage of the rental, but I cannot answer that this is going to increase right now. Thank you. Okay. Thank you. Any other comments or questions? Thanks, Mr. Slaughter. All right. Um, all in favor say I. I. Any opposed? Hearing none. Motion
048passes. Thank you. I recommend approval of the client consent letter provided by Shraider Group Architects. May please have a motion. So moved. Second. Mrs. Stole and Mrs. Ramage. Any comments or questions? I would just say that Mr. Schrader gave a brief presentation about this consent letter at a previous meeting. So correct. Um and there should be no impact to our um team to our team and um our work going forward with them. The relationship stays the same. Correct. All right. Thank you. Any other comments or questions? All right. Hearing none. All in favor say I. I. I. Any opposed? Motion passes. Thank you. I recommend the approval for the proposal from TNM Associates to perform final closeout documentation for the PAP for design installation and testing of vapor recovery system at NAP Elementary School. May
049I please have a motion second Mr. C and Mrs. Stole. So this is it. I I'm sorry I have comment question. Um this this does close out NAP completely. Correct. Correct. This is the only open uh thing that we have with the NAP construction project and this is with the Department of Environmental Protection. Okay. And this is the closure report to uh close that out. All right. Thank you, Mr. Mr. I'm sorry, Mr. So there's no plan con J coming 20 years from now. No plan con with NAP. We're beyond that. Thank you. All right. Thank you. Any other comments or questions? Okay. Hearing none. All in favor say I. I. I. Any opposed? Hearing? None. Motion passes. Thank you, Mr. Slaughter. I recommend the approval to enter into a contract for act 39 districtwide
050lead water testing with Euroins in the amount of $13,175 as required by the PA D. Okay. Thank you. May I please have a motion? All right. That was Mr. Rash and Mr. Casa. Any comments or questions on lead testing? Yeah, just point of clarification. I I thought there was a facilities and operations committee where um we discussed going beyond that or maybe is it is now every year. So just want to make sure I understand um are we regularly testing? This is annual. Yes, this is our annual test for for lead in any of the drinking uh and portable water systems. Okay. So is that a different topic or or that we decided to No, you're correct. Um, I don't know all the provisions in the act, but a few years ago there was a
051presentation about um, you have to test all fixtures or explain why you're not to the community. Publish the results, publish how you've addressed anything that tested positive. And this is essentially like maintenance at this point. We continue testing. So, we certainly mitigated any issues a couple years ago that came up during testing. And this is just continued testing to make sure we're still in compliance. Got it. Thank you. Any other comments or questions? Thanks for that, Mr. Casa. Hearing none. All in favor say I. Any opposed? Hearing none. Motion passes. Okay. I recommend the approval to provide and install a new HVAC system into the IT network room to Greybar in the amount of $279,763.98. Uh this contract is through Omni Cooperative Purchasing Contract. The current system will now act as a backup system until
052replacement during construction. The original system is over 20 years old and has been experiencing some issues. It was scheduled to be replaced as part of construction. However, the urgency required us to move the replacement date forward. Um, I will say that some people may recall roughly a year and a half ago, we sent an email on a Sunday evening and said we might not be able to have school tomorrow uh because we're experiencing some network issues. This is in that network network system room uh where the air conditioning had failed and we had a power outage as a result. Things overheated. So, we've had multiple failures in that room over the last couple years and it's just time to move forward. So, we're just moving it up on the schedule. That's all this is. Okay.
053Um any other comments or questions? I I will say Did I do the I didn't do the motion. You messed me up. Sorry. Um May I please have a motion? So move. Second. Is there a second? So it's Mrs. Stole and Mr. McBain. Thank you. So we are moving it up. Um but Mr. Slaughter, you explained to me a bit more that the backup that the it provides for more redundancy. So this will not be a single point of failure again. Is that that is correct. This was set to be part of the high school project anyway, but given what the issues we've been having with the current system, we decided to move it up. We are installing a uh multiple system as the primary system. So there is triple redundancy with that system and
054uh it operates more efficiently. Okay. So the cost of this is about $280,000. So is that a deduct from the high school project? That is correct. Well, the funds will come from the high school uh construction project. Okay. So, it's just uh spending the funds in a different way. So, the overall bid would be expected to be lower by this. Okay. Pardon me. So, it will come from that. All right. Yes. All right. Thank you for that clarification. All right. Um any other comments or questions? All right. Hearing none. All in favor say I. I. Any opposed? Motion passes. Thank you. I recommend the approval to mobile lease modular structures in the amount of $98,150 to remove the existing furnish and install a new office trailer at the transportation site at Penrook Middle School. May
055I please have a motion? Mr. Kasa second. Second. Mrs. Stole, any comments or questions? Yeah, sorry it's been a while. Um the the it's interesting uh when the reason that this was caught in tips. So I I'm just interested to find out who discovered that the there was a bidding issue. Uh the bidding issue, right? So the tips, I'm sorry. So the um the original proposal that came from Wilmont modular uh was through the TIPS program. However, when we dug into it, uh Mr. Linderman, myself, and uh Miss Johnson, Mrs. Johnson uh discovered that they didn't follow the protocol that was part of the tips program. So, while they provided a tips bid, since they didn't follow protocol, we felt it best to uh move to the second bidder on that. I I thought that's
056what I was reading between the sentences. Uh thank you. I think it's important to highlight for the board and the community that type of diligence. um right, we shouldn't just uh gloss over um that high level of work uh from our administration when it comes down to making sure we follow the procurement rules and optimize our taxpayer dollars. Thank you, Mr. Casa. Um for those who aren't aware, there is a modular, if you're looking at the front of Penrook to the back left over by some of the athletic fields, we park some of our transportation vehicles back there. There's a modular that serves as an off-site office for them. Some folks get their mail. There's a break room and but it's kind of a home base for those who drive vehicles that are parked over
057there. And when you said tips, I literally thought because you as board members and myself received an email months ago about that and the poor repair of that. Uh I went over there, I believe Mrs. Stole went over to see it at some point and Miss McMerry and we agreed that that modular needed to be replaced. So we did get a tip, but not that there was a hole in the floor. um that was far beyond its lifespan. So happy to replace that for the folks who work over there. And one thing I wanted to point out, there's an error on my part in the recommended action. The dollar amount is actually $115,275. So I apologize for that. Amend. Yeah, without objection. Any objection to amending the motion that's currently before the board to have
058that updated amount hearing? None. Uh the motion is updated uh to reflect that revised amount. Thank you. Thank you. I have a clarifying question. So for the for the modular when you look at um just like the technical cl uh clarifications there's a sentence around excludes asbestous remediation and removal. I'm assuming that that's not an issue because it's a modular. That's that's correct. There there is no uh ACM in the existing modular. So, they're required to remove the in its entirety that that building. Yeah. Okay. Great. Thank you. Any other comments or questions? Okay. Hearing none, all in favor say I. Any opposed? Hearing none. Motion passes. Thank you. Um and Mr. Slaughter, just to give you a little bit of credit here, the dollar amount listed in the details is correct. Yeah. The recommended
059action was correct. Yes. Yeah. Oh, good. We will get that updated. Thank you. Stand by. We're loading. Okay. Uh recommend the approval for the amendment of the North Penn High School Transportation Center existing features contract with Cowan Associates Incorporated contract by an additional $1,65016 for additional services for feature surveys incurred during the course of the contract. I have a motion, please. Second. Mr. Fusco and Mrs. Ramich. Any comments or questions? Hearing none. All in favor say I. I. Any opposed? Hearing none. Motion passes. Thank you. I recommend approval to Johnson Controls Incorporated to repair or um or leak test the following chillers. Uh HS McQuay. What is that, Mr. Slaughter? I'm sorry. That's McQuay is the manufacturer of the chiller that's at the high school. The McQuay chiller at the high school. Gotcha. York Avenue,
060Nash, North Wales in the amount of $121,628. This was bid through co-stars contract to five different vendors. Okay. May I have a motion, please? Mr. McBain and Mr. Casa. And I want to thank Mr. slaughter and um for this work particularly because of all of the problems with the chillers and the way that you're bidding this. So we don't do it in two steps, we do it in one step so we can expedite. But going forward with the chillers and the 10-year capital project plan, do these chillers now come off of there? That would be correct. These were all on the uh 10-year capital plan except for York which we added the last update. Okay. Uh so yes, they will come off the capital plan. All right. And then in terms of when you compare
061these these costs with what was estimated in the 10-year capital project plan for these replacements, are they in line with the estimates that we've been carrying in the plan? Uh we're slightly under budget. Okay, good. All right. Perfect. All right. Thank you. Any other comments or questions? Can I just say what a brilliant question. Very impressive. I'm dead serious. Didn't think about that one. And I often think about the questions you're thinking about. I think it's because our new CFO is here. We're all just Okay. Any other comments or question? how classrooms are feeling right now toward the end of the summer. Are we mirroring what is happening there? They call this schoolboard member itis. I think I think we've got it. Yeah. I know Mr. Fusco has it. Yeah. Okay. He's over here working
062on an assignment. We're good. He's he's focused. We're fine. But that's what we want, right? We want the estimates that we put in a 10-year plan from, you know, I don't know, maybe se I wasn't on the board. seven years ago, you know, which was reasonable then. If they can possibly come under what it is today, that's just great planning. Well, it it is and yeah, it it speaks to the skill set and the experience of the team that is putting these estimates together, honestly. Um, so You know, there's probably a little bit of luck in there, but I would say 90% of it entirely. There is no luck. It's your brand new team. We take all credit. That's right. All right. I don't want to take too much credit. We do adjust for inflation
063annually. You do, but I also know that there are adjustments made, you know, because of technology changes and things like that. And so part of the question honestly was um just to see if there was any impact to uh regarding tariffs possibly starting to creep in. But that was my other underlying reason. We have not seen any evidence of that yet. Yeah. So you know and again the major concern is when the high school project uh phase two gets bid that you know. Okay. All right. Thank you so much. Um any other comments or questions? Okay. Um all in favor say I. I. Any opposed? Hearing? None. Motion passes. Thank you. I recommend ratification of the attached amendment to extend the due diligence period for the sale of the movie lots. May I have a
064motion? Some moved. Second. Mrs. Stole and Mrs. Ramage. Any comments or questions? Okay. Hearing none. All in favor say I. I. Any opposed? All righty. That motion passes. Thank you. Next, I recommend awarding of bids to the contractor Tamco Construction Incorporated for the amounts stated and entering into contracts for the North Pen High School construction renovation project. Funding for the project will come from the North Pen High School Construction Fund. All right. So moved. Second. Okay. I'm sorry. Mrs. Stole and Mr. Casa, any comments or questions? All in favor say I. I. Any opposed? Hearing? None. Motion passes. Thank you. And lastly, I recommend issuing the notice to proceed to the contractor Tamco Construction Incorporated for the removal of towers 1 through 4 at the WMPV site as part of North Penn High School construction
065and renovation project. All right. May I please have a motion? Mr. Casa. Second. Second. Mrs. Stole, any comments or questions? I have a question. When is actually this work commencing? uh by the time we finish all the contracts and get everything together, it would be mid June that would commence and probably 30 to 60 days to perform the work. Okay. Is that something that we can watch? I knew you were going to ask that. I know this really good TV guy, Mr. Bob Gilmer, and I'm sure we're going to have cameras all around while that takes place. But yes, you're welcome to watch. I think it would be fascinating and and I know school's out, but I also think it would be fascinating for students to observe how this is done as well if they're
066interested in that type of work. Yeah, we'll we'll create a a visual setback where people can come watch. I I think that would be something um worthy of uh observing. I know that there are some members of the press who have reached out to ask if they could come watch. Um also, Phil Hunt uh the former owner of the property and the radio station has asked if he could join as well. So, sounds like you have a watch party, Mr. letter. I'll have a lot of hard hats and safety vests for everyone. Good idea. All right. Any other comments or questions? All righty. Hearing none. All in favor say I. I. Any opposed? Motion passes. Thank you. All right. And with that, I've concluded the superintendent's report. It gives me great pleasure to introduce for
067the first time formally in public. Our new uh CFO, Miss Tara BG Hower, has joined the school district. She started on Monday. Uh it has been a pleasure working with her and clearly some of the uh financial responsibility that were expressed in the last items had nothing to do with her because she's only been here for three days, but we're glad she liked them and then they were all Yeah, they were all you. So, welcome and uh the floor is yours. Thank you. Um tonight I'm asking uh for approval of the treasures report. Um the treasure treasures report reflects a current investment balance as of the end of April of 100 approximately60 million. Okay. I have a motion, please. pass. Mrs. Ramage second. Any comments or questions? All righty. Hearing none. All in favor say
068I. I. Any opposed? Hearing none. Motion passes. Thank you. Um if it's okay with the board, I'd like to um take items B and C together. They are budget transfers for the months of March and April. These are routine reallocations of budgets. These are not approvals of new dollars. Thank you. May I have a motion for items B and C? So was that Mr. Rash? Okay. Second by Mr. Mr. Mr. Casa will second. Okay. Any comments or questions? All right. Hearing none. All in favor say I. I. Any opposed? Hearing none. Um motions passes. Thank you. Um also seeking ratification of uh funds dispersed in April of approximately 34.4 million for letter I'm sorry, letter D. Okay. Any I'm sorry. May I have a motion, please? Second, Mr. Casa and Mrs. Ramage. Any comments or
069questions? Hearing none. All in favor say I. I. Any opposed? Hearing none, the motion passes. Thank you. Um and finally for letter E, um seeking approval of the attached reports that can be viewed inside public content. Um there's no need for the board to approve these. These are just listed asformational. So you're good. They'reformational. I apologize. Thank you. Thank you. All right. Do we have any other business this evening? I do want to share that um we do many things that of course, you know, uh I have a very biased opinion, but we do many things. Well, one of the best things the North Pen School District does is our elementary triathlon. Um and that is taking place on Saturday, weather permitting. Hopefully, it will be fine. Um if you have the opportunity to go
070and if you haven't seen it, it is remarkable. Um, I think the first athletes will kick off sometime between 7 and 8 a.m. and our last athletes will kick off around 7:30 p.m. That's how many athletes are participating. The kids have been training hard and it is just great. Um, I would encourage board members to get down to the track and give high fives as kids come across the finish line. It's just wonderful. Uh, so that is Saturday and then on Monday is the official tilebreaking groundbreaking ceremony for the high school project. Um, so the last event taking place in the niatorum is on Saturday, the triathlon. Um, we will have that ceremony on Monday and begin emptying the pool on Tuesday. Um, if you go into the natitorium or the natitorium lobby now things
071are off the walls like they're getting ready. Um, so they're going to start essentially as the last child gets out of the water. Um, so really looking forward to that's just the start of what is a five sixy year project. So really excited for that. Thank you Dr. Bower. I just want to add to I think one of the the the triathlon is one of the greatest events for the North Penn school district, but it is also one of the highlights of being a parent within the district. Um there was no better way of seeing the character development and the strength of my own children than watching them on that day and getting to be a part of it. Right. So I got to help stage and I got to um load bikes on on
072the back of the car and get them there. there's just so much that goes into it from every so many people within our community. So, I wish all of the parents who are participating um well as well and I would be remiss if I didn't mention the te the teachers, the volunteers, everybody. I mean, the setup is absolutely massive. They're there till late at night on Friday night getting ready. Um and they're there all day on Saturday and it's just a beautiful thing. So, thank you to everybody. Thank you all. All righty. Any other any other business this evening? All right. Hearing none. May I have a motion please to adjurnn? Thank you. Mer meeting is adjourned.