001okay our webinar is live we're just going to wait for YouTube to kick in and YouTube has just kicked in so I think we can get started Mrs STL uh the meeting is yours thank you Mr Gilmer okay I'm going to call this meeting to order and we're going to start off with the Pledge of Allegiance please I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the Republic for which stands one nation under God indivisible with liberty and justice for all okay first um we're going to have an approval of the minutes in the February 18th 2025 special finance committee meeting can I have a motion please zo moved and I'll second um all in favor say I I I motion passes thank you and now I'm going to kick
002it off uh the meeting to Mr Linderman please or or is it Dr wat who's running the meeting tonight we'll start I was just GNA kick it right over to her so there you go all right sounds good all right okay good evening everyone um thanks for joining tonight this special Finance meeting is just an opportunity for departments to share their budgets and give you an overview of what they will look like for the 2526 school year so tonight we do have four presentations planned and we are going to get started with our special education department so I'm going to turn it over to Dr kler and Dr Balden our directors of Elementary and special and secondary respectively all right ladies take it away Alison than you Dr Waters we are thrilled to be here
003to give a brief overview of our budget proposal for the 2526 school year next slide please um we included our vision statement um because it's important that we keep in mind that our expenditures um support the um programs for our students with IEPs 504 service agreements and other sorts of needs um in particular connection to our vision next slide please additionally we keep in mind that we are working to support all of our students in reaching our mission statement and specific to special education and student services we are really individualizing our plans for each student who um receive Services through our department next slide please hello everyone um so a a strong portion of our budget is um through Personnel cost and we need Personnel to support our students so those costs include administrators support
004staff and professional staff and uh a new addition to our staff this year are our registered Behavior technicians who are continuously supporting um our specialized classrooms and our students with behavior next slide please other Personnel are contracted service providers we um have maintained the same contracted service providers for this year and are proposing to uh utilize those same Contracting agencies and at this time we are utilizing Lakeside the Lincoln Center Springfield psychology pediatric therapeutic supports the mciu and Abington speech solent and the mciu again next slide please the next few slides go through some data um to support our budget expenditures um each December every school district has to submit a snapshot of the students who receive special education services so this is our data from the last three school years as you can see
005our number of students with IEPs has slightly increased each school year as has um our enrollment um our percentage of the total student body with IEPs has increased as has the state average as well next slide please um an important slide when we think about budgetary expenditures is the number or percentage of students who are educated in other settings now these are our students with IEPs um as you can see this has fluctuated from year to year it's actually gone down but that is um that's not necessarily due to any particular um efforts on on our Department's part it's just the needs of the students from year to year the state average has stayed the same and as you can see we are slightly under the state average um that's a good place to be
006next slide please this slide relates to the last slide because educating students in out of District placements typically is um a costly expend though necessary for the students who are educated in those placements because that is their least restrictive environment in order to meet their needs so these expenditures you can see um there are a few different types of schools where we educate our students who require these placements Pennsylvania has a list of what's called approved private schools there are some budgetary aspects to that which Dr Balon will explain later in the presentation there are also licensed private academics schools um the Bucks County IU and the Chester County IU expenditures so you can see what those projected costs are and then because we're here in Montgomery County we listed Montgomery County IU as a
007separate Intermediate Unit and there are costs as well next slide please we also have a number of specialized classrooms in our school district typically our specialized classrooms are the classrooms where our students who have more comprehens ensive complex significant needs are educated um we have a total of 34 classrooms you can see across elementary middle and high school where each of those how many of each of those classrooms we have um typically these are the students who spend less than 40% of their school day in the regular education environment this data also comes from the December 1 count um you can see that we have slightly increased our percentage very slightly over the last three years again this just fluctuates based on student needs from year to year however I think it's important to point
008out that we are well under the state average um and that's something we continue to be proud of here in North pen because of our efforts for inclusionary practices next slide please um it's also important for us to point out the early intervention data so these are the numbers of students who are are um getting to be kindergarten age in the upcoming school year and who we are aware of that receive Services through the Montgomery inter Montgomery County Intermediate Unit you can see that there's been a significant increase in students over the last three years um in addition in the last column you can also see that the number of students who are receiving early intervention services in a specialized classroom in preschool or perhaps they have those recomend recommendations or perhaps they're receiving services
009in ABA clinics which are intensive behavioral support clinics has also significantly increased over the last few years we estimate but we let individual teams decide whether or not those students continue to need that level of service when they come into our school district next slide please our largest non-personnel single expenditures um come from out a district placements as you can see we do spend a um significant amount of money on all of District placements uh and students are attending out of District placements because they require additional supports that we are unable to provide within the district pts uh pediatric therapeutic services is our contract uh service provider who uh provides us occupational therapy um for and a physical therapist for our students um but they also are our uh first agency that we contact with
010when there is an additional related service need in the district Lakeside counseling um continues to provide us Mental Health Counselors to support our students and esy esy happens during the summertime and that's extended school year and finally um Cyber Charter School expenditures next slide please we are able to uh recoup some of the funds um that we spend um to support our students and those funds um for recuperation come through idea funds contingency funds and I will remark that although it seems like a small number $150,000 that is the maximum amount of funds that uh we can recoup through contingency and 410 slots Allison mentioned the approved private schools the 4010 slots are an opportunity um to partner with our um approved private schools to recoup some of the funds for students and access billing
011access billing there's a plus and minus next to the access billing um funds because the amount does fluctuate from year to year next slide please so in total um our budget for the 25 our proposed budget for the 2526 school year is 75 M1 one70 thank you are there any questions for us I believe Mrs BR yes I was having some technical challenges apologies for that uh thank you both for the overview um quick question about the there couple of line items that I was just trying to make sure that I understand who we have the the Cyber schools and that is is at did I see 2.9 Million for the Cyber schools and and that's only for special Aid so that is the cost of education for the students who receive special education servic
012in those um CH Cyber Charter Schools okay all right awesome um and then can you just if it's if it's okay whilst um I see that Mrs ramage and Mrs sto also have questions but in the meantime can you just go back to the slide that one of the slides that has the breakdowns and I'll take re all right okay and then so for example for Lakeside counseling uh has there been an adjustment in there um pricing for like lack of a better term between last year and this year I'm just trying to pressure test if we've had the opportunity to re renegotiate any of these contracts I'm sorry uh so for the for the Lakeside contract we um are in the process of uh setting up a meeting to speak with them about fund
013um in cost for the upcoming school year but we used our estimated um cost from comparison for the last few years okay all right great so that's not final there's a discussion to be had with them there is a discussion to be had yes perfect thank you and Mrs rodnick if it's okay I just want to add that can be with all of the presentations that you hear of tonight especially like curriculum for example it's kind of we go by the history but it could change it could be better um and it could be same or it could be a little more okay so I I will hold that question for the rest of them then all right thank you thank you Dr Waters uh Mrs stole do you want to go next sure um
014so I'm I'm not sure if you mentioned this and if you didn't I missed it I apologize but what is the percentage of special ed kids versus um Regular education kids in our district do we know that yeah sure so as a so the December one count data comes from that we have right now is the data from the 23 24 school year so we won't have the data um from this report until um like May June um we can pull that from um Infinite Campus for sure but according to um the last December one count data our percentage of the total student body of student with of students with IEPs was 19 7% okay thank you sure always appreciate um this level of detail so thank you all so much um the access billing
015that was mentioned is that related to expenditures that can be build to Medicaid or is that a different access okay that's the access term okay that's the access term yes the reimbursement for the billing okay thank you so much for that and how is that just to give a little bit of background for us on that if you could because I think it's helpful for the community to understand that level of public support that is available um and but also know that there's some administrative challenges to that billing so if you could would you be willing to share with us a little background on that a little background on what is access building is that the question yeah and what types of services might be covered within that um thank you sure so um access
016funding um um for school districts is the opportunity for school districts to um Bill um for some medical services for Stu that we provide to students who are eligible for that Medicaid um service Medicaid funding so speech therapy Physical Therapy occupational therapy um and sometimes evaluations that are completed so those Services fall under medical services and for students who are eligible for billing we as a district are able to um Bill access so that we can recruit some funds thank you for that appreciate it Dr McKenna did you have something else to add oh I did not but I am ready to start presenting I guess I don't know why I gave a thumbs up if I if you're ready for me I'm next yes thank you so much we're ready all right so next
017up as he said is Dr McKenna and he'll be presenting on the elementary education budget all right good evening everyone as Dr Waters mentioned I'm going to present the budget for 2526 Department of Elementary educ you'll see the total budget there on the first slide it's about 75,000 more than last year um as you're going to see as I run through these slides a majority of the um Elementary budget is salaries so of course each year salaries do increase thus um there is an increase in the total budget um there's also a $20,000 increase in um the money we allocated for the elementary Virtual Academy which I'll touch on that on a future slide as well uh and we also allocate a little bit more for staff development we've had some more needs especially in
018our kindergarten think tank that we meet with monthly um as we work towards that so we wanted to make sure we had some money additional money allocated for staff development for 2526 next slide so core responsibilities of the the department um really number one and priority is the supervision of the elementary principles we have 13 of those principles um and our department provides that support in coaching and mentorship uh for those individuals um leadership development of course professional development um and supporting all teaching and learning in elementary there's a um a high level of collaboration between um Dr Hart in the curriculum Department uh and also um Dr kler uh in the uh special education department the three of us work hand inand uh on many items so the elementary department is really connected with
019those two departments uh in regards to Elementary I mentioned the elementary Virtual Academy after um post covid um in really the first year I came we ran our own Virtual Academy when we had over 250 elementary students in the Virtual Academy we now partner with the Montgomery County Intermediate Unit um and run a program called MVP um um which is called the Montgomery virtual program um kindergarten registration falls under uh Elementary of course we have over 700 students already registered for 2526 which is a little bit ahead of pace than in other school years so we're not sure that the outcome is going to be in the end but it is a little bit ahead of pace in regards to kindergarten for 25 26 and I this department also oversees uh all of registration for
020the entire School District K12 um and we also oversee the elementary transfers of attendance or what we call toas next slide so those are just the main people who make up the elementary Department um the the salaries of the principles are not covered under the elementary Department however the registar Early Learning coordinator and the ministrative assistant along with the chief academic officer or my salaries are fall under the Elementary uh Department's budget next slide so as I mentioned before a majority of the budget salaries and benefits including myself uh District registration Administrative Assistant um our early learning coordinator Marisa niss salary um we also have just some other salaries that are paid for under the budget which include um over the summer and we need some support sometimes for substitute secretaries and nurses to oversee
021some of the the documentation and paperwork um for our new registration especially in kindergarten um as all of our kindergarteners um complete the kindergarten activity portfolio during typically the end of May to early June to give us some more information on our students as they enter kindergarten our teachers do that after school hours or after the school year so again they are paid for those hours that they provide to complete those um we also have intervention tutors which is a good amount good chunk of the budget where we um pay for part-time employees to provide some additional math and reading tutoring across our buildings we also support Transportation which I'll get into in a little bit in a later slide and some of our professional activities mainly music which again I'll talk about in a
022later slide next slide so I mentioned intervention tutors they're used across all 13 Elementary buildings they are part-time employees that provide a small group and onetoone additional support mainly identified through our mtss process for students who need some additional intervention um again they are part-time employees paid hourly that uh support um individual students and small groups of students across all of our buildings uh the elementary budget also funds all of our Ensemble expenditures for elementary Vocal Band and Orchestra um those those individuals who do those are compensated all those hours are before or after school hours that they are compensated for that money is paid for through the um the Department's budget um we also help pay for those that are pay playing piano at our concerts as well next Slide the transportation as I
023mentioned anything um that is in District transportation to support Elementary is paid for out of the budget we have paid for those bus drivers one of those are is being um the planetarian trips that all of our students go to to the high school to and from uh also um many of or all of our elementary instrumental programs are combined with another school so they have practices before school and then they need to get bus back to their home school well those uh those wages for the drivers are ALS o paid for out of the elementary budget I mentioned the elementary Virtual Academy and I'll just take a minute to talk a little bit about expenditures there we support a synchronous K5 program and a sixth grade program so synchronous does not mean that it's
024live all day but there is a live lesson every day for our uh K5 students sixth grade does not offer synchronous so they are that program is asynchronous for sixth grade they do have access to live synchronous tutoring if necessary I did want to share just the general uh P Pennsylvania Department of Education virtual cost so you can kind of see why we partner with the Intermediate Unit for 2526 a general education student if they left and withdrew from North pen and went to a Cyber Charter School they would be paying we would have to pay for their tuition of approximately $118,000 if they left North pen for all students who have an IEP if they left for a Cyber Charter School uh the north pen would have to pay aox $44,000 for a student
025who left to left North Pand and withdrew to enter a Cyber Charter um again if they had an IEP the MVP program um for kindergarten through fifth grade students is $5,800 a year and sixth grade is $3,800 a year so as you can see keeping them within our program partnering with the mciu um and um and working with with the IU on that programming has a we also have a nice collaboration with that with the IU to support those students and families and it also is a significant cost to again partner with um the IU and run the MVP program next slide um the other kind of auxilary items that again our small part of the budget are mileage for some of the people who travel within the district on a daily basis um some
026general supplies we have um for elementary one of those are kindergarten bus tags which we buy for all the buildings so the kids on kindergarten students have a bus Tagg on the first day of school some books and periodical that I will buy for some of our administrators and then there there are chunks for professional development including attendance at conferences and other uh professional development sessions that we may run both internally and externally next slide and uh that is the end of the budget presentation for the elementary education department happy to answer any questions that you may have any questions from the group Dr McKenna thank you for that overview just clarification I didn't quite get the numbers around the the Virtual Academy and um you made a comment about the mciu so just trying
027to make sure I I was getting the full benefit of what you were explaining there yeah so um after um I believe it was 21 2021 that year we ran our own Virtual Academy we actually hired 13 teachers to run our own Virtual Academy and that and after that year when the vaccines were available we didn't not have 200 students needing virtual instruction so it was not costeffective or phisically responsible to run our own program and high own and teacher so that that year we partnered with the IU um they provide the their teachers they provide the platform for the students to learn although we monitor their work and we have a collaboration with them and if students are not doing well we get that feedback and we're able to support the families I just
028want to give that data again again if they leave us and go to a commonwealth Charter or another cyber school we have to pay about $118,000 for a general education student and $44,000 for a special education student whereas MVP is for K5 is 5,000 800 a year and sixth grade is 3,800 a year so again it's if it's trying to keep them with us running our own Virtual Academy is a lot more costeffective than having those families and students leave the north pen School District yeah and and I think my understanding from previous discussions that aside from the obvious Financial benefits of having them within I mean 5,000 is opposed to 18,000 that's significant I think we also find that the outcomes when we've looked at it there been at best no difference in outcomes
029for students in the Cyber um cyber schools versus Cyber Charter Schools versus the Virtual Academy absolutely and it also allows us to provide some accountability and monitoring of that those students progress where if they withdraw we have no accountability and and monitoring of that student um uh and uh also I do collect feedback um at the end of usually in the ring I send out to all the families and get their feedback and the feedback from the MVP program has been positive since we've been doing it over the past couple of years so if that feedback wasn't positive we would look at alternative options but it has been um a solid program for our families over the past number of years awesome how many students do we have in there now so we usually average
030around 25 k6 um and and that kind of EVs and flows but that's probably about averages around 25 each year over the past number awesome thank you sure any other questions for Dr McKenna before we move on to Dr Hart thank you so much Dr mcken I appreciate the time and the overview all right I am delighted to be here this evening to provide an overview of the proposed budget for the curriculum department for the 25 26 uh school year uh my colleagues have done a very great job in staying within the time frame so I want to check out my clock and makeing sure I'm gonna kind of stay there as well uh so the way in which I've kind of organized my presentation um is really in three kind of buckets the first
031the structure of our curriculum Department then I want to provide a little bit of an overview of our uh budget and then kind of talk about the ways in which the budget really does reflect the goals that we have set um for this coming school year uh so if you can go to the next slide please that would be great um our um Department um is made up a variety of roles and responsibilities you see here um our curriculum supervisors um who really do um are really responsible for the overview of um our development implementation and Improvement of um our District's curriculum uh you can see that each person has a different role or responsibility but I want to really highlight the fact that we do work in tandem uh to ensure a really smooth
032transition uh from kindergarten through Middle School and High School uh you'll see that the last person that's listed there um coordinator of special um content areas Rebecca Russo is a teacher on um special assignment um and while she's atossa she really does play a very important role um in really leading so much of important work that's been happening in our special area um content areas uh and then our support staff U really is the backbone behind so much of what we do do as well um you'll notice that we have a new member of the curriculum team uh which is our cultural liaison and I do want to talk a little bit about her as we're moving forward uh just kind of focusing on some goals so next slide please uh we have also um
033as you have know um very um important um learning coaches instructional coaches which are teachers on special assignment um as well um they play a very probably critical role um in our school district uh by meeting with new teachers um both formally and informally play a really important role in our induction program uh they plan and Lead professional learning sessions and really coach individual teachers um small groups and really have um done some really great work this year and working with um entire staff as well um one of the area focuses that we've had this year and will continue into next year is really around data analysis and they've played a very important role in showing that very tight connection between data and instructional um practices I'll talk a little bit more about that um
034but they've done a really great job there um as well you will notice that there is not a name next to the secondary technology integration position Mike B held that role for many years he's transitioned into an administrative role which we're very excited about um and but this does give us an opportunity to kind of look at our current needs or there's some shifts that we might want to make just around job um description and so we're be looking forward to be hiring someone for that new um that position in the not too distant future uh next slide please um and so I know it kind of goes without saying but I would be remiss and without I'm really kind of highlighting uh when we think about the roles and responsibilities of the curriculum Department
035it's really in three buckets the first is really kind of focusing on our curricular materials and resources and making sure that they're very much aligned with State and National standards to ensure that all of our students leave North pen High School um really having the skills strategies that they need to either go to college or be career ready uh we focus very much on instructional practices um and not only for what's happening in the classroom but also ways in which we can facilitate our own professional learning to help um teachers as well um and the last part of that is really around assessments um you can see we have hundreds of curricular based assessments that we have in our assess assessment management system link it uh we spend a fair amount of time kind of
036with our diagnostic assessments making sure that we know where students s to really be able to track their progress um and I've been really delighted at the um increase um in the use of authentic assessments particularly at the high school um and once again a dynamic interplay between all three of them next slide please uh very often we focus on uh curriculum Department really focusing on what's happening in classrooms but one of the really um I think important roles uh that our department plays is really strengthening the partnership between families and schools and you can see just an outline of just some of the ways in which we're kind of engaging in that work um on a regular basis um as I said before um just last week we hired our cultural liaison uh began
037and I just want to comp a little bit of an overview of what the intent um of that role is um so um daniela's role is really um to serve as a bridge between schools and families um particularly between our latinx community um her our goal is for her to be able to strength help us strengthen our systems and structures so that parents and Guardians have a better understanding of our school policies events academic expectations uh particularly where there are um language or cultural barriers um and even though we're a week in um we've already begun to think about some ways in which we can kind of strengthen our processes from registration to the ways in which we facilitate um transitions um and even just some general communication piece so I really look forward to
038be able to come back later and really talk about the impact that her role has had as well next slide please so the big ticket item is this is really um our proposed budget um for the 25 26 um school year I'm delighted to say that we're about $500,000 less than last year um and you can really see kind of where the areas of focus are um for our department um you can see there's three big areas where the vast majority of the funds are spent uh really around our curricular materials and resources um salaries and benefits and then through our title one two three and four um funds um and if you're not familiar with title funds uh we have um the title funds uh for two and four really around professional development title
039three is really around meeing the needs of our multilingual Learners and Title One funds are really designated for schools where we have um a high number of students who are receiving free and reduced lunch or eligible for free and reduced lunch and ways in which we're able to um allocate additional funds to be able to support instructional uh practices um as well as kind of family engagement um as well um and you can see um some of the other smaller areas but those are really kind of the big ticket um bucket where most of our money um is allocated next slide please um so I just wanted to spend a minute or two talking a little bit about like now that we're spending this money kind of what are our areas of focus um and
040they're really are three overarching goals one really to ensure um really rigorous instructional um experience experences for all of our students uh we want to continue to improve um achievement of our students regardless of kind of where they are if there students who are struggling students who might U be receiving special education services as well as students who um really come to school you know really really strong and ready to learn uh we're also really focused on the idea of making um continuing our work on data D um data driven decision making and re um invigorating if you will our professional learning communi something we had um in place before covid um we kind of lost our way a little bit during Co and we're reestablishing that um now and going to really work over
041the next couple of years particularly through the comprehensive plan to strengthen that as well next slide please um I just wanted to kind of provide a little bit of an overview of just kind of what those overarching goals kind of play the way in which they play themselves out in both Elementary and secondary you can kind of read through the text some of it ongoing support that we have um year after year but I do just want to bring your attention to a couple of areas one is really expanding our supplemental resources to enhance word studying our Upper Elementary grades uh we've done a really beautiful job in our primary grades but we have a growing number of students um as they move through second third fourth grade of dis some additional um needs and
042we want to make sure that when necessary uh we have those supports in place uh also this idea of kind of integrating our digital resources in really authentic and meaningful ways um really as a tool to enhance and instuction as opposed to something that's separate um and finally I've said this a couple times before we're really strengthening um our analysis of student data to ensure that we're making really informed instructional decisions next slide uh in our secondary um areas uh we've got a couple of new adoptions and resources that you'll see um there uh really focusing on some of the resources for our secondary ELD program um and then also some additional resources for a couple of our AP social studies courses um and then our area focus in math is really a new resource
043uh for our Algebra classes next slide please uh I think the big area Focus for us next year and I think anytime and I think they'll actually have a presentation from donad doome and a Sean um Arie um later on this spring is really around um the adoption of the kada2 um steel standards um and so the idea steel acronym for science technology engineering environment literacy and sustainability um and while you see the text there that's kind of delineated um um the focus from case six versus 7 through 12 the overarching theme K12 is exactly the same um and Donna and Sh have worked really hard with a core group of um Educators both from from K through 12 um to really kind of look at where our goals are and where um we hope
044to be in align with the new standards also we have made some revisions to our current uh course um and scope and sequence um really including phenomenon based learning cost uh crosscutting Concepts um and really strengthening inquiry based learning because we know that students find those experiences to be um most meaningful and they hold on to them even longer next slide please uh once again for our professional learning um just really focusing on students set and instructional practices uh very often we think about um that PD really focusing on instruction and that's important uh but the social emotional well-being of our students and staff continue to be important and so we want to make sure that we incorporate um professional learning in those areas as well and uh once again the idea of making sure
045we allocate time um and guidance and professional learning really around this idea of focusing on data um and ways in which we can make really um informed decisions and creating a structure to do that in really authentic and meaningful ways and finally really this idea of continuing to uh meet the needs of our multilingual Learners uh you um will also see that as we think about student achievement you can just see the summer programs we've had these in place for a number of years you can just kind of look at those we maintain those uh because the data suggests that they really make a difference for students and we're excited about that um and we're also working to really um enhance the translation services which has become much more robust um over the past couple
046of years as we've had a growing um need for many of our families um as well and I think I have one more slide as well uh and so there might be a folks saying well what are you doing to kind of maintain the cost uh containment making sure that you're not spending too much money uh we do stagger the adoption of our materials which you've seen over the past um couple of years uh we go through the competitive biding process around our resources as well and we try very hard to hold on to those adoptions as long as possible um so that we don't have any um um unnecessary um costs um and then finally we're constantly taking inventory of where we are what we have to make sure they're really thoughtful um in
047the ordering process as well so I think that's all of my slides and I'd be very happy to um entertain any questions or comments outstanding presentation thank you so much Dr Hart any questions or comments from the committee I do have one I just didn't want to have you feel left out Dr har I'm okay feeling love down just wanted to make sure you know that I was listening that's all no absolutely so no thank you for that thank you for the presentation I actually I think a um a question that I'm I'm asking as a parents and you know tons of community community members are also parents of um you know kids taking AP classes I'm trying to understand your reference to resources for AP classes and then you had the list of classes
048and are those just supplemental materials that students can okay so if you can just share yeah so if you go back to the slide so we have a variety of um of AP social studies courses and those are three courses that we have new resources for so if we go back to the slide one more one right there so um in in the umbrella of AP social studies courses we have AP economics AP Psychology and AP US History we are having new resources for those specific courses ah okay new resources that we would that we have to use as because it is dictated by college board or not necessarily but we think it's better aligns with um the curriculum the College Board requires so I think a little bit of both actually um so they
049are definitely resources that are I want say mandated or very much aligned with ap um but each of the AP courses um I think that and so I think that's what we're focusing on here um but I know I'm in our conversations with the social studies teachers there are sometimes other supplemental resources that are used that they think would be also would be very helpful um in the context that is being presented as well um but one thing about AP is courses is that there really is a track there are there are very specific resources um as well just to make sure that our students are ready to go so that's what we're referring to um here as well yeah that's what piqu my interest because my understanding is that there was a specific track
050and path so I was curious recommended resources short okay all right awesome that's it thank you thank you very much thank you and kumby that was a great question um I wanted just to Dr Hart could you please just justify you started off by um kind of talking about how this year's budget represents a reduction in what the request was last year can you just give us a um a summary of Where the cost savings was I want we have to keep this to budget because I but anyway but I want to di for all of your presentations I want to dive into tell me more about what you're doing you know it's those are all really great but I I want to kind of keep this at the budget level yeah so over the
051past couple of years um definitely I think almost every year that I've been here we have um adopted a new resource uh um in elementary so two years ago we had Whitten and wisdom that was a million doll investment I think two years before that we had um the I ready adoption as well so those are huge huge adoptions and those really do kind of bolster up the budget uh one of the cool things about um the um steel standards that we'll be using some new resource but we'll be able to hold on to and use so many of the resources that we're currently using which has been really fabulous um and so I think that's one of the really important um some of the important work that the committee has done over the past
052year and a half or so to really hold on to things that we're using that are very much aligned with new standards and then what are some small things that we may need to add in but it's not an overhaul kind of starting again which is very often the case when we're having um Ela or math adoptions in our elementary schools understood that's a great and a great um overview so appreciate that thank you okay um any final questions or comments before we pass the Baton to Dr Nicholson okay Dr Nicholson you're up next all right thank you so much I appreciate it good evening everyone it's my pleasure to present uh our secondary budget for the 2526 school year and uh you'll find that Dr Waters and I will probably tag team this and
053the assessment budget so there's a question slide in there but if you're good with it we'll roll through and then take any questions at the very end so Secondary School summary as Dr McKenna showed the elementaries just want to highlight our Secondary School uh structure is made up of North pen High School Northbridge school which is um over in Hatfield and also hosts our North pen Virtual Academy which will come into play very soon in this budget presentation we also have our three middle schools Penbrook pendale and Penfield um serving grades six seven I'm sorry seven8 and nine at each of those schools um and at the bottom there again an Asters that will come into great play here in this presentation is that students in 9 through 12 uh in those grades are eligible
054to attend North Monaco technical career center um which we'll see a lot of in this slide presentation so we can go into the next slide Mr Gilmer the total budget for the secondary uh budget line item is just over $6.1 five million uh now with all those schools and all the students and teachers uh like most of these budget presentations this evening that does not pay for personnel it does not pay for the buildings itself um and we'll dive into kind of the the large scale items that this budget entails um as we go through here so if we can go to that next slide I mentioned that North monco technical career center is a large portion specifically of this budget uh you can see the the school year here lined up from 2012 through
055the the projected 2026 budget um and the enrollment percentage so our enrollment is a three-year rolling percentage um based on the total number of students that are at North monco uh for the 25 26 school year our three-year percentage of their budget would be 45.5% so whatever their budget is we as a district because we have 45% of the student enrollment over the last three years we pay 45% % of the budget allocated for North mono if we can roll to the next slide we'll see for this year of that just over $6 million for the secondary budget North of$ 5.5 million uh alone goes to North monco so that is the vast majority of the secondary budget the other large chunk um of the secondary budget is for North pen Virtual Academy Dr McKenna
056did a great job earlier outlining uh the virtual piece for elementary at the secondary level we have about 170 students that are currently full-time at North Pan Virtual Academy um and he outlined the cost there so there's definitely a cost savings for those 170 students versus the Cyber Charter school but we also use the licensing for North pen Virtual Academy for the MVP platform for students for credit recovery um for for other enrichment and um you know reasons beyond the normal class day so if a student maybe has struggled in a course and needs remediate so they can get back to um their typical um grade level we also leverage that online program even while that student may be in school full-time and that accounts for about $175,000 of the budget all told just those
057two line items account for over 92% of the secondary budget so if we can go on there Bob this is just a pie chart just to again show just how much of that secondary budget is allocated for North Monaco and for mpva and then we'll roll into the next slide um and the the very little amount of money that's allocated for other expenses so there are some salaries and benefits that are uh in here like many of the others this accounts for my salary it also accounts for the salary of Mr Chris Fry at northen high school who is the chip coordinator um that works with our internship program uh this $457,000 also goes to some Court Place tuition alternative education uh for students that just haven't been meeting with success uh at the secondary
058level or as the court placed would um you know show you they they are mandated to be in a a placement outside of North pen and we do reimburse the um local Education Agency that's educating them when they're not in North pen and then finally there's some secondary travel uh for teachers that are shared between buildings and get mileage between buildings A little bit for PD and travel at the secondary level we do allocate some some funding for the north pen high school student AIDS who assist with setting up science labs um specifically in chemistry and biology for our um our high school teachers and then finally there's a contribution on a yearly basis to our title n booster account that comes through this account so it's allocated in this uh this budget line item
059and then it moves on to the title n booster club as the year progresses I believe that's the end of the secondary budget so we'll transition off to Dr Waters and then obviously I'll take any questions on secondary when she's concluded all right thank you Dr Nicholson you can go to the next slide so this uh budget $172,450 for Cent so lot smaller than everyone else next slide all right and on this slide this is the breakdown of what that entails so the first one is Handover research um we are going through an RFP process which just simply means we are going to be looking at other vendors so it could be Handover in the future it could be someone that does very Sim similar things but Dr Nicholson and I just presented on um
060something that Handover has done for us just a week ago and that was the Hanover climate survey that we've been taking um in our district so that is about $25,000 again subject to change a little bit more a little bit less but that's the approximate amount that we have aside for um the next um company again it could be Handover it could be someone else we also have part-time professional staff and miscellaneous expenses out of this budget that uh come to $1,110 and that is uh for those staff members who uh maybe work the amount of hours of a student day but perhaps there's a professional development happening and we need them to stay we can pay them to be there um for a full day so paying that other half of their hours also
061some other miscellaneous expenses would be things like postage um we keep stamps and things like that in the office um my things like that the next uh bullet there Arrow salaries and benefits there's also um someone who is paid out of this budget and that totals $133,000 for $133 $ 49664 um and that is um for um someone um in our office that has a related position or data analyst and then finally our psba policy maintenance that's the subscription that we have um that we use their um recommendations for policies that we work together to make changes that align with you know what we want them to say in North pen but again um we we take their guidance and those recommendations and that cost $1,800 um for that maintenance that is all we have
062so um Pete and I are happy to answer any questions as well any questions or com ments from the committee I I I don't have any questions we just yeah I just went through the north monco budget um a couple of weeks ago or last month sorry so I'm going to take another look at it with some fresh eyes we're happy to take any questions after you go through it again but we won't take it personally that you don't have questions for us Mrs rednik well appreciate all of you for your presentations this evening and for how you gave us the B you know the breakdown of the costs but also linked a lot of this back to the work that you do and to the mission and the goals that youve set forward so
063I think it's really important for the community to see that there were you know that there is a cost to these services but that the services have value to our students and they are designed to meet a need so all of those things have to be connected um for good work to happen and you all in your presentations help to lay that forward so if there are no additional questions for our presenters I believe the next thing on the agenda is an update from our student rep I don't have any updates okay great thank you Shaya and thanks for um for joining and being here um so I'll move on now to um public comment and I'll start by um reading the um the summary here so individuals attending this meeting and intending to speak
064to the committee should be aware that they are being recorded in order to meet the requirements of the Pennsylvania Sunshine Law it is necessary to record the names of all citizens who speak to the committee during the meeting to assure compliance with this requirement it is essential that those planning to address the committee State their name and municipality as a reminder the public comment portion of the meeting is designed for residents and taxpayers of the district to provide comment and feedback on matters being discussed at tonight's meeting or matters that may come before the finance committee it is not designed for debate or discussion with members of the committee when appropriate committee members may choose to respond to the public comment that have been made or request that a member of the administration follow up
065with the speaker after the meeting members of the audience are asked to limit their questions or comments to three minutes this is in reference to board policy 903 Mr Gilmore do we have anyone who would like to make public comment we do uh up first here is Jason laner Jason I've enabled your microphone so when you're ready to begin please unmute your mic state your minut name municipality for the record and begin your comments please uh Jason ler Lansdale um boy I have a I have a a a couple of questions and it's going to be kind of hard to drill down into them because there's so many coming uh but just in in in general the amount of money that we're spending on things on the curriculum doesn't seem terribly high but I setting
066aside special education I have a different question regarding that but um setting you know we we spend money on on things which seem to make sense and there's a lot of salaries that aren't included in this I'm I'm as I understand um but yet are the amount we're spending each year goes up and up well you know the the the performance of the students doesn't seem to be going up with the amount we're spending I mean there are a couple things and and these are I'm not trying to be as smartass I don't understand what a Latina X is versus Latino I I don't what what is what is the the differential there um authentic assessment sounds like me to me that you're just passing people along who don't actually have the um don't necessarily
067meet the standards for graduating uh as they were put forth even a few years ago we're just kind of pushing people along based upon uh other means um which I'm not sure benefits the student I mean if if if if they don't have the the proficiency you know eighth grade proficiency for Math and English and and science then it's going to make a for them to be a tough life even in in in uh you know out of technical school that would that would be tough if they if they can't manage these certain things um and and we also we I guess 27% of the budget that uh Dr Hart was talking about was for Equity what exactly can you articulate what that 27% does for equity honestly that that doesn't that seems like we're
068just it's just a it's just a slush fund for spending on on on whatever uh H how is that bettering a students's academic performance because it's not showing up in the result my only question about about special education and nobody seem to to mention it and did I miss this is it's up $10 million from last year so 2425 was was 65 million which was up about 10 million from four years prior to that uh so you know we're we're talking I think yeah four million yeah four Mill roughly four years earlier was about uh it's it's up five million for and now we're jumping up $10 million why is it what is the explanation for such a a huge increase in special education uh spending and I realized that it covers IEPs which is
069sort of a a catchall for kids that uh are doing well or have speech therapy along with kids who have more uh significant issues but that seems like a lot of a lot of money and a big increase and if anybody would answer those questions I would appreciate it thank you thank you Mr lineer would anyone like to follow up or comment Mrs um romage I think uh regarding Mr L's claiming what do he say 27% of the budget is on um equity I had $135,400 out of a 10,465 164 budget that is .2% so Mr lanir is once again just throwing out numbers that he pulls out of his Dair I guess so I just wanted to clarify that correct that for the record yeah thank you Mrs stole I was doing some fish
070math here myself trying to figure out and realize that in this case one plus one was certainly not two um so thank you for clarifying that and doing quicker math than I did um and also I think yeah let me just yeah and Mrs ramage I will just say you know we're happy to meet or you know Mr laner is welcome to reach out to Dr Hart or myself and we can answer some of his questions that's not a problem thank thank you I appreciate you all following up I also appreciate my fellow board members in doing quick math at the end of a very busy and hectic workday so I I appreciate you all for that I also just wanted to see if someone could comment a little bit on the idea that we're
071just passing kids along um I I was touched in all of your presentations about the data driven approach the ties to Mission the support to students the idea of passing kids along is not one that I got from th those presentations so I'm wondering if if you would like anyone would like to address that U I'll be able to speak to authentic assessment um authentic assessment is really designed let me take my hand down to provide real life um ex opportunities for kids to demonstrate what they know right that we're not just have giving kids an opportunity to answer a multiple choice test or true and false uh we're really trying to ensure that students have opportunities to demonstrate what they know um that um to demonstrate skills that they'll be able to take outside
072of a classroom um and so in many instances authentic assessment is actually a little bit more rigorous um than kind of a typical um kind of paper pencil exam as well um and so if you want to I'd be very happy to kind of talk about examples of what that looks like or kind of what that really looks like you know offline um but I've been really pleased with just um the level of complexity of interest that so many of our teachers have really um spent in really developing some really really thoughtful assessments um that I do think are really beneficial as students are kind of leaving the K12 experience and moving into a world that's really complex and complicated and we have to have practice in which to be able to kind of practice
073some of the skills that we sort of have traditionally memorized and not been able to remember it once the test is over and that's what we're really trying to dismantle and eliminate thank you Dr Hart I think um one of the key words that you used was thoughtful and I think everything that you all have laid forward tonight is a thoughtful approach to to planning and budgeting and creating programs that meet the needs of our students so um appreciate you all and appreciate your willingness to also follow up with Mr lanir um Mr Gilmer all right I just just because I'm color blind so I'm sensitive to this so Mr lanir when he's looking at that chart are greens my greens they all look the same to me so there is a 27% I'm assuming
074it's green because that's how I see it um and it shows Equity but if you look there's a 1% green and I think that's the only two greens I see in there so I see three colors total in that pie chart so I think part of this is looking at the pie chart so it definitely shows green on a 27% but that's for the I think it's for the the title finds Bob yeah yeah yeah as somebody who's colorblind and I mix up all my colors when I'm looking at this I'm like I don't know what colors they're supposed to be but that's what I see thank you Mr Gilmer I was just going to point that out and guess what we are going to be more Equitable in the future by ensuring that the
075colors that we use actually take into consideration yours and potentially Mr Len's spec oh and Dr Nicholson's specific needs don't say that we're not an equitable board we are going to make that happen so going to be changing our color scheme to make sure that people can read the charts accurately yeah great feedback great feedback I appreciate that we'll be better next year yeah we'll change it up and Mr Gilmore thank you for that because Dr Nicholson also sent a text he's also color blind and he said hey the greens look the same so duly noted and I think one of the important parts of equity is that there's always opportunity for us to learn and grow too so um so so could thank you for that um and thank you for everyone's willingness um
076to to remember that moving forward so okay so I think with that do I have any other any other business any other comments none on our end no other business from us okay so seeing that do I have a motion from the committee to adjourn good moved second okay thank you all for a wonderful meeting thank you for um all of those that tuned in and a special shout out to our presenters this evening thank you for making this an insightful and thoughtful meeting appreciate you all absolutely thank you so much great job have a good one everyone great job good night everyone good night see you