001should 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 their name and municipality members of the audience will limit their questions and comments to 3 minutes and now please stand for the pledge of allegiance to the flag of our country I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the Republic for which it stands one nation under God indivisible with liberty and justice for all okay good evening everyone uh first before we begin I do want to make a quick announcement we actually changed the Wi-Fi server here
002at the ESC just this week and Bob just texts me from the truck that we are having issues with our YouTube feed the meeting is being recorded um and will be posted to YouTube after the fact but it is not currently streaming live on YouTube so not sure if we'll get that fixed or not certainly not a Sunshine Law violation we're not required to stream our meetings but people are used to these meetings being streamed and it is not currently being streamed so with that said um as part of our student Spotlight series if you will um it gives me great pleasure to introduce this evening Miss Sue ahart who is a bcba which stands for Bard board certified behavior analyst at North pen High School school she is here tonight as one of the
003coaches of our unified Bachi team good evening Miss ahart yes thank you for for hosting us tonight um I'm Sue ahart and I coach our unified Bachi team along with my assistant coach Andre Dash who is hiding there um we have uh four speakers um students who volunteered to speak with you tonight to tell you about the team so I will let them speak for themselves so first up I have Alex good evening my name is Alex R this is my first year on the Bachi team I made a lot of new friends at Bachi this year you should know that miss ahart and miss Dash are the best coaches they care about and help all the players I play on team Columbia my team finished our season with seven wins and just one loss
004we made it to playoffs which will be played on Monday February 24th 3:00 at North pen High School in the Navy gym I invite everyone to come out and cheer us on it'll be a fun time and hopefully you get to see us win thank you next up we have Alana good evening my name is Alana tomitz this is my first year on the Bachi team I played on team Lancers on JV this year we had 57 students on our Bachi team which made up two varsity teams and four JV teams our varsity teams competed against other schools in our area and our JV teams had inter team tournaments in a faculty competition our JV teams don't have any other teams to compete against because no other school in our area has teams as big
005as ours my favorite part about bachchi was the friendships made and the interactions with new teammates I had this season next up is [Applause] seir good evening my name is sair armatti and this is also my first year on the Bachi team I played on team armor Bachi is a unified Sport and Unified sports are organized by Special Olympics Unified sports like Bachi bring together students of all abilities showing everyone has a place on the team in Bachi we have learned to support each other C celebrate our differences and work together as one this Spirit of inclusion extends Beyond Sports and is what makes our school community so special with our large and diverse student body we prove that when we come together we can create a welcome and supportive environment for everyone on our
006Bachi team I've seen firsthand how much of a difference inclusion makes for for example when we practice together we learn from each other's strengths and support each other's challenges this not only improves our game but also builds lasting friendships and memories North pen is a place where everyone belongs and our bachchi team teams are perfect show showcase for that that's all I have for you next up is Emily hi good evening my name is Emily KCK and I'm a junior at North High SCH school um this year was my first year on the bachchi team and I was on team swords and I would definitely say the best part of unified bachchi is the friendships that I made um this year I met kids that I normally wouldn't interact with but being a part of
007the Bachi team has allowed me to see them and make meaningful connections and seeing my teammates around the hallways um and always when I see them around the hallways I always make sure to say hi and ask them how their day was and seeing them in the hallways and making that connection with them definitely makes my day better and I don't know it's just always another person I can talk to in the hallway and it makes me feel at home at North pen thank you again for hosting us and as Alex mentioned we do have one of our six six um teams Bachi teams that did qualify for um districts they did finish first um in our um in our region and so they will face off on Monday so you are all welcome and
008including Community um to come and uh cheer us on 3:00 in the Navy gym on Monday 3 o' so 3 o' nav Jim I just sent all board directors an invite so if you can make it uh please join us but we we love to have fans in the stand so um we love to know that and we agreed to host knowing that when we hear the cheers that it is from our side so that's right well field advantage Miss ahart Miss Dash thank you so much for your efforts with the students and to the kids thank you so much for all that you shared tonight uh if you are willing to come forward give some fist bumps or some handshakes just to thank you for your efforts and we're really proud of you you
009represent all the good that is here in North pen so thank you thank [Applause] you e okay and at this point I typically say so that the parents and their family members and the kids don't feel awkward please feel free to get up leave the meeting we'll take a few seconds and then we'll move on with the agenda great all right next up on our agenda is audience of citizens does okay oh that's right it was okay outly good evening Mr P wait a second don't start it I need time I got to put this down policy and procedure Mr Patel I did just get word that we are Live on YouTube so we have what we are Live on YouTube so we're ready for oh hey that's excellent they probably anticipated my oratory skills
010and wanted to get in on it sure okay right Township and general okay we're off okay my name is William patchel p a c h e l and I live in Montgomery Township and that other lovely lady at the end sitting next to tinis St is also the resident of Montgomery Township and I'm very happy here I believe a rated number 57 in nich and I'm so glad because my house is going up as considerable amount of course no one can buy it because they have 40-year mortgages now to accomplish you know what few can do now so anyway uh oh yeah B Bachi oh maybe we need Cur a curling team oh they're all over learning hairdressing a curling team okay I'll move on okay I talked to Mr Slaughter over here and uh
011I supplied some information I wanted to talk to him about U uh the TPA industry and trco and I said you know they have litigation oh TPA that's Tri polymer alloy we didn't get a lot of that last meeting and to vote on this stuff so I said Gee do you know about the the litigation from B Vernon Area High School uh well Mr slauter said well yeah yeah you know the bust uh it blew off knocked a building over should have very unhappy there so there should not be any selection of a place any provider any contractor if you have current litigation going on there's a cease and assist because I want to see how this works out this thing's got to last for 30 years I don't know about the warning maybe a
012third- party administrator will take care of that you know luned in the in a fog of uh you know back and forth on FedEx letters um okay how much I got oh 118 I got tons of time okay um here's the thing uh uh the dogy do G uh rips apart $373 million of decolonizing the culum ah that sounds pretty complicated but it sounds like and Craig TR trainer sent a letter to all 50 states of Education you have 14 days to remove all Dei programs in the public sure that Mr Summers is going to get a copy of that and we're going to Institute that in in 14 days as a federal government now I was listening to that nutritional thing we got 40% of our money on a nutritional program for the federal
013government I tell you they're going to knock out the Federal Department of Education and they're going to tell uh Governor Shapiro hey do it yourself TSA no we're not paying for it anymore get Philadelphia to do it you haven't seen anything yet I'm telling you we just in the phase one of this whole program have a nice day thank you Mr Patel does anyone else want to make public comment this evening good evening my name is Shannon M from to Menon after months of Investigations um to my knowledge the summary of the Penbrook investigation was only discussed at a safe schools committee meeting on zoom and was never fully present presented to the board full board um in or open public comment given the seriousness of the incident and the district's stated commitment to full
014transparency and providing information to the public I am asking will the summary of the findings of the investigation be brought to the full board in a public meeting or is this issue now considered resolved um the other thing I came here for tonight which I think is important and everyone should agree on is the responsibility of the board to uphold the values and respect and accountabil and safety for both in our schools and the bordering Community we recently experienced a horrific event at Penbrook that showed real consequences in harmful social media bullying behavior during the safe schools committee meeting Mr Summers acknowledged the danger of social media stating I think that harmful effects of social media relates back to cell phone use policy things students are frequently doing on their cell phones is engaging in
015social media and it can certainly have negative impact on our school environment things that are occurring outside of schools can certainly spill over into schools through social media this board has recognized in its own policy and publicly that social media threats and bullying have serious consequences yet when a school board member engages in the very same behavior we condemn students there is no accountability when an elected official of this board publicly States on social media I am part of a group you don't want to F with it is threatening divisive and a direct violation of the district's own policy against bullying if a student had made a similar statement online it would not be excused or ignored North pens bullying policy 5115 States the school district will not tolerate any acts of bullying occurring in
016the schools or outside a school setting that is likely to have an effect creating a threatening environment the same standard must apply to the school board members by excusing defending and refusing to address this Behavior the school board is sending a dangerous message that bullying is only unacceptable when it comes to our students but when done by an adult in power it's overlooked I am asking you each of you directly do you condemn these politically charged aggressive threats from your Schoolboard colleague and members of your party will the north pen School District take immediate action to ensure that these types of threats are not tolerated among the board Administration or staff moving forward if this board truly values student safety and anti-bullying efforts I am urging you you to issue a public statement condemning this
017Behavior and affirming that bullying by any individual at any level will not be tolerated in North pen School District thank you thank you miss [Applause] me good evening Mr lir good evening uh Jason lir Lansdale yeah I'd EO that I mean I know you guys had to men and just ran a board member out or whatever they are over there because that supposedly gave a Nazi salute or something like that I think maybe you should step up on on on your bullying Pro um and resign there's no no need for that um I wanted to actually go back to what we had last uh the meeting virtual meeting uh Financial meeting and the SNS got up and talked about their their 500 or $5 million in uh excess revenue and one of the ways they
018were going to go and Tred to alleviate some of that excess revenue is to supply lunches in the summertime to anybody who's under 18 years old and this is an altruistic act by the school district that isn't in your Charter you are not to be doing this yet you're going to do it because it's the right thing to do supposedly altruism is not when you give other people's money away to do something that you want to do that's the Public's money it's not your money you're not supposed to be doing these sort of things and that leads to other programs that get expanded beyond their their their initial call we have the the healthc Care Center which I've gone back and forth with uh Mr Rocky about uh he made a commitment to me at
019one point saying this is never going to be used for student services now I know that he's moving along is is the board going to keep to that or are they going to try to rope it in and have students go use the healthc Care Center I'm wondering and maybe you could make that commitment to everybody uh at the end of my comment here um and it did also wanted to touch a little bit on uh what Miss patchel was saying uh Dei is not allowed and it's not allowed in the employment of of your on your online uh employment portal and I've asked numerous times what it means to it's a re reent skill is the ability to support a cultural of uh diversity Equity inclusion what does that mean how does one judge
020whether or not they meet that ability and why is it why is it that it's not for every position just some positions if it's that important and it has nothing to do with a political agenda then why isn't it for every position you know what position it isn't for school bus driver why is it why is there no need to be supportive of a uh diversity Equity inclusion if you're a school bus driver I guess I I could probably guess and that's because they're hard to come by and you don't want to make an incumbent upon some nonsense to try to find another school bus driver so why is it why is it selective what is the benefit what does it mean to be supportive of a diversity equ culture of diversity equ and inclusion
021what does that mean and more accurately when are you going to rip this out of the agenda here the political agenda which is tied in to school policy thank you thank you Mr lir would anyone else like to make public comment this evening good evening Mrs Boke good evening my name is Margaret Burke from lelb I'm concerned about efforts to do away with programs supporting diversity equity and inclusion I know local entities like school boards are being pressured to end these initiatives and today I'd like to focus on what inclusive programs in our school district have meant to my family my child has various disabilities physicals physical and otherwise and is currently OPP poos 12 student in The District in 2010 Republicans controlled the school board and their main priority when it came to students
022with special needs seemed to be minimizing costs the experience was atrocious that year all kindergarten students with special needs from all of our 13 elementary schools were taken from their home schools and placed at Gwen noore one bus was provided for all of them it took over an hour to get back and forth from upper gwened to Gwen no um these students were split between the two kindergarten classes there so there was around eight students per class and they were grouped together in the back with a single shared Aid to save money the teachers were not aware they would be getting these students and they were certainly not ready for them I remember being told at back to school night that I would have to ask the aid how my student was progressing because it
023was up to the aid mind you these were not co-teachers just aids to teach them that's also when I realized that my child who had F fought hard to learn to walk with crutches spent the entire day sitting in or being pushed around in a desk with wheels because the classroom setup did not provide enough room for navigation with the crutches or the Walker we had provided I could go on it was so unworkable that eventually in 2011 we moved our family out of the country where we found a school that would provide the support needed to include our child with disabilities I appreciate that our school board has changed from a group that only works to minimize the cost of Education to a group with a mindset to provide meaningful education for all of
024our students and who understand that for people with disabilities to be meaningfully included in society they require programs to support their educational and employment needs for my child this has meant a placement with project search bucks an educational and job training program for students with special needs where my student has been doing internships with various departments within the Bucks County government Sor here's my student going about the workday and posing in Happily with a Bucks County Judge my child now walks without assistance had an internship with a Pennsylvania state representative met the speaker of the Pennsylvania house and a US vice president and can name most of the members of the Pennsylvania state house as well as the US Congress I propose for all of your consideration that these things would not have happened to
025a student who remained in the back of room trapped in a desk with wheels Mrs Burke thank you inclusion programs work please don't abandon them or our students who need them thank you is there anyone else wishing to make public comment this evening okay can I make a quick comment certainly thank you um Mrs Burke I I just um as an educator um as a mother I was really touched by your story I had not heard it before um and it's a reminder for me of why what we do sitting here is so important for all of our students to have these opportunities you should be so proud as a mother I know you are I could I could hear it in your voice but I just wanted you to know that you took your
026time to come out this evening and when someone comes to the microphone and is talking about students um with and and their own child with such passion and we know that we have the ability to make decisions that can impact their future um it just uh it's really touching and I appreciate you sharing your story um this evening and a reminder for all of us my colleagues of what we do and how important it is the decisions that we make so and congratulations sounds like you have a wonderful child and just to you know briefly expand on that um we saw tonight unified Bachi right and you know we continually you know entertain comments about the you know the necessary why is Dei why is diversity Equity inclusion necessary it's not a a laundry list
027of things that we say we're going to be Equitable here we don't need to worry about it there it's a it's a lens that we expect the district to apply to all things that we do right and it was a beautiful example of that this evening uh when we saw what inclusion looks like in extracurricular activities um so I would I would hold that up as a a model uh for those who would question the need for it um beyond that I would also just like to take a moment and briefly address uh these comments that have been out in the community for a couple weeks um accusations from uh North pen United Poli itical action committee uh insinuating U an act of bullying um I would say that my friends at North pen United
028political action committee are confusing bullying with standing up to bullying the comment in question was in reference to a multi-billion doll corporation that tried to uh enact a hostile takeover of Talon's Municipal sewer system uh our board of directors at the time had decided against uh the Public's wishes to Eng to in um to sign on into a contract with first next era um and then eventually American water and uh the people that I'm referring to in that cherry-picked uh line are the people of tenson themselves not just the people of uh T and neighbors oppos the privatization efforts and not just the talant and Democratic Association but all the people the people who came out to uh Christopher doc by the hundreds on a Wednesday night to tell our supervisors not to sell that
029sewer uh the people that continued to come to meetings on Wednesdays and give public comment to to urge our board our supervisors to not sell uh the people who came out to vote uh to change our Township Charter uh to to a home Rule Charter and put a provision in there to prevent the sale from being legal the people who organize the people who knock doors uh the people who fundraised the people who uh cons sued the township to stop that sale from going through all right the people that I'm talking about set an example for those who would be bullied that a small Township can and in fact did defeat a multi-billion doll corporation that attempted to buy our sewer system so I think there's a valuable lesson for those who do feel marginalized
030or bullied and that's that you should find the strength inside to stand up for yourself you should be able to have the strength of your convictions and and not be afraid to back down and and I think to menson set that example for people and my fiery language in a statement that I made on my personal Facebook page simply exuded the excitement I have to be a part of that Community to be a part of that community that not only stood up to American water but also stood up to a supervisor who thought that it was a good idea to flash a Nazi salute to quote stir the pot they drew the line at American Water they drew the line at that supervisor and I am proud to stand by them and I I think
031that it sets an actual good example for people to see that when you find it within yourself to find the strength and you know that you have right on your side you should find your voice and you should use your voice and so in regard to anybody behind this table these are the hardest working most dedicated group of volunteers I've ever met they will meet anyone anywhere and listen to you if you have a genuine concern they have proven it time and again these folks should not be it it should not be conflated what I said with this group I'm proud to serve with them I'm proud to be in town menson and that's all I have to say about that so thank you move on Mr chair okay I have a comment on a
032different issue um please uh I'm sorry but I defer I just want to make sure I have a statement then uh I want to get Mr Patel's question answered okay I'm um Mr scroy I just want to make sure that uh the point that was raised with TPA and the contractor having gone through enough of these bids but I'm still not a lawyer so it might be Mr Summers aspect but could you just explain for the board in the community lowest responsible bid and that it's not as easy as it sounds to just reject uh these bids uh as far as I'm my knowledge that's a state law that we have to accept this well first I'd like to say that the contractors being recommended tonight for the bid award for the first phase of
033the high school project we have experience with all those contractors and they're excellent contractors in terms of lowest responsible bidder we're required by law to take the lowest responsible bidder and to do otherwise is pretty much a pathway to a a lawsuit uh which would delay the project it could be by a month it could be by a year um but there's very few narrow reasons that would allow us to reject the lowest responsible bidder and Mr Summers can chime in on that but I I really feel that you know especially when you're dealing with construction contracts to go to to just say well thank you for your lowest bid we're not going to use you we're going to use another contractor again is a pathway to a lawsuit thank you that helps um C
034just for clarification Mr Patel's comments were specific to um I guess signing a contract with a particular entity that was in litigation or some type of suit against them so when we when you all review um bids um and they may be the lowest bidder if you did research to determine that there was litigation pending against them they're not considered a responsible bidder is that correct no that's that's debatable and that's where I'll defer to Mr Summers but that that's very debatable because even if they've had a past history of litigation even if they are involved in current litigation that is not necessarily a reason to reject their bid unless there was some sort of pre-qualification where that was part of the specifications yeah and just to add to that certainly the litigation history of
035a particular bidder could be a factor that's taken into consideration but I think as been as has been seen throughout this process the district has a a comprehensive team of uh both its own employees and and hired Consultants who provide advice and recommendations on on whether a particular bidder is responsible or not and I think 's a high level of confidence in um certainly the biders that are are being recommended tonight I I appreciate that that's what uh I've always appreciated with this service on the board is the ability for us to speak with facts and see what precedent is and not jump to conclusions I do think that's a very good example that um we would hold our students to a higher standard when it comes down speaking as one board director from community
036members who take things out of context and make false equivocation and false narrative we would never accept that from our students and I think the adults in the community can set a better example as well thank you thank you all right so we'll continue on with our uh agenda this evening next up will be approval of the meeting minutes for no no we just continue with the agenda um so next up again will be the approval of our meeting minutes from our January 23rd and February uh 11th meetings may I please have a motion so moved is there a second all right are there any comments or questions regarding either set of minutes hearing none all in favor say I I any opposed hearing none the motion passes thank you next we'll move into the
037committee reports and the committee reports all of these committee reports um is it correct to say a oh no a through a through F pardon me are posted on the North pen website however we will move into G which is the north bonco technical career center and that would be Mr rash there's no report tonight we did meet last night uh and uh there was no time to get the uh report into the meeting minutes so we will talk about it at next meeting great all right thank you Mr rash and then next will be U Mrs romik for the Intermediate Unit I'm party Intermediate Unit and the North Ped Educational Foundation thank you great I'll start with the mciu the mciu board met last on January 22nd we started our meeting off with a
038program highlight featuring a little bit of a uh about the work of the IU and supporting Information Technology Services the board approved um reading of policies various um Grant budgets and um contracts and the next mciu head Head Start policy Council will be held on February 19th and the next mciu board meeting is um scheduled for the 26th I also want to just share that there is a Montgomery County annual education resource recruit I'm sorry a recruitment Fair also scheduled um for March 3rd end of report thank you Mr R this is romic I'm sorry and next up is the legislative report and I'll sorry I'll move on to the nor all right move on to the north pen Educational Foundation I'm sorry I paused um the foundation is busy working with teachers on implementing
03930 midyear grants um totaling more than $44,000 that were approved in November nine of these grants worth about $23,000 are considered eitc programs eitc does not stand for in this case earn the earned income tax credit but does stand for educational Improvement tax credit eitc is a Pennsylvania initiative that provides tax credit credits to businesses and individuals that donate to eligible educational organizations including the north pen School District Educational Foundation through the program eligible businesses can receive a 75% tax credit for a one-year commitment or a 90% tax credit for a two-year commitment individual participants can also benefit from tax credits and is something one could talk about with their um with their accountant funds generated through this program support Innovative public school programs that enhance education these programs must be approved by the state
040the foundation has the following e eitc programs approved course advancement stem at secondary schools North pen TV thank you to our students who are here with us supporting this meeting the nor North pen High School planetarium the north pen High School marine biology and technical theater in addition there are two programs currently being reviewed by the state for approval one is to enhance Environmental Education and the other is to help fund field trips throughout our schools some examples of what eitc has funded include the spatial Computing programs at the high school the new projector in our planor in the plan in our planetarium these big ticket items are possible because of eitc contributions I want to thank this year's eitc generous donors CN CNN Bank First Citizens Community Bank Hatboro Federal Savings midpen Bank Quakertown
041National Bank Univest Financial Waste Management Weiss markets and Meridian Bank their combined contributions total more more than $75,000 any questions related to the eitc program or the foundation can be directed to Christine laosi at the ESC or you can learn more at npen foundation.org end of report thank you Mr Mrs Romy and now legislative report Mr McMain thank you very much I have no report Beyond to say that anyone with questions about how Federal funding Finds Its way to North pen they can check out our last in-person Finance meeting of February 11th in which a gentleman named Mr Trump unrelated uh went through the details for us and gave us all that we need to know so thank you very much thank you Mr McBain Mr Summers thank you madam president uh for my report
042this evening it's just to announce that the board did meet in an executive session immediately prior to tonight's meeting for the purpose of discussing a matter of Labor Relations involving the district administrator group a confidential student matter and a matter of personnel involving an appointed administrator of the district and that concludes my report thank you Mr Summers Dr Bower yes good evening everyone uh so I will start with the consent agenda I recommend the items listed a through L namely adoption of policies for a first read approval of bid for the mphs audio console approval of bid for the mphs intercom approval to advertise for bid student travel contracts gifts to The District student agreements and hearing waivers student agreements Inglewood Elementary School plan conj audit Hatfield Elementary School plan conj audit and Culp Elementary
043School plan con J audit thank you Dr bow so I please have a motion to approve um agenda items 6 a through 6 L second who is the second please Mr Fusco all right thank you um and just now that I'm sure you're taking comments or questions it is of note um Mr Slaughter did go through these high school items in the last fno meeting and they are all transferable post renovation Dr B knows that I would make that comment and and actually I will make that comment for the next two years all right thank you so much all right any other comments or questions all right hearing none all in favor say I I any opposed hearing none motion passes thank you I recommend approval of the Personnel items as per the attached may
044I have a motion for personnel please so moved there a second second any comments or questions all in favor say I I I any opposed no no opposed so motion passes next I recommend approval of the 2025 2026 North pen School District calendar May have a motion to approve motion second okay any comments or questions on the calendar uh M MCM Mary I do want to say that um we will so what the board is approving tonight is a startus School the end of school and the days off the number of days all those things um the early dismissal days are on there um once all of that is finalized we will send this out to our community um that we did find a discrepancy with one early dismissal day that it happens to be
045the first day of a new marking period which isn't great um so we're going to adjust that early dismissal day but the start the end and the days off are all correct that's what you're voting on tonight so thank you for that clarification Dr Bower all right with that any other comments or questions okay hearing none all in favor say I I I any opposed hearing none the motion passes thank you okay I recommend the awarding of bids to the contractors listed below and attached 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 may I please have a motion to second I knew it there's probably G to be a third
046or four and fth if we could have it all right any comments or questions I'm just going to say thank you to everyone thank you to our new director of facilities for coming on board and making this happen U being part of the team Mr Slaughter I'm thrilled and looking forward to it so thank you all all right any other comments or questions I'm done gushing all right all in favor say I I any opposed hearing none the motion passes thank you okay next I recommend issuing the notice to proceed to the contractors listed below and attached for North pen High School construction renovation project all right may I have a motion to Pro uh to approve the notice to proceed second any comments or questions all right hearing none all in favor say I
047I any opposed hearing none the motion passes thank you um next the next three items are amendments to contracts based upon our processes with uh the Planning Commission and with the township so the first item item e is I recommend approval to amend the north pen High School transportation center existing features contract with cow Associates Incorporated uh the contract by an additional $8,200 for additional services for tree surveys on the wnpv site incurred during the course of the contract okay I have a motion to amend the north pen Transportation Center contract so moved second is there a second second okay thank you any comments or questions I I have one question and I don't know if Mr Slaughter can answer this is this something that we can anticipate in phase two the next phases of
048this um project or just this initial one uh this is for design as part of phase two so uh this is the only place where we will incur tree removal so this this should be the only time we see that thanks Mr Slaughter any other comments or questions okay hearing none all in favor say I I any opposed hearing none motion passes thank you okay next I recommend approval to amend the north pen High School transportation center existing features contract with cow and Associates Incorporated uh the contract by an additional $718 to4 for additional services for featur surveys incurred during the course of the contract okay thank you so moved okay okay um any comments or questions okay hearing none all in favor I say I I any opposed hearing none the motion passes thank
049you and the last of these amendments I recommend approval of a contract with horer and caner Associates to survey and provide a pedestrian report as requested by the town Menon Township for a potential pedestrian Crossing in the amount of $4,500 and just for clarity this is right there at Bridal path kind of across from Crawford stadium and some toown plik that that cross there thank you Dr power um so moved so moved a second okay any comments or questions all right hearing none all in favor say I I any opposed hearing none the motion passes thank you all right I'm going to ask Mr Summers is it okay if another member of the superintendent's cabinet makes a recommendation sure all right Mr scy G to ask you since this is your final Action meeting can
050you please make this recommendation to I love it thank you very much I recommend approval of the attached resolution for a real estate tax rebate program for qualified homeowners and renters for the 25 26 fiscal year and the resolution is attached thank you Mr scroy is there so moved second second second any comments or questions I would just point to a uh a fruitful conversation about this resolution uh in the last fin meeting so and Mr scy you will leave behind quite a legacy but this is uh the award-winning tax rebate program that I hope will endure for a very long time in North Penn School District so thank you and we will hopefully hear from your favorite person that send you that thank you note every year that we have truly enjoyed um you
051bringing to these meetings and reading to us it really is something that makes it very personal and we appreciate it so any other comments or questions all right hearing none all in favor say I I I any opposed hearing none motion passes thank you I recommend approval of the 2025 26 Montgomery County Intermediate Unit budget North Penn's share of that budget is $218,500 I believe Mr scy this represents a 4% increase from last all right thank you may I please have a motion for the Intermediate Unit budget there second all right any comments or questions all righty hearing none all in favor say I I any opposed hearing none the motion passes thank you and finally I recommend ratification of the submission of the delinquent real estate tax and interim taxes to the Montgomery and
052Bucks County Tax Claim bureaus as per the attached okay all right may I have a motion for the delinquent real estate taxes please so moved there our second second all right any comments or questions all right Mr scy I have one I know this is a subject that we have talked about um many times during meetings so looking ahead do you anticipate what do you anticipate okay question you're leaving Chris Ball time right so may was a little disappointed this year with the collection because our outstanding properties increased by $363,000 in terms of outstanding taxes so clearly it was more corporate properties industrial properties because we actually saw a reduction in the number of properties but an increase in terms of the value that was turned over for delinquent collection so 363,000 is more than
053what we would like but we continue to work with our tax collectors to find Outreach measures that we can take to try to keep that number as low as possible and that will continue okay all right great all right any other comments or questions all righty hearing none all in favor say I any opposed hearing none the motion passes thank you and that concludes the superintendent report I'll turn it over to our CFO Mr scy for the finance report thank you Dr B yeah thank you very much I'm happy to deliver my last uh Treasures report North Penn School Board this is for the meeting of course of February 20th 2025 this is the 1,162 meeting of the board of directors of North Penn School District I mentioned about the governor's budget proposal at the
054Finance meeting but I think it Bears repeating that Governor Shapiro delivered his 2526 budget address on February 4th what's being proposed next year for North Penn School District is a 1.86% increase in the basic education funding that is $ 34636 that falls far short from what we've received for an increase this fiscal year this fiscal year we saw a 10.8% increase of $1.8 million so 1.86% next year 346,000 is what being is what's being proposed for special education our subsidy would increase by 3.11% that's a $242,000 increase again that is about half of the increase that we saw this fiscal year what is of particular interest to me is once again the governor is recommending a flat Cyber Charter uh tuition rate of $88,000 per student that would be Statewide and that would have an
055incredible impact here at North Penn School District District would save our taxpayers $2.2 million Statewide it would deliver approximately $278 million in savings just based on that one little change it's been proposed many times in the past and it's never been enacted upon North pen right now this year is receiving $390,000 in cyber transition funds however there's no funding in next year's uh proposed budget from the governor interesting timing because just today this afternoon in fact the Pennsylvania auditor general issued the results of a performance audit of five cyber schools and I'd like to read a couple excerpts from auditor general de's report he reported at a three-year period 2020 to 23 these five cyber schools increased the reserves by 144% due in part to an outdated funding formula that does not use actual instruction
056cost to determine tuition does not set guidelines for spending or set limits for Cyber Charter School reserves you know keep in mind that cyber schools are supposed to be Public Schools right charter schools are public schools here at North Penn School District as well as the other 499 traditional Public Schools we have a cap on our fund balance of 8% of unassigned funds there's no cap for charter schools and some of the schools have seen massive increases over the past couple years by the way the five cyber schools referen in the report are commonwealth Charter Academy that's the largest cyber school in Pennsylvania Pennsylvania Leadership Charter School Insight PA Cyber Charter School Pennsylvania Cyber Charter School and the reach Cyber Charter School the auditor general also mentioned that I am now the third AG to
057look at this issue and the third one to reach the same conclusion Cyber Charter funding formula needs to change to reflect what is actually being spent to educate students and set reasonable limits when the amount of money these schools can keep in reserves it almost sounds like a quote from Steve scroy for like the last what five years six years seven years uh let's see what else can I share with you the AG found instances of the Cyber Charter Schools using taxpayer dollars on things like staff bonuses gift cards vehicle payments and fuel stipend he left out Parade floats at the Philadelphia Thanksgiving Day Parade sponsored by Commonwealth Charter Academy but nonetheless Commonwealth Charter Academy led by CEO Tommy long andeker has spent $196 million $196 million for a cyber school to purchase or renovate
05821 buildings so what does a cyber school need 21 buildings for and this is our money these are Pennsylvania taxpayer dollars I mean I'd like to partner with Mr patchel to start issuing vexa right to no requests to Commonwealth Charter Academy to get to the bottom of this issue I really want want to do that anyway the tuition rate is determined by the funding formula that was developed in 2002 that bases the rate on uh each student's education not the amount spent on education so the AG said let me put this into perspective for you in 2002 we were still using dialup access to the internet floppy disc were the best way to store data and the iPhone and iPad were not invented so kudos to the auditor general for uh making these recommendations and
059recognizing what I term as the fleecing of the taxpayers in Pennsylvania and I think it looking at $196 million spent for buildings when you provide cyber education is really the epitome of that fleecing so thank you for listening to me for my last rant about cyber schools and my tenure here at North Penn School District it was a pleasure Mr scroy just a point of clarification on that too and thank you uh for pointing out uh the auditor generals uh right the last three years so that's bipartisan efforts that we've seen different parties it it proves the point that uh our state house needs to get on the same page as well right everyone across the Commonwealth wants this um is this some I mean I I've heard it mentioned before but when you hear
060numbers like that I mean does the auditor general say that this is legal theft in so many words he did he was very careful with his wording because he mentioned about the gift cards and the phones and things like that that it is legal he wasn't accusing anyone of any inappropriate behavior but I mean that really begs the question and address you know we need to get to the issue that something needs to change there needs to be reform it simply needs to be reform but he did classify three times in his press release legal legal legal he said that each time he was very careful and and it amazes me thank you that context is fantastic for the community and those who aren't here but like to speak about children in need getting meals
061in our community but they don't speak about this week after week after week in our meetings tells me more about them than the school board of this District thank you well do Dr Bower today interviewed with psba one of the questions was what are your three biggest challenges facing the district from a financial standpoint and I share with Dr B from my perspective it is not that we're spending you know we spend less than 5% of our Budget on Charter Schools but it's it's the fleecing that comes with it when it cost 6 to $7,000 to educate a student with cyber education and we're paying $116,000 there should be an absolute outcry $10,000 approximate differential per student we're talking about we shouldn't feed kids over the summer that that would otherwise go hungry I mean
062that's just unconscionable I can I just make a comment too like I would think that of three Attorneys General have have found made these findings and I believe with the psba I think they had like 475 out of the 500 school districts have issued a resolution for Charter School Reform I am just wondering what the State House is doing you know like if if that many people on both sides of the aisle you know and the school districts are rural suburban Urban all asking for Charter School Reform what are they waiting for I would say three words in response to that Mrs stole follow the money yep so a couple additional updates again I reported on this at the finance committee meeting but in case anyone from the public missed it and what I provided
063a movie Lots update the sale of our movie Lots I did mention that we did receive Court approval now to move forward with the sale of the movie Lots uh there was a second amendment to extend the due diligence period with P that ends on March the 3D we've been informed by P that they have no plans to request additional extension once said due diligence period ends then there's an amount of money that needs to be put in escrow to continue the next stop next step I should say in the sales agreement also to provide the board an update I did have a bond rating call with Moody's yesterday um my opinion is it went pretty well we'll hear the results of that meeting probably in about two to three weeks um so as we
064move forward with the process of issuing the $10 million for the first phase of the high school project we'll find out what that Bond rating is just a reminder we are double A1 rated there's very few school districts in Pennsylvania that have a double A1 or higher rating so our ask was a AAA rating at that meeting I think more realistically we'll be quite pleased if we're able to maintain our double A1 rating and thank you to the board for the tax rebate resolution U so for the community our rebate next year will be 80% of the state amount and increase from the current year 60% next year will be the eighth year of the tax rebate program so thank you to the board for continuing to support that program so in terms of the
065financial report the treasures report is for the month of January 2025 we had cash receipts in January totaling 5.2 million our dispersements were 28.3 million and we had available funds at the end of the month of 20 uh 200 I'm sorry $20.1 million and that's about a $21 million increase over the same period last year I recommend approval of the treasures report please all right may I have a motion to approve the treasures report so moved second okay any comments or questions hearing none all in favor say I I any opposed hearing none the motion passes thank you okay I recommend ratification of dispersements for the month of January in the amount of 33,100 79111 I have a motion for dispersements for January please any comments or question y'all go too fast all in favor
066say I I any opposed hearing none the motion passes thank you finally for approval I recommend approval of the attached budget transfers for the month of January in the amount of 29,6 355 I have a motion for Budget transfers please second was okay all right any comments or questions hearing none all in favor say I I I any opposed hearing none the motion passes thank you and finally for information we do have the financial reports for the month of January and just a quick summary through seven months of the fiscal year we are ahead of schedule on uh revenues for budget and we are coming in under on expenditures so we are expecting a positive variance again at the end of this fiscal year thank you Mr Shi okay thank you madam president end of
067report all righty thanks again okay uh other business um it gives me great pleasure this evening actually when I was new to the school district in 2015 as high school principal there was an assistant business administrator working here under Mr scroy his name was Brian Pauling Brian left the north pen School District to be a business administrator in several other districts I believe he was also president of pasbo um so Brian is the business administrator in a neighboring school district and he is here this evening to say a few words about Mr scroy so please welcome to the podium Mr poly Brian thank you very much first I want to thank Dr Bower and the board for allowing me a few minutes tonight um I want to start off with a story about Steve's looking
068at me like where is this going so um as Dr Bower said I I was the assistant business administrator here 11 years ago uh Steve and I were at our annual pasbo conference when he was hired here at North pen and he had a conversation with me about applying here at the district um and uh you know I had seen Steve you know around and we weren't weren't uh close friends at that point but uh he encouraged me to apply um had my first interview went I thought it went well and it did I got called back for a second interview uh he told me you know we'll have a um you know a short exam for you to take that short exam turned out to be about a 100 questions um that 100 questions
069just kind of epitomizes Steve and his attention to detail um his commitment to Excellence and you know just just that process of interviewing a staff member to make sure that we were up to his par um just speaks to to his character Brian if I could interrupt you real quick I've been in these interviews a few times with Steve and everyone takes this test and every time I ask him how' they do he's oh they failed they just failed less than everyone else right pretty much so the test is apparently very rigorous very I'm sure you would agree but yes and I'm glad he graded it on a curve yes exactly um but Steve's passion for public education his work effort um his knowledge of school Public Finance is second to none he's very well
070respected by his peers uh not only here in Southeastern PA but across the state um you know his commitment to Innovation through the tax rebate program and and other programs such as the health clinics that he's brought here to North Penn um are fantastic ideas as uh one of which I borrowed so thank you for the tax rebate program we have implemented that at rner Township School District um the other thing that kind of illustrates how Steve is not only as a business administrator but as a person as when I got hired at the satton area school district a few years ago um at the meeting where they introduce you as a new uh employee and they they approve you for recommendation um Steve came to that meeting and just epitomizes who he is as
071a person and and what he means to me as a friend so I just want to congratulate him on his retirement thank him for his friendship his mentorship um I'm looking forward to continue commiserating about uh public Cyber Charter School costs even after you're retired so thank you Steve and congratulations thank you very thanks Brian that brought me really close to tears I'm telling you thanks to everyone I appreciate the recognition over the past couple months um it really does mean a lot I don't like the public rec recognition but I really do appreciate it but thank you and Brian thanks for coming tonight that's really awesome thank you Mr scroy all right any other comments please all righty um so in honor of this as your last Action meeting Mr scroy would you do
072the honors please again this is the get the number right oh boy where is it where is it here it is 1,162 meeting of North Penn School District is there a motion to adjourn the meeting so move soov thank [Applause] you congratulations for