001please thumbs up okay good evening everyone welcome to tonight's Action meeting I'm going to call this meeting to order our first um item on the agenda is the Pledge of Allegiance please the United States of America to The Republic which it stands one nation under God indivisible with liberty and justice for all [Music] thank you the proclamations this evening for this swimming at 2023 Pi double a swimming and Diving championships and we have head coach Jeff bakish here tonight to introduce the students that will be honored thank you very much uh first I'd like to say thank you to the school district the school board parents and the community members that are here tonight uh specifically Mr Bauer Mr Kyle Hassler and Don Walsh with the athletic department for all their support throughout this year
002uh first I'd like to recognize the girls swinging a diving team uh their T their record was 14-1 this year uh they were League champions second at districts they got fifth at States uh very much a story of uh overcoming adversity and overachieving in a very very wonderful way for our team this year I would like to start off by recognizing our first athlete Kira Allison who's a senior who's not here tonight uh then Anna Evans is a senior up next is Madeline fakish sophomore she is this year's most valuable athlete for the girls team she broke the school record in the 200 freestyle from 2013. she also broke the school record that was set in 1988 by Linda krulvich in the 500 free as well as becoming the 500 freestyle state champion up next
003foreign Michaela Potts we have Junior Sarah poach Junior Emma razor senior Layla Roby not here tonight is senior Kayla stressman who is a captain and our final female athlete is Eva Welsh senior captain our 2023 girls team thank you up next we'd like to recognize the boys swimming and Diving team they were 15-0 this year they were League champions they were District Champions and most importantly for tonight they were our state champions uh one of the most important parts about that state championship is we had only one state champion on our team I'll get to him when it's his turn to be recognized but it truly was a very much a team effort which we're so proud of up first is senior Captain Andrew Davis up next is freshman swimmer and diver participated in districts
004and swimming districts and Diving and states in diving which is kind of unheard of that's David Dion up next the senior Captain Daniel Donegan he is our co-mvp for the team this year he also broke our school's record in the 500 free as well up next is senior Aiden fakish up next is Josh was there you're up next up next is our soul state champion Joshua I'm sorry you're right Josh Gratton wrong guy Junior Josh Bratton is not here tonight Brendan Lau is not here tonight either up next is Brady Stanton I looked at him Brady come on forward he is our MVP for our diving team he was the state champion in diving and more importantly which would make this entire School District proud during his interview for the state champion title that he
005won he was an advocate for the sport that had a dramatic effect on the impact of diving moving forward in the future for Pennsylvania Brady Stanton up next is senior Jayden Manning our Junior next is Mason Potts who was our other Co MVP up next to senior Nathan rawal sophomore Nevin Shaw and our last athlete is sophomore Mason masik vandermolen uh not with us this evening that I would like to also recognize as our head diving coach Kyle goldbacher and our assistant swimming coach Jason Grubb with us this evening is assistant coach Erica McCarron and my brother Brian fakish and that is our 2023 state championship boys swimming and Diving team thank you all very much can we get another round of applause for our king and a gift all right thank you very much
006for coming out this evening we'll just give everybody a minute to exit if they want to all right next on the agenda is our audience and citizens so I'll read off the statement and then we had four people that signed up ahead of time um first on that list is Mr Altieri Ben Mr lambros and Mr Curtis and then Mr Cooper and then anybody else who wants to speak okay so let me read the statement off first and we'll start with Mr alteri the meeting is being videotaped for Community cable channels and stream live individuals attending this meeting and attending to speak to the board should be aware that they are being videotaped in order to meet the requirements of Pennsylvania Sunshine Law it is necessary to record the names of citizens who speak to
007the 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 are asked to limit their questions and comments to three minutes as a reminder the audience of citizens portion of the meeting is designed for residents and taxpayers of the district to provide comment and feedback which may or may come May or come before the board it's not designed for debate or discussion with the board one appropriate individual School of board directors may choose to respond to public comments that have been made once the audience's citizens period has concluded okay and that is reference to policy 903 . Mr Altieri your first stop Vincent Altieri Lansdale Pennsylvania I made a mistake in my last comment it was
008not Jace Lanier that the 50 right to knows um just want to go on record and saying that that was an error on my part it was referring to someone else I promise to talk about the um the billion dollar High School plan or in excess of billion dollar High School plan so a couple of things and I still just cannot get to pay I'm passed and I'm sure with legal here legally you can put out a referendum that says it's less than 100 million dollars when we all know and you know during your presentation it will be over a billion dollars okay and that is conservative in a couple different reasons towards that you know your height your um your health clinic started out as three hundred thousand dollars right now it sits at
0091.3 million I don't know what the high school plan was I wasn't I wasn't involved with the school district then I'm sorry not the high school plan I apologize with the academic field the football field I don't know what that started at I don't know what that ended up as I lived in Boston for many years I know what the big dig started how it ended at um it's 800 million dollars in your own in your own presentation but you'll show on the referendum it's less than 100 million dollars unethical can't happen and it dawned on me as I watched that presentation twice that's a red flag the entire Community needs to be involved in next in this next school board election the renters the landlords because when the landlord's taxes go up so do
010the renters the senior citizens the parents that elected to put their children in private school all the private schools and I won't even get into the to the high school field when we talked about what was promised for the private schools with the high school field the entire Community needs to get involved in this next election let them decide who's telling the truth where the trust lies because it's just unethical and maybe there's some maybe maybe that'll slow down just like some of the other craziness that you had going on when I first started getting involved slowed down because you heard the footsteps or maybe it won't people are reasonable you're not and that's what's going to happen you know I got shut off at the last Finance meeting when I when I attempt to
011make a comment because my three minutes are up and what I was going to finish with when I was ridiculed at a prior meeting because I didn't want to have a conversation and I laugh at that I've been trying to have conversations for a long time we're not going to start now because it's an election year okay it's just not going to happen in my world let's have the debates let's talk about academic Excellence let's talk about school safety those who if you want to read what my core values are no problem I'll tell you what my core values are okay those are the top two let's talk about that I asked you at the at the high school at the high school I'm sorry the high school agenda meeting let's let's had a comprehensive
012scores of what does with the neighboring schools rankings are comparative to what their ages are and then let's make a decision uh Johnny lambrose Lanzo so kind of want to pick up with Vince was talking about as far as rent taxes things like that I just wanted to make uh fellow members in the community especially if you're elderly or younger aware of this situation too I see a lot of people constantly complaining you know can't find an apartment can't rent a house it's too expensive it's too expensive but every year again you keep raising the tax raising the tax I saw your little project by pendale I'm really surprised you spent 1.3 million on that little building still don't see the purpose but you know you know all the West uh I just I don't
013think it's right what's going on I I think you're creating an atmosphere of division amongst the community amongst children and amongst economical classes you keep by raising taxes raising fees raising regulation you just put more strain on the system you put more strain on each individual there's a lot of seniors who are on uh fixed limited incomes it affects them they're voters too you just Bank on they're not paying attention because they don't have kids but I promise we're going to let them know so I don't have to take up three minutes we all remember what happened with the mass that you're not wearing anymore the vaccines that aren't approved for uh FDA approval for administration any longer that you almost forced upon the children and just a whole slew of other abuses and misuses
014of funds so that's all I gotta say thank you thank you Mr lambrose just so you know districts and Montgomery County we are the fifth lowest tax base so I don't know if you knew that but I just want you to know I've never missed the mortgage payment since I bought a house with my wife about like six years ago and it's still the fifth place except for myself personally I have a lot of friends I know a lot of people were struggling right now homeless population is also Rising thank you Mr Lambert I just want you to know and I'm so grateful that we brought up the conversation about supporting our seniors including renters or those that own our home and I just want to remind the community about the state tax rebate program
015in the North Penn School District tax rebate program that will also offer reimbursement for those so um we do are very concerned about Rising taxes but we also know that there's such an incredible need and so therefore um the best way of word of mouth if you are going to be talking to our seniors is also to make sure that they know about that program thank you Mr lambros um but I just want you to know that okay next up is Mr Curtis it's a resident of over I'm sorry Maurice Curtis Atlanta resident of over this point 28 years how y'all doing I'm back so I have just to kind of write off of my guys here the rent the rent the cost of living and everything everybody's hurting right now I I bet even
016some of your friends and family of y'all guys are hurting you can't raise these taxes up man I mean it's just right now we're in such an economic crisis right now right now I work three jobs I work three jobs and I DJ and I still have a problem paying both my rent my Finance on my car even the car industry right now I'm paying 515 a month for a 2017 SUV that's ridiculous so it's just a lot of things like that and also there's been a lot of things in the school that I don't agree with as well like there's been a lot of um pushing the whole trans theories and things like that among our kids that's definitely a big No-No for me you know I actually have some family that are in
017lgbtq since the 80s and even they say leave the kids alone leave them alone I have such a problem with that here's the thing and I just want to make sure that I'm very clarified I've actually DJ'd a lot of um you know transgender events of my soul is not an attack on I'm not transphobic it's nothing like that it's just I don't like the fact that we're sending these kids these people into our schools to read our children books to show them about their about you know treats with teaching them sexual ads and things like that is highly inappropriate and things like that is what I have a zero talents for the kids have a fragile mind they soak up information everybody knows it's like a sponge from zero to twelve years old do
018not persuade a kid and the time a kid is talking about suicide because they're confused about their sexuality that's a big big problem that people keep pushing among the kids and I have a big problem with that so it's just it's a lot of issues that we need to solve around the community and we need to work together like I know what's kind of been this US versus y'all mentality and y'all versus US mentality but right now we got to work together we have to come to a middle ground resolution to both hamley's taxes and handle our kids and handle the people of the future and that's all I have to say about everything thank you everybody thank you Mr Cruz is Mr Cooper here no he's not here is there anyone else that wants
019to make comment at this time uh Jason near Lansdale um I also want to kind of go off the this high school project in the options it's it's interesting to me that there's a lot of macro numbers that are applied when the One Core one part which doesn't seem to be up for debate is that the high school needs to be renovated the only portion of the up to debate is whether or not you're going to put the Ninth Grade Center and whether or not you're going to put the reimagined uh Education Center in the high school so the one part that it is pretty static is the part we don't have any information on either and that doesn't seem correct 215 million dollars we don't have any real data on it that's ridiculous ridiculous
020not only will this 400 million dollar project increase our taxes because we have to approve a referendum but the referendum then says you're not only going to spend the 215 million on renovating the high school the 90 million on the ninth grade Center but you're also going to be spending 90 million or 75 million whatever it is on the open 21st century uh format for education that's a lot of money this is this is easily a billion dollars worth of Debt Service there's no way around that that is an increase in taxes that people aren't going to be ready for not only are you guys going to raise the taxes 1.4 or 4.1 percent this year for act one next year it's going to be five percent the year after that it's four and a
021half percent I think and you want us to pay for a high Ninth Grade Center and 215 million dollars to renovate the high school all this to to increase education now I think of reimagined Education isn't that what you guys have already been doing we've lowered standards we've we've reimagined or excuse me what we've done we don't uh um lowered standards but now we now we do um we've minimized homework we've we've given Second Chance testing uh We've lowered uh um requirements for getting into to the uh the higher end higher ed classes all of this is reimagined education we've introduced SEL um Dei CRT all this stuff to reimagine education and yet our rankings are going down and I don't care if we're the fifth lowest tax municipality who cares let's pay lower taxes
022not more taxes this isn't an invitation to make us pay more we want to pay less taxes and you're looking at the clock and you're assignment stole because you don't want to hear it but it's true this is not acceptable you want to increase taxes with the guarantee that somehow by throwing all this money the education is going to go higher I want to see the evidence that doing this will increase education if it's not don't do it it's just like everything else thank you very much okay good evening Mrs bracio hello Pauline brachio Tomlinson Township um I'm gonna piggyback on the taxes thing because the county you know see we have state taxes County taxes municipality taxes and school taxes so if you want to use the analogy of the county they built this
023they're still in the process of building this humongous Courthouse which is totally unnecessary it was the brainchild of Judge doll Richie and it's it started out at 220 million dollars it is now over a billion dollars and if you look out the window from one Montgomery Plaza where they hold the commissioner's meetings all you're seeing is five floors there's no walls yet there's nothing else and and they're spending over a billion dollars on this Courthouse have they taken a portion of that money and refurbished the Old Courthouse which has plenty of room in it still they cried about mold you can get rid of mold okay that's that's not hard to do uh the the building is made out of marbles not going anywhere um so it just seems to me that every layer of
024government is just throwing on more taxes by spending ridiculous amounts of money ridiculous amounts of money 1.8 billion dollars for a courthouse that's insane you want to spend billions of dollars or millions of dollars could be a billion on you know I I came here to school okay I was I was a student at North Bend many years ago and uh I'm coming here now not here but at this high school and I've been there for meetings and uh I don't know where's the remodeling or the renovations going to be taking place I don't even see where it needs it um but I haven't gone through the whole school I did go through the um existing Courthouse however and I couldn't find all the things until Richie was complaining about but they're still spending over
025a billion dollars on a building that's totally unnecessary which the county has increased the taxes 21 over three years so then you have to go to the school board the school district and then you have the municipalities I live in Townsend Township oh and now we're going to be voting on home rule and if home rule gets passed that means there's no limit on the property taxes with second class governing that we have now there's a 14 mils uh limit and if they vote Yes for home rule we're screwed royally and no other municipality has gone to home rules since 1983. so there's no reason for this home rule I hope people who live in telman's intelligible are listening because if you vote Yes for this you're crying about a sewer that might or may
026not be sold but the tax is going to go through the roof so I'm just I want you to be just be aware that you're adding another layer of taxes to people who can't afford it thank you Mrs paccia um so Tomlinson Township of which I am a resident uh is increasing taxes on on taxpayers this year I believe it's 24 or something to that effect 26 percent and it's because of a long-standing tradition of not making smaller incremental tax increases that families can work into a budget and I you know I'd be remiss if I said nobody up here wants to raise taxes right we we do want to address the facilities issue at our high school because it's it's in need of updating the level of updating and the addition or not of
027a Ninth Grade Center is going to be a community decision but you know everybody at least every one of the board directors is sitting behind this table is also a taxpayer I might remind you like we raising our own taxes when we do this it's not something that we enjoy doing it's is however an inflationary environment the only way that school districts have to generate Revenue we can't run a district on a bake sale right this is not something that we take lightly this is something that you know 90 percent I think you had a question about what was the percentage of the rebate that that the District offers its qualifying uh residents ninety percent of the state program is is given as well if you apply it's a one-page form you know we've had
028uh just recently a number four another Forum at Neshaminy Falls to help promote it to the the community there you know we do understand the burden and the responsibility that comes with finding a balance between doing right by our students and doing right by our taxpayers so I just wanted to make sure that that was clear that nobody up here is enjoying raising taxes on anyone that's not true thank you um Mrs Patrick I also wanted to let you know that there is a sign up form if you wanted to take a tour of the high school facility thank you there's a sign up form if you wanted to take a tour of the high school facility to see what needs again yep there is this the Imagine page on the npen.org website okay and
029then it's at the bottom um there's a sign up form for a tour just I'd be happy to go with you yeah which is excellent so we're trying to post everything on that website so everybody can see and be we're trying to be as transparent as we possibly can so and I that tour is open for anybody else that wants to go all right is there anyone else that wants to make public comment right now no okay foreign as I mentioned to a couple of folks I know on the board in between sessions here uh you're in this building because I built it and I'll take credit for it I was the guy that took all the slings and arrows of this group I am your Ultra Conservative Republican by some of my friends I
030hate taxes as much as all of you do but I will remind you of this if you don't fix what you have today you have to fix it tomorrow and as we all know it costs more tomorrow North Penn School District like Lansdale Borough did has been kicking the can down the road since the building was built in 1972. one year after I was born okay this I went there for 1990 graduate my kid you just saw him walk through here because I wasn't coming to this meeting I was coming from my kid who's a state swimming championship winner you can't do it nobody up here I raise taxes as I sat up here when I was on Borough Council for myself all my friends Mr Donegan three of my brothers I'm sorry I'm sorry
031the board and not the audience okay fair enough will do uh I raised it on my brothers and my sisters we all lived in the borough okay two brothers and a sister this is not an easy decision for them to make uh but if you continue to just simply say we can patch it we can discard it eventually it falls down and I know that because it happened in the borough and it costs a whole lot more and as Mr Fusco said about what happened in Thomason Township okay had they been fiscally responsible and incrementally raise taxes okay when I was went through the borough two dollars per month per year and I'd have never run didn't need to but they chose to for a decade simply to Kick the Can down the road and
032as I said I don't look forward to paying any more taxes I hate it just like everybody else but you can't get ten dollars of services for eight dollars and fifty cents for very long thank you thank you Mr Donegan I love the building you built is there anyone else that would like to make public comment okay seeing none then we will move on the rest of the agenda all right can I make a quick comment sure I just um I just want to note from my my perspective I have an 87 year old mother so I am always thinking about folks on a fixed income and I know myself as a member on this board as we're approaching this project it's a lot of what I'm going to be thinking about and um I
033I we've been put in a difficult position that I think was well it was explained well um because at the same time I also am that sandwich generation where I have three children in the school or two children in the school now and I want all of the kids after that I want The Kindergartners who are coming in this year to be able to at least go to a school mate with it's not falling down around them because as we've been asked for um the proposals we didn't go to anyone and say could you give us the highest like we would like the bends of all um of all proposals we we asked for proposals that would be fiscally responsible and also would address the issues within a with in the high school um and
034so you know I just from my perspective wanted to state that because I certainly don't want it to be um I don't want misinformation that we just all would like to raise taxes by the number that's being being quoted there I'm pretty conservative when it comes to those kinds of things because I have a mother on a fixed income that I think about those things all of the time so I just wanted to say that from my perspective I don't I do think that we are all we are we have a lot of different people from different Generations on this board we're a multi-generational board um and we're having conversations with the public about those concerns which is part of the reason why we're we're talking about a referendum um because we want the public
035to help us determine what what should we do next it's a community it's an outcry for our community to engage with us around this topic I think Dr Bauer has been going to every HSA meeting so if you're and that's a you know all of the schools correct Dr Bauer so that we can hear from our community so um I'm one who did not vote for the medical center for example um because I was concerned as we move forward um and about the things that we needed to do here and I'm just saying that to say um that I do think that we are all thinking about this we see that how important of a decision it is and we are definitely not taking it like lightly um and want to engage with our community
036about it thank you so I do appreciate the people who have spoken um I am listening I'm I'm trying to be reflective about what needs to happen happen next thank you Dr G thank you um Mr Lambert's one thing it's like people at home can't hear you because you're not by the microphone so if you want to talk to us afterwards that's fine but we're just gonna if you don't mind have the board come in and then you can come talk to us afterwards okay so I'm gonna be really brief I want to let the community know I am retired I am on a fixed income I have a small pension and I'm on social security so I am on this board representing a lot of the folks in the district that don't have children
037I think what the gentleman said regarding the status of the building and kicking it down the the road down the future it is really relevant um when Mr Gilmer played the um put together the video of the high school and when it was first built and the group that was sitting there I thought to myself wow as a retiree isn't it wonderful to be part of the future so I can't imagine or I can imagine folks back then my age then thinking about oh I want to be part of Education down the road and this building that we're in in the high school is only still operating because of our maintenance staff under Mr skraki under Mr Schneider again you know better than me the equipment is old it you can't get parts anymore there
038are so many points of failure so back to the tax piece I get it however if we continue not to take any action we're going to shoot ourselves on the foot so Mrs Macho again um I'm sorry that the audience can't um people at home cannot hear you because you're not by the microphone so if you guys want to talk to us afterwards that's fine but um if if there anyone else on the board that wants to make a comment otherwise we'll move on with our agenda and then yes I would president stole um and I'm the oldest one on this board so I fit all those categories that this is Wesley just mentioned but you're not older than me so I'm the oldest one and so I say all that to say that you
039said Mrs roccio renovate the building well that's what we're talking about renovating the building making it better for the students of the future and if any of you didn't come to all the sessions that um Dr Bowers LED even a bus tour to see a school that replicates what we're trying to do here maybe if you had gone to see and hear and even hear from the students who went maybe you would understand it better but all we're trying to do is provide something better for this community for your grandchildren for my grandchildren who aren't even in this District so that they can have a better facility to learn and be educated in that's all we're trying to do thank you Dr Lewis Campbell okay that's it then we'll move on now to the rest
040of the agenda okay can I have um a motion please to approve the minutes of the March 13 2023 board work session and the March 16 2023 Action meeting please second by Mr Costco and seconded by Mrs Ramen any comments or questions all in favor say aye aye aye any opposed motion carries next up are committee reports um first is Personnel Personnel Committee of the board did not meet in April of 2023 end of report Finance Mr pusco please thank you at the April 11th finance committee meeting the financial reports and budget transfers reviewed in addition to the following items Mr skaroki reviewed appraisal contracts for Real Estate assessment appeals this item appears under contract section of tonight's agenda Mr skaraki reviewed the 2324 North Monaco technical career center budget North Penn's tuition share is
041increasing by 4.97 percent or 223 000 35 due to the increased enrollment North Penn's five-year enrollment average is 44.7 percent of the total students and is the highest among the sending School District districts this item appears on tonight's agenda for approval Mr skaraki reviewed the proposal for the group term life insurance and disability insurance policies The Proposal freezes rates for the next two years this item appears on tonight's agenda Mr lanky reviewed the Propane fuel bid results this item appears on tonight's agenda Mr skaraki provided a presentation on the first draft of the 2324 budget with no tax increase the budgetary deficit would be 12.25 million the proposed final budget is scheduled to be adopted on May 18th and the final Budget on June 22nd Mr skaraki made a presentation on investment income and permissible
042investment products Mr shiraki reviewed the utilization reports from the health center the next meeting will be held on Tuesday May 9th at 6 PM in the ESC end of report thank you Mr Fusco does anyone have any comments or questions seeing none we will move on to the safe schools committee report Mr Casa please thank you madam president on March 27th Mr James collante Dr Neil broxterman and members of The District's traumatic event Response Team presented to the committee about the district's Turk team t-e-r-t the team has been providing coordinated mobile mental health Crisis Support when traumatic events Arise at the building district and Community levels within the North Penn School District team members include counselors administrators School psychologists and even pet therapy team I recommend to any community members watching this or an audience
043tonight to watch that video we dedicated an entire safe schools committee to go over the results and understand the research behind it where the vision for this program is to continue and it's one of the many examples of where North Penn continues to lead and not follow in Montgomery County and Beyond we're also fortunate enough a rare month that I can also report on yesterday's April 24th safe schools meeting we had student representative Karina lavinger report on the new student Safety Committee at North Penn High School and provided feedback to the committee on what was shared at that meeting Mr Roan also provided updates to the committee on the ongoing work and the c-stag behavioral threat assessment training it's a comprehensive threat assessment group behavioral threat assessment teams for all School level teams as well
044as an update on a tabletop safety exercise that the district and school leaders recently participated in along with Community Partners and facilitated by national advisory firm once again I would recommend anyone in the audience or viewing this online to watch that video especially because of our student representative who was able to speak quite succinctly on the benefits of what she reported as a very diverse student population that's making sure that their voice and their perspectives at North Penn High School they're able to ask questions and be part of this process and I want to thank Mr Roan uh our director of Security emergency management for making sure that this is one of the efforts not only in the high school but in the middle schools that will soon follow as well so it's a way
045to to re reinforce the feedback loop with our school community that is end of the report thank you thank you Mr Casa any comments or questions seeing none we'll move on to the education curriculum and instruction committee Dr G please the ECI committee met on April 12th at the meeting the curriculum Department team and two High School administrators described the academic programs being conducted for district students this summer these programs will be available to students in grades K through 12 and will provide academic support remediation and enrichment opportunities the curriculum team also presented information about proposed textbook and resource adoptions for French 3 Latin one and two Algebra 1 and secondary English in addition resources for four new High School courses were shared these new courses are introductory to hospitality management Financial applications with technology
046performance psychology and American Sign Language the materials are currently available at the ESC for Public public review the next meeting of the ECI committee will be held on Tuesday May 2nd at 5 30 in a virtual format end of report thank you Dr G are there any comments or questions okay seeing none we'll move on to policy Mr Fusco please thank you the policy committee met on Monday April 24th three policies that had been previously approved were presented with revisions recommended by uh psba those policies are policy 218 student discipline policy 220 student expression dissemination of materials and policy 227 Controlled Substances paraphernalia the next policy committee meeting is scheduled for Monday June Monday May 22nd at 5 PM in Virtual format end of report thank you Mr fesco next up is facilities and operations
047Mrs Wesley please thank you madam president the facilities and operations committee met on Monday March 27th in a virtual format the committee reviewed the following item to be moved to this evening's Action meeting for the board's consideration a contract Amendment to the Schrader group's design contract for the health care center the committee was presented and discussed informational items including the high school enact Club presented information on the Green Building council's lead certification for the renovation and new construction project there was also an update on the 10-year Capital project plan the the committee actually met last night as well Monday May 24th it was also in a virtual format the next meeting will be held on Monday May 22nd I'm sorry Monday April 24th was last night the next meeting will be held on Monday May
04822nd at 7 pm and it'll also be in a virtual format thank you Mrs Wesley next uh report is before the north Monaco technical Career Center Dr Lewis Campbell please thank you madam president the north Montco joint operating committee met May 17 2023 we found that over 40 students participated at the PA state skills in Hershey and we have some winners from our district the gold medal award went to students in the Agriculture and food category and as well as the culinary arts team the silver medal went to students in carpentry Protective Services as well the monco technical Career Center's Equity Council highlighted Sexual Assault Awareness they wore teal ribbons which were distributed to the students and they wanted everyone to know that this is a time to spread awareness and educate our communities on
049the prevention of sexual assault harassment and abuse staff and students were encouraged to wear till to show support for those who have been affected by sexual violence and harassment they also provided resources at the school entrances to students when they arrived student recognition will take place at our May Joc meeting we also had a staff member review the enrollment report and there were 552 eligible applications and we have placed 339 of them at the career center there are other students on the wait list Gabby Monero who's in HVAC he was the student of the month and he spoke to us about his experience at North monco technical Career Center senior recognition night is scheduled on May 31st in the auditorium at North Penn High School and we hope that all the families come out to
050see that a tree was planted in memory of a deceased student he was a North Penn student who lost his life last year due to gun violence what was really good was that our school administration showed up and represented North Penn High School and his North Michael technical career center classmates and his teacher were there to support his mother going through that situation the next meeting is May 15th at 7 pm end of report thank you Dr Lewis Campbell you're welcome are there any comments or questions seeing none will move on to the Montgomery County Intermediate Unit report Mrs rummage please great thank you the mciu board met on March 29th and as always we start our meetings off with a program highlight so this meeting featured an overview of the mciu's transition service program
051um and it was a really wonderful presentation talking about how dis students from across our district are receiving transition Services um it was an incredibly touching presentation for me because there was a student that I recognized who had been in my daughter's Elementary School classes and I hadn't seen since then so um to get to see this student in in pictures and participating in a career transition program was absolutely delightful um it was wonderful so the mciu board received updates about a staff survey we received updates about budgets and luncheon learns that are happening within the IU we we also learned about key string initiatives including an Earth Day celebration with students at the Early Learning Center a legislative breakfast that is scheduled for the 28th and the mciu Education Foundation golf outing spring fundraiser
052are scheduled for May 15th we heard a board we I'm sorry the mciu board approved budgets for gifted Services Head Start supplemental assistant assistance Head Start quality improvement State early intervention and the Head Start Cola budget that will that provided a 5.6 salary increase for all Head Start paid staff members and that for the mciu board is a is truly an important initiative to be able to provide increased salary for early intervention programs in the district those are incredible services that meet the needs of our students throughout the county and we in hearing some of the conversations this evening about concerns about Rising costs making sure that salaries are able to keep up with that was um very important so we also improve received updates from the Head Start policy Council and human resource updates
053the next meeting of the mciu board is tomorrow evening end of report thank you Mrs rummage are there any comments or questions seeing none will stay with Mrs ramage for the North Penn Educational Foundation report please great thank you the foundation met last March at the ESC and at the time the Board of Trustees approved two projects supporting the North Penn School Districts first it will continue funding the North Penn High School spatial Computing program by helping to purchase forty thousand dollars of needed computers for the lab in addition ten thousand dollars was approved to support health and wellness of School District employees through the North Penn School District Wellness Plan more details on this to come also discussed at this at the meeting was the foundation's development plan including the online auction which will
054be held from May 4th through May 9th so please take a look at the North Penn Educational Foundation website or follow us on social media to find out how you can register and participate in the online auction I'm very pleased to also thank the school board for their contribution for that we have donated a basket this year for that event as well at the end of March all staff were notified that we are accepting Grant proposals and the trustees approved 35 000 in funding the foundation did meet in April and will provide an update on that shortly and we then meet again on May 21st to learn more about all things Foundation related please visit npenfoundation.org or contact Christine lebroski at the ESC end of report thank you Mrs rummage and our final committee report
055will be from oh I'm sorry madam president uh Ms romiches it's the special Computing program is this I know it was the first in North America uh some years ago is this still the same program are we the only School District providing this still I believe so Mr Dr Bauer is that correct yes we are the only High School in the country with this special Computing so this investment helps us keep Pace with with staying ahead and keep the systems up to date yeah great thank you all right Mr McBean you're up please thank you very much Madam president Pennsylvania General Assembly reconvened yesterday with the number of bills on the table or nearing committee approval which would address the Staggering teacher shortage impacting our district and others across the state this is the same
056issue that Dr Kim was speaking about during Finance House Bill 100 would allow school districts to provide opportunities for high school juniors and seniors to gain both educational experience and academic credits for tutoring younger students at the elementary level HB 688 seeks to replenish the pipeline of well-prepared teachers by offering a new PA teach scholarship program to eligible students studying at one of the Pennsylvania state system of higher education schools up to eight thousand dollars per year would be awarded to qualified students who are enrolled in educational degree programs or are already student teaching citing similar teacher support programs that have found success in Connecticut HB 579 would establish a beginning educator support and training program to allow new districts I'm sorry it's allow districts with higher education turnover rates to guide and Mentor new
057teachers there's also another effort HB 143 to establish a teacher loan forgiveness program that would forgive up to forty thousand dollars in student loans for teachers who are new and work in Pennsylvania schools for up to four years lastly on the topic of state issues we have legislation to address the prevalence of Eating Disorders among students 6th through 12th grades uh this will be considered by the house and the days ahead as HB 301 though I think I saw this it is 148 recently this would require the Pennsylvania Department of Education and health to raise awareness about these disorders among families of students and to provide them with resources and guidance and identifying and treating these challenges in student mental health we recently had a neighbor reach out to ask about another bill Senate Bill
058Pennsylvania Senate Bill 454 which is planning on replacing some physical education credits that a student would receive during their educational day with credits for signing up for athletic programs for the district something else to think about and consider as you consider talking to your representative soon and earlier this evening our student representative Lauren asked about a better aapi inclusion in curriculum but also happens to be House Bill 77 9 which would promote the Pennsylvania Department of Education to create a model curriculum for K-12 schools on aapi history that finally is the end of report thank you Mr McBain are there any comments or questions thank you as always Mr McBain for the these updates um it certainly doesn't just help the board but the community I I wasn't aware of that last Senate bill it's
059quite relevant when we're talking about aapi curriculum and our communities at North Penn not only are we the largest school district in Montgomery County but we have the largest population aapi community members I believe roughly 20 percent of our students correct Dr Bauer so it's it's important to know that these issues are being reflected in Harrisburg as well and then with the efforts of this board and the community our student Representatives we're able to continue to um you know lead and not follow in the state so thank you thank you Mr cosmith are there any any other comments or questions okay uh then we'll move on to the solicitors report um good evening Madam president there's actually nothing to report out this evening great nice to see you nice to see you election report and
060we will skip ahead to Dr Bowers report please okay good evening everyone and thank you president Stull uh so first I recommend approval of the items listed on the consent agenda that includes adoption of policies adoption of policies for a first read the summer programs student travel contracts gifts to The District student agreement and hearing waivers alternative placements approval to advertise for bids the bid award for AV supplies art supplies General supplies and nursing supplies a bid award for liquid propane gas and filling station maintenance and lastly life insurance and disability insurance policy renewal do I have a motion please so moved second or a second sorry uh motion by Mr Fusco seconded by Mrs ramage any comments or questions yes right um so we discussed the um intergovernmental agreement for shared services renewal contract
061which is on uh which is on Item B tonight and I had requested Dr Bauer invite Ms mcgeeheim to answer just a couple more questions about some of the uh services and the agreement between the IU and North Penn it is a rather large item on this 1.275 million dollars I appreciate your time and said a couple questions um regarding it up first and foremost there was a question at ECI about uh the Anderson School I think Dr Lewis Campbell had brought it up um but uh the constituent did ask about more information regarding their service um you know who is the Anderson School how do we use it um a little bit maybe about who qualifies to go what is the referral um if you could communicate all how it relates to mtss just
062kind of give us a general idea about that partnership sure so the Anderson School is one of the Montgomery County Intermediate Unit programs that we utilize uh through our Continuum of services for students with emotional disabilities uh just primarily a secondary based program um the IU does also have a k-6 intensive intervention um emotional support program as well that we do utilize the Anderson School is primarily for students who might not need that high level of therapeutic support but but definitely needs an emotional support placement the IU has recently opened up in the past year and a half a partial placement program which has been partnering with the Anderson school so if students need that high level of support that they might need that Partial Program support they've utilized that as well so it really
063is an overlay of a higher level of support for emotional support students at the mciu um thank you and how do we um how do we bring students back from the Anderson School or who's performing those evaluations how are we monitoring progress with those students sure so um when a student is placed in any out of District placement we do continue as the Lea so we do attend those annual IEP meetings or any type of meetings that may occur for each of our North Penn students in those conversations we are always considering how the student is doing the progress uh what level of supports they might need and a lot of times the conversation is about transitioning back to our uh our settings whether it be at the elementary level the middle level or the
064high level so we do have those conversations really on at least an annual basis if not more sometimes as as Dr McKenna talked about earlier with the MVP program we really are looking at a short-term placement for some periods of time it might be a six to eight week placement where we just kind of need a reset for our emotional components and then we look at transitioning back so the IU has been really helpful and supporting that as well thank you um the other couple questions I had regarded medical access billing yes um so this is something I know a little bit about as I myself a related service provider meaning that when I work with students who have uh hearing support needs um although I am a district employee I actually can build the
065state for the time that I spend with the students it's considered a medical service that's being performed um those funds that are generated what are they used for and and how large amount of capital is actually provided to the district through this program is it sufficient enough to pay for other service providers um who is billing for our outside service providers providers like for our occupational therapists and whatnot sure talk a little bit about medical access please sure absolutely and I don't know if Mr skrocky has an actual number for how much we kind of recover in medical access you might you might not but I can talk globally about kind of how it's used so at our annual IEP meetings we have families who we asked to sign for medical access they would have
066to have enrolled we do have a specialist in our district who works with our families to support that enrollment process because it is a little bit more involved than typical so once you sign that IEP part the part within the IEP we work with getting those medical assistance components for students they can use it for outside services at the home level as well but we if they are receiving certain types of supports related Services we are able to build those services so hearing and vision is one of them as well as speech and language occupational therapy and physical therapy orientation and Mobility we also can build Lakeside counseling which is another component which a lot of our students are having access to within our program therapeutic mental health support and then depending on the level
067of support or psychologists give we actually could even utilize them to to bill for some of that cycle logical support that they might be providing if it is at a level that they're providing some level of therapeutic support as well so there is a manual Dr Kim and I actually were just looking at it more recently about all of the different services and ways that it can be provided um but if the parent does not agree to sign that part of the form we cannot bill for those services so we do have to get parent permission to do that and then the recovery services um I would assume that it really goes back to our um from the money that we get through the idea component where we get that money that we are able
068to utilize um and however which way we use that within our budget process just to be clear so then you first would have to qualify and then you would need permission so correct it is sort of a smaller pool than the entire special education population is certainly a it has the quiz service that qualifies then you yourself have to qualify for medical assistance correct then you have to agree to actually participate in the program so it's a very narrowing of of the group that we collect is medical access or we build those medical access yes okay I just want to also share and follow up Mr Fusco that last year I had the privilege of um attending the graduation at the Anderson School um and served as the board speaker at the event and because
069it is such a small graduating class and a very intimate Affair I had such a wonderful time meeting with the students and their families and of course on graduation it's so much fun to be able to talk about their next steps and what they want to do and um really just an incredible class of students who were incredibly creative a lot of them were wanting to be writers or going to creative and I was just really inspired by all of that but their plans for next steps were very well considered very very much in place um and it was a wonderful Gathering um and really it was great to see the entire team at the Anderson school and all that they did to pull together that Graduation Ceremony this year's graduation ceremony at the Anderson
070school is on June 13th thank you thank you you're very welcome thank you okay so there's a motion on the floor if there are any other comments or questions yes Madam president uh just I think there's a good opportunity it seems that this is always we're just voting through right because this is action and not the work session when when this board rolls its sleeves up with the administration uh before the community and when we're adopting these policies I think it's important to add context that many of us um those of us who were on this board in 2017 the goal when we ran was to revise numerous policies all of them from one to infinity and just want to commend the administration for sustaining this process over all of these years continuing to have
071a methodical review council is a major uh part of that thank you vice president Fusco and Mr resch and and those on the policy committee but this is really important because these are what some people might consider the boring details of government these this is what matters um this is where it's granular it's transparent and these are many policies that I know when we came on the board in 2017 it had been many many years sometimes it's not a decade and so the community is having this refresh of all the policies and ultimately you can't have accountability if you don't have a policy that is relevant to the practices and the evaluation so um I I think there's a great progress for the for the community and look forward to this continuing thank you Mr
072Casa and I want to thank um Dr Bauer for his work on that committee as well because he was there at the beginning so yeah and we for what it's worth the committee was established specifically to address this this process of reviewing all of the uh policies that the district has and there are I think hundreds many hundreds of policies and we were told that this was a process that was going to take a lot of years which is why we removed the policy review process from what used to be the ECP committee which is now the ECI committee and made the PE policy its own Standalone committee which for those who don't know because it is often said that at this particular meeting there's not a lot of discussion and the reason there isn't
073as much discussion is because the the real meat of what's on this agenda happens earlier in the month at those committee meetings at policy at Finance at work session at safe schools at facilities we have a number of um of committees and every agenda does offer the community an opportunity to provide us feedback for as much as we hear you get three minutes I mean you actually get something like 24 minutes or maybe even more based on just that low standard of three minutes per committee meeting to really dig into these issues if if there is sincere interest and concern about learning more about these you know and I give Mr Lanier a lot of credit I do because you come to every me you come to more meetings I think than the rest of
074us behind the stable collectively I was going to say you said you get 24 minutes and you use and you use every one of them yes thank you um but for the rest of you may not be aware of that you know um the questions that I asked Ms McGee Heim were emailed to me by a constituent um who had further questions and so we discussed it and where my information was limited I asked her to come to follow up so I I do just want to make sure that people understand because I know you hear it a lot that that we just do what we do and we don't care what anybody thinks um the truth is it's much more complicated than that and and this is this is what I call my full-time
075job that pays me nothing right because we're doing this all the time and we are available to you all for your questions and we we are sincere in our concern to make sure that your questions are answered thank you and um just as a reminder all the video or all the um meetings are videoed live um so you can sign on online or and you can view them later so okay um are there any other comments after this all right so there is a motion on the floor all in favor say aye aye aye any opposed motion carry okay for the non-consent agenda It's relatively short this month uh first I recommend the approval of the Personnel items as per the attached can I have a motion so moved potion by Mr Fusco seconded by
076Mr Casa any comments or questions believe me excuse me you're good I just like to take a moment and everyone's bunching I'd like to take a moment and thank Mr Swearingen from Walton farm for being with the district since nineteen and serving many years as a wonderful Elementary education teacher that my family was lucky enough to benefit from so thank you Mrs S and best wishes she taught one of my children as well so yeah um yeah so um there is emotion on the floor um all in favor say aye aye any opposed motion carries next I recommend the approval of an amendment to the Schrader groups design contract for North Penn Healthcare Center project to be increased by eight thousand dollars to a total not to exceed seventy nine thousand two hundred sixty dollars
077and I have a motion please so moved second motion by Mr Fusco on second and by Mr Casa any comments or questions all in favor say aye aye aye any opposed motion carries I recommend the approval of the 2023-24 north monco technical career center budget as per the attached and you'll notice in the public comment um overall tuition payments are increasing by 4.1 percent but our share is increasing by 4.97 percent can I have a motion please so moved motion by Dr Lewis Campbell can I have a second seconded by Mr McBain are there any comments or questions yeah I just I'm uh just remind the public right 44.7 of the students who attend North Monaco or North Penn students how many sending districts are there there are five uh the five standing districts at
078North Monaco are Park Valley Wissahickon Souderton North Penn and myth Acton and 44.7 over that's the five-year enrollment average so over the last five years if you average the enrollment we are 44.7 of the enrollment which means we contribute 44.7 of their budget it's disproportionate doesn't it I mean just in terms of like raw numbers I know we're the biggest District but we seem to be the district taking the most Advantage as well up in North Monaco yeah and I I think you could argue that's for a number of reasons one is probably simply proximity it's on the same campus right um and they just have more exposure they see it every day um so I think that's in large part I also want to give our middle school counselors and administrators and teachers credit
079because I think they um take the time to educate our students and kind of recruit and endorse the programs um I'm there many times a year a couple times a month and it is just wonderful so I'm proud that 44 of the kids are from Northampton I am too and I I appreciate your your combination of those folks I've had a couple conversations with my own students about exploring that option and you know those are involved conversations you know and it's an important conversation to have um for students that are trying to navigate exactly what look Life After High School means for them especially if College doesn't seem to be the plan so I am very proud of that number that we're one of the that we are the largest sending District by such a
080large amount and they're having an open house in early May in which the seniors who will be graduating will be showing what they have learned so if any of you want to come and hear from them as they discuss the benefits of them having been at the monco center May 4th thank you everyone so we have a motion on the floor if there's no further comments all in favor say aye aye aye any opposed motion carries okay this one is a mouthful I recommend that the attached stipulation to settle the real estate tax assessment appeal between the North Penn School District and Philadelphia Suburban Development Corporation concerning the property located at 1735 70 Town Pike which is parcel 530081001 in town Manson Township be approved as presented and the board president be authorized to execute
081the stipulation the current assessed value for the parcel shall be decreased from seven million nine hundred and seventy three thousand dollars to five million five hundred forty four thousand dollars the appeal was initiated by the property owner yes um do I have a motion please do I have a second motion by Mrs Wesley and seconded by Mr McBain any comments or questions sorry which property was this yeah it's that's 40 foot 40 Footers behind the supermarket 1440 Foot Road property owned by the nicoletti uh well it's Philadelphia Suburban development course yes since owned by the nicoletti family it's an office complex the office complex I'm sorry sfk not that one no no okay no no no it's not at the intersection of Allentown Road it's closer to somebody Turnpike oh okay so I have a
082motion by Mrs Wesley and a second by Mr McBain are there any other comments or questions all in favor say aye any opposed I'm kind of opposed I don't think I have a legal right to repose that put us down 6-2 I'm sorry I didn't hear the two no votes the two notes thank you votes yes next I recommend that the attached stipulation to settle the real estate tax assessment appeal between the North Penn School District and Robert nicoletti Family Trust concerning the property located at 1400 40-foot road which is parcel 53002-984005 in Tomlinson Township be approved as presented and that the board president be authorized to execute the stipulation the current assessed value of for the parcel shall be decreased from one million five hundred eighty one thousand six hundred ninety dollars to 950
083400 the appeal was initiated by the property owner can I have a motion please thank you motion by Dr Lewis Campbell on seconded by Mr Casa any comments or questions I'm saying which property was this one this is yeah I'm confused with these two now so so I believe the last one was on 70 Town Pike which is um right there at Summit town and 40 foot and this one is the office complex yeah I'm out of order here so 40 1440 foot is the office complex 1735 Sumney Town Pike is a Courtyard by Marriott so uh Laura all in favor say aye any opposed I I the six two because that was subscribed I didn't get the motion who was uh Dr Lewis Campbell motion I'm sorry Dr Lewis Campbell for promotion um and
084uh Mr Fusco and I were opposed thank you okay next I recommend that the attached stipulation to settle the real estate tax assessment appeal between the North Penn School District and hlc Lansdale LLC concerning the property located at 10 West Main Street parcel one one zero zero zero nine seven six four zero zero eight in Lansdale Borough be approved as presented and that the board president be authorized to execute the stipulation the current assessed value for the parcel shall be decreased from one million nine hundred and seventy two thousand dollars to one million seven hundred ninety six thousand three hundred eighty dollars the appeal was initiated by the property owner can I have a motion please motion by Mrs Wesley and seconded by Mr Casa any comments or questions and this is the Rite Aid
085right down the street basically from us where we're at now at the corner oh okay of Broad and Main Street different property owner yeah it's not um that is a different different property owner not for Philadelphia Suburban no no okay so all in favor say aye aye any opposed motion carries okay and uh finally here I recommend approval of a waiver from policy 3660 Professional Services uh requirement for issuing a request for proposal RFP pertaining to architectural services and I do think it's worth sharing in the public comment here it's listed that the district conducted a comprehensive RFP in 2018 for architectural services part of the services since then have included a facility study and master funding for North Bend High School based on the extent of the work and study that has been uh
086completed by the Schrader group and the high degree of satisfaction with their work the administration is recommending that the RFP requirement for architectural services in 2023 be waived can I have a motion please so moved can I have a second motion by Mr Fusco and seconded by Mrs Wesley any comments or questions yeah one I think it's worth stating that in 2018 before coven was a thing we had plans to hopefully have moved forward on this project far prior to the date that we are now looking at uh next month uh to actually vote on this item and Schrader group has um continued to work with us since 2018 throughout the pandemic on this project with almost no compensation whatsoever for the work that they've done because of their their fee model so this is
087um an outlier to go outside of the policy and wave it in this instance but I think it is highly appropriate considering we had already considered you know the work we wanted them and the scope that we wanted them to undertake at the time the delay and the time period for which the policy suggests we must review this process which is the reason and really the only reason why I think that I know I personally feel very comfortable with this particular exception to the policy I I would also add that you know in order to protect you know taxpayer dollars going forward uh this would be because of the institutional knowledge that would be lost in this process and the momentum lost as well the pandemic did enough in terms of inflation and timing it
088really puts this board you know it's a common sense decision to continue to work with someone who is delivered at such a high level of quality services any other comments being none all in favor say aye aye aye any opposed motion carries and that concludes superintendent's report Mr Stone thank you Dr Bauer and finally we have the um Finance report for Mr Skokie please thank you madam president just a couple quick reminders first we have our next finance committee meeting on Tuesday May 9th we'll be going into a deeper dive of the proposed final budget at that meeting and we do have the proposed final budget scheduled for approval on Thursday May the 18th with the final budget adoption then occurring in June this would be for the 23-24 Episcopal year I was hoping Mr
089Ambrose would stay around for this particular comment but since he brought up about individuals being on a fixed income and we mentioned about the tax rebate program just a couple more details about that program in case he's watching uh from home tonight he can help spread the word uh but we've actually issued this year quite a few rebates and the rebates this year are based on the Pennsylvania State Property Tax and rent rebate program and this year the reimbursement percentage is 75 percent so whatever you receive at the state level you get another 75 percent of that amount at the North Penn level this is the fifth year we've had the program and that 75 percent is increasing to 90 percent next year that was already authorized by the board effective July 1st so that's
090quite a nice sum of money for individuals for example this year the average rebate is 523 dollars so that's a very nice rebate and it really does go to those that have the greatest Financial need in North Penn School District because the Pennsylvania program at the state level is income based so as individuals that have a household income of 35 000 or less that are eligible for the program and it's tiered to lower the income the higher the possible rebate 975 dollars is the maximum rebate at the state level so Mr Ambrose or anybody else that is interested in helping out those most needy in our community I encourage them to check with their friends check with their neighbors and see if they apply at the state level for that program because if they apply
091at the state level in all likelihood they're eligible for the north end program so this is an excellent way of giving back to those that have the greatest Financial need in the district obviously that other districts see Merit in this because there's about 20 school districts throughout the Commonwealth now that have adopted the North Penn rebate program in terms of the monthly financial report this is for the month of March 2023 our cash receipts in March totaled 12.9 million dollars while our disbursements were 33.9 million dollars at the end of March we had an available balance of 133.1 million dollars and that's up about 16 million dollars from the same time last year they asked for approval of the treasures report for March 2023 please can I have a motion please so moved motion by
092Mr fosco and seconded by Dr Lewis Campbell any comments or questions correctly I just want to also comment we did have a great program but one way of being able to really talk about the tax rebate program is also to talk about the gold card um so the gold card performance were frozen I have to say that nobody wants to talk about taxes but they do want to talk about Frozen Frozen this year number of seniors who had already purchased tickets had made plans to go see it with their grandchildren it was absolutely wonderful so we had to talk about Frozen first and then we could move into the tax rebate program so I'm just wondering if you can remind us when the gold card performance is and do you have plans to do Outreach
093about the tax rebate program during that performance and if you if you are planning to do it do you need help okay so uh timely question this event is uh tomorrow and the performance begins at I believe one o'clock um I am going to kind of welcome everyone and I am going to mention uh the renovation project and I'm also going to mention if Mr skrocky can't make it because he's being interviewed by NBC tomorrow uh for the healthcare clinic if he can't make it uh I will mention the rebate program um I also want to say just to kind of show uh what's really at the heart of this community and how they support our students we typically have four shows for our musical Thursday Friday Saturday and a Sunday matinee our Auditorium holds
0941700 people which is the largest Auditorium I'm aware of at least locally for high school we added four shows this year because of Frozen we are completely sold out so 1700 times eight there's a number of tickets that we sold for Frozen uh it's just incredible I can't believe that we're sold out so those who don't have tickets I do hear they're on StubHub uh but you can you can also purchase a a right to stream the video um so if you want to watch it from the Comforts of your couch uh please feel free but just shout out to the North Penn community and a lot of our senior citizens as well for supporting our students I'm sure it'll be amazing that's really great okay uh are there any other comments all right so
095we have a motion on the floor so all on paper say aye aye aye any opposed motion carries okay next we have the sanction and approval of invoices for March and they totaled 37 million 882 584.98 we're asking for ratification of those invoices for March can I have a motion so moved motion by Mr Fusco and seconded by Mr McBain any comments or questions all in favor say aye aye any opposed motion carries and the final item for a vote under this section are the budget transfers for the month of March and I just need to toggle to another section here but budget transfers for the month totaled six hundred thousand four hundred sixty three dollars and Seventeen cents and we discussed them at last at the last finance committee meeting as well we're asking
096for approval of those transfers please any comments or questions all in favor say aye aye any opposed motion carries and for informational purposes we do have the monthly Financial reports listed as I reported at the last finance committee meeting we continue to have a positive Surplus in the budget for the current fiscal year despite the five million dollar deficit budget that was initially passed uh we're bringing in much more Revenue than was budgeted and we're spending less money that was budgeted on the revenue side in particular the investment income will probably have a four million dollar variance alone an investment income and we also are continuing to see strong reality transfer tax income earned income tax and real estate tax collection so I don't think there's any question we will end the year on a
097positive note we will end the year in the black despite that initial budget deficit that was approved Mr Costner yeah thank you madam president Mr scrocki how many would this be the second or the third year if we were in the black again this would be the third straight year okay and and so I missed a portion of the the last Finance being when you went over this I just wanted to to clarify so um last year we were at a higher projected deficit than we are at this time for the projection for next year at this time correct right our projected deficit with the first draft of the budget was about 12.25 million dollars assuming a zero percent tax increase last year was a few million dollars higher than that okay so the 23-24
098budget is shaping up to be a little bit better than where we started out last year so that we right nothing's in stone but that's as good a trend as as you could could ask for when we do end up in the black and the audit the books are closed uh what's the variance because I know it's not like 20 you know we're not over taxing is it somewhere in that one to three percent range yeah it'll be a little bit higher this year in the current fiscal year than we've experienced in previous years our goal is always around a one percent variance on either side of the equation the revenue side and the expenditure side it's going to be higher this year primarily because that investment income we do not anticipate nine increases in
099the FED funds rate by the Federal Reserve in the past year and that's resulted in just through the roof all-time record investment income for the school district that's a double-edged sword of course because some are speculating the cut in interest rates starting perhaps later this calendar year or early in 2024 so at some point we're going to be seeing a reduction in our budget with investment income If the Fed starts cutting rates but we're certainly riding the wave of those increases right now as I mentioned we added money to this year's budget for investment income but we're going to blow that away by four million dollars well thank you very much for steering us through those Rocky Waters I remember early during covid looking at that budget where we were we were getting ready to
100break ground for uh for whatever type of renovation at the high school we could have afforded at the time that budget changed drastically with the pandemic and remember those presentations of the type of recovery and to to have you provide this type of context it's very helpful for this board for the community and also when you consider looking at that 10-year Capital plan I know that you know when those Investments are able to come through that's the way we're able to put some Millions towards the hundreds of millions of just repairing our facilities after many years of kicking the can down the road so thank you thank you okay okay thank you madam president are there any other questions for Mr Skokie all right seeing none we'll move on to other business does anyone have
101any other business no all right then can I have a motion to adjourn so moved thank you meeting is adjourned thank you very much for coming out thank you for sitting here for the entire meeting it was a long one yeah uh oh yeah