001guys all right good evening everyone i call this meeting this january meeting of the finance committee to order we're going to be in the evening with the pledge of allegiance [Music] can i have a motion to approve the minutes from the december 8th meeting so moved second motion by mrs stoll seconded by mrs ramich any questions seeing none all those in favor aye aye all right motion carries okay so we have four items on tonight's agenda recommended for work session and um to switch things up a bit kristin johnson is going to run the meeting tonight in lieu of mr skaraki uh so i'm going to turn it over to you at this time so you can discuss uh the items and any changes that we may be considering on the agenda tonight all right
002thank you mr fusco so tonight we do have four items listed for action so we'll start with the very first one which is the 2022-2023 extended school care program tuition and camp fees so tonight we have with us ms scott the coordinator of extended school care to present an overview of the extended school care program and a recommendation for the 22 23 tuition and camp fees ms scott welcome thank you okay so i'm going to start our presentation out with just a little review of the program we operate the extended school care program at all 13 elementary schools and we're licensed by the department of human services of pennsylvania we offer care from as little as two mornings up to five full days morning and afternoon full day cares offered on holidays or in service
003days for an additional fee and students can purchase additional mornings and afternoons on a space available basis margie i'm sorry for whatever reason i'm having a difficult time hearing you you want me yeah i'm sorry that's okay and i'm ringing okay so we have a staff to student ratio of one to twelve students uh staff to students we have to have 40 square feet per child at the facility two staff members at all times and there has to be somebody qualified that has a degree at all times and if there's more than 45 children you need a second supervisor with a degree so just a little update at the start of the school year we started the year with 635 students we currently have 638 we are following the pennsylvania department of human services and
004the cdc guidance for the covid guidelines which include frequent hand washing increased cleaning masking social distancing and all to help mitigate the spread of the virus this year we were awarded 692 thousand dollars in funds from the american rescue plan act which is great helping us out financially and also we are benefiting from the fact that we don't have to pay for food and the premium holiday for the benefits as well so this is just a encapsulated version of where we are financially we did get a transfer of 1.5 million dollars in order to help sustain our program from the losses that we incurred due to the covid impact on our program kristen do you want to address that a little bit yeah i can so at the end of the school year june we
005did identify a need for additional funding to help keep extended school care in a positive position so we did have a 1.5 million dollar transfer that occurred at the end of the fiscal year without that transfer extended school care would be sitting with a negative fund balance of over 1 million at the end of the fiscal year when we get to december of this year still accounting for that fund that transfer still sitting in the extended school care program we are in a positive position of a million dollars so without that 1.5 they would still be in a negative fun position so that transfer has really helped to keep them afloat we are seeing positive gains but we have some some expenditures that scott had indicated that are helping us to remain in that which
006is not having to pay for our food and having that premium holiday so those those are helping us go in the right direction but there's still some room for improvement so does anyone have questions about anything so far so in late that we are recommending a 3.4 increase over the current prices for next school year we are going to have to start paying some of those fees again and we're not at all sure about additional funding that we might receive from the state or the federal government and that's here and also looking to establish our summer camp prices the camp is a little tricky we're looking to have one camp and we would like to charge 280 that would be with three field trips a week if coving continues to be a struggle for us
007and we are not able to take trips we'd like to price at 250. the previous summer we had proposed 278 to two summers ago and camp did not occur and last summer with no trips or swimming we had a price of 245. so those are the recommendations that i have before you tonight anyone have any questions seeing no questions um this is an information no this is an item for my work session i'm sorry tonight um i know that in prior years you've shared with us and you've done rate studies of other day care centers or other similar programs are we with the 3.4 increase are we still falling within rates that are comparable to other similar programs we are mrs johnson is that that was posted as well yeah that is attached uh in
008board docs there is a survey summary for both the school care program and then the camp as well and then there is a document that has the proposed rates so you would be able to indicate that i think so for the survey for the school care if we were looking at five day for before and after school miss scott correct me if i'm wrong i think for one child that'd be 451 is the recommendation and we are at the low end of most in that survey okay great i think even with that increase making sure that we're at the lower end um and just that the keeping the price comparable or lower to other providers but also just because it also brings that level of convenience for parents too right there's one drop-off there's no
009transport from a center to their school they're in the same community in the same building they're able to access after-school programs um after-school clubs and still be part of the extended school program so the convenience still remains at an incredible high and an incredible value for our community so thank you um i think i remember that we said that this program is means tested or do i have that wrong is the program means tested in terms of the payments that families would have to make i'm not understanding your question is there any subsidy for i'm sorry yes there is subsidy we work in conjunction with montgomery county as as part of the subsidized child care funding and uh we do we have a contract with the county so anybody that qualifies with the county for
010assistance they pay us a small co-pay and the county would send us forward us the difference in funds thank you thank you okay can i have a motion to move this item uh the 20 22 23 extended school care program tuition rates and camp fees to our action meeting so moved motioned by mrs stahl seconded by mr rash any more thoughts seeing none all those in favor all right all right any opposed promotion carries thank you mrs scott thank you miss scott the next item we have on the action items is the 2022-23 tax rebate program this agenda item is seeking the board's approval on the percentage rebate the district would be offering for the 2022-23 north penn property tax rebate program the presentation is attached in board docs for review however if possible mr
011fusco we would like to move this presentation to our next finance committee meeting which will be february 8th do i have a motion so moved second motion by mrs ramaj seconded by uh mr resh i saw his hand before i'll toss this one to him um any concerns on that request i think mr kraki would like to be here for that presentation and we have the opportunity as a community to to look through it even that much longer between now and february so all those in favor say aye aye aye any opposed all right motion carries great thank you mr fusco um and as you had stated the presentation is there for review and consideration before the formal presentation by mr scracky on february 8th the next item on our action agenda item is the
012healthcare clinic design contract and with us we have mr schneider this evening to review the proposal from the schrader group for architectural and engineering services for pre-manufactured structure for the healthcare clinic mr snyder thank you thank you good evening the schrader group provided us a limited scope engineering and architectural proposal for the health care clinic the trader group's proposal includes civil and structural foundation design and also land development processes the fees include in the proposal includes fifteen thousand seven hundred and sixty dollars for the foundation design fifteen thousand dollars for the civil engineering design and forty thousand five hundred dollars for the land development approval process for a total amount of seventy one thousand two hundred and sixty dollars including the largest portion of the fee the land development approval process there are estimated fees
013that will be billed on an hourly basis so there's a portion of that that may not be fully billed out if the needs are not there in addition the trader group will provide any additional necessary architectural fees on an hourly basis this trader group's proposal is a limited architectural and engineering scope since the healthcare clinic is being designed with a pre-manufactured building like a modular construction our health care provider everside health has a design group that will provide us with schematic floor plan design and also all mechanical electrical and plumbing needs for the building this schematic design will be um given to the pre-manufactured building company for development of the permit and the construction documents upon receipt of the schematic design will engage pre-manufactured companies and work on a conceptual design this will then go
014into the land development process and during this land development process we will in parallel be designing the foundations and also the civil engineering we would have normally brought this to the facilities and operations committee but since they're not meeting until the end of january time is of the essence since we are trying to get into the planning commission meeting at the borough of landsdale in february i can answer any questions if you have any thank you mr schneider i was surprised reading through this proposal that how much assistance the healthcare company itself is uh providing us with the design and implementation of the building on the property and so i commend mr shiraki and you for getting that man into the contract thank you yes we we have had a meeting with the everside health
015and we have another secondary meeting scheduled so with their assistance we will be able to move this forward as quickly as possible we could have a motion to move the health care clinic design contract to our action meeting so moved second motion by mrs stoll seconded by mrs ramich any more comments nope seeing none all this in favor aye aye any opposed motion carries thank you mr schneider the last item we have recommended for action is the budget transfers for december uh the december budget transfers totaled 218 988 dollars and 92 cents the majority of the transfers are the result of the movement of federal stimulus money from the budgetary reserve to the appropriate expenditure line item the remaining budget transfers are routine to adjust for spending during the year so we are recommending the
016approval for the placement at the january 20th action meeting to move a bunch of transfers to our action meeting second by mr brock mcbain motion by mrs stole something like this from bane any other thoughts all right all those in favor say aye aye aye any opposed motion carries we're on to our informational items and item a is a update on our federal stimulus dollars this is still you mrs johnson right now okay thank you so tonight we did want to provide an update on the federal funding sources that have been awarded to the north penn school district to address the challenges of coveted 19. we have been presenting this quarterly so this is our quarterly update there have been a few changes since our last presentation in september which we'll review shortly here but
017however i'd like to sorry review the total there we go the total amount awarded to the district um in the general fund and that amount is 18 million 967 we have allocated approximately 10.7 million dollars of that amount leaving us with approximately 8.2 million left to be i to find uses that would be applicable to the restrictions of each grant so this slide is intended to show you all of the grants we have received which have been fully allocated or spent there are four new grants at the bottom of the slide which are the new editions since our last presentation and they are the arp sr3 set-aside grants one is for learning loss one is for summer enrichment the other is after and before school and then finally our homeless children and youth grant so
018i believe some of these grants may have been covered during the eci meeting but for a brief overview the learning last grant does have a requirements 30 must be used for social and emotional mental health support 10 percent must be used for professional development for staff to address social emotional and mental health needs of our students and eight percent must be used for reading support and improvement for our students the remaining amount is at the discretion of the district but specifically targeted for learning loss summer enrichment is just that it has to be our summer programming so we are intending like we did for 2021 we will be running our 2022 summer programs through these federal grants and the costs associated with those programs after and before school just like the title has to be
019used for after and before school programming so tutoring would be one of the main costs we would be seeing there and then finally the homeless and children and youth and this intent the intention of this grant is to make it easier for homeless students to participate in school activities like in-person instruction the intended use of this grant will be used for transportation of our homeless students to our buildings for in-person instruction moving on these are the last three grants that we have funding still to be allocated maybe um can i just check mr resh had a question did you just say that you're going to make summer learning programs free again for the students so they can catch up on what they didn't learn during the school year mr rashid the summer program is still
020happening and then we're also looking to expand um some programs um in the morning before school to do some tutoring as well as um i'm sorry in the morning um but we are looking to keep the summer programs free next summer like we did last year i think i didn't hear all of your question but i hope i answered it wonderful second question if you don't mind i've been reading a lot about the state has billions of dollars in funding are we expected to get some of that grant is that some of that money coming our way at this time i'm not aware of any additional funding coming down the pipeline i don't know if dr waters or dr bauer are aware of anything but we are not we are constantly checking the pde website
021though to see if anything pops up because these last four grants that i did talk about popped up very quickly in the fall okay um thank you but we'll definitely be on the lookout mr rush okay so the these are the last three grants that we have some funding left uh to allocate most of it the majority of it is with our arp sr3 grant so in total we still have 8.23 million approximately left to be allocated for the arp sr3 grant we are anticipating that we're going to need to identify the uses of that grant rather quickly here we have not received the grant application deadline from the state yet but we are aware that they have to allocate it to school districts by march 24th so we know that deadline is approaching we're
022not sure what our deadline will be so that they can meet their deadline but we do know it's coming so there is a group of stakeholders that includes instructional and operational individuals that are meeting monthly in the district to discuss what needs are still remaining and prioritizing those needs so that we'll be ready to submit that last grant application similar to previous presentations we did want to break down the use of funds by grant and i have said it before i'll say it again you may identify similar uses across multiple grants and that has occurred because we are trying to optimize these grants so they have deadlines that we don't want to miss funding on so it's possible that we have spread a particular cost across multiple grants so that you will see different different
023grants with the same funding uses moving on these are some additional grants that we have used in the specific uses i did want to highlight for the montgomery county cares grant when we're talking about the remote learning technology equipment there that specifically is the tv setups that we purchased last fall so the tvs the stands the cameras all of that set up so that we can continue to provide that virtual instruction where necessary so that is the remote technology identified for that particular grant new for this quarter's presentation we did want to provide a summary of the amount spent by each of these categories so you can see here that our highest used categories are technology equipment and then our substitutes and staffing line items so these are our biggest users as stated earlier we
024are still evaluating needs and determining uses for the remaining funds so these categories are expected to continue to change with the amount that is is identified and potentially new categories will be added as we move through that process for extended care as ms scott had indicated tonight we did receive the american rescue plan stabilization grant which is generating just shy of 700 000 dollars in funding this school year for them which is great because we really need that to continue to have a positive outcome for that fund so we are grateful to have received that funding and we will be using it 100 to cover costs that are eligible for that particular grant so in total extended care has received just shy of 900 000 to help support them as well there's any questions on
025the federal funding i'd be happy to answer them at this time is there any concern or anticipation that extended care may need more funding to stabilize or is this sufficient what has been injected from federal funding we're not aware of any other sources coming at this time and there has not been any discussion about general fund having to support um they are as you can see on the presentation from ms scott they are starting to to get the feed under themselves and they're starting to stand on their own a little bit we still have the 1.5 million dollars that needs to be paid back and we're hopeful that there will be a large sum transferred back to the general fund at the end of this school year but at this time we're not anticipating another
026need of that didn't we expect that to take about five years i'm sorry so make sure i heard you just say five years that would be the hope um but if they are able to continue on the path they are maybe it might be a little quicker but we'll have to see how they progress sounds good mr rush i thought i read in the documents that we got a grant for some odd dollars for the extended care program so that the amount that we actually lent them because of the grant is only 900 and some odd thousand dollars and so i was expecting that they would be able to pay that back quicker yes scott and i did talk today we are hopeful that we'll be they will be able to pay back around 500
027000 mostly because of that grant receiving that grant this year so we are hopeful that there'll be a large chunk this year to be repaid and then we'll see how quickly we can get the rest retained i know that it's been a way of some in the community that we've moved that money and it's nice to see it being paid back quickly thank you there any other questions i'd just like to point out as you mentioned at the beginning of the presentation the eci committee is taking a closer look at how some of these federal funds are being implemented at the december meeting we took a look at the learning law specifically actually very specifically as it pertains to um english and language arts and we will continue to do that throughout the year all
028right anything else no all right thank you okay thank you moving on we have the 2022-2023 peacers retirement rate on december 17th the peacers board of trustees certified the employer contribution rate at 35.26 percent for 22 20 22 23 this is an increase from our current year rate so the 2122 rate is 34.94 so this is just under a one percent increase in that rate pcrs has also provided projector future employer contribution rates that are available on the document loaded into board docs and the 2020 just for reference with the projections that they do provide and what how they usually come out so for 2023 the projected rate was 35.7 which is 0.53 percent higher than what was actually certified so they were a little bit higher than what it actually ended up being and
029the change in this rate will result in approximately 227 000 increase to the general fund budget for twenty two twenty three there's any questions on the pieces right okay moving on the next informational item is the department budget presentations we are moving along with the 2022-23 budget timeline and as part of that process we will be starting our departmental overview presentations in board docs there is a listing of dates for the departments that will be presenting and first up on february 15th we'll have mr schneider back with us for facilities and operations school safety and security as well as transportation and then the other departments to follow as listed we look forward to presenting the budget status of each department through these special finance meeting dates any questions on those okay our student rep is
030not able to be with us tonight mr fusco so we do not have a report from our student rep thank you ms johnson wonderful job stepping in for mr skaraki tonight uh all right um the financial reports are listed mr fusco i would like to cover a couple things on the finance that's okay go for it okay so for eit we would like to point out that the earned income tax is continuing to come in strong as of november we had a we are 3.74 of the collection rate last year so we're coming in pretty strong and we fully anticipate to exceed budget if this pace continues to hold the same could be said for our realty transfer tax that is continuing to come in strong and and again we're hopeful that we will exceed
031our budget amount there which would be great for some positive results for our budget for 22 23 or 21 22. for the investment report would like to point out that the federal reserve met in december and they did have an indication that there could be three rate hikes in 2022 which will be extremely beneficial for our investment income we've hit we've had a massive hit since covet has occurred so we will be grateful to receive those increases depending on the timing of when those rate hikes occur it could have a positive impact for 2122 just depending on when they would happen but we're fully anticipating that that will have a positive reaction for our 2223 budget number and then finally right to know we have reached a new record on the number of requests received
032in the school year we're at 120. last year for the entire year we had 115. so we have exceeded our our number and we'll continue to be adding to that as we move through the year and then senate bill 552 is still moving through the house it has been passed by the senate so we are hopeful that that will continue along the path if there's any questions on the finance reports i'd be happy to help as always there is a summary available all right thank you i preemptively thanked you earlier so well done okay uh we're going to move on to public comment individuals attending this meeting and intending to speak to the committee should be aware that they are being recorded in order to meet the requirements of pennsylvania sunshine law it is necessary
033to record the names of all citizens who speak to the committee during the meeting to assure compliance with this requirement it is essential that those planning to address the committee state their name and municipality members of the audience are asked to limit their questions and comments to matters being discussed at tonight's meeting or matters that may come before the finance committee to allow time for all those who wish to speak to the committee the chairperson may ask an individual to yield the microphone to the next speaker this is your auburn mr lanier i might remind you we do have a mask mandate so you will need to put your mask on please sir i thought i could speak without one you have had it off the entire meeting so i'd like to see you on
034it at least put it around your neck what please put it on you want me to speak with it on i do yes i would like you to put the mask on the same is the expectation everyone else in this meeting right now has their mask on mr lanier i'm really not looking to have a confrontation i'd like to have you every three minutes nobody's starting your three minutes but just please put your mask on for the duration of the meeting i'll put it on but when every time we've been able to speak previously we've been able to lower the mask yeah so well maybe it's a trade-off since you sat through this whole meeting with it off just so you're doing this vindictively i'm doing it because it's the requirement and this is the
035one opportunity i've had during the meeting to directly address you i'm not going to ask again put the mask on no all right i'm not putting the mask on i'm allowed to speak for my three minutes then you're going to be removed from the meeting mr lanier we have a policy in place there is no linear exception to the policy it's been done previously so instead of going off script and doing things why don't you let me have my three minutes mr lanier put the mask on this is the last time i'm going to ask or you're going to be escorted out of the meeting until you can put it on yes like i said this is the first opportunity i've had during this meeting sir to address you directly because you've been sitting in
036the audience i didn't want to interrupt the presentations but at this point in time this is my one opportunity to directly ask you to put it on if you refuse to do so you will be removed and goodbye mr lyndon get an eyebrow and have a nice day it was at the discretion of the person who's chairing the meeting i could have interrupted at any point in time and asked you to put it on i did chose not to do that i'm asking right now for you to put it on for the duration the next five minutes of our meeting no i'm done answering your questions please escort mr lanier out of our meeting thank you if you put it on you can speak that's not on are you freaking kidding me at this point
037in time you should be removed so what i wanted to ask about is the hundreds of thousands of dollars being spent in settlements by this board for lack of special education requirements where you're being sued by residents of this this uh school district what what budgeting pool does that money come from no answer there i did a quick calculation this afternoon i calculated 750 in settlements because you guys are are lacking in the special education program i haven't looked at the other settlements i haven't looked at the settlements with teachers in in in uh the settlements for for other lawsuits but when you do things that are intentional and you do things that are just just exerting your power not having any logical basis for what you're asking me to do or the teachers to
038do or what you're forcing the the the parents of special ed kids to go through this is the result how many millions of dollars is it going to take before this district realizes what they're doing is incorrect how many how many additional dollars do we spend or give to the to uh mr summers to to navigate uh transgender verbs and nouns in in in uh in professional development courses how many how much money do we are going to be spending for teachers to go to uh professional development held by the psea regarding critical race theory and that's not me saying it's critical i say theory is saying the psae says it's critical race theory i just want to know how many thousands of dollars are we going to spend on this and that how long
039are we going to go through this charade of of masking especially now we the the the the row on on omicron is 140 times that of what the other ones other viruses have been that means that you're not going to stop it with a with a piece of cloth and what do you do with this toxic piece of cloth is this is just covered in in in omicron is that what you're telling me you guys need to think about what you're doing what you're how this is impacting the kids not just what you want to do i don't know if there's there's any other launching pad ideas for you mr fusco whether you plan to run but what you guys are doing right now is not beneficial to the kids it's harmful to them i'll
040be back thank you mr linder okay um okay items recommended for action can you review this for me mrs ms johnson sorry we have three items that we are uh moving on to the action meeting the first being the 20 22 23 extended care extended school care program tuition rates and camp fees the healthcare clinic design contract and the budget transfers for december 2021. all right thank you the next finance committee meeting will be held on february 8th at six o'clock and we will have a subsequent meeting on february 15th at six o'clock that's our special budget meeting we'll begin that process next month uh is there any other business for this committee yes sir fresco we have a policy in this school that everybody who enters this building wears a mask it's there's no
041exceptions to our policy and if mr linear doesn't wear his mask i i suggest that he leave the building if we're not going to go to back and forth mr lanier can i have a motion to adjourn we were in different rooms all right motion we're adjourned thank you have a good night [Music] i gotta go there [Music] you