001Mhm. >> Mhm. >> I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America, and to the republic for which it stands, one nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. >> Do you want to go work on trying to get some people to say they're texting me back yet, or are you good? >> She said to >> Okay. Okay. >> Come on. I thought we got away with paperwork with computers. What what is this pile? Is somebody getting in there or >> We're good. >> We got it. >> Yeah, okay. >> Thank you. Uh Roll call, please. >> Ms. Bilby? Here. Mr. Fedorcha? >> Here. >> Ms. Husak? >> Here. >> Ms. Kolb? >> Is he on here? >> Ms. Snyder? >> Here. >> Ms. Thompson? >> Here. >> Ms. Williams?
002>> Yeah. >> Mr. Green? >> Here. >> We have a quorum. >> How about Thank you very much. >> Oh, Ms. Web Mr. Weber. Sorry, Mr. Weber. You were sitting back too far. I didn't see you. >> Are you going to hit him now? >> There. I'll get Sorry, Mr. Weber. >> Step is out the window. >> Okay. Uh I'm going to look to Dr. Lynch public comments on agenda items. >> We have uh two signed up. One one for an agenda item and one for a non-agenda item. We have um Mrs. Frank would like to talk on an agenda or actually looks like maybe two agenda items. Just one? Okay. >> Which which one? Which one is it? >> I was going to add to um some student events happening um after >> Okay.
003If I forget, just stand up and throw something. >> We'll see. >> And the other one? >> And the non-agenda item, uh Mr. Crispin has field usage uh for non-agenda item, which would be for the end of the meeting. >> Okay. >> Thank you very much. You've all received number uh copies of the minutes of the school board meeting held on November 9th. Is there a motion to approve? >> So moved. >> The motion is second. Thank you. Any additions or corrections? Hearing none, all those in favor signify by saying aye. >> Aye. >> Opposed, no. >> [snorts] >> And so ordered. Uh CLIU, Ms. Susak. >> All right. Um I have no report for this evening. February [clears throat] meeting will be next week down at the IU starting at 6:30. >> Thank you
004very much, Mr. Fedorcha. Anything from >> I have just a few items cuz we had the shortest meeting ever. My wife was figuring out what I was doing the other months. Um but uh on the 26th, we had a visit from the Secretary of Education. Uh members of the administration and board members along with our superintendent Dr. Link and other superintendents were there. It was really gracious for there to be there. She was She was wonderful. Uh I think she was very impressed with the school, the students that we also brought in to do the the tours of the building and so forth. Certainly vocational education is the top of the list right now in in most of the governments looking at education. So we're very happy to do it have her there. On the
00527th, then Senator Coleman came to visit our early childhood program and he spoke to the students because again that is a highlight of a lot of things going on in the country as far as uh child care. We have 1,600 students to date for 2026-2027, which is good considering it's only March and our senior awards program, which is our recognition and our graduation of our seniors is May 28th at 6:30 at the PPL Center and that is all I have. That's it? Thank you, sir. Anything from the state? Nothing today? >> Nothing. Thank you. >> Uh Lehigh Carbon, uh two things. First of all, we're uh uh currently working through Middle States. I don't know if you were involved in that at all, but it's >> [snorts] >> cumbersome, time-consuming. I can't believe how many
006people are spending how much time on it. I I assume it's similar in school district. I don't know. It's just It's just amazing when we get reports on how many people are spending how much time on things. Uh, the other thing, of course, that's been hitting the news is the the data breach. Uh once again, a lot of that is confidential. I can say this, yes, there was a data breach. We don't know for sure to the extent of what it was. We have hired professional people to come in and and check the data. We have legal counsel in, our insurance company, etc., etc., etc. Uh while I wish I could say 100% we don't think there was any data breach, that any information got out, we're not 100% sure. We're 99.9, but until that
007happens, you know, you can't say no data was lost until we're 100% sure. Uh, so we're working through that and uh hopefully we'll get some outcomes. It's something that can happen today. Uh a friend of mine got scammed recently. Uh, my credit card was scammed recently. It's amazing how quick some of this stuff can happen and you don't even realize it. So, uh, those would be the two things for Tri-C tonight. With that, we'll move into you got copies of the committee reports >> [snorts] >> and meetings. They're attached. Our student reps. >> And I'm not here. >> Our student reps are both attending a a theater function for us. >> Okay. Well, that was the quickest page one we ever had. Committee anything? >> Nothing tonight. thank you. >> Okay, we're moving on. Dr.
008Stelker. >> Thank you, Mr. Green. I have two items to speak about this evening, but I'm going to actually start with the data report if that's okay, because the other one will be incorporated into that data report. So, Mr. Pine and I are going to present. Good evening. Tonight, we will provide an overview of curriculum and professional development in the Northern Lehigh School District for the 25-26 school year. Our goal is to highlight how we support high-quality teaching and learning by ensuring our curriculum is aligned to standards, responsive to student needs, and supported through ongoing professional development. Throughout the presentation in an abridged format, we will share the processes used to review and refine curriculum, how we use multiple sources of data to guide instructional decisions, and the professional development opportunities provided across all employee
009groups in the district. At this time, I'll turn the presentation over to Mr. Pine, our director of educational technology, curriculum, and instruction to discuss curriculum. >> So, those of you who were here will remember that just over four years ago we began our first what is to be an iterative process with our four-year curriculum cycle. And so, this is what that looked like over this those four years. During that time, we worked to have teachers work with us to develop thousands of documents documenting what we're doing in the district. What what we were teaching, what students were uh, supposed to be learning, and how we were assessing that. Um, in order to manage all that initially, uh, we're using a combination of a program at Insight where we were warehousing the curriculum as well as
010Google Drives, uh, which I can't click into these right now, but if I clicked into these, you would see hundreds of files in each, uh, of those for all of the courses that we teach across the district. Uh, they're shared with all staff in order to, uh, ensure they know what resources are available, uh, what's taught is outlined in there, um, and what common assessments are given, uh, as well as pacing and, um, uh, alignment guidance. So, now we're in our second cycle with curriculum and instruction, uh, and as you know, during the first cycle, right off the bat, initially, we were able to get new programming for our foreign language department. So, that first year, which is the year that we're in now of the second four-year cycle, we were able to take care
011of that, uh, almost, well, over four years ago. Uh, then we also, about halfway through that cycle, updated our ELA programming, uh, in grades K through 8. Uh, and as a result, we were able in this fine in this second cycle to focus, uh, on math where we saw a real need, uh, to update. So, this is, uh, the product of what came out of those drives and the realization that it was far too much for our teachers to be able to look at, to review, to access, to know what they're teaching. In the updated version that I gave you, uh, on Friday, uh, there are links out to these, so you can see those. They're also available on our curriculum website. I kind of put them here as a placeholder, though, just so you
012can see what this looks like where it outlines what the units are, the topics taught, what the standards are that are covered, and then the objectives, and then the days and the percentage of the course that each unit is designed to take. So, that way teachers can again pace adequately throughout the year. We have that for math now, for ELA, which as a result of the CKLA ELA adoption was updated over the past year to reflect that program. Uh and then of course world languages, which we're able to finish a couple of years ago pretty readily. Also over the past year, we've been able to put all of this onto the district website and we're continuing to put more and more of these documents on as we work through this second cycle and we get
013them into a readable format like this for our parents to see. It is slightly edited for the parents, many of the links uh and students may have the links that are removed, things like assessments and you know, teacher only resources. Uh this website serves a number of roles, one of them is that of course, the curriculum scope and sequence, but also where we're able to put up some information about our initiatives and then some of the work that we've done and updated Bulldog Academy. So, honestly a lot of this work would not be possible without the teacher leaders that we have around the district and our department leads. Uh here's just some of the work that they've done for us over the past year in order to make sure that the decisions that we're making
014are as vetted and well-rounded as possible. And then obviously just new things that have come up. So, uh there has been stuff that's outside of the curriculum cycle that we've also been developing over the past year. Obviously the career pathways framework uh for students at the high school, new financial literacy and AI for research course, uh new road music programs such as guitar, piano, and music appreciation, uh the adoption in this upcoming year of AP chemistry at the high school, and then obviously the development of the plan for the revitalization of our business and tech ed program. And this is the list of programs that just over the the year we've either made an initial purchase on or if for the first couple up there you'll see actually just expanded uh including new programming for
015US two and US three at high school doing environmental science and biology classes for our ninth and tenth grade science students and then new secondary math of course through math nation and then of course this year the math pilot adoption if everything goes as planned tonight of you know math thinking math. >> Um across the district we use a variety of assessments. Um these are the assessments that we're currently using. They are local assessments, they're state assessments. Um over the years we had different things at different grade levels and we really tried to streamline that across K to 12 wherever we were able to do that. Um so those are the assessments that we currently use to measure progress academic progress with our students. On the next slide um you'll see some additional data points
016that we use across the district with regard to culture, climate, safety and well-being. Um some of these are given every year for instance Renaissance fundamentals which is was the old past program. Um we give that screener twice a year once in the fall and once in the spring. Um things like the pace survey that's in certain grade levels like 4 6 8 10 12 and that's every other year in odd years. So um assessments are given at or these screeners are given at different times. Um at Northern Lehigh we also um hold three strategically placed data days throughout the school year. Um typically those are October, February and May and they are strategic because those are times that we get assessment data in um to the district. So during these professional development days staff engage
017in sessions that closely examine academic, behavioral and social emotional data at multiple levels. Um it includes district, school, grade level, cohort, and individual student data. Um, as outlined in the previous two slides, educators dig deeply into these data to inform lesson planning and to guide instruction using the insights gained to drive and differentiate to better meet the needs of all of our students. The next uh section that we will talk about is professional development. Um, we'll highlight some of the learning opportunities that have taken place across the district this school year to strengthen staff understanding, support our work, and improve student outcomes. What uh follows is not comprehensive, but rather some highlights. >> So, this is my only part of professional development. I just wanted to take a moment here. Uh, a lot of the
018stuff that I'm going to talk about goes is attributed directly back to the work of our tech integration specialist, uh, Ms. Amanda Mariano, uh, and the work that she does in order to make sure that the professional development that we're offering teachers is timely and uh in in the situations they need it in. And so, we've really been working to make uh a more make create more diverse opportunities for teachers to get professional development that is directly related to their work. One way that she's done that is through the classroom collaborative, which is a before or after-school program that runs over a series of months in order to have teachers collaborate together under her structure and guidance in order to learn more. Uh, classroom collaborative models, it's born out of school AI, but we're actually
019expanding that model through other cohorts that we're running throughout the course of the year on things like AI and then I know we've been talking a lot about math lately, uh, her work with teachers on building thinking classrooms and Peter Liljedahl's research and like the practices in the classroom, I think has been instrumental in getting our teachers to the place to be able to have those conversations and work through things that we needed to work through in the pilot. Uh, and then just direct timely teacher support through CIS. I mean, she meets with them individually and then the picture that I have up here on the slide is actually a website that was curated and created by her in order to really broadly expand the opportunities for our teachers to get professional development down a
020whole slew of avenues. I think we've got about 25 different websites linked in on there where they can get certificated professional development for which they can earn flex time and then also further the professional development that's in their specific interests. >> Okay. Um safety considerations are foundational to the work that we do each day ensuring that systems and trainings are in place to support the safety of every member of the Northern Lehigh School District community remains a top priority. Um just to highlight a few examples that we have up here on the slide, Chief Jones um facilitates every year a required in-person trainings under Act 55. Those are focused on emergency response drills and recognizing student behaviors that may may indicate a safety concern. Um in addition, our school nursing staff participated in participated in
021emergency preparedness training specific to health care screenings this year and district staff completed suicide awareness and prevention training that's mandated under Act 71. That's something that happens on a five-year cycle. Another important focus of our professional learning has been fostering leadership across all work um groups within the district. Again, to highlight, we had some teacher leadership growth through participation in professional conferences including the National Science Teachers Association conference and the Pennsylvania Council of Teachers of Mathematics conference. Um in both of those cases, we had teachers who won state-level awards or national-level awards and were able to participate in those um um conferences also because they were award winners. Um several of us also presented at the Ed Comm um event that happens in the summer um at the administrative level and the teacher level. That's
022where all of the districts in the IU come together and it's a professional learning series that happens um during our new educator week, but it's it's collaborative with all of the the uh districts in our IU. Lastly, our administrative team is also participating in a four-part leadership learning series through the Pennsylvania Principals Association, including sections um such as leading a culture of high expectations and strong relationships. Policy and planning work across the district has centered on collaboration and alignment to supporting long-term student success. One example is the development of our comprehensive uh guidance or 339 plan, which was the result of strong collaboration um effort with our advisory council, of which Mrs. Snyder is an active member and I want to thank you for your participation on that um group. I'd like to recognize the
023core team of vice principals and school counselors who contributed significant time and expertise to this work as well. And then many of the people that sit in this room are also members of that group. Um and you'll see this evening that our comprehensive guidance or 339 plan is on the school board agenda for approval. Uh that's a collaborative effort that took almost a year um you know, in the process of putting that together. So, we look forward to a vote on that this evening. Um our curriculum solutions work has focused on providing professional learning that directly supports classroom instruction and student engagement. Many educators across the district participate in learning around building thinking classrooms in mathematics as um Mr. Pines said. We also continue to participate in content area networking meetings through CLIU 21. These
024have been particularly well received by our encore teachers who value collaboration with peers in related disciplines and maybe there isn't a counterpart within their own district or at the elementary or secondary level, but they're getting to participate with their counterparts in other districts. Finally, our educational travel leaders have been working with EF Education First and taking trainings related to that experience as we prepare to launch our first district overseas trip this June to Italy. Supporting the diverse needs of students has remained a priority through targeted professional learning focused on student supports. Highlights this year include training through the WIDA network including teaching multilingual learners social studies through multiple perspectives. Also, staff also engaged in professional learning related to structured literacy approaches such as Orton-Gillingham methodologies to support foundational reading development. Lastly, gifted boot camp provided
025focused learning opportunities for staff working with advanced learners. District operations professional learning and systems have work systems work have focused on supporting the infrastructure that allows our schools to function efficiently and safely. In technology, this has included professional learning and implementation works surrounding fiber installation projects and the expansion of our use of uninterrupted power supply or UPS systems to protect critical network operations. Transportation staff participated in training related to bus safety monitoring through the use of bus patrol system and food service staff engaged in guidance related to the US Department of Agriculture smart snack standards to support healthy students, um, options. Thank you for, um, viewing our presentation on curriculum and professional development this evening. If you have any questions, you can please feel free to, um, email me, um, at [email protected]. Um, this will
026be posted on the webpage along with our board, um, meet board minute meetings from this evening. Thank you. Any questions? >> Yes. >> Um, going all the way back, I think it's like two slide two or three with the the five-year plan or that one there. The one you just passed. That one. >> This one? >> So, I think I I kind of heard it, but I, um, experienced this experiencing this myself. The first year, um, cycle we went through this, we looked [snorts] at and developed our curriculum and the teachers worked with this. By going through this a second time, they're not going to be developing new curriculum. So, what are your expectations and what will it look like? >> So, right now, I mean, we're doing some refining. Cuz even as we went
027through that first four years, we realized we had some refining to do. But there there will not be a complete rewrite again. That was really just because of a lapse of a serious period of time where there was no there were there a lot of areas where there were no written curriculum. Um, or where there was, it was like very outdated. Um, I know I what I anticipate from here on out is actually what we've seen this year, which is one of two things. One, we take a look at it again. Is it working for us? Is there any place that we need to update or alter? Are there opportunities that we're missing that we, you know, didn't realize the first time around? But then also with some things like the ELA and math, um,
028some of those basically rewrite themselves at this point, right? So, when we adopt the new math program, uh, a lot of that, just like it was when we adopted it for [clears throat] Eureka, is sort of outlined within there. Um, but no, we will not make any major rewrites unless we have any major changes. >> The only thing I'll add to that is like we know the health and phys ed standards are changing, some of the other standards are coming up and changing at the the state level as well. So, that will trigger some potential differences in what we're doing. >> Okay. And then with professional development with the new curricular resources you know, vote on. Uh will the teachers have time during in-service time to work with and collaborate on these new materials? What
029What would that look like then? >> Yeah, so well, two things. One, we usually end up pairing some sort of structured learning with that available time particularly with the new program. So, you know, like we would if we're saying prior to the school year, right? The teachers who want to learn prior to the school year. Uh I'm still working on us getting some sort of structured PD before the school year and then I'll have no more after we actually sign off on the agreement and all that. Um but we we usually do that with a new program in the summer. Um that's afforded. They can earn flex time for that. They can do that. I also don't plan for that to be anything that if anyone didn't do it, they would have missed, right? So,
030we will still plan for the beginning of the year or whenever we have those universal participation days to still do the professional training in those days as well. >> What is ELDP? >> English English language development program. It's our ESL program. >> So, you will have time when all the teachers will be available to be it as an in-service to be able to work on and collaborate on with the new curriculum. >> Correct. >> Not not just during the summer time. >> Yeah, so and and I guess just if if I was going to ask you to clarify what it is you mean. Do you mean unstructured time or do you mean like time structured around like professional learning for the new program? >> Um well, in in-service time. >> Oh, oh. Oh, yeah. Yeah,
031no, no, no. Actually, if you look at the I mean again from last week the contract, I mean it it's with the math program. I'm very, very proud. It is a It is extensive. It's There's a lot of professional learning support for the teachers to make this adjustment in math instruction. >> Any other questions? Okay. Thank you. That's our report for this evening. >> [clears throat] >> Are you ready? >> I'm ready. >> Go for it. >> Um first of all, on the board agenda tonight is the approval of the budget that completed June 30th of 2025. Um I do have hard copies in my office if anybody is interested and wants a hard copy, I can give it to you, okay? Um so now I'm going to roll into our 2026-2027 school year budget,
032and I'm going to turn it over to Dr. Link. >> Thank you, Mrs. Molitoris. So this will be our first uh detailed presentation on the proposed uh preliminary budget for 2026-2027, uh keeping in mind that this will go through several iterations as we get to uh the approval date, which will happen um actually this year in May. So we have time to let it sit for the final approval for public review in the end of June. I'm I'm sorry, April. Uh just because of how the board meetings fall. Um you know, we'll have to have a approval of a preliminary budget so it can sit and be examined publicly before the final approval of the budget, which has to occur by the last day in June. >> Good. >> Mhm. >> So this is um
033each one of our building levels and their budgeted amounts. That those amounts have not changed from prior year. Um so these are what they used in order to budget for the 2026-2027 school year. Um this slide is our Act 1 index. Uh 2026-2027, the Act 1 index in PA was set at 3.5%. Northern Lehigh's adjusted index is 4.8. Our independent financial office kind of tells you what the projections are for the next couple of years. So, as you can see, it's kind of leveling out a little. 27-28 is 3.2, and then 28-29, 29 and 30 are both 3.3. Um, and then the next section of that slide is the PEACERS. Um, the below projected rate is as of June of 2025. We are going to see for the 2026 school year a 33.59%, and it
034is projected to slightly climb over the next couple of years, uh, leveling out in 2029 at 35.17%. >> And here we have our district profile, which we share every year with our kind of best projections of grade level enrollment for the 26-27 school year. The current numbers for this year and the numbers for next year do not take into consideration all of the non-NLSD students in our buildings that attend intermediate unit classrooms. So, they are not captured in this count. Um, and also in this we do not include in this count the students that are Northern Lehigh School District students but attending out of district placements. So, they're not physically in our buildings. Currently, we have 30 students in total total that are true Northern Lehigh students who are outplaced for things such as discipline,
035special education services, or even judicially ordered to a residential placement. This is six students less than last year at this time. Last year, we made a commitment that we were going to try to start bringing students back into the school district and serving them within our own classrooms, which is why we added, um, an emotional support classroom and a life skills support classroom. So, we were able to see, uh, a reduction of six students being able to return to our classrooms, and we're going to continue to work on that as we go into the next academic year. As of last count, we have 54 kindergarten students in the registration process with 33 fully registered and appointment scheduled. So, these are incoming kindergarteners. We know that this number will grow as we move through the summer
036months. So, this is just a visual representation of our enrollment back to 2021 up through our projected enrollment for next school year. Each color bar there represents a different school building with the key along the bottom. You'll see that for the most part, the numbers are pretty stable as we can kind of move through the years with Slatington Elementary seeing the largest growth for the upcoming school year, which I believe is a difference of I think 16 kids that kind of capture some students moving up through it from Peters to here, and then we'll have some larger grades in Slatington Elementary. But, as a whole across the years, we've been pretty stable with how our our enrollment shakes out in each school building. We're not anticipating any major spikes for this incoming kindergarten class. We
037think it's going to be somewhere between that 115-125 mark, but we won't actually know until we begin the new school year. Okay, our employment profile. We currently have 277 employees in the district, 126 support staff, one professional staff, a recommended addition for the upcoming school year, and we'll talk about that a little bit later. Administration at seven administration at 17 for a total for next year of plus one to 277 uh, employees. These are our current grant-funded positions, some of which will be grant-funded out for a few years to come yet. I'm not going to read this all to all of you, but know that we have teachers that we get federal funding for IDEA for special education, uh, Title I, Title II, the Ready to Learn Block Grant, and the Title IV, and our
038Pennsylvania, uh, Commission on Crime and Delinquency grants, which is our like our safety and security grants. Some of those, um, are all Some of those grants though don't cut fully cover positions, so they're sup- supplemented through the general fund. >> This shows the prior year composites of data of our expenditures versus our revenues. So, the red, uh, bars are our expenditures and the blue bars are our revenues. As you can see as the years progress, we are getting closer and closer to our revenues and our expenditures actually equaling each other. Um, last year at the end of the 2024-2025 school year, we did have an increased revenues, but only to the tune of $500,000. Um, that did roll into fund balance. And again, um, the board did pass a resolution in December that they were
039not going to raise taxes over our adjusted index, which is 4.8%. This is our fund balance. We ended the end of June 30th, 2025 with a little over 18.5 million dollars in our fund balance. Um, and you can see that it has steadily grown since 2020 where we were at our low of 9.759.74, and we have increased it over the last, uh, 5 years to a pot of 18.57 million. >> Okay. And now we're going to look at, uh, yep, now we're going to look at kind of our recommendations as we go through each building and it's it's pretty straightforward this year. Peters Elementary we're recommending status quo for budgeting purposes. Slatington Elementary we're recommending status quo for budgeting purposes. Northern Lehigh Middle School we're recommending status quo for budgeting purposes. And at the high
040school we're recommending that we reinstate one business teacher position at the high school and this is to support kind of ensuring that we solidify our pathways for students. We've been talking a lot about pathways the last few months whether our students choose to go into higher education or directly into the workforce to make sure that when they leave us they have the skills to be successful in whatever the next step may be for them. >> So what are our 2026-2027 budgeted increases expenditures? Well, besides normal increases that we see every year for salary and benefits, we also see an increase in 2026-2027 with one new teacher position. That is the business position at the high school, potential outplacements of students, and costs for special education services from the IU, as well as PEACERS and health
041care. We also increase the budget for utilities and repairs and maintenance and these do not include increases to the budget that are being recommended to be offset by fund balance for one-time purchases which we've done in prior years and they will be discussed later in the presentation. >> Okay, so now we're just going to quick quickly review what our charter and cyber charter school enrollment and cost are. So here is the enrollment. You'll notice that the blue line represents both charter brick and mortar charter schools and cyber charter schools together. Slight decrease of two students. This is reflective as of the end of the year last school year because the number for this school year could ebb and flow if students return to us or students leave us to go to one of these placements.
042So those data points are from the end of the year last school year. Uh the red line represents cyber charter school placements. Again, uh you know, a slight decrease there uh with the brick and mortar cyber the brick and mortar charter schools with a with a slight increase. Um so overall, we're down two students students two students have come back to us. Um we are anticipating or optimistic that we'll see these numbers continue to lower uh because of the recent legislative changes on how students can enroll in in particular cyber charter schools if they are considered habitually truant. They can't, which means that they can't leave us if we begin to hold them accountable or if we continue to hold them accountable for truancy, they can't leave us to go to a cyber to go
043to a cyber charter school. Um so we're hopeful that some of those numbers will continue to drop there especially in the cyber charter school uh arena. Here are the costs associated with those numbers as of the end of last school year. So overall charter school funding brick and mortar and cyber charter school through last year we spent uh $2.26 million. Specifically for regular education students, we spent $1.47 million between the two types of charters. And for special education students, we spent um $780,000. Now, again, we're hopeful that with the recent legislative pass, they've also readjusted the formula in particular for students with disabilities attending charter and cyber charter schools, The cost for a student to attend Um well, here I'll actually I'll share it with you right now. For the current school year, so the
04425-26 school year, for a regular education student in a brick-and-mortar [clears throat] charter school, the cost is $15,279. For a regular education student in a cyber charter school, the cost is $13,852. For a student with an IEP in a brick-and-mortar charter school, the cost is $36,510. And the cost for a student with an IEP in a cyber charter school is $26,180. So, that that cyber charter school, although in my opinion, not truly representative of a cost to educate a child in a cyber charter school, even if they have disabilities, um is lower than it would have been in years past because of how they re-staged the different tiers of cost for students with disabilities. We are grateful for that from uh the current state budget, but I still think there's work to do in that
045area. Um and then here is the uh just kind of over overall cost broken out again between uh cyber school and brick-and-mortar charter schools, uh which is just a rehash of the cost there. >> So, projected 26-27 uh budget revenue stream, so our real estate tax collection rate has been steady and stays at the 94.75% for uh the 26-27 school year, and that is based on our collections over the past 3 years. Governor Shapiro's budget provides us with a base amount in basic ed funding of $8,109,413, with an additional $372,772 in student weighted adjustments. This year's budget was increased by $116,000 over last year's leaving an additional $76,000 of basic ed funding unbudgeted. Governor Shapiro's budget includes an increase in special education funding for our district of $76,287. This year's budget was increased by $40,287
046leaving $36,000 unbudgeted. If the governor's budget passes as presented, we will add the additional $112,000 to revenues at the completion of the 26 to 26-27 budget year. The ready to learn block grant new base amount for 26-27 is $372,616. There's also additional new proposed funding for adequacy and tax equity funding which total $52,000 which is currently not in the budget because we're not sure if we'll get that adequacy funding or the tax equity funding. If we do, we'll add it to the budget. This is just a snapshot of where we ended our fund balance as of June 30th of 2025. So again, our ending total fund balance was $18,566,000. We have assigned current year fund balance usage which is the highlighted in yellow area of $1.32 million and those are used for one-time purchases, health
047care increases, debt service payments, and PEACERS increases. And then also of probably about five lines under that, you'll see the capital reserve fund transfer. That's at million and we did already do that. So right now, as of today, sitting in our general fund is $15,566,761 cuz that $3 million is over in our capital reserve projects now. >> Okay, so now we're going to talk a little bit about the long-term fund balance expenditures. I just want to remind everybody that this is different than the capital reserve $3 million that Mrs. Molitoris uh just spoke of. So, these do not include items that are on that 10-year capital improvement plan because those will be funded through combination of um capital res- capital the capital reserve account uh as well as depending on how many of the projects
048the school board would like to do, uh we would probably recommend some bond uh issuance as well. Specifically, projects and expenditures that are not um related to personnel, benefits, or curriculum is what we're going to look through now. Well, one curriculum. Um So, uh for the upcoming school year, uh we're continuing to recommend the Northern Lehigh School flooring replacement. As you recall, this is connected to the um Pennsylvania school facilities improvement grant, which we received last year to begin this work. Uh this is the next of this current school year's 25% match that we have to do to the work currently going on at the or which we began last year at the high school. We're also recommending for next school year a water softener and filtration upgrade at the high school. Um we continue
049to refine that number, and we're looking now at $75,000 as that project will not only require the work, but we may actually have to put some wall the installation of the water softener. Uh so, the cost of the water softener, the labor to install it, but it's likely that we're going to have to put up at least two walls to enclose it then with a with a door for access. Um Continue with furniture upgrades throughout the district uh again this year looking for $55,000 for Slatington Elementary School and $45,000 for the high school. We've already discussed the math curriculum and that's on the agenda this evening for K to 6 for thinking math curriculum materials and professional development. And then we actually begin we gave you the the look for 2728 through 2829 on this
050particular presentation. We begin furniture replacement at Peters Elementary School. Furniture replacement at the high school, security camera upgrades which are currently researching what that projected cost may be. Math curriculum for 7th and 8th grade which this is just if we were to continue with thinking math in 7th and 8th grade. That's not the recommendation yet. We're going to be running a pilot next school year and then come back with a recommendation. What we now know that thinking math if we were to roll it up into 7th and 8th grade, we're looking at about $75,000 for those two grade levels. And then Peters Peters furniture replacement for 2829 school year. Okay. >> So the big picture right now is our expenses total 44,184,677 and our revenues without using any fund balance is 40,789,928. So we currently
051have a budget shortfall of a little over 3 million 3.394 million. If we use fund balance for those one-time purchases that Dr. Link just talked about plus Peacers health care and debt service payments, that total is 1,384,858 which means we still are at a budget shortfall of 2,009,891 and again that is um constitutes uh um fun- but funds in our but I'm sorry, expenses in our budget that are reoccurring every year but uh expenses. They are not one-time expenses. So, those are like your salaries, your benefits, that kind of stuff. So, estimated fund balance in 25-26 if the district utilizes the 1,384,858 for one-time purchases, your debt payments, PESERS, and healthcare increases, um our general fund balance would end at 14,181,904. If you ended up saying we're going to take everything out of fund balance,
052uh currently right now, we would be at 12,172,013. However, I have not um looked at our projections for ending 25-26 yet to see whether I think we're going to realize any kind of um increased revenues and that out um pace our expenditures and that we would be putting more revenues or money back into gen uh general fund fund balance at the end of the 25-26 school year. I will be working on that in the next couple weeks and I should have a uh rough estimate at the April board meeting for that. So, basically, here's the tax real estate tax increase from prior years. Uh we went back to 2021 through 2026-27. So, um that shows where the preliminary was and then it shows where we ended up doing our final tax increase. Um because of
053where we currently stand and the um discussions that are going on about other things that are needed throughout the district, we're looking at the 4.8 as a recommendation from administration that we do the preliminary there so that we have room to discuss and then know where we can go after that point in time. So, if we [clears throat] do do our tax uh revenue projections at the 4.8% we would realize $885,000 in additional tax revenue. So as I talk every year we live between two counties. A true 4.8% is not a true 4.8% for us. Because what happens is Northampton County hits 4.8% and Lehigh County only gets to 2.97. So actually the percentage of increase that we can only get to is 4.37% and that's because of the equalization of mills between two counties.
054There is legislation out there right now they are trying to get past that would allow uh a school districts that are multi counties that we can tax each county as they should at their full amounts so that we would realize 4.8 in Lehigh County and 4.8 in Northampton County or 3.1 and 3.1 in the other. Um just on an off note, I looked at 4.8 on both of them. If we were raise Lehigh County to 4.8 we would be looking at about another $300,000 in additional revenue. So that's the hurt that this um equalizing of mills between two counties cost uh school districts that are that are spread between two counties. >> Okay. So for [clears throat] administrative recommendations uh and direction sought from the school board uh we are recommending that utilization of fund
055balance for one-time purchases, debt service payment, teachers and health care costs. All school districts this year are struggling with the spike in health care cost. Uh locally we're looking at about 17.5% and that's with the backing of our consortia consortium. Um and that's not even the highest in a multi county area. Health care costs are at the pri- probably the primary driver behind all this. Uh we're also recommending to pass a 4.8% preliminary tax increase in conjunction with utilization of fund balance to close the gap in addition to generating some revenue for upcoming years for capital improvements. Um and administratively recommending that additional position of one teacher in the business department at the high school. This evening, there is no formal action required uh tonight other than if you have any questions to be answered
056uh or if you want to share any current thinking with us, but there's nothing on the agenda this evening for um you know, to vote on. So, at this time uh we'll open it up uh for questions from the school board members. >> Anything? No. >> So, we're only 2 billion short. >> [sighs] >> Yeah. >> That is correct. >> Any comments? Thoughts? No. Would you like to go over a quick timeline just for the moment just to refresh everybody up? >> Sure. So, we have to approve a preliminary in April so that we um don't have to hold the special board meeting in June to pass the budget because there's not 30 days between our May board meeting and our June board meeting. So, we've brought everything to the board earlier this year so
057we don't have to hold a special meeting. So, we will be looking at a preliminary in April. We'll continue to refine it through May and then looking for a June approval of the final budget. >> Okay. >> Thank you. >> The other alternative would be have a special meeting in there if if and and I'd rather not get into that if we don't have to. So, we'll try and do that in in April. Okay? Thank you. Okay, this budget [clears throat] uh presentation will be included in the minutes um when these minutes are approved. And that concludes the business uh business department update this evening. >> [cough and clears throat] >> You're up. >> Okay, thank you, sir. Um So, this evening I'd like to start by recognizing two members uh of our faculty who
058have announced their retirements. Uh first, Mr. Michael Hamman, a high school special education teacher. And uh Mr. Hamman is retired or has retired actually uh after 21 and 1/2 years of service to the Northern Lehigh High School. Uh Mr. Hamman received his Bachelor of Arts degree from Kutztown University. He continued on with postgraduate work at the Sales University to obtain his professional certificate in special education. While at Northern Lehigh, Mr. Hamman taught special education at the high school. He will be truly missed by the students and staff uh and many of the students' families that he's have supported over all those uh over two decades. Uh so, again, thank you, Mr. Hamman, for your dedication and service to the Northern Lehigh High School District, and we wish you well on a well-earned retirement. Also on
059the agenda this evening, uh you'll see that Mr. Anthony Jordan uh will be retiring after 24 years of service to the Northern Lehigh High School. I'm sorry, to the Northern Lehigh High School District as a technology education teacher at the high school and middle school at the end of this current school year. Mr. Jordan received his Bachelor of Science and Education degree from Kutztown University. His postgraduate work was completed at the Sales University where he received a Master's in Education Technology K-12. Uh one administrator noted Mr. Jordan makes genuine and successful efforts to ensure all students are well served by the school. Mr. Jordan will be truly missed by the students and staff in Northern Lee High School District. Thank you, Mr. Jordan, for your dedication and service to the Northern Lee High School District
060uh and all the students and families that you have supported over almost a quarter of a century. Uh we wish you a happy and well-deserved retirement. This evening, I would also like to recognize two Northern Lee High High School students who also attend Lee High Career and Technical Institute or as we often call it LCTI and who performed exceptionally well at the State DECA Conference held February 17th through the 20th at Hershey in Hershey, Pennsylvania. Uh we're very proud to recognize their accomplishments. First, Savannah Hall, a senior, placed second in the school store retail operations, earned a PA DECA scholarship of $1,000, and was recognized for the gold certificate school-based enterprise retail operations specifically for her work in and support of the salon at LCTI. Next, uh Mallory McIntyre, also a senior, placed first in
061a chapter banner team event and first in a PA DECA uh International Career Development Conference pin design competition. So, she's actually going to design the pin for the national competition. This is the second time in recent years that we had somebody win this particular honor. I should say somebody earned this particular honor because they worked hard for it. Uh both of these students have also qualified to compete at the DECA International Career Development Conference in Atlanta later this month. We congratulate them and wish them the best as they represent their schools at the national level. Uh Peters Elementary School recently had a very successful and fun event. Um they recently hosted the uh literacy night uh was also highlighted which was also highlighted in a recent article in the Times News. We appreciate the support
062of several community partners, including the Northern Lehigh Parent Teacher Organization, uh Slatington Public Library, and Head Start. Additionally, we would also like the generous also like to thank the generous donors who helped support the event. They included uh Weis Markets, Giant Markets, Walmart, Ocean Spray, and Thompson's Meat Market. I would especially like to recognize the efforts of uh Mr. Schneideright, uh Mr. uh Kraylik, and the reading specialist Amanda Bayshore, Josie Flueger, and Cara Richardson, along with all of the staff uh at Peters Elementary who helped make the event uh such a success, along with all the staff who gave their time and talent to make it a special evening focused on literacy and fun. So, a lot of great positive feedback for that uh literacy night, and I know Mr. Schneideright's going to share a
063little bit more at the Education Committee next month. Uh as a reminder, our high school theater uh is performing Anastasia March 12th to March 15th, so beginning this Thursday with the last show being the matinee on Sunday. Uh I encourage our community to come out and support our talented students and staff. Tickets can be purchased through the district website. Uh I'd also like to formally announce this evening that the Class of 2026 graduation ceremony will take place on Friday, June 5th, at 7:00 p.m. in Bulldog Stadium. Rain dates are scheduled for Saturday, June 6th, and Sunday, June 7th. If a postponement becomes necessary, start times for the rain dates will be determined at that time, but will most likely occur in the [snorts] morning. Um I'd also like to share that we are very excited
064to recently receive uh notification from Lehigh County that our ball field permits have been released, and the fields have finally been turned over to the school district. So, So appreciate everybody's patience in that process. Um and that concludes my uh report for this evening, sir. >> Thank you. Thank you. >> And I believe Mrs. Frank has uh something to comment on related to that. >> Um just adding to some student activities. Um next week we are voting for our What's So Cool About Manufacturing Competition. Voting is from Tuesday to Thursday. Um and then uh that's for viewers' choice award and the actual events gala takes place at Stabler Arena on March 25th, which is the following Wednesday. It is being broadcast on WFMZ this year as well. Um we were partnered with uh Primo Water
065Brands, which is a water manufacturing uh facility down in Fogelsville. So we had a lot of fun. Um stay hydrated, really. >> Thank you, Mrs. Frank. >> All done, sir. >> We did have an executive session at 6:00 p.m. We discussed what some legal uh I think it was mostly legal issues that we that we had tonight. >> Well, personnel also, I guess, yeah. >> Legal and personnel would be the the two items. Thank you. Uh Okay. Uh speaking of personnel, we'll move into the agenda, the personnel items A through uh what are we going to go by? Looks like L. Is there a motion to approve that? Um M. Okay, I thought one start. Thank you. Is there a motion to approve the personnel item? >> a motion and a second. >> I didn't
066even ask for it yet. You guys are getting ahead of me. Okay. Uh any discussion or question? Hearing none, all those in favor signify by saying aye. >> Aye. >> Opposed, no, and so ordered. Uh policies >> If if may, I'd like to welcome more of our new faculty and we will be getting very soon. Uh, this evening we have Ms. Ann Marie Torres with us this evening, uh, who will become a new first grade teacher at Peters Elementary School. So, congratulations and I guess kind of welcome back. You served for us previously as a, um, a permanent sub. Uh, we are excited and happy to have you back uh, to Northern Lehigh. Congratulations. Okay. Now I could do policy? >> Yes, sir. >> Thank you. Uh, we have some policy items. There a motion
067to approve policy? >> Motion. >> Second. >> Any questions on policy? I think they were all reviewed at the committee meeting. Hearing none, all those in favor signify by saying I. >> I. >> Those opposed, no. And so ordered. We have two conferences. There a motion for the conferences? >> Motion. >> Second. >> Thank you. Any questions? Hearing none, all those in favor signify by saying I. >> I. >> Those opposed, no. And so ordered. Uh, curriculum and instruction, we have A through H. Is there a motion to >> Second. >> Any questions on any of those? Hearing none, all those in favor signify by saying I. >> I. >> Those opposed, no. And so ordered. Uh, I have nothing under old business. Uh, new business. I guess we have to separate these. Item A,
068uh, Northern Lehigh School District trustee to represent El Tri C. Uh, is there a motion for someone to take that position? >> I would like to nominate >> Mr. Green. >> He's done a great job for the past couple years, so >> Thank you, sir. Uh, I don't know if I want to stay for six more years, but I might, you know, take it for a while. Are there any other nominations? Any other nominations? Now, is there a motion to close nominations? >> So moved. >> Is there a second? >> Second. >> Thank you. All those in favor of closing nominations, please signify by saying I. >> I. >> Opposed, no. And so ordered, the secretary will cast the unanimous ballot. Thank you. I appreciate it. Uh I'll try and serve uh for a while.
069Again, I don't know if I'll make six more years, but uh we'll do a little bit and see where we go. Okay, other item item B uh under new business. Is there a motion to approve item B? >> So moved. >> Second. >> Motion second. Any questions [snorts] or discussion? Hearing none, all those in favor signify by saying I. >> I. >> Opposed, no. And so ordered. Uh we'll be going to financial. We have A through I and J, if that's correct. Motion to approve financial. >> Motion. >> Second. Any questions on financial items? Hearing none, all those in favor signify by saying I. >> I. >> Opposed, no. And so ordered. I have nothing under legal or correspondence. I don't know if anybody else has anything anywhere. >> No. Couple information items, basically the
070minutes of the meetings uh I think Mr. Crispin, you had requested that uh >> Sure. >> Do you have the opportunity to speak? >> Uh I'll try to be quick. Uh first of all, good evening, ladies and gentlemen. Nice to see you all again. Um I just had a couple concerns. First of all, I apologize my attire. Uh fall spring, I was outside all day, so. Um I watched the uh committee meetings last week and was a little disappointed to see the direction of the use of the ball field for the summer. Uh so I'm just I guess, looking for a little clarification on that. Um, in years past, decades, for as long, way before even I was involved, um, after high school seasons were over, the high school field was then utilized by either
071Connie Mack, Legion, Babe Ruth, whatever organization was using at that time. Um, so I'm a little concerned why that's not, that all the branches [snorts] not being extended again for this summer. Uh, especially because that has some ripple effects that trickle down to the youth level. Um, and also, uh, attached to that [clears throat] is you guys proposed, possible pay to use for outside organizations. Uh, we submitted emails asking if our youth association would be considered an outside organization, and we were not given direction on that yet. Um, so again, we're just curious on that, just so we can plan accordingly with all these moving parts going on. Um, I'm not sure if you guys are familiar with how summer seasons typically go, um, here in the Northern Lehigh area. But typically, you know, your
072school scholastic season runs from right now till first, second week of May. Um, then there's usually about a 2-week off period. And then the summer season usually starts uh, immediately after that, >> [clears throat] >> and runs till roughly the third week of July. And then after that, uh, baseball's usually over for that level. Um, so I'm just asking for a little guidance, little clarification, because you know, how you guys dictate and how that moves forward, you know, it rolls downhill to things that we have to do at the youth level to accommodate changes um, that we have to plan for accordingly. I know technically you don't have to answer right now. So, uh, again, I'm just saying, you know, maybe reconsider um, opening the field usage for the summer. Uh, I understand, you know,
073you have to come up with a maintenance plan. Um, biasly, my personal opinion, I feel like having teams play on the field for a month or so would probably actually give your maintenance team a a break because by playing on the field that actually um, prohibits grass growth from coming back onto the field. Um, but that's my biased opinion. Um, so, again, just wanted to express a little um, concern about the path that we're headed. Uh, I'm just looking for a further clarification moving forward as far as summer usage. If it if and when it will be reinstated and also if and what fees would be associated to especially to us specifically at the Northern Lehigh Youth Baseball Association. Cuz it does have a ripple effect. So. That's all. >> All right. Thank you for
074your input. Do you want >> I I think a lot of what you're asking is still up in the air to be honest with you. It's like, you know, the fields were just released and they're still looking at them seeing what it is. Obviously, you don't want to tear up a brand new field, you know, and that. So, we're we're still we're still not sure where a lot of this is going, but I appreciate your concern. So, >> I completely understand that and quite frankly shame on Lehigh County for dragging their feet on that permit process taking so long. I publicly say that. Probably the slowest county process in the entire nation. Um, so, I understand it's not all you guys. Thank you, Lehigh County, for finally doing something. So, again, I'm just expressing a
075little concern because I I know there's only so much you can do. I I the concerns of a new field. Obviously, we all want that thing to stay beautiful for generations to come. Um that's a big investment on the back of the taxpayers. Uh so, I don't think any of us would want to see that new renovation go to the wayside, you know. But just understand there are some concerns, you know, that are tripled down. >> And I think you hit it on the head. That's pretty much where we're at, Mr. Cushman. We're still looking at it. We just got the field back and and we should have answers shortly. So. >> Yeah. I mean, just for example, like this year, I mean, again, thanks to the board, we were able to expand to a
076middle school program. So, we now have three scholastic teams, which is amazing for a small school the size that we are. And um we also have 10 youth teams from the ages 4 to 15. So, you know, going to these league meetings that I attend, you know, for the size of district that we are, we're actually growing in that department when others are declining. So, I have no doubt that over the next couple years, you know, the field will continue to get good use. So, that's all. Again, I just wanted to put it out there. >> Thank you. Good to see you again. Come back. See you soon. Uh that's [snorts] the only guest I think that was listed. You've had you've made your comments. You're okay? Okay. Are you really okay or you Okay.
077Uh there's no other business to be attended to. Is there a motion to adjourn? >> So moved. >> Second. >> Motion second. Is that carried? >> Yes. >> All those in favor of adjournment, please signify by saying aye. >> Aye. >> Opposed, no. And so ordered. I would remind you your ethics statement is in front here. If you're a new person, you know, give a copy back into the school district. Mary Jo will take care of it. So. >> I'm ready.