001Heat. Heat. Good evening, ladies and gentlemen. I'd like to call the Tuesday, February 17th, Penmanor School District Committee of the Whole meeting to order. The next scheduled meeting of the Penmanor School Board will be held on Monday, March 2nd, 2026 at 700 p.m. in the large group instruction room of Penmanor High School. An executive session was held prior to the committee of the whole meeting for the purposes of discussing student matters, personnel, and a legal matter as detailed above. Mrs. Rhodess, may we have a roll call, please? >> Sure. Mr. Beaks >> here. >> Mr. Her >> here. >> Mrs. Hope here. >> Mrs. Kek >> here. >> Mr. Lombardo >> here. >> Mr. Warfl >> here. >> Ms. Wart >> here. >> Mrs. Napsiger here. Dr. Fullerton >> here. Nine board members present. >>
002I would love to entertain a motion to approve the minutes of our February 2nd, 2026 committee of the whole meeting. >> So moved. >> Thank you. And a second. >> Second. >> Thank you. Any further comment or question? All those in favor? >> Eight affirmative votes. Mrs. Kek. >> Yeah. >> Nine affirmative votes. >> Uh board development opportunities and reports. Do we have a board report? >> Yes. The Lancaster County Academy met on February 4th. I did send out a copy of the minutes which all of you should have received. Just a couple highlights. Uh you may or may not be familiar with Mante. They are an organization that develops and deploys new technologies and they have given um Thaddius Stevens a grant through which our students can earn 50 hours of internship out of
003the hundred that the academy requires for graduation. So that'll be a real exciting opportunity for some of our students. Uh, she also mentioned the director had mentioned that the I had told you before that the UFC gym out of Park City gives free passes to the Lancaster County Academy students and she has noticed that having those free passes has helped to incentivize some of the students to get to class and and meet their requirements. So, that's been a real bonus. Yeah. Uh, also in terms of internet access at Park City, now that we're out there, Park City wanted to charge $3,000 a month for internet hookup and that's two times what our rent is. So, the director checked with the IU consortium. And with the rate discount, we'll have to pay $7,600 for the first
004month because there's a $5,300 hookup initially. the next three years it goes down to 2,300 and then by the fifth year it'll be 1,700 a year as compared to 50 or 3,000. So that's a real a real savings obviously. Uh Hefield used to be a part of the academy then they began their own alternative education. They no longer have that and they're going to join us again with a minimum of five seats and hopefully 10. That's yet to be determined. So, that's exciting. Uh, partly in in terms of revenue, and we're trying a pilot this summer with Career Links. They are going to rent for two weeks at $300 a week part of our space. We do not use all of the space out of Park City at this point, especially over the summer. So,
005we're going to see how this goes. And if it goes well, we'll consider renting out space to other organizations. And um that would be good because at this point only 95% of our revenue comes from the districts. So this would be another nice source on on the side. >> That's it. >> Well, thank you, Miss Wart. Any questions for Miss Wart? >> Okay. Any other reports? >> Yeah, CTC, we did the uh new board orientation uh last week and so a great presentation. Dr. Long is on uh on board now that everything is taken care of with the state budget. So he just started a week before the presentation. Did a great job. Um I think everybody's really excited about him being on board. Uh we'll have a meeting 22nd and Dr. Ged uh should
006have received an email about the appreciation dinner on the 26. So um and Eric is the alternate. You're also invited. So, um, so yeah, >> you're welcome. >> Yeah. So, um, yeah. So, looking forward to serving and, um, this is a great, great presentation. A lot of good things coming down the pike. So, >> so February will be in Mount Joy. >> Mount Joy. >> And you'll get to enter have the food, the cuisine there. >> Yes. >> Yeah. You're welcome, too. >> Yes. Thank you. >> Um, >> any other board reports? board opportunities. >> Sure. Our next board breakfast is March 10th at Central Manor at 8:15 a.m. And then we have two new opportunities in March backtoback. Uh Thursday, March 19th is the FFA banquet in the high school cafeteria. Um you should
007have received an email with a Google form to RSVP and your RSVP is due by the 27th. Um, and then also on March 20th, uh, we will have a legislative breakfast with our counterparts, I believe, at Colombia and Hemfield as well, um, hosted at Manor Middle School at 8:00 a.m. >> Okay. Thank you, Miss Navsinger. We will move on to item number one, an update on the 2627 budget. Mr. for >> good evening. We're going to take a look uh at the 2627 budget this evening. Um obviously as we try to meet our mission and uh and work for those students, the funding and the funding process is critical to meeting those academic and life goals. So we'll start out with what the governor had proposed. Um some of you may have read uh may
008understand that at this point in time the governor made a proposal where um the revenues don't match the expenditures. Um >> the anticipated current source expenditures would leave us with a $4.7 billion rainy day fund use. He has also proposed some alternate revenue sources. Even with those alternate revenue sources, we still have a $2.9 to three billion dollar rainy day fund use. Um >> the other challenge with those new revenue sources is that the majority of that is based upon legalization of recreational marijuana and taxes on games of chance. Um, and even his proposal, those even though the budget runs July 1 to June 30, that actually wouldn't go into effect till January 1. So, we would have to try and get that $1.7 billion in six months to balance that out. So, um, we'll
009see where we go from there, but we'll take a little bit more details, um, what it looks like for Pen Manor. So, uh, where do we go and how does it impact us? So, we'll start to see um the basic education and special ed funding um is relatively small changes. Uh and so we'll see we'll use the governor's proposal there. The real question comes for us over the next couple months. If you remember in 2024 25 and 2526, um ready to learn had been a consistent number of just over $600,000 for probably the previous 10 years. In those two years, we've seen a $2.7 million increase both years. The governor is proposing a third $2.7 million increase for 2627. And that's part of driving some of that rainy day fund usage and that $53 billion
010buzz budget at this time. So, I tried to give you a synopsis of what do we see? What does it mean? Um the first two columns takes a look at what we budgeted when you passed your budget before the end of June and then what actually got approved by the state. The good news is is that what we budgeted is pretty close to what got approved by the state. We actually are going to get an extra $22,000 um on that 25.7 million. Um so they're very close. So, one of the things that nice is we're at least at a good starting point um when we look at next year's budget. The third column starts to show you what does the what did the governor propose and so you can see in uh that third column
011you can see what the different categories would be and then the fourth column sort of takes the difference between what was the second and the third column. So, what did we actually get this year and what is the governor proposing? And so with a with a $100,000 increase to basic education funding, that is essentially a 0.6% increase. Um so really not much there. Essentially flatf funded. Um special ed is up a little bit more. Uh that is about a 4% increase from in our funding. Uh but as we've discussed the last few months, our special ed spending is far outpacing a 4% increase. So, it is not keeping up with our spending. Um, and then really the the part that is up in the air is this continuing to fund ready to learn at that
012um that increase that that the governor's proposed. If you remember that the this increase to ready to learn is what the governor has been using and the legislators have approved the last two years uh to handle the lawsuit that have been lost by the state and their their adequate funding. So overall right now there's about a $3 million increase across these categories in the governor's proposal for next year. So if we take the governor's proposal, we put that in there, we look at a couple other things. where are we at? Uh where is our budget for 2627 at this point in time? So in any budget at this time we have to make some assumptions. So the first thing I did was I assume that we get all of the governor's proposal. We'll look at
013some slides later to talk about how that's impacted if we don't get all of it. But we we need a starting point. So we'll assume we get all of the governors. Uh the next thing that I assumed was that we continue to save for the future projects laying out the plan that Raymond James had set out. What does that look like? And so for us it'll be about $2.7 million towards those project and next year's budget. About a $700,000 increase. Um and then the last thing that I did is just made the assumption of okay, where do we start from a tax rate? So I started from last year's rate because that's the starting point and then we can see and we'll look at some of the changes uh what happens from uh varying that
014as we we look at things. So essentially with these assumptions uh the budget is basically balanced. Um yes there's a $34,000 deficit but on 122 million that's essentially zero. Um so we'll take a look at that. So what what's driving that increase? So from budget 2526 to budget 2627 there's about $7.4 million increase in expenditures and it really comes out of the five categories that are seen here. Um salary and benefits obviously is our largest spend and the increase to salary and benefits is our largest driver to the increase. This salary and benefit number does include um the takeback of the autistic support uh classroom that was uh passed by the board. Uh there are no other uh added uh positions in this number. Uh student services uh although we are taking back uh the
015classes this is really driven by the fact that I expect us to be about $1.8 8 to2 million over budget based on enrollment and cost this current year. And so trying to get us to where we should be, we need to try and bring some of that in. And so that's why you still see an increase on the student services, uh, which includes our IU funding and and other student service expenditures. Uh, tuition is about a half a million dollar increase. And if you remember the there were some changes to cyber charter formulas. um that did do a reset and drop it slightly, but it still grows at the same rate and so that's why we see a half a million dollar increase. Uh this also looks at our CTC tuition and other tuitions. Um
016that way technology infrastructure is about a half a million dollars. That's due to some of the uh infrastructure that we need to upgrade in our cycle next year. Transportation goes up about 225,000 uh with our contract. And now if you add those up, you're say, "Well, that's way above $7.4 million." So, one of the things that's not in the model at this point in time, and we'll talk about it as we move along, is that I did not put the $750,000 from budgetary reserve in the budget. Reminder, when we put the budgetary reserve in the last two years, we've never funded that on the revenue side. So to try and uh look at and make sense of a uh revenue meets expenditures, I just pulled that out at this point in time. So it's not
017uh we're not going in there with a negative 750,000. Let's look at balance, then we'll decide if we continue to do the uh the contingency or the budgetary reserve that we've done in the past. Um so we'll see where that goes. But the rest of it comes to what's driving as you see those five categories essentially are driving the increase. What is still unknown? Obviously a huge unknown uh is the state funding. I have heard speculation and rumor that it's an election year. The budget will get done on time and then I've also heard that the budget won't get done until after the election. So somewhere between June and December, I think the budget will get done. Uh so that leaves a pretty big unknown. And going back to what we we saw, essentially basic
018ed and and special education funding are hold harmless. They can't go down. Um the ready to learn can't go down. And so really that $2.7 million increase in ready tolearn is really in flux. Uh the rest is pretty well set there. What else? We don't know. You know, are we going to keep moving along on the the funding of future projects? As I said, I followed that plan in the raft we have right now. And then lastly, obviously, is what is the tax rate? And it's important to remember here, as we've talked about before, um that is a calculation, a three-year rolling average. And what that is communicating is the index across the state is 3.5. and and what they look at based upon wages and inflation. Uh they believe that you need to increase
019taxes 3.5% across the state in order to stay up with the demands. Um our pen matter adjusted index is greater because the formula drives out that we have greater need than many of our colleagues. So as part of the superintendent's plan uh goals, we are looking at multiple years. And so I think it's important as we start to look and see some variation here uh we'll start to look and see well what does this look like um across a three-year span. So using all the assumptions that we saw earlier looking at a 3.5% tax increase for 2627 and then I dropped the tax increase to 3% for 2728 and 2829. That's based upon, if you remember, Raymond James talked about it, a number of other uh inputs have talked about they expect the index to
020drop the next few years. So I just picked three. It's a starting point. So you see that the 3.5 in next year given the assumptions we have tonight essentially balances the budget. But you see that those outy years the deficit grows. What does it look like if the only thing that we do is we change the tax increase in 2627. So nothing else changed between these two slides. It's the 1% additional tax in 2627. And so you see that it generates some additional revenue which could be used to get ahead in the project, could be used for whatever we decide to do there. And then you see that that takes essentially $600,000 off each or adds $600 of revenues in each of those years, therefore reducing the deficit by $600,000, which is essentially the revenue
021we generate from a 1% tax increase. The other thing that I wanted to look at a little bit is trying to understand how the different factors impact us. And so in this case, I'm comparing tax increases to percentages of the ready tole learn increase. And so the top row assumes we get all of the ready tole learn. We get the full $2.7 million increase. You can see, as we talked about, it's about a $300,000 change because each of those is a half a percent in tax. You see that if the ready tolearn drops to 50%, right? if they negotiate and they say, "Hey, we just can't have this large of a of a rainy day fund usage, cut it in half," you'll see that none of our tax increases are enough to close that deficit
022that the ready tolearn would leave, right? So, it just helps you sort of see the magnitude of what we're looking at. Obviously, the board controls the tax increase. None of us control what happens with ready to learn. That's sort of the overview starting in the process. Please, if there's questions, we can take them this evening. If there's things that you'd like this us to spend more time on on future presentations, please let myself or Dr. Gail know. And now, any questions? Mr. Lombardo. >> Yeah, it's not it's kind of ancillary to all that. Um, I remember we had like for the future what the plan was like what the timeline sort of thing. Can you remind me did it did it show also the upkeep like you know how we had the maintenance schedule of
023all the buildings? Was that in that as well? And are are we going to be seeing that soon again to like refresh? Like now that we're really looking at the budget again, it would be helpful for me at least to see yes, we have new building projects we need to do, but also the maintenance look at uh some of the capital reserve projects that are out there. >> Yeah. >> Um >> but we can go into more detail of like the maintenance budget or the >> Well, I'm think what I'm thinking of remember how we have the red, yellow, green, like where our buildings are at where they're and we're trying to keep them all green obviously >> based on the the feasibility study. >> Yeah. Like I don't really know what I'm asking for,
024but I guess all of it so I can see like okay like to maintain that maintenance schedule for these buildings. This has to be done this year. This has to be you know what I mean on top of what we have to probably build for in the future like all of it like together. >> Yeah. We'll take a snip a snippet of that later in one of the presentations tonight and then we can go from there. >> Other questions? Mrs. N. Mr. Fory, in a future budget presentation, can we please see a breakdown of our professional service fees, uh, like the cost to do the audit, uh, legal fees, etc. Um, >> thank you. >> I don't think we talk about that a lot, so I think it would just be good for us to
025see. >> Yeah. >> Thanks. Now that's easy. >> Yeah. >> Anything else? >> What ages does the ready to learn go to primarily? >> So it can be used we are using it K to 12. >> Oh the whole way to 12. >> Correct. >> So we we >> um this year with this year's grant we added some of our secondary math and science teachers. So, it it is pretty broad. Um, I think really the biggest thing that they took out of it is there's really no facility usage in it at all. >> So, like you couldn't renovate or do anything projectwise. It's really >> Oh, okay. >> academically driven. So that the ready tolearn money has been in the state budget for a number of years, but it was a very low fee or
026low low amount. Like up until we started getting these increases, we were at about $600,000 for the previous 10 years. And there were there was a set of criteria of how that money could be used. Dr. Egan, do you have that criteria? >> Yes, it's extensive >> prior to the expansion of it. Mhm. >> Because then it and then it it could be used for certain things. In some cases, it was staffing of particular particular positions. >> And then as the money has increased, the criteria has also increased as well. >> So, as Mr. Fory was mentioning, we we've been able to utilize that to offset some of the costs of salaries from all the way from counselors all the way to some of our teaching positions. I mean, one of the things as Dr.
027Gail points out, we are we are 10 times the amount in ready to learn as we were two years ago. >> Just two years ago. Wow. >> Yeah. Okay. >> And potentially looking at $9 million if the governor's budget goes through. >> Mr. Her. >> Uh yeah, I'm I'm interested in the 2.7 that we're putting towards uh project. So this coming year it looks like we can do it. But but what if what are the ramifications if and out years where these massive deficits are are looking like if we put us in a real >> each of those years adds I right now we're about 2.1. I think the Raymond James model had us add $600,000 a year for the next number of years. That's in these models right now. >> Okay. Okay. So when
028you look at this molted beer, it has those additions each of those years. >> Okay, we can go on to the next presentation. >> Any other question? Any further questions? Thank you, Mr. Fory. We'll continue right on with Mr. Fory. Item number two. So, we're going to go back uh based on some discussion last uh meeting on the tax rebate program and and really looking at potential revisions and understanding it. So, um I just want to go back and and talk about the program and and where it comes from and how we get there and how uh how we do the calculations. So, one of the things that's really important is, and I think Dr. Gail asked me today in a meeting, I'm not sure there are other districts that have some sort of payment
029to senior program. Um, I'm not sure, and I can tell you that the three that I've been involved in, this is the only one that follows or is layered on top of the state rebate program. So, uh, I I as the person who's in charge of implementing it, I appreciate that because we don't screen people. You just follow the state program. So, we're not setting criteria or you know, follow it. So, it's important to in saying that to say, okay, what is the state program? The state program essentially is two tests, right? First of all, are you a resident 65 or older? Are you a widow or widow 50 and older? Or are you a person with disability who's 18 and older? So, you meet one of those three and you have a household income
030less than $48,110 or less annually. Um, and we'll see and we'll talk about it some later, but when the state forms look at that income, think of that similar to your 1040 income, right? So that's interest, that's dividends, that's retirements, that's gambling winnings, whatever sort of feeds into your overall federal income, right, on your tax. It's not just wages. Um, and so it's important to understand that. And then lastly, the state maximum rebate um is $1,500. That did go up, I think, a few years ago. uh essentially it's a thousand and then there's an extra 500 can be added on in the property owner. There's also a parallel on the form for a rebate with regard to rental, right? Obviously, we don't have property assoc property tax associated with those and so we just follow
031the the uh tax rebate form. So, Pen Matter, we look at the state eligibility and right now we have a maximum level uh we've restricted to $35,000. Um, which is essentially where the state was, I think, two years ago when they until they raised it and then put an automatic escalator in it. Um, we have a maximum rebate and we'll look at how we get to that of $1,000. So, how does the rebate work? First of all, the tax uh the the homeowner has to go through the state program. Um all of our local representatives offices will work with those individuals. Like I said, they work with multiple because the same form is used for the uh property tax rebate as well as the rental rebate program. Um you meet the qualifications I said earlier.
032The income looks at all things that feed into the income. So you do the state process. Second, you pay your previous year's property tax. So you had to have been a resident at least the previous year in your home and paid your property tax. So it it lags a year. So you pay the prop the previous year property taxes. Then you submit your state documentation to the school district and request reimbursement or rebate. Then we look at the calculation. And so the calculation is based upon what their tax bill was and then what the discount. And we'll see how the discounts come into it. But what does the discount look like? So I put a couple examples up here. Let's say, excuse me, for instance, that somebody had a $2,400 tax bill and they qualified
033at a 35% discount. That means that they would get a $840 rebate from us. Okay? If someone had a $4,200 tax base and they were had a little higher income, so they have a little lower discount, you multiply those two and that comes up with,50. Well, our cap is a,000. So, they get capped at that thousand, right? So, um it is restricted. So, we go through, we look at their and the the data comes right off the state forms and then after they submit it all, um, we cut a check to the homeowner. We can take the forms as early as July 1. So, we could cut them the check before they pay their following year August payment. So, that's we do see them the whole way through December. Um, but the bulk of them
034come in in that late July, early August time frame and they use it then towards the following year's property tax payment. Um, as you said, PEM matters capped at a,000 rebate, stays capped at 1,500. So potentially the homeowner could get $2,500 off of their property tax bill. So remember we talked about it last week when we look at this cap at a thousand last year or you know last tax year this current budget year uh we had 194 people that applied. Um eight of them received 100% rebate from the state and pen manner. So they got 2500 off. um 12 qualified for our maximum, but some of them were restricted because as we saw in the calculation earlier, their discount and their tax bill didn't add up to $1,000. So that's why that capped happened.
035Um as you'll see, our highest number of rebates and payout was back in 2324. So the question that was asked was what would it look like? Could we figure out what it would look like to go to the state threshold? So, what I tried to look at is I tried to look at data that was particular to Penner School District. Now, you can find some of that data and this is at census reporter.org. The difficulty is is that data doesn't necessarily meet all of our criteria. So, for instance, when I looked at this, our question is really meeting one of those three age criteria and less than $48,110. The criteria that Census Reporter had for Pen Manor was it had a number of people households over 60 and households under $50,000. Right? So, it at
036least gives us some ballpark. If you take this just over 17,000 households in Ben Matter, that leaves at least a,024 that are senior citizens under $50,000. The reason I say at least is we know historically um there are probably more of the senior households under that 50,000, but it doesn't distinguish. So, we just had to come up with some sort of estimate. The second thing that I looked at then is okay, what is our average tax bill in the program right now and what if we gave them a 5% discount. So our average at a 5% discount the program calculates to $13360. So, if I had 1,024 people who potentially are eligible all applied, this would add $136,86 to the program. Are they all going to apply? How many exist above that,024? I don't know.
037Right. Um, and so that's trying to give an estimate. So, what does that look like overall to the program? Right now we have 195 people that are in that 0 to 35,000, right? There's multiple discounts that occur in there that cost $74,811 this year potentially adding um those thousand plus households and at a 5% discount. uh you see that that's that 136 806 and so potentially it could cost us over $200,000 next year to expand to that higher income level just as a point of reference so you can sort of see well where did I come up with that 13360 so like I said I looked at the average tax bill across people who are currently in the program the average tax bill for people in the program is 2672 two, if you remember, we've
038talked about it many times, our median tax bill, right? When you look at all of our homesteads across the district, is $34.86. And there is an individual currently in the senior tax rebate program who has a $6,300 tax bill. Right? So, that's why you know what? These are all estimates. They could go I I'm not sure they would go much lower, but they could obviously go higher depending upon how you open up that that threshold. Okay, questions. What recommendation would the board to make? Floor is open. So you're saying that no other there's only one or two other districts that provide this? >> So there are other districts. So my previous two districts provide a rebate program. Um there's usually some sort of voluntary service associated with the payment. Um when I left, neither of
039them were at $1,000. um they were both at like $500, $600 and and there you you had to do some service hours or somebody had to work service hours for that individual. And so that was based upon some number of hours that they worked and a restriction, not based upon the the state income and uh tax bill formula that we had. >> And I think I've said this before, Pin Manor was either the first the second district to even provide this at all in the county. >> Correct. And I think as Dr. Gail mentioned, when we first started, we had some sort of fee for service type thing. Um having experienced that, I think Dr. Gale experienced that. Uh this is a far better way to handle it than um putting people to work and
040>> say I think the one question that I have is the number between the 35,000 and the 48,411. The state knows what that number is and the state I would think would have it by school district. So, is there a way that we could ask the state what that number is for Penn Manor between 35,000 and 48,000? Because they're sending those rebate checks to those individuals. Is there a way for us to just ask the state to say, is it 1,024? Is it 900? Is it? >> I asked two of our representatives that question shortly after the last meeting. I haven't gotten no response from either. Okay. I mean, between now and next year, I think I'd like to ask them several times we get a response back. if they haven't. Um because I think,
041you know, I think we could figure out pretty close to the dollar that with what their numbers are. Dan, does does pretty much everyone who's eligible go for this? Like do we have a feel for you know like the,24 are they do you expect most of them to participate? >> I I have no idea. That's the difficulty. Like I don't even know right. I can't tell you that. all of the people under 35,000 are participating, >> right? I I would imagine they aren't, >> but I can tell you from conversations I've had with Office of the Aging and the fact that they are continually promoting this in Lancaster County, there's a very low participation rate from a county perspective. I don't know what that looks like in Pen Manor. tend to be pretty frugal folks
042here. So, I would guess our participation rate might be a little bit higher than the average. And I think we do a good job informing people. Um, but I don't know the answers, but like I know I've had those conversations where it's as a county perspective pretty low participation. I I think the you know this to your point the other thing is is that right now on the state form um if you're between $19,241 and 48,10 the maximum rebate from the state is $380. So there may be some that maybe they haven't figured it out and you know and so but if potentially you could put $1380 on it then maybe they are more like right that's that's the difficulty here is that >> right >> who is the population right I and I think
043I think this at least gives us a ballpark of the population then the question is how eagerly do people apply? Um I think one of the things that I would encourage the board is that um it would be very difficult if we raised a level to ever lower it later. >> Right. you know, so that's, >> you know, some of the difficulty mass, >> right? I mean, my I understand for ease to go to the current state rate was kind of the thought process for some, but I think that's why if we're going to raise it that we should raise it incrementally because that allows us to see if we move it to 40,000 this year, we can see does that break the bank, right? and we're still increasing it and opening the opportunity to
044more taxpayers. Um, and then we can adjust next year and and make a plan to catch up with the state, but maybe not do it all in one year. >> The other thing, just as a reminder, the state has an automatic, >> right? So we we have to like escalate, but which is why you couldn't do 37,000. You know, you'd have to take a pretty big chunk out of it over the next couple of years, but at least it would allow us to slide it in and know where we're going. >> So I may not remember correctly, but I think the 35,000 has been a stagnant number >> for us for a long time, >> right? Um, and I don't really want to get into a debate whether a person on a fixed income upkeeping
045a home and paying their taxes on time if $35,000 is enough or not. Um, there's a reason that the state's moving it up. So, I I'm I'm supportive of increasing the limit. Um, and whether we do it in a one-year jump or a twoyear, threeyear, foury year phase in, um, I think I would like to think of it in terms of we do want to catch it up to where the state limit is. This is the 12th most wealthiest county in the Commonwealth and um, you know, cost of living has gone up a lot in the last 5 years um for everybody. So I myself am sympathetic to the people that are in that bucket between 35,000 and 48,000 and I'd like to see us I'd like to see us move that up. >> So
046to move the conversation along I heard of 40,000. >> Yeah. Is anybody everybody okay with 40,000? >> Can we just split it in half in two years? >> Yeah, that's >> go to 42,000 this year. And what what's the state's auto auto? >> It's some CPI driven. >> So, so you're suggesting like a >> fixed rate. It's based upon >> like a 42,000 this year and then make the difference up next year. how the first year goes, but I would be in favor of that. >> Yeah. >> Halfway. >> I don't I don't really care how we split the difference, but I think we'd be wise to go part way this year and then readjust next year. >> Our historical increases, look back in previous presentations and in 2019 2020, we went from 25,000 to
04730,000 and then in 22 23 we went from 30,000 to 35,000. So, we've kind of had $5,000 increments when we've increased that amount. >> And I think Dr. G, if you're looking there, I think we were at like $600 maximum, went to $1,000 maximum last >> last year >> year. So, >> so we have made increases to the income and we have made increases to the maximum over the last five years. May I encourage you to contact the offices again and say at least if you can't give us that figure then let us know is that a figure that you have access to which I would find interesting that they can't but I would I would suggest that you encourage them again I I don't think that they're typical not to respond one way or
048another that they would at least say we don't have access to that information interesting Mr. Ford, you are correct. In 2223, we went from a maximum of 65 $650 to $1,000. >> Do we want any changes to that number? >> Want to keep it at a th00and. >> Okay. So, I I saw some head shaking for 42. >> Yeah. >> Okay. So with that being said, I don't know what the particular language recommendation language would be, Mr. Fory, if you have it that you could >> So I I would what I would do is I would add the 35 to 42 at a 5% discount. Um and then I would ask in accordance with the committee of the whole that we have approval to put that on the March 5th agenda. >> Yes, >> you
049heard Mr. Fory. May I have a motion? So moved. >> Second. >> Thank you. Any further comment or question? >> All those in favor. >> Eight affirmative votes. Mrs. Kek. >> Yeah. >> Nine affirmative votes. >> Okay. Thank you, Mr. Fory. We'll continue right on with the for committee of the whole meeting and move right into our capital reserve plan. Just so you are aware, I will not be at the next meeting. So there will be no Mr. Fory present. >> Well, then we'll just have to cancel the next meeting. >> What are we even going to talk about? >> I mean, I don't got the fory committee the whole the show me board member where else, you know. >> So, we're going to take a look at the capital reserve. Um, and some of
050this is fed through uh Mr. Lombardo as you talked about those conditions and and where are we at. Uh so just as a reminder a little bit with regard to capital reserve for some of our new board members. Um what we try to do is we try to fund ongoing maintenance broke fix things out of the maintenance budget. We then have capital project funding uh which we will be getting into with the middle school where we borrow money, we put it in a fund, we pay the cost of that renovation. uh construction out of that fund. Capital project falls sort of in the in between point. So if there's major things, major capital level things that are happening between those renovation cycles, we go ahead and we uh do that out of the capital reserve.
051Um, one of the things that we've sat at and and I think up until the finish of the high school, we had around $4 million in the capital reserve. Um, the decision was made in the last payments of the high school was uh there was about 3.3 million that was due. um there was the borrowing was done and so to pay that out of capital reserve and so that happened the first year I got here and really that's left us in this state where our current capital reserve funding is at is at $580,000 right and so we've sort of been bouncing around that area because we've generally put a half million into it and depending on the projects we're spending a half million or so each year in it right So one of the big
052things to comes in place is we have some funding in this year's budget that was allocated to capital reserve. Um there was 750 sort of contingency because we didn't know what the state was and then there's the 2.1 million that is for future con projects right to build the debt service and so that money. So essentially, if all things go well, there could be a $3.3 million infusion at the end of this year into capital reserve. And so I think we're making progress. Then the question will be the following year, you know, before the debt service comes. My recommendation is we continue to recover the capital reserve um and then we we move into the projects and go from there. So, um, there is the potential at the end of this year to have almost
053back to the $4 million standpoint. We'll wait. We don't need the money right now. We'll wait to move it. Some of you may remember we moved some in May because I thought we were in a good spot and then we had the structure. We had a deficit of exactly what we moved. So, I'm waiting a little longer before we move any money. So, what are the things that, you know, as we look at that long-term plan, as we talk to some of the principles, as we look at things, at this point, there's not a lot that we feel we need to get done in in this next year. Couple things. We have a poured playground surface at Hambrite um that is 12 years old. We're having some wear issues on it and some uh separation
054issues. And so from a safety perspective, we really need to recote that whole playground. Um you you it's causing trip hazards. And so that's about a $100,000 spend. Um the high school the last number of years I think Mr. Johnson implemented a year or two before I got here. We spent quite a bit on the parking deck. And part of that is we've come up with an annual plan of 25 to $30,000 that we do the parking deck each year so that we don't get into I think it was almost a half a million dollar spend when we addressed it that time. So uh we do that just so all the board members are aware. Um the parking deck is located on the Millersville property but we own it and maintain it. So um we
055do all the maintenance on it. They use the lower level, we use the upper level. Um the other thing we're looking at here in the high school is, you know, talking about usage. One of the a shops, uh right now they would like to do some more small engine repair. Um but the ventilation system is not set to process carbon monoxide. Um it is more set up as a wood shop recirculating. And so uh it filters and recirculates which that doesn't work well with carbon monoxide because recirculating that um it doesn't you can't make the whole extended period if you do it too long. So one of the things that we're looking at we've been talking with the A they really would like to see that as a better implementation at this point. The way
056they're working around it is all small engine repair goes outside regardless of the time of year. Um and so that's one of the things that they've asked and we're looking at. The other thing then really big area revolves around from a facility standpoint revolves around matter. And if you remember when we talked about uh through the feasibility study and through this new construction of a new middle school, one of the things we said is there's a couple things that matter that really needs to happen the next few years um to be able to use that through these transitions. One is the roof and second is the air conditioning. Now, uh, with the passing of the budget, there is now some grants that are potentially out there. And so that's why I have this as 2627
057or 2728. Um, we know as we've got pricing from uh a roof, a number of different places, the roof is at least a $1.2 million job. The chiller is about a $1 million job with the engineering. So, both of those are eligible for the grants that are out there right now. >> Awesome. >> And we'll talk later. What I'm recommending is you'll need to at the next meeting authorize uh the me to apply for the grants and name what we're applying for. So, we're working on those numbers now. Um but I think that it makes sense. um you know, we could see a significant portion of that uh that we'd have grant and then obviously we're not spending down the capital reserve to do that. But those are the two big projects that we need
058for the longer term use of Manor Middle School. Uh the other thing that we've done each year is really try and look at our vehicle cycle and where that is. And so um we've done that at a capital reserve as well. So currently we have 15 trucks, we have nine passenger vans, and we have two cargo vans. Um so with that number, um we need to replace one or two, you know, probably more twos than one. Um you know, vehicles each year. Uh as we've looked at it, we looked at the age condition at this point. The recommendation is that we would replace our box truck that we use every day throughout the district and then then replace another one of the student vans. Um, just so you remember, we received last week uh the
059student handicap wheelchair van that we ordered in April. Um, so it uh takes a little while to get them through the cycle, get it up fitted with the wheelchair access uh our staff that use it uh went to the training last week with the dealer and we're very excited about the uh potential. One of the things is is that this actually gives us access for two wheelchairs on it. Uh the previous one had only had one and so uh that restricted sometimes what we did. So um the reason that I say spring summer is if you're okay with the capital reserve plan moving forward. Uh I would probably start working on those orderings so that 12 plus weeks till we get a vehicle that it's actually here. Would this van also be wheelchair accessible? >>
060It would not be. So talking to transportation as well as special education, they feel that one is sufficient. Um the the other problem is with a wheelchair vehicle, it then normally you have 10 student capacity or 10 people capacity. That drops that down to about five or six. And so they don't want to lose the the seating capacity. So, based upon quotes from a couple different dealerships, uh the box truck is about $80,000. The student van is about $57,000. Couple other pieces of maintenance and u and custodial equipment. So, we have uh two tractors that we use. Um one of these, neither of them uh have a cab or a snowblower with them. Um they both have brushes and so you can imagine what it looked like uh the other day with our snow and
061high wind as the person was operating the brush in the front of the vehicle and trying to brush off the sidewalks down through and surrounding Manor Middle School. And so we looked at it and said, you know, we probably need to get one of them with a cab and a blower uh in case we do get future plowable blowable type storms in the future. Uh the other thing that we've typically looked at is our custodial equipment. And so in this case, if the equipment's more than $5,000, then it meets the capitalization threshold. And so we look at about $25,000 worth of uh equipment. A a standard uh buffer scrubber is about5 to $6,000. So there's a number of those as you can imagine through each of the 10 buildings in the district. And so they
062get used pretty often. So we want to continue to look at that. So that's the the district equipment portion of it. So my recommendation to Unite is sort of twofold. We're we're going to hold on part of it, right? And so the total that I brought before you is about 2.5 million. We're going to pull some of that out. And so my recommendation as far as placing on next agenda is 155,000 towards the buildings, 184,000 towards the equipment, and then we will put the resolutions for the grant applications, and then we should know in August or September if we get those grants. So if we get the grants, we would probably do the chiller in that November time frame. um and then do the roof the following summer, maybe spring depending on how we did
063that. So that's my recommendation to you this evening. >> So who issues the grants? Um it's not PTE, it's like economic development some >> it's not necessarily for education in >> these are education grants but they one of the things that we've seen the last couple years is if you remember the safety grants that we get comes out of doesn't come out of PD PD it comes out of PCCD crime and delinquency This comes out of an infrastructure >> committee. So, it is school focused and that was school approved on the budget. Um, but it's through that agency >> and our chances are real good to get them. >> I I think that the people that we're working with to do both of those projects have gotten them in the past and they feel like
064we would be definitely be viable candidates >> and they would cover a majority of the cost. >> It could cover half or more of the cost if we got it. >> Just curious. >> Yeah. I mean, the the nice part is is that we know we have to do those two projects, right? >> And so, if we delay a little bit, but we could have done the roof this summer, >> but it doesn't make sense to do the the roof essentially a summer early if we can get >> half or more in a grant. >> Any other questions for Mr. Ford? >> I guess just a plan B. Would we be then if if let's say we don't get the grant, would we still be trying to do the chiller in November? Because I know
065we've been talking about them for some >> probably. Um that would you know what I'd like to do is I'll start the engineering to get everything set up um and run the grant in parallel so that if we don't get it, we're still ready to go. Okay. >> If if that's okay with the board. >> Thank you. What I don't want to do, some of you may have remembered when the high school project started, I think, and Dr. Gail would know better. About six months before you were ready to put the new chiller online, the old one died and like died beyond recovery. So, we're trying not to get in that scenario. >> That's what I we've been talking about the chiller for. I just wanted to make sure we weren't just going to try
066and >> No, no. We'll we'll move all the engineering and everything along so that we can run that in parallel. >> Thank you, >> Mr. Lombard. >> Yeah, I just wanted I think this you answered my question that was my question was clear as mud when I asked it. Um >> there's no other that this is for the next year. >> This is for the next year. >> But no other buildings have significant like mechanical >> No, not that's not that's outside of the maintenance budget. >> Yeah. Okay. >> Fix and repair. Okay, if there's no further questions, can I or may I have a um motion to the for the recommendation as presented? >> So move >> to be placed on the agenda >> on March 2nd. Gotcha. >> Yep. >> Second. >> Thank
067you. Any further comment or question? All those in favor? >> Eight affirmative votes. Mrs. Kek. >> Yeah. >> Nine affirmative votes. >> Okay. >> Anything else for the committee of the 40. >> Seeing none, I will adjourn the committee of the 40 and move us into our board voting agenda. If you wouldn't mind, please join me in a moment of silence and the flag salute. >> Thank you. I pledge algiance 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. The next scheduled meeting of the Pen Manor School Board will be held on Monday, March 2nd, 2026 following the committee of the whole meeting. An executive session was held prior to the committee of the whole meeting
068for the purpose of discussing student matters, personnel, and a legal matter as detailed on the committee of the whole agenda. Mrs. Rhodess, may we have a roll call, please? >> Sure. Mr. Beaks, >> here. >> Mr. Mr. Her >> here. >> Mrs. Hope >> here. >> Mrs. Kek >> here. >> Mr. Lombardo >> present. >> Mr. Warful >> here. >> Miss Wart >> here. >> Mrs. Napsiger >> here. Dr. Fullerton >> here. >> Nine board members present. >> At each of our board voting agendas, we offer two opportunities for our citizens to comment. We've now reached the first time for those comments to be made and these comments are to be made on agenda action items only. Do we happen to have any citizens wishing to make a comment? Wonderful. We'll have a second opportunity.
069I would love to entertain a motion to approve the minutes from our board voting meeting on February 2nd, 2026. So moved. >> Thank you, sir. A second. >> Second. >> Thank you. Any further comment or question? >> All those in favor? >> Eight affirmative votes. Mrs. Kek. >> Yeah. >> Nine affirmative votes. >> Dr. Gail. Superintendent's report. >> Thank you, Dr. Forson. Uh it's come that time of year uh when we have the opportunity to recognize our outstanding teachers and staff members. Uh the district is currently accepting nominations for our outstanding educator at the elementary and also secondary level as well as nominations for our outstanding employees. And those nominations will be can will be received until Friday, March 13th. So, I would uh make the request to all that can hear this and that
070we'll read this that uh if you have somebody that you'd like to nominate, please go to our website and the nomination form can be completed at that found there. Uh throughout the each year, uh school districts as well as states across the country have the opportunity to have teachers selected for the national teacher of the year award. And it first starts at the local level and then it moves on to the state level. And each of the states throughout the country have a teacher of the year that then goes into the qualifications for uh the national teacher of the year. Uh we're pleased to announce that this day today we learned that Eliza Becker, who is a fifth grade teacher at Echelin Elementary, is a semi finalist for the 2027 state teacher of the year
071award. That's awesome. >> Eliza is our Eliza will continue through the process until the winner is determined in December at the state conference uh the SAS conference. But Eliza is actually our third uh semi finalist uh in the last I want to say probably 10 15 years now maybe if you remember Maria Vita psychologist teach psychology teacher here was a state semi-finalist. Uh uh and of course Elizabeth Raph was actually the Pennsylvania teacher of the year a few years ago. So Eliza is our third uh semi finalist. She along with 24 she along with 23 other teachers have reached that point. So congratulations to Eliza. very welldeserving uh and probably is one that tries to fly under the radar more than anybody >> uh but does an outstanding job in the classroom and we look
072forward to supporting her through the nomination process and all the applications that she'll have to complete as she moves through this. So more to come with Eliza. That's all I have. Dr. Foron >> ending that report with a bang. Aren't you >> dropping it on? Here we go. >> All right. Very good. Congratulations. That's outstanding. Mr. Fory, treasures report. >> Yes. Treasures report January of 2026. The balance sheet as of uh January 30th, 2026 shows total assets of 52,589.37. Um, just as an FYI, we still are lower than January of 2025. Um, as I mentioned before, the federal and state funds still have lagged where they have previously. Um, we are due the 6.1 million ready tolearn funds, uh, which we received in October last year. So, that's driving that number down a little bit.
073Tonight, there are bills that are awaiting ratification as presented. >> Thank you, Mr. Fory. May I have a motion to pay our bills? >> So moved. >> Thank you. A second. >> Second. >> Thank you. Any further comment or question? All those in favor? >> Sorry. Eight affirmative votes. Mrs. Keg. >> Yeah. >> Nine affirmative votes. >> Okay. If you would please join me in reviewing the uh agenda, voting agenda. Item two, A. Any comments or question. Item three, A through F. Any comment or question? And item 4 A through G. Any comment or question? Seeing none, may I have a motion to approve item 2 A? >> So move. >> Thank you. A second. >> Second. >> Thank you. Any further comment or question? >> All those in favor? >> I'm going to stop
074hitting that mic. >> Eight affirmative votes, Mrs. Kek. >> Yeah. >> Nine affirmative votes. >> Just keep hitting it. That's >> I'm just going to move it back. I don't like them anyway. and wake up YouTube land. You know >> that's right. If they were sleeping, they're awake now, >> right? Item three or may I have a motion to approve item three A through F? >> So move. >> Thank you. A second. >> Second. >> Thank you. Any further comment or question? All those in favor? >> Eight affirmative votes. Mrs. Kek, >> yes. nine affirmative votes. >> And I have a motion to approve item 4 A through G. >> So moved. >> Oh, second. >> Thank you. And thank you. Any further comment or question? All those in favor? >> Eight affirmative votes. Mrs.
075Kek. >> Nine affirmative votes. >> Wasn't me this time. Did that blow your eardrum out? >> Oh goodness. We have now arrived at the second opportunity for our citizens to make comments and these could be on any type of district business. Uh we would ask you to state your name in your m municipality and there is a fivem minute time limit. Do we have any citizens comments this evening? Seeing none, uh anything else for the good of the board? Wonderful. Hope everybody has a great week enjoying this balmy weather that we're about to have and then right back into the cold next week. Thank you everybody. Drive home safely. Meeting adjourned.