August 26, 2025 RTSD School Board Business Meeting

001Good evening and welcome to the regular business meeting of the Rner Township School District on August 26th, 2025. Let's start with the pledge of allegiance, please. >> 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. >> Thank you. I just wanted to point out to anyone who's watching or in the room and wondering where some of the board members are, um Mr. Thornton has an uh an excused absence this evening and Miss Stern and Miss Girtton are both um attending remotely. So, they are listening in and so I will periodically probably stop and ask um if they have questions as we proceed. Um the first item on the agenda is the report on

002executive session. And I can report that the board met this evening uh Tuesday, August 26th in executive session. The next item is >> personnel was the item. >> Oh, I'm sorry. To discuss personnel matters. The next item on the agenda is a report from the superintendent. Dr. Bachelor, welcome back. It was a long summer. Not long enough. >> No, no, it's good. I was just looking at technology. We're just setting things up. So, uh, no, welcome back. It is, uh, great to have our board meetings be kicking off. Uh, we welcomed, uh, all of our new teachers last week. I'll share some of that in my remarks in a moment. And we welcomed all the staff back uh, yesterday and we are ready for our students to return uh, next week. Um, so we're excited

003for the year to kick off. Uh before I get into uh the super tan's remarks though, I would like to take a moment um to share uh with the board and the community and administrators here uh the passing of uh two individuals uh two individuals that have been uh very important to Radner. Um the first one I wanted to mention uh was Art Lewis. I wanted to share with everybody that uh longtime board member uh and school former school board president uh Art Lewis passed away. He died peacefully in his sleep uh August 5th at the age of 94. Um Art served on the school board from 1991 to 2007 and was president of the board from 1993 to 1998. Uh he was a driving force behind major renovation of Rner High School and oversaw

004the building of Rner Elementary School and the new Rner Middle School. In addition, he was an active member of the board of governors of Rner High School scholarship fund fund from 1984 to his final day. Uh Art has been so involved with that fund. Uh he served as president of the scholarship fund from 1989 to 2022 and past president for the last three and a half years. Due to his leadership and vision, the Rner Scholarship Fund has assisted over 1,100 RDER graduates with need-based scholarships exceeding 4.6 6 million in committed funds. Uh Art was one of the first people I had the pleasure of meeting. Uh the board had approved me, I think, at a November board meeting. I didn't officially start till the end of January. Uh I came to a a scholarship fund

005was doing a holiday uh f uh festival fundraiser on a Saturday and I came to it and uh there was this gentleman who came and greeted me dressed as Santa Claus and that was Art Lewis. uh art was everything Radner. So I just wanted to share that with the board and our community and I also sadly wanted to just share with our board and community uh the passing of somebody much too young uh but one of our administrators uh Chris Augustine. Uh Chris Augustinine uh had been with our school district uh as our assistant director uh in technology. Um, Chris has been with us um for I want to and I apologize I had it in front of me but it was I think it was 15 13 to 15 years uh as an administrator

006working here in Radner. Um I recently asked our administrative team to share um what Chris's impact uh has been on Radner and something that we want to share with his young children and his family. Um, and some of the things that the administrative team and and others in the district talked about how Chris was always unflapable. Chris was willing to solve any problem. Uh, he had a very quiet demeanor. Um, the way he went about things, but you could tell the wheels were always turning. Um, Chris was the go-to person for so much uh, within technology. Uh, I always thought it was because I was the superintendent that he didn't mind me walking in and I would often ask low-level technology needs. And I found out that he was that way with everyone in the

007district office. Uh always there to support, always to willing to give a helping hand. And uh his expertise uh we truly miss and uh you know our thoughts have been with the Augustine family since his passing this summer. So I would just like to ask the board for and uh our administrative team for a moment of silence for both those individuals. Thank you. So, moving on to the superintendent's remarks. Um, I'd like to thank uh on our agenda tonight, we have a generous don uh donation from the Buchcci family and again our the donations and our the support of our community is often overwhelming and just want to thank them uh for supporting Ethan Elementary School with their generous donation. Uh our communications department uh continues to rack up the awards. Uh they have a

008national public national school public relations association award of excellence uh in photography and video production. uh they continue as a team uh to not only uh keep communications and support all of us here in the district, but they've also taken the lead in sharing some of the good things we're doing here in Radner uh with other districts uh and and sharing that wealth and and being willing to do that. And I want to congratulate them for their um awards and congratulate them for so much of what they do here in the district. And I think the next slide, I don't think I have the order right, but not the next one, but I'll come back to the communications a moment when I talk about convocation. Uh the next thing I want to talk about was

009uh I didn't tell him about this. I didn't give him a heads up, but uh Dr. Shawn Dvage. Uh Dr. Sha Dvage uh has been our assistant to the superintendent for teaching and learning. Uh Shawn will be the superintendent of Octrera school district. He was just approved about a week and a half ago or two weeks at at at Octrera. Um Sean, we are absolutely thrilled for you uh and this next step in your career as a superintendency at Octoar. Um and uh you know that you've had a a you've made a big impact uh here in Radner um from teaching and learning uh from looking at um our uh schedule from looking at our programs for helping divine our you know innovation divi design studio um to working with our principles to our link

010it uh MTSS you name it within the teaching and learning uh you've had a hand in supporting helping uh and just being a wonderful colleague uh not only to me but to so many here in the district. So congratulations. On behalf of the board administrative team, we do have a gift for you. So come on up. I'll present this to you. >> Congratulations. And then I also want to mention too that uh uh Johnki um John has been assistant principal here in Radner, assistant principal at Wayne Elementary this past year, assistant principal uh at Rner Elementary. And John has done an outstanding job for us. We're excited for him. He uh is from the Scranton area and he will be returning to the Scranton area as an administrator um in Scranton where him and his

011wife are from. Uh we've told John we hope he comes back around this way. uh he's made a huge impact um with the teachers um with everyone in the building and we've really appreciated uh what he has done for us and and it is their good fortune uh the district that's getting John and we will miss John. We have posted John's position uh and we will be searching for a new assistant principal. Um we we we do have John. This is fresh news. So Mr. Smeari will be with us for about 60 days uh before he leaves. So, we do have some more time to celebrate him and it'll help with our smooth transition as we post that position. Um, we are still evaluating and I'll talk to the board in the future on what

012steps we want to take with Dr. Duke's position. Um, whether we want to restructure, whether we want to post that position as it currently is. Uh, and whenever we have an opening in the district, we do try to take the time to look very carefully at that position and see if there's any uh adjustments we might want to make before we've posted. So, we'll share with the board more information in in the coming weeks. And then new the new school year. So, we've had new teacher induction last week. Uh uh the induction program uh went very well. Uh we're really excited about the enthusiasm of our new teachers. Um we at convocation we introduce so that was yesterday. We introduce the new teachers to everyone in the district and we do try to have fun

013at convocation and I I attribute that a lot to communications department. I'm going talk to about them again in a moment. Uh but I I I don't know if I can blame the communications department or blame the administrators. But somehow the new teachers were required to dance yesterday as their name was introduced and that was not planned but it kind of happened impromptu. It was rather entertaining and um I just want to say to the new teachers that was not a requirement at first but it was turned out to be very funny and they they embraced the moment uh really well. But we want to welcome our new teachers to RNER. We're really excited after a very thorough process uh and a very thorough search this year. We're really excited about our our recent hires.

014And then convocation, we pick a theme each year for convocation. Uh this year's theme was back to the future. um you know only in Radner it's wonderful that we actually have a parent that has a Delorean that he has built from Back to the Future and he allowed us to use that Delorean for some of our filming um in our convocation because we had a time machine we went back in time we visited different decades and you could see our administrators uh dressed in their 70s gear um we have other administrators dressed in the 80s um some of them were dressed in the clothes they normally wear I think that's what Mr. Be told wears on the weekends that that that that that that sweatuit. Um the uh it was really an exciting time. I

015want to thank the board president uh um and our our um and our association president Amy who's here. Um they they jumped in in the fun as as pink ladies as we went back in time um to the 1950s. So it was a it was a great time uh had by all. It was a wonderful opportunity for us to not only celebrate the start of the school year to recognize um years of service within our district. Um we recognize 10, 20, and 30 years of service. We had one teacher um that is 50 years of service. Kathy Pearl at our high school has been teaching at the high school for 50 years. I think it was just last year we recognized Sharon Re. Was it two years ago? >> Two Sharon Rearen we recognized as

016as 50 years. So, we have two teachers that have been teaching for more than 50 years uh at Rner High School. And it was just amazing uh when giving that that recognition to Kathy when Kathy shared with us that how much she loves it. She loves teaching, loves Rner uh and loves being part of it. So, this was an opportunity for us to kick off the year, kick it off with some excitement, uh and also talk about how how not only lucky we are, but excited we are for um our students to be returning next week. And again, I want to thank our communications department. Um, there's Tedi. I want to thank all of our communications department for all they do. It's a lot of work for them, and it has become quite a production,

017which is it's been a lot of fun. And we had kids involved this year. Kids were actually performing um from the Back to the Future musical, uh, one of the songs. So, it was great to have the students involved as well. Our fall sports started a couple of weeks ago. Uh, not only have fall sports started, uh, I think it was just this week or end of last week, the marching band has started. So, at the high school level, we're we're up and running. Uh the activities are up and running. Kids have been back. Uh and we're just waiting now for classes next week. And then next uh and then the first day as I've shared obviously is Tuesday. So, we're looking forward to seeing everyone on Tuesday, September 2nd. And then our upcoming events

018just for the board members of the community wanted to share our uh upcoming events. And then the last thing I think we have a link for um in the next slide, do we have a link to the video? >> We just wanted to share with our board of community and I'll as as uh as Mrs. as Brandon picks um sets it up, we at the end of convocation uh we had put together a video and for our staff about um how we know that there's a rich history um of excellence uh of of high expectations uh here in Rner and that that tradition and those expectations though help us to continuously improve, helps us to be willing to look at how do we improve for our students. Uh, and so this was the final video

019we shared um about um Radner, about education for our staff. It's only about three minutes long. We thought we'd share it here um with all of you by honoring where we've been. That's how we move forward. [Music] All of us, the bus drivers, the board members, maintenance and custodial, nutritional services, admin assistants and pair professionals, support staff, teachers and administrators. We the devoted, the dedicated, the doers gathered not just for today but for every tomorrow as we move forward with purpose to ensure our school district continues to thrive. Today, we don't just stand here in the present. We carry with us the echoes of the past. The teachers who first sparked wonder. The students who dared to ask what if. The staff member who went the extra mile for a student or colleague. The hopes

020of a future still waiting to be ridden. Each era we visited today has its own story. Moments that shaped us and our great district. Lessons that anchored us. Decades of dreams woven into the fabric of Radner. We are all part of that fabric, one that has always cared deeply for every student and values the importance of education. Like travelers across time, we carried one constant, the belief that together we make a difference in the lives of our students and in one another. Our schools are the center of our community. Our schools bring our students together, our parents together, and they bring all of us together in one unified goal to unlock our potential so we can unlock the potential of our students. The field of education isn't always easy. It's hard work. And we've had

021our challenges, but we overcome them always together. So here we are, present day, not by accident but by design. Not alone but together. Today we celebrate the exhilaration of now and the wonder of what's next. The promise that across the years ahead we will, as we always have, move forward together to make this school year the best for our students. It's time, Rner. Time to honor our past. Time to live in the present. Time to shape the future. >> So, our staff is ready and we're just excited for the students next week. That concludes the superintendent's remarks. Thank you, Dr. Bachelor. Is this okay? I was just making sure the screen was going away. Very nice. I That's the third time I've seen that. And every time I'm surprised by something new. I'm so impressed

022at the videos they found from so far back, but also it's just very u it's really heartwarming to see all the people who've been through Radner over the years. Um, okay. Next item on the agenda is public comment. Um, we take live comment first if there is any and then um I will ask if there's any private um recorded comment. Is there any public comment this evening? >> Great. When he steps out of the way, if you just introduce yourself, say what town you live in, and uh go from there. >> Good evening. Is this working? It is. >> Yeah. I'm Dr. Jim Yiannopoulos. Um, I'm a psychologist. I've been a psychologist licensed in Pennsylvania for 33 years now. Um, I'm commenting tonight on uh the consent agenda in particular. You know, I note that

023uh board policy states that entering into contracts of any kind, and I emphasize any kind, where the amount involved exceeds $100, requires the affirmative votes of a majority of the full board. So, I note that you, you know, go to great care to do that in 10.04 4 in particular with the contracts, listing them all out um and showing what they will cost or might cost and what they won't exceed. Um so that's all in keeping with the board policy. And then interestingly you have this other section also contracts 10.09 10.10 10 other contracts settlement agreement and release. The board approves the settlement agreement and release of claims with third party claimants. Um I understand sometimes settlement agreements are confidential, sometimes they're not. Sometimes there are non-disclosure agreements as part of uh such settlements. Sometimes

024they are not um if there are no non-disclosure agreements and if it was not a confidential settlement for example a case that any member of the public could find if they went on the Delaware County Court of Common please docket and searched for it. I think it's your obligation to report the details here. You go to great lengths to talk about what's being paid for everywhere else. And then here, settlement agreement. What was the settlement agreement? What was it about? Um what was the amount that was paid to the claimant? The way you have it here makes it very easy to sweep under the rug any dirt or anything embarrassing that you might not want the public to know about. I'm asking you to take these two items off the consent agenda and discuss them

025publicly. And if you're not able to do that, I think you need to explain why you're not able to do that. Thank you. >> Thank you, Dr. Yiannopoulos. Is there any other public comment in the room this evening? >> Do we have any recorded comment, Miss Brennan? >> Okay. Um, the next item on the agenda is presentations. We have the uh item 5.01 is the Ethan Elementary School construction project update. Mr. Morris, did you want to give any kind of introduction here? >> I do. Thank you. So we forgo the facilities committee meeting um update for the uh Ethan project to bring it to the full board tonight. Um so in attendance we have Damen Spar from site logic construction management. Um Steve Barren from Breland Architects and Hugh Kadzo from ELA Group who is

026our civil engineer. So tonight they're going to do a pretty um extensive update on where we're at and some of the workings um of the summer and where do we go from here. >> Thank you very much very much Mr. Morris. Welcome gentlemen. No new faces here. Good evening. And I want to make sure that the microphone's on and the video working for you presentation. >> Okay. available. Mic's working. Presentation forthcoming. Thank you. Mr. Morris, this loaded up. We're going to check on some technical issues here just in case [Music] Take two. It's it's design and construction. There's always a twist. Good evening. I'm Damian Spar with Site Logic and tonight we will have an agenda prepared that includes several items and I'm going to start to go over those as we bring this up

027on the screen. The first thing that we're going to do is look at upcoming board decisions and then we're going to get into uh a project schedule update. We're going to be talking tonight throughout this presentation about the idea of an early tree removal process. That process has come about with uh our winding path and of of permits and approvals and some new information that's come to light about some native species that we have to avoid with when we take our trees down around the project. So you're going to start to see that the early tree removal part uh will explain that thoroughly. We'll talk about construction phasing the uh other permit pieces that are needed for uh storm water which is the MPDES the sewage planning module as well. We're going to talk about

028the construction estimate. The construction estimate itself has not changed but while we push out into time we're going to talk a little bit about what pushing out into time means in terms of cost. Mr. Mr. Paulies will do financing analysis and we'll end with a demolition project update. So, upcoming actions in October and after you learn all about the native Indiana bat species that we're going to talk about tonight, we are going to be requesting from the board consideration to award a contract to remove trees prior to the construction sequence, which accommodates the current regulation surrounding the particular habitat for the Indiana bat. In November, we're going to be in front of the board based on all of the permitting information that we now have and that that has become firm over several months as

029as we've really worked with not only Radner Township, but the the uh state and the county. We're saying right now we're going to be able to ask in November permission from the board to go to bid. I will tell you that if and and this has been a theme that I've I've said many times in front of the board and the community. If we are afforded an opportunity to be able to go out for bid or maybe ask for that a little bit earlier because we see where permitting is, we're certainly going to ask that. As of right now, we're telling you, we know that November can be made. If that happens any sooner, we'll we'll certainly talk about that up to administration of the board and come to the board with that ahead of

030time. Finally, in February, that's our target for award of contracts for the construction of the new school. The schedule update starts with our typical schedule update and I think I believe next month I may either split this into two or take the uh items off that have occurred already. But if you go down about halfway through the schedule update, you'll see that we are in the middle of the demolishing of uh the houses that were on the site and constructing the temporary playground that's going on now through fall. The tree proposal, the tree removal proposals will be solicited in September so that we'll be able to be in front of the board with a recommendation to have a contract to take those trees down a little out of sequence in October. As you can see

031below uh there on the 14th and the 28th, we we anticipate talking about that. The tree removal would occur from November through February, although we're going to do our best to do that in a short time frame. Board approval for a release for bid is currently November 18th. With that bidding period then going from November 24th to January 8th. It's a longer bidding period than normal, but it's longer because it's over a couple of holidays. We will then uh we're then expecting to record the land development approval in December on the 17th and obtain our permits in early February on the second while we are awarding considering award um at that time in February on the 10th in front of facilities and on the 24th in front of the school board. We will then begin

032construction on April 6th, complete the building in January of 2028, occupy that new building further. And if if you recall, although I was hoping to do it a year earlier, we talked about bidding in a time frame like this and we talked about occupying early and not running right up to the end of the summer. that caused us to start to have concern about what are the things that we have to do in that last summer. And one of the things that you're going to see tonight is that um Mike Crane from my office who uh worked on the middle school was looking at the phasing plan and said, "You know what? We can get a whole lot of work done in the second summer of construction so that we lessen the work at the

033end of the construction period." And you'll see that in phasing. So, we've uh alleviated some of that concern with uh finally demolishing the existing building in uh April to June of 2028 and completing that site work over the summer, but much less site work to be completed then because we're going to do some of it earlier on. And now what we're going to do is we're going to learn a little bit about the Indiana bat, which I did not realize was native to our area until uh we found out from a pendi um a pendi notice, which is Pennsylvania Natural Diversity Inventory that in conjunction with the US Fish and Wildlife, they they kind of track certain species that we have to be cognizant of so that we're not disrupting their e either them in

034migration or when they're staying in in in our nature in our area during construction. What that has what what that has meant to us is these recent focuses that have been put on this particular species have flagged the species for being in the area. That means we don't necessarily have the Indiana bat, but if we want to take our trees down during April to September when we normally would, then we have to do a survey. And if the survey says the bats are home, we don't get to take the trees down when we want. The alternative to that is to take the trees down a little out of sequence, in this case earlier. So, we found out with enough notice that we can secure proposals for tree removal and the number of trees to be

035removed is approximately 175. So, we'll take those trees down during that time when it's allowed without survey. There's a couple of upsides to that. One, um, when that's not under a general contractor and under a landscape contractor, etc., that that should be more cost effective. Not only that, but we're going to do it sooner, so it'll be more cost effective. So, we're we're thinking there's a lot of benefit to the entire approach to it. But this is what has come up. This is one of the things that have come up over the summer that's had us change our plans just a little bit. I'm going to ask Steve Barren to step us through the construction phasing plans. Um, and you'll notice that we have that extra work during the the summer of 2027, I believe

036it is, that's going to allow us to not have so much at the very end. Thank you, Mr. Spar. Good evening. So, in a sense, this is a graphic representation of what Mr. Spar went through. I like seeing things in pictures myself. So this is uh the site plan of the of the Ethan Elementary School, the campus. And we have uh I'm going to describe four phases of construction all within that timeline that that chart that that Damian presented. So the phase one of the project and and all of these dates and more that I'll be sharing are are in the chart um charts that appear on the slide. they will become part of the construction documents. They merge both the construction schedule as well as the land development sequence. Two things that are very

037important that need to work handinand glove with each other. So phase one that you're seeing on the on the screen now is is the the the first the first tasks of the the first section of work. So what you can see depicted there is the existing building in in gray. the uh the new uh building just below it to the in sort of a tannanish color um and then and then other other areas of work colored. So the the key dates to to to focus on with phase one, its duration is from the beginning of construction in April of through to what we call substantial completion or or effective completion of the project of the building when it's would be able to be occupied, able to be furniture to move in, that sort of thing,

038which will occur in uh January of of 2028. And so within that there's various subphases but when this when this phase one its duration is complete the new building will be ready for occupancy. Uh the existing building will remain as you can see there and then um a large portion of the of the site work will will have been completed as well and staged to a point where it's supporting um further construction on the site. So that's phase one. Phase two is a duration that's within the overall time frame of phase one. This is the summer of 2027. So, this is an important time frame because what we're doing here is taking care of some of the work that we want to occur while students are are not in the building and completed prior to

039their arrival in the fall of 2027. So this is the with um the construction of the building underway the new building underway the existing building still in place we are constructing some of the new parking that's there uh in in the blue color and so that is then preparing us for the substantial completion of the building that will occur during the school year in in January of 2028. So then phase three is when the the new building is complete and this is depicting you can see the new building to the to the south plan south of the new of the existing building. Then we would focus on getting some more of the site work done that is necessary for the storm water management on site. Then we would uh begin the demolition of the existing

040building. that would occur between um and and again as you can see there's some dates up on the right hand side. This the demolition existing building would occur between April and June of of 2028 after the new building is complete and occupied. And then this is the plan the site plan as it would develop then with the existing building removed. This is a the fourth phase which again has an A and B subphase but this is the the existing building being removed and then the balance of the site work completed and as as Damian alluded to we've moved that up a little bit from previous um phasing schedule that you've seen going back to to March of this year so that we're looking to with that existing building being demolished between April and June, then

041the balance of this site work would occur over the summer of 2028. So that by August, we're achieving completion of all of the construction work on site and then for the beginning of the 2028 2029 school year, the project is complete. So that that's a bird's eyee highle view of the overall project and we can certainly answer questions on that um if you wish. And then uh this is again a a subset of the schedule the overall schedule that that Damian presented. So um as we've spoken about the the the greatest challenge to the project at this point is still the um gaining those authority approvals and permits to begin construction. So this is just an update as to where we stand in that. So the the Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection, that's the state

042level review that's um dealing with the planning module which is which is the sewer uh approval of the building and that has multiple agencies involved in it including the uh US Fish and Wildlife Service as Mr. Spar alluded to with regard to the uh the Indiana bats. So that uh we received a clearance letter, an important milestone, a clearance letter from the US Fish and Wildlife Service that um that advances that planning module approval with the Department of Environmental Protection. And we are anticipating having that approval or that phase of the authority approval complete in um in early September with an approval of the planning module. The NPDS permit which is a combination review by the county as well as the state and that is is underway as well. That pro that process began in

043the latter part of last year and is still ongoing. We've made we've received an important um technical review letter at the end of July with the ELA team and and the district and the the design team and the construction managers. We met with the county, had some had some uh discussion of their comments and that was an important step to advance the technical review. So, we're expecting to have a a second round of review comments and then a a review um on that as well. And in the in the instance where we believe we may have a third round of comments, we have the durations in there through um through through November and then we're expecting to get the NPDS permit in December. So that in would include three rounds of technical review. Based on

044how that's progressing, based on the comments that received, the conversations with those authorities, we believe we're on track for that for that approval in in uh in December. So with that, I'll turn it back over to Mr. Spar for discussion of the construction cost estimate. >> Thank you, Mr. Barrens. >> Jinx. Jinx. So for our construction estimate, we're going to talk about two things. One is new and the other is a reminder. The first is as we've gone through permitting, we've shifted our time frame out a bit. So that has implications in terms of escal escalation of construction costs. And the second will be just to remind all of us what our alter our alternates are so that uh we're kind of continually have those in front of us and top of mind. This is

045a continuing list of the the estimates of cost through the project. If you look over on the right, the column in green is the newest one. What you'll see between the beginning of the summer and the end of the summer is the numbers look the same until you get down to a cost escalation. There's a cost escalation of $680,000 added into the current cost estimate because we have moved our bid time and construction timing out because of the permitting impacts. What you're seeing here, if you were to add the new construction, the site work, and really look at um an allowance for abatement, that's about um $68 million. And you're seeing a percentage of that, and that's rounded. That's at $680,000 number. When we talk about construction escalation, we have to do two things. First,

046we have to figure out what is the appropriate escalation for an amount of time. And thankfully for the amount of time that we're moving around, it's not as high as it has been because escalation has has been improving for all of us. The other piece um that you have to look at besides what the time is is what do you apply it to? And in this case, we're only applying it to the things in the future, things that we've already bid. It doesn't get applied to generally it doesn't get applied to soft costs. There are things though certain fees that are attached to the construction costs that have an impact and that's how you get the the difference that's a little bit higher than the 680 and you'll see that reflected um between the the

047two soft cost numbers 10.893 million and 10.932 it's about $40,000 that's added there. So what we're doing is we're adjusting slightly and the number that we're talking about is not a small number but in the estimate we're adjusting slightly the expected construction cost because of the timing of the bid and the impact from what we've gone through from permitting and this may be something that we want to come back to in question and hopefully um before I move on does that does the way I've explained that at least make sense because I wanted to just make sure I didn't move on without it uh causing a lot of questions. >> I do have a question about this 1%. >> Where does that come from? >> Comes from the engineering news record building indices for construction

048costs. And what that is is it's a construction cost over that's been projected over time. And I think are we picking up um four to six months with that 1% I think if I remember correctly. So um that's where that comes from. It comes from historical data from the engineering news record which is a source that all of of constructors a lot of constructors not only in the United States but some in the world use for gauging construction escalation and historical construction costs. >> So it has nothing to do with the current situation of our economy. It is based on what >> it it project it typically goes up 1%. It doesn't have to do with things that change um mercurially. It has to do with what the steady the the steady u modifications to

049the economy have done over time and what those projections look like. But without regard to if there's a certain type of tariff that's enacted next week that nobody saw coming, that that wouldn't necessarily be accounted for. But the general trend is accounted for. >> Can you just go through that again? The general trend is not based on anything that's occurring in our economy right now. >> It is it's what's occurring in our economy now is similar to what's been occurring in our economy for several months. So that trend is to a large degree taken into account. What isn't taken into account are things like we're we're coming up on hurricane season. If there's a hurricane, there'll be a drain on resources and the cost of lumber will go up, the cost of uh oil will

050go up, and they they will all impact the cost of construction. The 1% does not take into account a a terrible hurricane in the United States. >> All right. So, the 1% is a historic number. Does it have a time frame to it? Because we have hurricanes every year. So, wouldn't those things not a specific hurricane, but wouldn't hurricanes o over over all that time and what has happened with construction costs that is taken into into account in that history. What happens in that one moment we we don't ever plan for because it's it's not the the typical norm and you know that it could happen but it's it's kind of like if a war breaks out it causes similar types of reactions. So there's limited amounts of when you're responsibly planning construction costs, you

051use what has been historical and sometimes there are other things that happen that cause the construction to go down. But you use that historical data which has in the past has accounted for the hurricanes and natural disasters etc to show where that is headed. if if we happen to I've hit times when the economy dipped down and you had a more favorable outcome than a natural disaster would cause. So you do your best to plot your line with the statistics that you have and not an anomaly that's very unlikely. >> All right, but the current tariff situation is an anomaly that is not accounted for in this one. current tariff situation and where we are with the effects of that have been accounted for >> have been but a future tariff changes that I can't

052tell you what they are what they might be if if for some reason there is a reason for the United States to put tariffs on something like steel or something from a large provider of that material I can't necessarily project that right now and even if I could I couldn't necessarily tell you the impact. So all right so you're saying >> we do the we do the best we can with all of that historically >> 30% tariff >> from Canada on steel is included in >> we have included tariffs as we have have have continued that and that was really through the sixth the 63 estimate >> okay but what what I'm telling you is what happens tomorrow that I can't see is not >> thank you >> I just want to clarify only because

053it doesn't say this and I just want to make sure I'm doing the right math. The the variance column is a comparison of 8 the the green column the 82625 to 61124. Is that correct >> to to the 6325 column the 826? >> No, it's not a comparison to the one right next to it. I know that. That's why I'm asking. It looks like it's a comparison to a year ago. >> All right. >> You and I are doing the same math. I'm coming up with June 11th. >> Okay. I >> I think I think you're right. I think the date's wrong. The dates incorrect there. >> But there's no date for the variance. That's going to be my >> Yeah, there's no date on the variance. >> I think it it's the June 11th

054that that we're talking about. And that's that's >> But I think it is June 11th, 2024 is my guess because >> Yeah, that's the math. >> Yeah, that's the math. And the significance of that is that June last year is the last time. And I'm trying to figure out why that's the variance we're talking about. Is >> I'm sorry. >> Design development. >> Was that the last time? >> Oh, it it was >> okay. >> Yeah. Thank you for that clarification. >> Okay. >> I I can answer that. The June 11th meeting was when we asked the board for approval design development phase. >> Thank you. That's helpful. >> Thank you. That was my fault in explaining it. I appreciate that. >> So, what we're going to do is go on to our >> Well,

055no, excuse me. I saw I had questions. >> Go ahead, Mr. >> Oh, I'm sorry. Thanks. >> That's all right, Damian. Thank you. So, Sarah, thank you for the first question you asked. It would be helpful for me um if you could please put a date that that variant just add in there the variances to the June 11th 2024 column. >> We certainly will. >> Thank you. I appreciate that. I do have a question why the because the cost reductions in that June 11th column are 2.43 43 million and change and in the today's documents it's 2.8. So it seems like you've added an additional $400,000 in in cost reductions. I'm I don't know if that's alternates or what that what constituted that roughly 400,000. Um so that's a question. And then um the uh

056I do want to just note I mean I'm happy to see this I is that I'm I'm kind of taking a bigger picture view of this and looking at the October 23rd 2023 column. So roughly two years ago you know we we we estimated this you estimated this would be 569 and then the soft cost brought it to 721. And now today we're saying that the construction estimates are and that the overall cost is 778. And what I noticed about that and I just want to acknowledge you for it is that the construction costs seem to have gone up roughly 20% in the last two years. I mean that's a big increase. Don't get me wrong. I am happy it's not harder given a lot of uncertainty that's existed the last hour of many years

057but that the overall projection with uh project cost with the hard and soft contingency and all of that is only up about 5 million from October of 23. It seems like the biggest reduction has been in the soft cost totals. I I I would like to hear if you don't have the information tonight, Damian, no worries. But I would like to understand what constitutes that big soft cost construction decrease because it seems like it mostly happened between October 20 of 23 and pardon me and uh well most of it happened between October of 23 and May of 24, but then there were further cost soft cost reductions. I think one of them is that we lowered the contingency if I remember correctly. Um, >> you're you're correct, >> but I'm guessing that other soft costs

058were reduced and I would just like to understand what they were because they're soft. So, you know, could they go back up or not go back up or, you know, whatever. Um, so I just but but this is helpful kind of to see the big the big picture from a high level. I I appreciate this slide. >> Well, I I'd like to do this in two ways. I'd like to give you a an answer now that deals with a lot of it and also come back and be able to come back to the board and show some of the detail or funnel that up through administration because I think >> through administration's fine. >> Your your comments are are are exactly correct. We have taken the contingency which was higher and shown in soft cost

059and that has gone down because really what happens is that contingency is used for construction costs. So as the soft costs go down over time or you're it's it's largely due to the contingency going down. There have been fluctuations in other soft costs both going up and down relative to permits and other fees etc that we've been carrying and that is the information that we can provide to the board through the administration. You'll be able to see the detail there. The largest piece of this I think uh is going to be contingency. Trying to think if there was something else that was that was that big but I I'm certain that will be the largest piece. >> So thank you. That was that was quite thoughtful. >> And the $400,000 in um cost reductions, the

060additional from June 11th where we went from 2.4 to 2.8. What What else did we recommend getting rid of? >> We're going to see all of those in I'm trying to make sure that the math is correct here, but we're we're going to be seeing those in the next couple of slides as we go through all of those. if if I can do that for you. >> No, no, that's fine, Damian. No worries. And then the one last question is I have a question about the tree proposal, but so you tell me when the best time to ask that is >> now. >> I would I would say um while we're while we're on it, let's hit it. >> So my really my thing about the trees is appreciate the Indiana bat and and and

061the timing that you've given thought to there. Um it it would be helpful for me as a board member before voting on that tree that tree removal schedule to see an over a higher a high level graphic of where the majority of the trees are being removed because uh I'm sensitive to not removing trees extraordinarily early if they if the trees are a sound barrier for construction for for neighbors who live close by versus trees that are far away from the building and don't provide that sound that visual and that sound barrier. And one thing that I would propose in anticipation of going out to bid for the tree removal as you know that timing that you're that you're recommending based on the the Indiana bat is could we do the tree removal in two

062phases? one in that 2025 2026 phase uh time frame that that is the one you're recommending and one a year later. You know, do the rest of the trees if there are trees that are closer to the neighbors who will be who are there's neighbors who are very close near where the houses are being deconstructed where they're being demolished. And if we can do those trees a year later and shield them a year longer from um you know from potential uh water because the trees are gone, the roots are gone. Yes, we're going to put up barriers, but it's not the same as mature mature mature trees, but also give them another an additional year of sight and sound um shielding, you know, uh screening. >> Certainly, >> that's just a a you know, in

063anticipation of that bid that you're going to bring to us in a couple of months. And much like the conversation that I think you and I had during a board meeting that was held in the middle school, we were concerned about those neighbors relative to runoff. This is similar to that. While I don't believe we're going to see trees that we want to keep in place, um, based on what I was looking at today and and what we were just talking about, what we're going to do is have a look at that and make sure that that's, you know, just to confirm that. And if we need to, if we have trees that need to be taken down in two sequences, we can look at that. But I think generally these are the trees that

064we need to have taken down in a certain amount of time to be prepared. So um we will absolutely we will absolutely uh confirm that and if there is something that we need to do we'll we'll have a discussion around it so we can provide some options. That's >> yeah, that's what I'm I would be I would be as individual, this is just one, I would be willing to look at a proposal that stages the tree removal if it maximizes screening for the neighbors who are close by. Um, you know, but I but I don't have a good sense of where the bulk of the trees need to be removed. So, a visual >> and we will provide that visual and that, like I said, that that's that's congruent with the way we've been trying

065to be good neighbors from the beginning. So that's helpful. >> Exactly. Thank you. That those are my only questions, right? You know, at this point. Thanks. >> While we have while we're stopped for questions, I'm just going to ask if there are any others. >> Go ahead. >> I'm just back to um on the schedule demolishing the houses and the construction of the temporary playground. I I just don't recall. Were we are we behind schedule there with an October 15th? >> Yes, we're we're behind schedule a little bit on that. We've kind of worked it out so that we don't have major operational issues, but we're we're running behind just a little bit on that particular item. >> And do we have I mean any concerns? I'm just now that students are going to be

066back in the building. >> We we have worked all that out. I'm going to call on Mr. Morris to to comment on that, but we've worked through so that we don't have those concerns, but I'd like him to be able to address that. Thank you. So, um, approximately about a week or so ago, we met with John Wagner over there, um, Bill Minahan, who's the site superintendent with Site Logic, myself, and Jared who is with, uh, Maniffort, and we looked at the schedule, and while we are behind, um, it looked like all of the major construction activities would be finished by the time students would arrive. So we would be um when school comes back some of the activities that would be taking place would be the actual construction of the versa court itself which

067is a snap together um no no heavy machinery is expected for that and there was a substantial delay in securing the delivery of the the swing set. Um so that would come at a much later date um more towards the end of September. Um I know we have a couple days um um non- studentent days especially the 23rd which you know if we get that in time would be a prime day to um get that installed or at least get the the machinery up there and work around. So um a couple things with grading came up within that time frame since the time we met and today. So, um, on site today, uh, we did ask for an updated schedule, um, that we could we could review, but we're still pushing for having like mo

068majority of the heavy machinery out of there and um, by the time students come back and we can work around activities much like we do the roofing, things like that and recess, fire drills, all of that will all be coordinated. And we do plan on pushing the construction fence tighter into the construction zone um which will give the students um more access to the walkway and and things of that nature. So hope that helps. C >> can you remind me were we displacing are we I mean this was an extra play space correct or >> was this >> Yeah. So this is the temporary playground. This is it's uh extra play space. We have the kindergarten playground down there now. >> But they did play there. So now >> Yeah. And they'll still play there.

069>> Okay. Yep. So, that'll still be open um all playgrounds will be open um until the start of um construction in April and then that's when um you know everybody will kind of shift to to that kindergarten playground that um the temporary playground and other resources that we're going to provide. >> So, and just curious, we we approved it in March 25th. Is there a reason why we were is there >> something I can speak to that? So, one of the reasons why we were late outside of those material deliveries for the playground issue, one of the reasons that we were late was that we were in line behind some customers that needed some other things from Pico before we could get power turned off to some of the to the buildings that we took

070down. So there was an impact from from that which had a lot to do with the site work itself outside of when we're getting playground equipment. >> Thank you. >> Um I I had a question and it was just a question about the drawing. If you could go back to slide seven and and I apologize. It's been going on for so long sometimes we forget things. P4 at the top uh in light gray it says uh pave new entrance when complete and that leads out to 320 not 320 >> spurl sorry thank you and I'm I guess I'm I thought we hadn't decided to put a new entrance there or I thought we had talked about it but like we hadn't actually gone to pendot so we talked about it early on in the phases

071but I thought we weren't doing that after all. Is that an error on the map >> Damian? I can speak to that. >> Okay. >> So, that is the Robert's Roads entrance. >> Yeah. And it's but it's like a it exists, but it's not a road road and it's a driveway to >> the driveway entrance to the old houses. So, during the during the uh demolition proposal >> um and as part of the uh base bid and we did accept the alternate um was to restore that so that we maintain the integrity of that drive up into that area. >> Okay. >> All right. for number one for maintenance needs for emergency access and things of that nature. So we had told the board that you know when we went into that um project that

072we would not do anything um in that project that would cost the district more money that we would have to redo. So from the time of approving that project till today or most recently um Aqua had moved the area to which the water vault the meter pit uh would be located and pushed it down further. So those um those services in that vault now kind of um uh run into that driveway or across the top of that driveway. So, we thought if we include that work now like we previously thought in the project, we may end up restoring that at a later date. So, we're actually going to be asking Manifford for a credit, pull that back out of the project and put it back here so that we're only doing it once. Does that

073make sense? I I think it makes sense, but let me So there are some thin dotted lines and they aren't necessarily straight at the one side and then it so it starts off wider and then it gets thin and very narrow at the bottom close to like the P8 P9 that is that what the paving would be. I guess what it would be helpful to me to understand in a drawing where the paved path would be >> those dotted lines just represent >> I'm sorry >> they're utility lines. >> Those are utility lines. They don't they don't have >> Okay. So, but when you say pave a new entrance, it's because I think the the eye goes to that wide gray and I'm thinking it's not that certainly where where that's located and labeled. It

074would make you think that. Yes. And it is. And it's it's just the work that Mr. Morris was talking about in that one. >> Okay. I think it would be helpful to me. I don't know if I'm being picky, but to see what that driveway is going to look like. And and when you say the driveway will continue, I know where the houses are now. Are they just going to continue to an area generally? Will they tie somehow to the back of the school building somewhere? It's just going to be a driveway to nowhere. >> Driveway to a flat grassy area. Yes. Okay. So, the driveway doesn't go Did it did not go all the way to the houses. It It went up the hill and then it kind of stopped and then turned to

075gravel. >> So, it's at that area of asphalt. So, we're not going to continue it to anywhere um at the building. It'll be basically what it is today. >> Okay. And what you're saying is it needs to be paved now. We're going to wait and roll it into this because of aqua moving there. >> Yes. Because now we have an interference and we're not going to pay for it twice. >> I appreciate not paying for it twice as long as it's safe to leave it unpaved. >> Yeah, it'll it'll still be paved but the integrity of it from running construction materials across it has definitely taken its toll on it which is why we wanted to do that in the first place. >> Absolutely. Okay. And then a a related paving type question. Um, there

076was a proposal now to switch and uh pave part of the uh new lot in the summer of 2027. And while I appreciate getting ahead, I guess my concern is, and again, it can just be the map. It looks like you're paving up very close to the existing building. And I worry about that demolition. You know, are the trucks, you know, are the demolition vehicles going to be rolling across that nice new lot that we're going to end up paving it twice or is somebody going to give us a credit for the damage they do to our brand new lot. >> Either we're going to protect it or we're going to put the binder course down and not put the top course on until later >> so that we don't have the damage. that that

077was the initial plan that we that we would put the subbase and the binder course down, but we would wait to do the what we call the wear course, which is the top typical inch and a half of of asphalt, which is what makes it pretty. So, >> it was a little to me it was misleading just because it says complete it including line stripe. So, you're going to line stripe the binder course or you're going to >> Well, you can line stripe the binder course on the park. >> It's the kind of thick chunky. It's not >> It's not Okay. Okay. Okay. I just not along the lines of not doing things twice. I don't want to I appreciate I think it's important. I recognize the staff needs a lot as soon as possible,

078but um that that was a concern. Okay. Anybody else have questions about what we've talked about so far before we keep going? Go ahead. >> One minor question. when you go back to um the slide where you had the variances >> and there was a 600 the 680,000 increase um because of the delay in permits. >> Yes. >> Are do we have any assurances that the permits will come through so that there won't be any further increases? I'm glad that I'm the person standing here when you asked this because one of the reasons that there was not more communication over the summer was that things were in such flux. And if you recall, and this is probably what's prompting your question, the last time we were here, we we showed up and said, you know,

079we've just learned a whole lot about the permitting process, and we're going to have to take a minute and and and pause. And that's what we did. So I none of us and I can speak for the professionals and the administration wanted to stand up here and not tell you that tell you differently than we have a real good confidence about what we are showing with that timing for permits. Now we don't want to get up and slide again. I wanted to come up and and be able to say we may be able to come bring it forward a little bit, but we're really certain now and and given the meetings that we've had with DP, etc., and where this the sewer module is, we do have a high confidence level and there was a

080lot of discussion around that. So, um I I think it's important that you do know it. We didn't have that confidence earlier in the summer and that impacted what we could tell you because telling you we're still working on it is a short memo. But we do have that confidence now. >> Thank you. I along the same lines, but just to kind of pin it down, if we go out to bid in November, there won't be some kind of comment in December from the county or the state that affects what we put out to bid such that we have to either issue an amendment or we have to pull it back. >> I have to take that in two parts because you said issue an amendment or an addendum to the bid or pull it

081back. I I will not and I don't think the gentleman behind me will allow us to go out to bid if we think that there is going to be some any potential for any substantial change. What often we do is we may go out to bid when and and I'm we're even trying to avoid that at this point. We may go out to bid when we know that there are a couple minor comments that could come back that we could catch while we're out to bid in an addendum so you don't create a change order because something changed later. So we are paying specific attention to that and asking you to move that up if we if we get the opportunity we'll take that into account but that's part and parcel why the data is

082where it is just taking exactly that into account. So I actually I think asking it even in the other direction. Why should we be going out to bid in November if we don't get a per if we don't have a permit? >> I'm sorry. >> Well, I recall we asked this question back in the spring because when we were going to go to bid, we also didn't have the final approval until the next month. >> So it's a little bit of Groundhog Day in terms of >> it is Groundhog Day and I'm a fan of that movie. So, when you look at our anticipated approvals, um, receiving approvals, and I want to go back to receiving approvals at that 128, what we've done is we've put in kind of maximum amounts of time to get

083to that. So, and I think if if I recall, we were talking about going out to bid about 11:28. So, we may modify that. We're going to be okay with the with the sewer planning module. If we have any indication there that that's an issue, we're going to push that around a little bit. So, you can see how those are lining up very closely and um they're they're lining up with the the final comments. So, we're going to know um a whole lot more when that 1023 review letter comes back. If that review letter has is lengthy, then we have to pay more attention that date. If that if the comments are easy to resolve and it's not lengthy, then we're going to have a lot more confidence that we're not going to have any

084trouble on that 128 projected date. >> And how many times have you gone for other projects? Have you gone out to bid um with this type of time frame still waiting for the NPDS permit? >> Admittedly, in this day and age, given the time frames that it's taken and the desire to get out to bid, nearly every project goes out that way. The vast majority do. However, we we are we are we are kind of working on the conservative side with this schedule, saying if we have to wait, we have to wait. Especially with all the new regulations and every all the stuff has been dealt with in this permitting process. We are we are in the same thought process I think as the board is. Let's not get a little too fast and have

085a lot of confidence when we go. >> Thank you Dr. >> Can sorry in the opposite direction. If we approve this on November 18th why the gap to going out to bid on the 24th? >> Um because the next opportunity would be the next opportunity would be a lot later. So, we're just asking you to approve and I we're >> No, no, I guess my question Oh, so if we approve it on November 18th, you wouldn't go out to bid the next day. You have because there might be cleanup to do. There might be other things to >> We may Do you have I mean, we we could potentially do that and as again that um the letter that we get on 1023 is going to tell us a lot about how we feel about

086that. Did you have anything that you wanted to add to that? I I can tell you as long as I as long as I know that everything is complete and we have qu high quality documents, which we've been over many times, the civil documentation is getting refined, but the rest of the documentation is is really in good shape. We will get out to bit as soon as we can. The way we've set it up is that that November board meeting is the opportunity to ask for that and then do it as soon as we can after. The idea that I allude to about if we can do it earlier, that would have us talking about that a little bit more deeply in October, saying if these conditions are met, then go out to bid and

087we bring that up. But we're not prepared to say that that's reality just yet. >> No, I I appreciate that. You had a question. >> Just one more time. So, back in the spring when we had the schedule and I think to Dr. Bachelor's question, we asked that exact same thing. How often do you do this? You said we we do it often. I recall that. We also you said it would depend I I honestly think almost verbatim you said it will depend on that letter we get and as long as it's not very technical then we'll feel comfortable. It depends. No. What is different this go round? Is it that you've been through a number of rounds at this point so that you can say with a higher degree of confidence we won't be

088back? >> What is different is that what was submitted and what is being redesigned and updated has to do and I'm going to allow uh the design professional to talk about this, but it has a lot to do with changes in regulations and the way that it's being looked at. So we're we're going through a process with the reviewers for the first time like they're going through it. So that process got extracted. In the past, we kind of knew the process and as you went through it, there wasn't there weren't new regulations and new ways of reviewing storm water. And I'm I should allow you to to talk a little bit more about this, but that's the difference between >> so we then and now >> we feel more confident because we have a much

089more detailed input that we we revised the input >> the plans. >> Yeah. And what what what has happened when the plans are submitted there are regulations in place and then in spring the EP adopted new regulations. Now, like with the municipal planning code, if you go to a township, there's zoning in place, a subdivision ordinance in place, they can't change the ordinance on you. You they have to you have to go through the review process and permitting process with that zoning in place. That same doesn't necessarily apply to the state. So, with the new changes, which are rather extensive with infiltration, it's been more more restrictive. What they've done is place those new regulations on what was submitted thereby make requiring changes which it was designed with to the old standards and now the

090new standards are being applied. So uh you know additional additional design has to be done to address this you know and we set you know I guess what what it says in the schedule there our engineer and their engineer and even the conservation district county conservation district went with us to meet with D because they don't know what is being enforced right now and and we work across the state and every county is a little bit different. It's this is all pioneering right now. It's new regulations that came in and um and unfortunately the timing of it. The fact that they could apply it after the fact I question but that's the apparently this can is allowed and can be done with the state. So that's why the situation now when we've sat down gone

091through things got more buyin on both sides of the fence then we we feel much better. So, okay. >> And I don't recall my career ever seeing a meeting like the one that we had to have to figure out not only with the Commonwealth, but the county how they were going to interpret their own regulations and what they wanted to see from design. I've had meetings where we collaborate and make the design better to fit, but not when it was kind of figuring it all out at one shot like that. It was very interesting. >> Okay, I think we're on slide 15. >> Thank you. >> Yep. If you recall, we created several different categories of uh optional pieces of work that are are alternates. The first was building interior. Um the first one is

092epoxy terazzo in the gym cafeteria uh quarter main lobby. Um using highdensity tile versus epoxy. Uh the second is uh epoxy turazzo in classroom quarters changing that to highdensity resilient tile. Uh similarly in the cafeteria and then changing classroom and other floors from highdensity resilient to VCT. And lastly there's a wall tile change. All of those are optional things that we're going to be looking at as alternates within the building interior. >> Vinyl composite tile. Thank you for asking. What what's the layman's term for that? >> Um the layman's term is the 9 in by 9 in floor tile that you see in many in many uh commercial buildings and and many institutional buildings. So when you see the floor tile and you can actually tell that it's like 9 in by 9 in that

093is typically vinyl composite tile. And what happens to it when it gets old? Does it curl at the corners when it's got too much water under it? It's We're not talking the old style for micica tie. >> No. Um, it it actually it wears well and it wears better when it's wellmaintained in the district. >> Wait, so can you just So you're talking about changing the the classroom floors from from Toronto to high density tile for a savings of 560. And then changing those classrooms again from >> high density tile to VCT. >> I'm I'm sorry. We're talking about corridors in line two and we're talking about the classrooms themselves in line four. >> Oh, wait. Floors in classroom cor. >> Yes, we the the presentation that you have in front of you um had

094a couple of corrections made to it in the version that resides with the district. This one didn't have those corrections and one of them was on that line item where it says in classroom. So it is the classroom corridors that we're talking about Terzo versus highdensity resilient tile on line two and the classrooms themselves and some other areas. the difference between highdensity resilient and vinyl composite tile. >> Were was were we always going to have high density resilient in the classrooms or were we originally going to have Terraszo? >> We were never going to have Terzo in the classrooms. >> All right. >> Only only in quarters. >> And these are all alternates, right? We're going out to bid with epoxy >> for all alternates and we're going to buy what we want if what

095we want fits our budget and that's what we choose to afford. >> Got it. Uh moving on to building exterior, there is a multi- uh purpose roof change from metal roof um to a rubber roof, which is what that TPO uh stands for. It's a type of rubber. There's a change in the flat roof um that's available from a roofing type um that is uh called alphagard to a roofing type that is um more of a rubber roof that is tpo. There is a change available for limestone window sills uh use instead of using limestone using pre-cast and then a change from composite metal panels to cement board panels as well. Th those are all the exteriors with um the the first item being the item that's preferred and the last that's noted there being

096the alternate or being the the item that is uh that is less costly. So you probably know all this off the top of your head, but when we come back around and we get the bids and people are ask, it's going to help us a lot to know not just what's cheaper, but whether how long it takes for the maintenance costs to catch up and how much the difference in the lifespan. >> There will be a life cycle costing exercise for some of this. >> Um when the better system can be taken, it will and and it's recommended. It may be less of a a point, but still depending on what the cost is that comes in on bidday compared to these estimates, we may want to get an idea of that for many of

097these things. >> Great. Thank you. >> In mechanical, electrical, and plumbing, the panel board conductors um have historically been specified as copper. Changing them to aluminum um reduces the cost dramatically. And the way that's been accepted um over the years and the way that panel boards have been connected to their aluminum conductors has made that a a much better um value. And same thing with the panel board bus changing from copper to aluminum. Finally, in site work, uh there's eliminating a paved walkway that's available to us along the tree line at the rear of the site. There's changing a concrete retaining wall uh to segmental block and there is changing a sided playfield to hydro seed. Those things are available for site work alternates and will be options to see which of those we'd like

098to afford when the bids come in. Any questions about those before we move to Mr. Pauling's presentation on financial analysis? >> Okay. >> I thought Dr. Bachelor was raising his hand, but >> Oh, I'm sorry. >> No, no, he's fine. He was just stretching. Um, okay. I think we'll move on to Dr. Paul. Thank you very much. >> Okay. I thought he was raising his hand to do the the slides. So, >> if you if you would allow me to do the financials, I would be happy to. >> Depends on we we pay Brian to do the financials. >> So, thank you. So part of the conversation when we met in June was to look at all aspects of the the delay in the the the bid schedule. Um so I met with PFM, our

099financial adviserss, um after the meeting and I've continued to discuss with them where we're at with the project. Um and overall from a financing perspective, we're we're in pretty good shape. um you know, if you're hearing discussions about what's going on with the Fed rate, um and looking at potential, you know, rate cuts, um that's some indication of the rates that we're talking about. Those are more short-term rates. And if you look at um the US Treasury yield curve right now, it's actually what's called an inverted curve. we're in the short term. They're showing those uh anticipated rate decreases over the next year or two, but over 2530 years of what we're looking to borrow for the project, um the rate comes back up to at about a 5% mark is what uh that indices

100showing us right now. So, um it's a little bit higher than what it was a few years ago. uh but it's anticipated, you know, right now being stable and the rate cuts in the short term um will not hurt that long-term rate. So, um we don't see that the delay is going to have a significant impact on the financial plan for the borrowing um or that it would cost us any more um for the borrowing other than what the cost for the project once the bids come in and we know what those what those costs will be. Um, one thing that we did adjust on the schedule, um, is based on that, we had anticipated borrowing more money this year, um, in calendar year 2025, um, with the project starting sooner. And we borrow money

101based on the total project cost, but we also borrow based on cash flow um, of when we're going to have large um, expenses related to the project. Right now, we're still in design development. We're in permitting. Once the construction starts is when we really start to see those cash resources start to to go down and that's where we need to borrow more money to pay for the con the contracting costs uh for the length of the project. Um, so what we're recommending, um, is that we look to adjust the third-year borrowing, which is the column in red, and we could do another borrowing similar to what we've done for the first two, is borrow for an amount just under $10 million. That would give us a bank qualified borrowing, which means it would have a

102shorter call date on the bond should rates become favorable. Um, we could refinance that debt sooner. Um, it also gives us uh some some immediate cash to carry us over. um until the construction would would start in the spring um and would carry us until we would need to do another potential borrowing sometime in the early fall of of 2026. And then we adjusted the amounts that we would need to borrow in the green and the orange columns. So that's really the biggest change. Um we've been conservative um on the rate anticipations um but they're consistent of what we've been looking at. Um and our high water mark on the debt is still at about $1.8 million. And we've uh built most if not all of that into um our budget now uh to cover

103the borrowing costs that we were anticipating based on the total cost of the project. So um the last bullet point there um it's just from an illustration purpose. So, you can see in the the charts, if you look at the blue, you look at the yellow and the red, um you know, in our short-term repayment schedule, um what we'd have to factor into the budget, every $10 million that we've borrowed is approximately a $500,000 um impact on our annual budget of debt that we would have to repay now. And then, as you can see, it structures differently when we have other debt falling off on the schedule. It's called wraparound debt. So, we have shorter and um short-term smaller payments that accelerate into higher payments when we have other debt on our portfolio dropping off.

104Um so, for example, if we would need to borrow another $5 million, it's a two about a $250,000 short-term impact on the budget. Um, I did work with PFM and they're not illustrated, but we ran some other models to see if we did four borrowings instead of five. Um, or we did an additional borrowing to spread this out because of the length, it really wouldn't have much impact on on rates and and cost other than every time we borrow money, there's an issuance cost because there's professional services that go into that. There's SEC requirements. Um, and that's about $80,000. So, uh, I feel comfortable sticking with the plan of doing this over 5 years. We would get the advant the advantage of doing the bank qualified borrowing this fall. Um, and then doing those two

105higher borrowings at the end. Um, and then, um, trying to keep on target with what we've been discussing. Um, and again having that debt for the most part built into our budget already. Um I don't see that the delay is going to cause a signific significant impact from a budgetary standpoint. Um I am going to ask PFM to come to our finance committee meeting in September to start talking about uh you know where we're at. Just give uh kind of another summary where the rate environments are looking um what the plan would be this fall to do that $10 million borrowing sim similar to what we did last fall when we borrowed uh what's in the yellow column up there. Um and then we would uh put some parameters in place which allow us to

106jump on the market should there be an advantageous date for us to go out to to issue those bonds. >> So Mr. Pauling I'm going to ask you a similar type of question I was asking Mr. Spar. Um if we are we not allowed to borrow I mean we've been borrowing money towards this project without despite the fact that we haven't officially gone out to bid. Are we waiting until November to borrow this until the board actually does decide to go out to bid or are we waiting till November for some other reason? Is there a reason we wouldn't do it? Pardon me for thinking for being a skeptic about the stability of the economy around the country these days? And my question is, I guess, are you certain that you'll be able to I

107know we think the rates are staying stable, but the news seems to report otherwise. So, I'm just trying to figure out why we're waiting until November instead of doing it in September or December even. >> Well, it takes it takes time to go through all of the the things that we need to do. So, there are board actions that give us the authority to go out. Okay. >> So, it's not something that we could just come back next week and say, "Hey, we're going to do this." We have to kind of ramp up to that. Okay. Um, also there would need to be something significant right now to impact this because remember we're looking at like a 30-year outlook on the borrowing and the in the anticipated rates. So, um, with every indicy that we're

108seeing, the short-term rates are looking to be coming down. It will impact the long-term rate. So, everything that we're discussing looks favorable unless, like Mr. Spar said there's some something unforeseen that happens in the next week, but nothing that we would normally anticipate would look to do that. We just we actually had a uh a similar update from an economic standpoint yesterday with one of our um um investment uh um firms that we work with and uh similar data than what I've been talking about with PFM. So, I don't see that that would be an issue. um it does tie into the deadline and the the timeline for you know getting the approval to go out to bid. What we also do with these borrowings is we build in there that they can be used

109for other projects if needed. So for whatever reason um this gets put on hold. We just anything would change um we could still utilize this money for the list of other capital projects that we have including the administration building. So we have some flexibility and we wouldn't be borrowing too much, you know, beyond the capacity with that additional $10 million and it makes sense for Ethan from cash flow and if we need to pivot with the other capital needs that we have. >> I thought I remembered that but I was going to ask you to confirm it. So thank you for anticipating. Any other questions? Miss Sullen? Yeah, I can't recall what was step three. When when this red column, when was it scheduled? >> Uh about the same time. >> Um and I I

110will look and see what the the last um scenario had us borrowing at that time. It's not changing the overall debt as far as the total amount. I think we were looking to um borrow about 21 million this calendar year and we did have it in July um okay >> for for this calendar year but when things got moved back we pushed it more back to the fall and then we shifted some of that 21 million out to the future years and really once we get over $10 million it negates the bank qualified status and then it's just a matter of the amount we're borrowing when we're going to spend it and what the debt repayment looks like. So that's that's what changes in the schedule from from that overall amount, but we still have

111that approximate $75 million. And that 75 million is also net of the debt issuance costs that are included in the soft costs on the project. So when you see the project costs 77x million and we're borrowing 75, we're borrowing the cash we need to the project net of those issuance costs that we have when we borrow the money. So we pushed it back one, two, three, four months from >> Yeah. for the for what we anticipated and that that schedule was done and we were um again looking at it and we don't feel again that we have to jump on something because the rates seem to be trending down but everything's kind of moving slow in this world. Um, so whether we had borrowed in July or we borrowed now, there probably wouldn't have been

112a significant difference in the rates other than the timing sometimes gets based on what other bonds are available. And if we're in a good environment where we can go out and our bonds are attractive because there's not as many out there or the bond market is strong at that time, um, it can help us. But we wouldn't have seen much of a difference from July if we had borrowed to looking to November. What if rates do go down? >> So, if rates go down, then um it would help us on those green and orange column borrowings in the long term. Um, and if we're looking at rates going down over, you know, let's say five or six years, the 10 million borrowings that we've done the last two years plus this year that we're anticipating

113with that shorter call date, if the rates are less and there's an advantage for us to refinance that debt for lower repayment, we could do that sooner with a bank qualified borrowing with those those issuances under 10 million. >> But we'd still need to pay the 80k. Yeah, but it it was still net out and we've done that before. So, you look at the total net cost and yes, we'd still have to pay that. And unfortunately, it's not as easy as us going out and selling bonds on, you know, you know, on our website. We have there's a lot of SEC requirements and legal documents and things like that because they're taxexempt bonds and so we we hire professionals to help us navigate that. Okay. Uh, thank you, Mr. Pauling. I appreciate your help with

114that. I think we're on slide 17. >> We are. And we're going to end with a few photos of the demolition project. We talked about the um structures being removed from the site. Um, it's always interesting when you can uh see that a view of something where there once was a building and now there is not. And that's really what you're seeing here. The two houses in the annex building have been uh demolished and removed. Foundations have been removed. The construction access drive to to back there has been uh completed and maintained. and we are dealing with utilities such as the the water bypass just to make sure that we don't have any um utilities that are unattended to through the site. So, we'll continue clean up and start to build the playground pad so

115that we can adhere to the schedule that we talked about earlier on. >> I think you're up to discussions and questions. Does anybody have questions on this last point? I appreciate all of the time easy >> that you've given us and the thoughtful questions and we'll get back to you through the administration on those things that we talked about. Thank you so very much. >> Thank you all. Gentlemen, I I know it's a lot to come out here for the evening, but I appreciate your time. Okay, the next item on the agenda is the review of the 2024 2025 district initiatives and the proposed 2025 2026 district initiatives. >> I think you me >> I was just going to say Dr. Bachelor, you're handling that one. >> Yes. and we'll get the PowerPoint uh up

116and going. And as the PowerPoint is prepared um so each year as a board we um vote on our district initiatives. Uh this is not an action item um for this month. This is a will be an item uh for next month. Uh tonight what we wanted to do was we wanted to uh provide you know a high level a bit of an executive summary. The PowerPoint is very thick with a lot of detail. uh we want to have that detail in there so that you know for our community for our staff and others uh we're really proud of the summary of the initiatives um from last year and all that was done uh so we want to provide that summary but as I said we will do that as a highle quick summary myself

117and other administrators will be uh giving that summary and then at the end we will share um the the draft of the initiatives uh for next year that again the board will be looking to take action on uh at the September board meeting um for the board and for our community. You know, our initiatives do not represent everything we do as a district. Uh the initiatives represent those items that we select and we call out uh as a district. Uh but there are many things that happen dayto-day to in our district uh that are as critically or sometimes more critically important. Uh they might not rise to the occasion that to be identified as a district initiative but are critical pieces to our district. uh the init the initiatives give us focus as a school

118board and as administrative team um each year. So very quickly um I'll start us off here. Um so this will be our review initiatives. We just always want to start by just thanking as we give the summary thanking our our staff, our teachers, our community um you know for everything they do. These initiatives obviously uh take the entire district. Uh the support of so many of our administration and um so many things that happen in our district are thanks to uh the support we have from our community and our students and everyone. Uh we always want to begin and look at you know again together we're looking at focusing unlocking potential in all of our students. Our mission, our vision, our core values. uh we still have our comprehensive plan as we look at our

119initiative each year that guides us from the plan is from 2024 through 2027. So these are documents that we use as as guideposts each year. And then we have the summary statements and I think I'll turn it over at this point uh to um Dr. Dukvich. Um you know figured you know he's only here for a few more days. We're we're going to work him as much as we can. Um but I'll turn it over to Dr. Davish to uh you know lead us in the presentation now. >> All right. Thank you Dr. Bachelor. Uh if you move to the next slide, the first category we'll speak to within those three categories is achievement. This slide details briefly the evidence of progress that we shared at the start of last year uh that we'd be

120working toward. But the next few slides subsequently will outline them a little bit further. So we'll go to the next slide here. And interestingly, over the last gosh, four or five years, we've talked about MTSS a great deal. We've presented to the board sometimes multiple times in a school year. Thankfully, when you put systems in place, they've they start to become just part of the everyday workings of each school. And I think we've reached that point. Um, with regard to MTSS this last year, I I believe that we were more in a refinement stage. So looking to become more efficient, expand areas that need more work, um sometimes reduce or revise areas that needed something different. The continuation of the Lincoln platform has really enabled us to do a lot with data analysis and grouping

121of students and MTSS facilitation. And then the consolidation of academic levels at the high school, which was also part of this, completed its fifth and final year. So we are at a really good place with regard to MTSS. We had two audits last year that we presented to the board in April. The findings and implications. The first was social studies and the second was our English language development program. Each of those have unique implications and recommendations that we're acting on this year. Uh but again, we we prepared that and chaired that at the board curriculum committee in April of last year. Uh a big component last year was moving toward a recommendation from the board on a new K to5 ELA program which we did. We landed with into reading. In fact, today was uh

122as our teachers returned yesterday, they engaged in a full day of training today at Ryder Elementary. So all of our K5 teachers are special area folks. They engage in a full day training today with representatives from uh Hutton Mifflin from Inter Reading. And that was a full day training today. Um although K5 received new curriculum, our 6 to2 teachers have continued to work with Dr. Kierney as a curriculum supervisor to revise their common assessment documents and continue to improve consistency and alignment. And that's a continuation that's going to continue through this year as well. And as you know, we've been investing heavily in structured literacy and the science of reading and trying to align that well with the inter reading implementation. In fact, our main consultant there, Jodie Fleck, was on site today at Radner

123Elementary participating in the training with the publisher to make sure that we're we're consistent and we're aligned with the training and coaching that she's providing. Moving forward there, uh this is another big year for the steel's alignment with the innovation design studio special. So, as you might remember, we're doubling the special so that students are going there twice in 6 days now, 50 minutes each, and that the steels standards are now a component of IDS, and we've taken that responsibility away from our classroom teachers, thereby having more time and focus to specialize in math and ELA. Dr. Han to my right, who will speak briefly about AI coming soon, spent the day with our IDS staff in continuing their good work, which is going to be a continued iterative process in its own right. uh

124but selecting materials, getting things off the right track. Um that's a very exciting endeavor as well. And then finally, we're going into year three in reveal this this uh coming school year. So last year was year two. We've made some great strides with a new math program. Of course, with any new program, there's trepidation about are we going to see regression? We had we had a really good experience with math and focus overall but moving to reveal and although we have our achievement report not planned until January I can share we saw an overall 11% increase in proficient advance in our 3 to8 students from the year prior and from initial implementation year we've seen an 18% increase in proficient advance on the PSSA. So although it's a new program, it is very well standards

125aligned and uh we're already seeing some great outcomes with regard to standardized testing uh with reveal implementation. So that's going very well also. And now I'll turn it over to Dr. Hannah to speak about AI. >> Okay. Thank you Dr. Dvich. And we're in the middle of a phase in 2425 school year looking at moving from awareness into adaptation. This year, this coming year, we're actually moving into integration. But in the 24-25 school year, we were looking at an adaptation. And some of the things that we had done is we were able to adopt new language within our handbooks. We did revise and create an administrative regulation attached to our acceptable use policy which provides some common language and some guidelines for AI usage inside of the classrooms. We also had consistent and ongoing efforts

126in professional development with our teachers and getting some notoriety from there. We also had some teachers visiting us from Shanghai, China. They came to learn about some of our integration that we're doing with artificial intelligence and have actually established a really nice partnership there. Dr. Tevich, I'll throw it back to you. >> All right. I know a hot topic has continued to be executive functioning and how we're supporting our students in in actually navigating this important piece and all the things they're doing in their experiences. Uh I wanted to note that we are monitoring this closely. We've adopted uh practices within MTSS to evaluate students in their executive functioning and their organizational skills. Um, we have existing courses that have continued to evolve in both RMS and uh, RHS in the program of studies, but

127last year we actually added an executive function component within the sixth grade world language rotation and through some survey data and some analysis there and MTSS, we've seen some really good um, outcomes from that endeavor. Uh we also revised our tier one checklist last year which is part of linkit and part of our MTSS process to include executive functioning interventions in tier one and that was a change and again we continue to collect data to determine what additional supports we might be we might need to add with regard to executive functioning such as note-taking and things like that. And I'll continue although we're going to switch gears. So that was the achievement component. We're going to switch to belonging and we're now moving into the fourth year of our belonging initiative at Radner and as

128you know uh we had a heavy investment initially using the resource belonging through a culture of dignity by John Kronapo and uh Cobb. Uh this year as you'll speak to we've continued a lot of the things that we put in place but we're actually evolving a little bit more into positive psychology. So I'll speak to that in a minute. If you go to the next slide, this is these are couple screenshots here of things that we presented over the last year uh with regard to belonging at the start of last year and the end of last year. We've continued to do our staff and student surveys. We've do those quantitative analysis. We've partnered with consultants from dignity uh the dignity consulting group. Last year we focused primarily on the dispositions of dignity and um you

129may recall that we presented in May an update which included also an update on our HR functions which were significantly uh expanded last year as far as job fairs and recruitment uh and things like that. So you might recall we had a pretty extensive uh summary on that. In fact the next slide I think captures that most most recently. Yes. So last year we had an overview of what the plan was and some of the key components of that. You might recall that our principles came and shared all the the building based action plans they were engaged in and some of the really great work that they were doing there. If you move forward to the next slide and as an introduction to this year, we want to make sure that this belonging work um

130does not experience fatigue u from our staff and our and our students certainly. So, we've evolved into aligning the dignity framework that's part of the belonging work with positive psychology. And so, we partnered this year. We're still working with our with Cronappo. He's doing sessions with our our our building administrators. We're still using the same consult with our survey analysis. Dr. Hostettler, you've heard his name before. But now we're actually partnering to do a little bit more professional development around positive psychology. And Christy Smith, who was a longtime Rner teacher at the middle school and other schools within the district, uh left the the district and retired to take on this new endeavor in her own life. and she works not only with education agencies but also private and corporate sector and um as you

131know positive psychology comes right from our backyard in the University of Penn. So there's a lot of great research behind it and uh Christy and others have looked at the a lot of natural overlap with the dignity framework. So she's going to be focusing on the dispositions and really tailoring her work to each building and where they are now and what needs she sees from our staff and our students there. So this Thursday she'll be doing an introduction with our teachers K to2. She already did an introduction with our administrative team and then between different PD sessions that she'll have over the year. She'll be doing some individual faculty meetings with each building. Uh we did a lot with Christy last year with regard to a couple departments. She did some flex in service time.

132She was very wellreceived. So we're trying to move this forward and see how we can again capitalize on these natural connections with the dignity framework. And this time I'll turn it over to Mr. Betold. >> Thank you. Uh when we talk about wellness in our district, it's really about creating strong environments both physically and emotionally for our students. On the facility side, we continue to make capital improvements that support learning and wellness. On the student side, our wellness work over the past year has focused on implementing recommendations from the homework study, responding to the Pennsylvania youth survey, and introducing digital wellness initiatives. all while continuing to pilot tools and strategies that will guide our SEAL efforts moving forward. Over the next couple slides, we'll dig deeper into the wellness areas of focus for the district.

133As part of this wellness work, we launched a revised homework policy last year. It was built upon research and shaped with input from teachers, parents, students, administrators, and schoolboard members. This policy emphasizes consistency across grade levels, clear communication with families, and regular feedback from students so that homework remains meaningful and manageable. Principles review expectations with staff at the start of each year, and we'll continue to monitor implementation moving forward. At this time, I will turn the presentation over to Mr. Morris to talk a little bit about Eyan. >> Thank you. Um, a little bit about Ethan and the five and 10-year capital plan. So, the replacement of Ethan Elementary School is a strategic uh priority within our much broader five and 10-year capital plan. A plan that's designed to be fluid and flexible in meeting

134the district's involving needs. This long-term plan allows us to proactively address our infrastructure, enrollment, and educational programming across all facilities, not just today, uh, but well into the future. Um, continuous collaboration with the business office has been essential in aligning budget transfers and financial planning that ensures sustainable funding for both current and future projects. Um, the five and 10-year plan also supports district-wide modernization efforts including upgrades to wellness spaces, long-term facility plan planning, and community center design. Um much of the individual projects can be um heard at our monthly facilities committee throughout the year. Thank you. And I'll hand it over to Mrs. Miller. Thank you. This past school year, um we were able to evaluate the Pennsylvania youth survey that was conducted during the 23 24 school year. Um each every two years, this

135survey is given to our students in grades 6, 8, 10, and 12. So this past year during the 2425 school year, we were able to get our middle school and high school teams together and our SAP teams to evaluate those survey results from the prior year. As a result of those results, we implemented various programs and supports for our students and even our parents. Multiple times throughout the year, our middle school and high school had flyers throughout the school year educating teens about healthy habits. At the high school there were wellness Wednesdays hosted by our school psychologists, health and PE department and social workers to promote again healthy lifestyles and also we had um in collaboration with the RER Township Police Department coming into our health classes to again talk about the effects of drugs

136and alcohol, the legal ramifications and again the partnership that they can have between the school and the police department in the community. And lastly, Naen Carol from the Karen Foundation was able to provide a parent training on March 13th at RER High School to discuss the trends, effects, and parenting tips and how our parents can connect with our teens regarding healthy habits around drugs, alcohol, addiction, and results of the Pays Lab. I'm going to turn it over to Mr. Beal to talk about the homework study. >> We're actually going to turn this over to Dr. Hannah to talk about digital wellness. >> All right, catch over on this side. we've been throwing back and forth. Um, you you might have seen some things coming in the this current school year, the 25 26 school year

137with digital wellness, some things that are happening at our high school, some things that are happening with or maybe not happening with our remote instructional days at different levels. And that was because a lot of the groundwork that we've laid in this last school year in the 2425 school year and even well prior to that coming out of co we've been talking about digital wellness and we've actually been uh not only a regional leader but a national leader in talking about digital wellness with the publication of our screen time position statement in the 2122 school year well prior to any anxious text being published. We were actually beginning to talk about that and actually rolling into this. And in last school year, we actually uh started having some more deeper dialogues, dialogues with our students

138about cell phones. Why do you bring cell phones? How would you feel about them? What do you see in the distractions? Having student forums and having student voice as a part of our investigation. We also had time to talk to parents as well. We had an evening parent session where we talked about things like devices, whether that's laptops, cell phones, why do they have cell phones, why do they come to school with cell phones, what are they meaningful, like what what is their function? And being able to really balance those out. So, as we craft things going into this school year, we were going that going into that in an informed way. And we also had time in January of last school year to work with our teachers, dedicated professional development and inservice time where

139we talked specifically about digital wellness, where we talked about screen time inside of the classroom, where we talked about engagement in artificial intelligence and even having the opportunity to bring in a guest speaker and really utilizing her in multiple capacities. one to work with our teachers during that professional development, but also being able to work with our community as well and having a community-based session there and even having some time that she can work with our students when she was here. And then leading into this school year, beginning to purchase some of those things such as charging stations so that we have those inside of our elementary program that devices don't have to go home when there's not a reason for them to go home. So much more to come and I think you're starting

140to see some of those in 2526. With that I >> I think I jump in right now. So thank you. Um and you know you've heard a little bit of an indication with some of the summaries of where we're headed. This last page is is a a quick summary. There's a more detailed uh sheet that each of the board members has already seen that we've posted as well. Um, our initiatives for this coming school year again fall under three topics of belonging, wellness, and achievement. In some areas, you can see that's continuations. It's some of the building upon uh what you've just heard from today from the different administrators. In others areas, some there's some newer pieces that are added. um under achievement. We're really excited and and interested K to2 um in this focus

141on instructional practices uh a focused on high impact strategies and we've begun some of those discussions already uh across the district. our administrative team though it was an initiative was working last year uh on this piece u on on the role of an instructional leader and uh we invited many of the teachers this summer to be part of this in each building and then expanding that um throughout the district as well K to 12 we have you can see under achievement our curriculum cycle and the uh you know and I give the board a lot of credit for um you know making that change several years ago that as we look at our initiatives uh we keep a focus on our curriculum cycle cycle and the programming and the focus areas in there. Uh and

142then also uh something that is you know under wellness and again we discussed Dr. Hand was talking about the surveys and the feedback we received last year. Um one of the new pieces is we we are having our high school uh the phones are we're asking our our kids we understand they have them each day uh but they are supposed to be away uh during the school day all of the school day. uh and I know that uh this is something that the board at times has talked about the importance Dr. Han talked about uh our position statements on digital wellness and how we were um you know even talking about it before books like the anxious generation came out that I think has moved our parent and parents and have hit a tipping point

143of the importance of giving our kids a break. So, I really commend the high school administration, the high school staff, the teachers, everyone uh as they look at um instituting for the start of the school year. They've already communicated out to parents. They've communicated out to the students um that the the phones are to be away all day, similar to the process or the policies and procedures we've had at our middle school um for years to give our kids that break um throughout the entire school day. Um and then we are, as you heard from Dr. Kevage really excited to be continuing with our belonging initiatives uh continuing to expand uh that programming uh and keeping it fresh as we move forward. So we're excited where to where we're headed. Um we are looking for

144the board for to make approval next month on the details of the proposed initi initiatives for next year. It's not on the agenda um for tonight. So if there's any questions can open up for board questions. Um and this is the detailed initiatives that we've posted as well. It takes the previous slide which is just a quick summary and gives more details about what are the indicators um the general description and timeline for each initiative quantitative ind indicators and qualitative indicators. >> Any questions? >> I have a question. >> Yes. >> So with uh respect to the final initiative under belonging uh relating to recruiting and retaining a diverse workforce. So, um, it's been over a year since the board has been presented with data by the administration that would allow us to effectively gauge

145our progress on this initiative. I know I personally asked for it and was essentially told, "We're working on it." And HR has hired an a consultant to conduct an audit of our practices. Um, which I applaud and appreciate. Um, I still think, you know, we should be shown the data at least on an annual basis. Um because I would imagine any changes that we implement as a result of the audit would take months if not years to implement and for us to effectively measure kind of their effectiveness. And I know this data is publicly available. Any member of the public can access it. But as a board member um you know that public data unfortunately has a year to two lag usually. And as a board member, I would imagine we have access to much

146more current data. Um, and I just, you know, would like to continue to put a spotlight on this initiative and just treat it like we would any other initiative and, you know, kind of at least annually be able to measure objectively how we're doing. Thank you. >> Yeah, that would be no problem. Just like we did uh provide the board an update last year, we'd be happy to provide another update this year. Sarah, I have >> Yeah, I was just gonna call to you and Claire. So, go ahead. >> Yeah, thank you. So, can we go back to the AI page? Uh, the review of 2024, >> not this one. You want to go back further? >> Dr. Han gave the presentation about it. >> Dr. Mr. H, you remember the slide number that >>

147I believe 11 >> 11. Thank you. >> Yes, this one. So, I recall seeing this chart. I think it related when we went over this. Dr. Han, correct me if I'm wrong. I think we looked at this in the context of the policy committee. >> That's correct. >> Great. All right. So, I just want to make sure I understand. I I did not glean from our policy committee work and our intention of not creating an AI policy that we were moving forward with kind of moving forward with AI proactively in our schools. Um this adoption of magic school AI and that's on me that if if that was something maybe it was discussed in curriculum. Um, I guess the feedback I'd like to give as it relates to the upcoming goals is I applaud our

148efforts to work on the executive functioning. I think that was the page that followed this one. I applaud our focus on wellness particularly as it relates to uh our you know the students use of technology and social media and the decision we've made about the high school cell phones and that we're already doing at the middle school. I I applaud all of that. I am not particularly supportive of bringing AI use or instruction into the schools. Um, maybe I'm the only board member who feels this way. I apologize. I don't serve on curriculum, so I didn't proactively, you know, follow this and and make these feelings clearer, but um it's it's a really fun tool that I think, you know, will it's a really fun thing that's really cool and neat. And I think it's

149the kind of thing that is counter to our off and away initiative. Um, I recognize AI AI is out there. I I abhore it with a vengeance. I am constantly annoyed by the very clear AI um, you know, attendance on cell on phones now when I call for customer service. Nobody has to agree with me about that. And I Dr. Bachelor knows this about me. I I use technology all the time, but I use it as a tool. And I don't think we need to instruct young children, certainly not middle school or elementary school in AI. I I think that they will learn it on their own. I think that we should be making really clear distinctions about how they should not be using it in their work, but I I really do think it's

150counter to some of these other initiatives that we're trying to promote with our kids about less a maybe a little bit less technology and a little bit less social media and a little bit less, you know, and less dependence on um on cell phones and on social media and our emphasis on interpersonal connections and relationships and the in-person value of you know instruction. This is not this to me doesn't feel like proactively doing this doesn't feel like the right way for me and I have no idea how anybody else feels about that. So I just want I I'm sharing that as we as the goals for 2526 get created. >> That's all. There's nothing for anybody to do with that tonight, but that is my feelings about AI. >> But but it might be good

151to add. So thank you Mrs. Stern for sharing uh some of those ideas. Um, part of what we have in this as well is the idea of creating awareness just like we do with social media and we look back and saying why didn't we talk more about social media years ago and look at where we are now with cell phones and all the things that it's caused and knowing that AI as you said is going to be there. Sometimes it's just creating that awareness and understanding and part of what we talk about is human- centered artificial intelligence where to use it when not to use it and helping kids make good decisions. So addressing it from the onset to the degree that we implement it or what it ends up looking like. We want to

152give that classroom autonomy in there and we want to emphasize kids actually using their own brains. But what is that intersection of human intelligence with artificial intelligence and the ethics of using that which are actually part of our goals for this year and beginning to develop what are those AI and media literacies so when they do encounter it how do they know if something's real? how do they know if something is um accurate information? So, training them with those skills so when they do encounter it in the real world, they know how to react to it. They know how to talk to it. They know how to be able to navigate and interpret the validity and reliability of the information being presented to them. Those are also part of our artificial intelligence goals. >> No,

153I appreciate that. And from our board, uh from our policy committee meeting, Dr. Han, that's kind of where I thought we were going with the AI. So seeing adoption of magic AI software platform is not where I thought we were going >> that feels like a proactive >> could you explain that software >> kids use AI >> but maybe I don't understand enough about what magic school AI is and I will go search on board docs and listen to the curriculum committee meeting presentation on it but that's the kind of thing that I think is a proactive use of AI that I don't as an individual board member don't know how anybody else feels do not think is the way to go at this point. I think we could be really slow on AI on

154bringing AI into our schools and there are kids who will still learn it and I and I think the other things that you just mentioned about discerning between real information and and AI generated information those types of skills I think are valuable. I completely agree with you Dr. It's the It's um the the cool tool magic school. Um I just keep thinking of magic school bus which my grandchildren watch but ma you know that cool component I just think is counter to the other things we've been talking about about pulling away a little bit from um technology. So that's all I wanted to say about that. Thank you. >> Can we can we let Dr. your hand actually explain what magic tool magic school I AI is please >> so the short version of that

155is it's magic um >> they all come up with great names but we we wanted to look at a tool that uh primarily in in the beginning our teachers were using our teachers were using magic school as a way to be able to generate lesson plans to be able to engage in curriculum development and there are elements in that as we're moving to look at ways that they can engage that and use that with their students in their classroom as well. But the initial adoption of that was we also have teachers using artificial intelligence for productivity. That's a lot of the ways that I use it as well. And we're seeing teachers find benefits and gains from that. And we're beginning to have that exploration of what does that look like inside of the classroom

156through Magic School as well. But we wanted to have a tool that was safe for our teachers, safe for our students, safe with the data that it uses, that it isn't sharing and propagating that online. And we found Magic School to be that good tool where teachers can initially engage in developing uh productivity elements for their own instruction in their classroom. >> And I stand by my statements. >> Thank you for explaining Magic School. >> But it's important to remember Magic School right now is only for the teachers. And we want to be careful. There's a lot of resources out there our teachers will go to and use as they're developing lessons. They're looking for things that might be reading age appropriate. We want to make sure we're directing them to um resources and tools

157that have been vetted and that's part of the looking at um magic school is it's for the teachers. We haven't gone that extra step yet to where do we take it from there, but it's been for the teachers. Is that accurate, Dr. H? >> There's elements that students can engage with that, but they've designed that. it is not open. Um they've crafted and basically they set magic school allows you to have a walled garden. You can wall that off so that they're not getting all the information from any edge of the internet and also limited to the things that they want them to engage in. And some teachers have taken a look at this and experimented with it and some teachers said not for me, not yet or not my content area or not this

158unit which entirely makes sense. >> And just to go along with um you know Mrs. and Susan what you just shared uh you know as a district um you know I think we have heard our parents and really our staff has come to this conclusion on their own as well uh that our our community wants to see less technology um you know our our community and and our staff have talked about whether it's our position statement whether it's the efforts Dr. hand has taken to uh as he shared before that we're no longer sending devices home um you know in the elementary level unless a parent is requiring it and asking for it. Um we first made the adjustment K to2 we eventually made the adjustment three four and five. Um we've realized that when

159it comes to things like snow days, we have snow days now that the virtual uh and we need to share that out with our community this year. um but that virtual days will no longer exist in the elementary level. We've recognized that those virtual days are not impactful days um with our students and the challenges that provide. Uh so at the elementary elementary level, we will be having snow days. Uh if we hit a huge blizzard and we go past six days, we're going to have to then talk about some type of maybe remote um or asynchronous type work. But that has also freed us up. We're no longer tied to having to hold on to devices K to five just because we need them for um virtual days because we're at the elementary level.

160We're going to be looking at snow days. The middle school um we're going to be looking at snow days for at least four days. Once we get past four days, then we're going to be a little, you know, based on our hours, we may look at some uh virtual days somewhere in that four to six days. Uh at the high school, um we're going to be looking at two snow days. And then after that where we think the students are very capable of working remotely um virtually that we can we will have those virtual days at the high school beyond too. Um we've also talked about uh just as we're looking at this focus on high impact learning strategies. Uh we want technology to be a tool. Uh but it's interesting how AI and so

161many of these changes are almost making the pen and paper more valuable than ever before. uh and we're talking about that uh as a district. So, we'll be continuing to have that conversation as we move forward. >> Dr. Babson, I think I saw you had hand up. >> Sure. Just a few quick comments. So, uh Miss Stern, I both share your skepticism. Um but I also just presiding over a number of meetings uh curriculum committee meetings where we've discussed AI. Um you know, I I just want to say that I think that Dr. hand, you've been extremely thoughtful um and and thorough in taking up the topic of AI and also uh putting in place um programs and and and leading initiatives to um to guide our usage of it. So I just want to

162say that um I think your comments a few minutes ago reflect that thoughtfulness that um you know we we don't want to be lit but we also don't want to be rushing into things in a kind of unreflective and uh fattish kind of way. Um, you know, I at at Penn I've I've I've um done um required exams that um are just simply talking. Uh they're they're oral exams and there's no written there's no writing at all. It's just the person has to be prepared uh to answer questions on the spot. And um you know it's not everyone's cup of tea but um going back to what you're saying Dr. Bachelor uh there are ways of engaging people um in educational dialogues and interactions um that may or may not need or so as long

163as they're thoughtful about it and intentional about it that and I've seen that approach. So I just want to make those comments and and I think that uh Miss Stern again I share your skepticism. Um but but at the same time I think that I'm also encouraged by the thoughtfulness by which u with which rather that uh we're we're using AI and we're engaging in it. Thanks. >> I'll just echo what Dr. Bassin just said and just um and you know listen I'm deferring to the experts in terms of the appropriateness at each grade level and I think it's an ever evolving and and changing world but you know as a parent of a college kid I can tell you that they use it all the time and in fact my my junior applied to

164a program at Penn this summer and they actually had in the application that they could use AI but they had to site So if we're not prepping at least at the college, I mean at the high school level, we're not preparing them for what they're about to enter in college. So you know, I think we continue, you know, to be very thoughtful, but to make sure that we are kind of, you know, making sure that we have that personal interaction, but that we're not putting our head in our sand and saying that this isn't something because they will be illprepared at the next step. And >> do you feel like your son is ill your child is illprepared though, Miss Duffy? Because that's kind of my point is that your your college student is using

165it? >> My my graduates, you know, my kid my kids probably do use it, but they were never instructed in it. And my point is I don't think that this is what we need to focus our in and I'm not saying we're focusing our instruction. >> We're not focusing for your comments and and Dr. Hand, I totally think that whatever you're doing is thoughtful. I'm just saying I'm not sure. I think we need to be proactively instructing in something that I think that they're is is it's not fattish. It's I I truly understand it's here to stay. I will be a ly about it. Dr. Babson, to use your word, I will resist it. It to I if I could uninstall Copilot and not even have it on my computer, I would have it off

166my computer. I can't figure out how to uninstall it. I really do resist it. That's I get that. That's my choice. I think our students will learn to use it without us having to be without us being proactive about it. That's all. And I really am very concerned about starting it in middle school when I saw that professional development for 6th through 12th grade. >> No, thank you. >> You know, and no one has to agree with me. I'm just saying that's my feeling about it. >> And if you if you go into co-pilot and say, "How do I take it off?" They will tell you how to take it off. Is it? >> I might ask my child to do that for me and just give me the just tell me what to do.

167Sweetheart, >> did you have something, Miss La? >> Yes. Um I just love the example that Miss Duffy just gave because my my rising senior um had a very similar experience. I think he took an adjacent program at Wharton also relating to data science and for their team project, you know, they had to build a statistical model, you know, to, you know, um, kind of address the issue that they were tackling. And you know, my my son told me that it was really interesting cuz um you know, about half of his cohort um really prided themselves for being like genius co coders, like kind of the old school like I'm going to stay up all night and just, you know, like drink a lot of caffeine caffeinated drinks and pound this out and write the

168code myself and I'm really good at it. And then the other kids knew how to use AI to do the same kind of work in a fraction of the time. And honestly, they saved a lot more time and spent it on other aspects of the project, right? And I think it's crucial that our kids recognize like co the coding jobs that maybe like three five years ago that every a lot of kids, you know, aspired to those might be obsolete by the time they get to college or graduate from college, right? Because AI can do that for you now. And the analogy that their professor actually used in class was look there was a time when people were impressed if you could do complex multi multiplication or mathematical equations in your head, right? Like that

169was kind of like a badge of honor. But now we have calculators who can do that can do that for you, right? It's like does anyone really like, you know, is anyone really impressed anymore that you can do all of those computations in your head, right? So like she used that analogy which was really helpful to me um because she said look AI is going to do this for us now. Why should we expend our energy to crunch all of this ourselves if we can actually you know use our you know brain bandwidth on kind of the more creative aspects of this more innovative aspects of this. So, you know, I I get the reservations. Um, you know, but I do think, you know, you know, I also don't want to do our students a

170disservice by not recognizing where the world is going. Um, and and um kind of holding them back in that way. And hopefully we can strike that tricky balance, right? It is always a balancing act and it's probably the hardest thing to do um is figuring out what the right balance is at any given time, you know, for each of our students. >> I I promise I'll be very brief. Um, so m Miss Stern, um, I would say I see your point exactly about young people having a facility with the technology and being able to absorb it and then kind of master it and use it in a kind of procedural and technical way. But I think that um their elders so to speak um have a duty to be a little bit more instructive in

171my opinion about the perspective the moral perspective and how and why and in what situations it is used actually. So I do think young people have a have a facility with the technological aspects of it. But in terms of the moral and the contextual and the judgment um that goes into how and why and in what situations it's used um I I I kind of think that you know that they can't just be I I don't think they should be flying blind. I think that's part of the sort of what Miss Laauo was saying about having a division of labor between the technical aspects of things and these more creative and the more moral stuff. That was one sentence. There was a lot of semicolons. Thanks. Uh yeah, and I I share a lot of

172Miss Stern's reservations, but I will say I useful AI like I don't let AI do legal work for me. I'm a lawyer in my private life. Um but I do I have used it to say, "Oh my gosh, I have to report on what these surveys were. They surveyed a hundred people. I don't want like okay, I can export that to an Excel spreadsheet. I don't want to sort through all those. I asked AI to sort through be, you know, what everybody's answers were and then I, you know, summarized those. So to do kind of busy work because I already know how to do it. And I think it's important that you already know how to do the math and the coding. I think it's important that you knew how to do it, but then

173maybe let someone else do it. And I think there's a balance because you lose proficiency at doing things if you don't do them regularly. I'm not sorry when I don't lose when I lose proficiency in dealing with Excel. I I will say I just I wanted to make a point on the digital wellness about the the screens um and monitoring how much time we use digital devices or our students do. I think we would serve them as well if not better to say one or two days a week we're not going to have devices in the classroom. We want you taking your notes on paper. We don't want to see iPads. We don't want to see Chromebooks. We want to see Surface Goes. I think they would be better off having tech-free days. If the

174teacher has stuff up on the screen or is going to write on the whiteboard, that's fine. But I actually think where we lose things and where our students are losing is not taking handwritten notes, not handing in homework. Everything's in my from what I've seen, most of it's digitized. I will say, "Can't you work on that in the car?" "No, because it's in schooly and I can't work in schooly in the car because I don't have wireless connection and my teacher requires it to be handed in on one note." I'm like, "You can't just print it out and fill out the worksheet." No, that's not how it's done. And I think that there's something to be said. You know, I I am a lawyer. I, you know, I get a 45page contract. Yeah, I read

175it online and I, you know, sort through things, but the reality is my best work is done when I print that 45 pages first and I read it through it and I take different colored pens to it and highlighters and I flip back and forth because I actually interact with the document instead of scrolling and searching it. That may just be me, but I think there are studies that show that you learn things and you process things better on paper and with paper and pen. We'll it'll all come out in the end, but and and we'll talk about that, I'm sure, next month when we look at the initiatives. Last call for comments. >> Oh, I have a question. >> Yeah, go for it. >> So, we have these documents in front of us. Is

176there any significance to the fact that we flipped the order of the initiatives? So last year we had achievement first and then we had belonging and then we had wellness and this year we flipped it to belonging and then wellness and achievement. Is that is there a significance behind that that we did that? >> No. No significance I'm aware of but I'm going to look to other administrators. Is there any significance? No. >> No. There's not a hierarchy. They're they're all three interconnected in a lot of ways. Well, the reason I ask is because they were numbered. Achievement first last year. Then that was number one. Number two, like I said, was belonging. Number three was wellness. And then in the 25 26, they're reversed. But so they're not numbered. So what you're saying is

177we don't view them in as achievement is the first one and then these others. You're saying we view them all equally and that's why we mixed them around. >> I'm just trying to understand what >> there's no reason why we changed it except it just got changed. I will tell you when we created the keystone and we looked at um these three themes and we went to these three themes uh several years ago because our our staff felt like we were you know what are our initiatives what are we going after and you know try to give ourselves some focus. So we said we're we're focused on achieve and we're focused on well wellness. We're focused on belonging and how do the initiatives fit under these three themes. When we initially created the keystone we

178did look at the idea that achievements on the top and wellness and belonging supports that achievement. But as we've expanded, we've talked about the concept that really belonging is the umbrella uh that makes the the achievement happen and the wellness. So, you know, so they all go hand in hand as we've developed them and that's why I think because they've gone hand in hand. That's why that there hasn't been any particular order. >> How's that for an answer? >> I'm glad I asked because you actually had a different answer than I thought. So, it there is significance to the fact that they're in a different order because you're saying they actually >> no, it was accidental that they're in a different order. The the importance is that they ranked. I'm saying we didn't do it

179on purpose. >> No, you're saying that it changed the way you looked at it. You thought that achievement was top and the other two were subsets and now you're saying no, actually you think belonging um supersedes the other two. >> I think he's saying in prior years it seemed like that and now we're trying to show it off as a keystone with all three are equal components of the keystone. >> Okay. Thank you. Yep. >> Which the Keystone was has been around for a couple years like you said, >> far more far more discussion than we've had on it on on the placement that we've ever had administrative. >> Miss Duffy. >> Okay. I'll try to make this really quick because there's three in in achievement, the executive functioning. I just um I'm just going

180to make comments, but I won't ask questions. um like that we've moved into that sixth grade unit, but I'm just hoping that we I really believe the executive functioning piece is something about consistency and discipline and creating it over time. So, I don't know if we have PD for the teachers that it becomes approached like every classroom is saying here's how you take notes, here's how you do it. So there's repetition for these kids because I think this oneoff units that I know we've done in the past that makes it make us feel good that we've checked a box but I just don't know how it really creates um true understanding within our students and and I just you know having a son who I think missed during co the middle school years when he

181those are normally developed I can say it continues to be a challenge for him in terms of just that organizational piece and I think it's about repetition in every classroom. room. Um, in terms of um, belonging, I just know we've talked about this parent surveys. Have we um, I feel like we've asked that question. Are we doing parent surveys? We have student surveys and staff surveys, but are we going out um, and doing parent um, family surveys? And then on wellness, just when you're thinking about programming, I don't know if the pay survey has caught up and ask questions, but I just think, you know, you've heard it from me before. I think um teen gambling is really something we're going to hear a lot more about. They have these phones. It's access everywhere. There's

182not a thing they can't gamble on. I would love to see our district do some programming on it. I I think it's kind of a silent epidemic, particularly among teen boys. And um I'd like to just if you're considering programming, when you're considering people bringing them in, they're talking about addiction. Sometimes I think you're starting to hear that it's being incorporated into that, but you know, I think we can be leaders and make sure I I know they're out there. So that's it. Thanks. >> Thank you very much. And we can still talk about the district initiatives next month. We just we'll move on today. Uh the next item on the agenda is the report from board committees. Um we had actually a special session this month. We actually had a board a a special

183meeting of the board to conduct business of the committees. Um and that was due to a number of factors. Um so I'm just going to give a quick summary of what we did. Um we met as a we met to cover curriculum, finance and facilities issues. Um and all of the matters we covered are generally um in the consent agenda except for one and that was um a review of the supplementals. We've talked about um the administration has talked about looking at the supplementals that get paid to our teachers and staff for various work outside of the classroom and uh in particular sports but also um academics and we the administration underwent a a very detailed project um and there was a good presentation at the meeting and there's a lengthy um both presentation and

184you know backup materials in your board packets from last month. I would really encourage every member of the board to go back and review those in detail. They're going to be up for approval next month. And there was not only was there a lot of thought that went into it, but there's a lot of detail. So, if you have questions and you want to reach out if you weren't at the meeting or you didn't have a chance to read it before last month's or before last week's um committee meeting, I would appreciate if you do that. I think um there's just a lot in there. I I know that the staff is looking forward to that getting approved and hoping that those numbers will go through because um they're all increases but I think it's

185incumbent upon us as an additional cost but also um given the complexity to to review it and understand it >> and and that's a a wonderful example of something that we did not identify as an initiative last year but we did identify it actually two years ago um that it was something we needed to do as a district and we recognized that and I give the board credit recognized that we needed to review that. I want to thank Mr. Beal, Mr. Stitz, and Mr. Pauling for leading that charge, but also speaking to so many of our supplemental holders. And it's a it is, as you said, it is a a very lengthy document. There's a lot of work that went into it. Uh it was work that was done throughout the entire year last year,

186and we'll bring that forward um next month, but important work gets done that doesn't always rise to the initiative level as well. >> Absolutely. Um next the in September we will return to our regular uh committee style just smaller groups meeting. Um the next item on the agenda we're moving to section seven is the approval of the Delaware County Community College general operating budget for 2025 2026. Um, so the recommended action is that the board approves the Delaware County Community College general operating budget for fiscal year 2025 2026 in the amount of 92,993,77 with RER Township School District share also being approved in the amount of 1,517,874. Um, can I get a motion? So moved. >> Thank you, Miss Solomon. Can I get a second? >> Second. >> And a second from Dr. Babson. Um,

187is there any discussion to have about this in advance? >> I think, um, it's been a while, and I mentioned this to you, Dr. Bachelor. I'm just going to mention it publicly. It's been a while since we've heard from the Delaware County Community College about kind of what their offerings are. I know we get invited as board members, but I think it's helpful for our public uh in Rner to understand what the opportunities are there. Um and so maybe if we could let them know, we'd like to understand how the money is getting spent. Um if someone would like to come speak to us at a board meeting, that would be great. >> We could do that. >> Um and then usually roll call votes. Doc, Mr. Pauling, you run those? >> Yes. Um so

188go through. Dr. Babson, >> I. >> Miss Dunn, >> I. Miss Stuffy. >> I >> Miss Girtton. >> I think I think I got I Yep. >> Um, Miss Laauo. >> I >> Miss Rosen Bloom. >> I >> Miss Solomon. >> Yes, >> Miss Stern. >> I >> Okay. And Mr. Thornton is absent. So, eight eight approve. >> Okay. Um that was the only action item. So the next item on the agenda is the consent agenda. And though um we do this every month, even though board action is required, it's generally unnecessary to hold discussion on these items. With the consent of all board members, they are therefore grouped and approval is given in one motion. In the event a board member wants to discuss any item, the board president will move it to an

189appropriate place on the agenda. Is everyone okay with the consent agenda? Okay. So then I'm going to look for approval for items 9.01 to 14.02. Can I get a motion on that, please? >> So moved. >> Thank you, Mrs. Duffy. Can I get a second? >> Second. >> Thank you, Mrs. Solomon. All in favor say I. >> I. >> Okay, I think I have eight in favor and none opposed and Mr. Thornton is absent. Okay, skipping ahead. The next item on the agenda is the um report from board liaison. And oftentimes in August, this is kind of a quiet set of reports, but I will give everyone the opportunity. Uh Miss Solomon, do you have anything to report from the Delaware County Community College? >> No report. >> Okay. Dr. Babson, the DCIU. >> Sure.

190Uh just very briefly, we as the board took a a tour of progress on the Marble Education Center renovations. U this was a couple weeks ago and um things are moving ahead. Um but um there there needs to be a little bit of an acceleration for the um for the beginning of the school year, but um good progress so far. Thanks. >> That's good news. Well, I hope they get the acceleration they need. You sound warmly receptive. Uh the next item on the agenda is the Delaware County School Board's Legislative Council. Um we have not met over the summer and we will be meeting uh in September. Uh Pennsylvania school boards uh uh Mr. Thornton is our representative to the PSBA and I don't think he had a report this month. So we will move

191on from there. Before I go on to board announcements, I usually ask at this time if there are any community announcements that people wanted to share. Dr. Babson, >> it's not really a community announcement. I just wanted to uh mention very quickly again congratulations to Dr. Davich and just to say a quick note that it was great to work with you uh these past few years as chair of the curriculum committee and I wish you well in the future. >> Thank you Dr. Babson and thank you everybody. >> Great. >> Yes. >> I just wanted to announce that South Wayne Porchfest is Saturday September 13th. It's an afternoon of uh free music on the streets of South Wayne. It's a really great, fun, very familyfriendly, dog friendly, stroller friendly event. Um, and anyone could check

192it out on the South Wayne Porchfest Facebook's website. >> I'm glad you remembered. I was going to prompt you if you didn't. Uh, the only other thing I would say, you know, we didn't necessarily talk about it yet. Sports are in full swing and if you have an interest, uh, you know, come out and watch our athletes. they are already playing very hard um and traveling to games and cheer camp etc. It's it's a busy time at the high school. Um board announcements for next month. Um we will be meeting the finance and uh oh this is not correct. Finance will be meeting on Tuesday, September 9th. Um GRCC I can report is not meeting in September. Um, and then curriculum and facilities will meet on Tuesday, September 16th. Those are all in the ground

193floor conference room. We like to call it the garden level of our administrative building. And then we'll be back here in September on the 30th uh for our regular business meeting. At this time, uh, I would ask if there's any other public comment this evening. Miss McN, you've been so quiet. Come on up. Welcome. >> Good evening. I'm Amy McN. I am the president of of RTA, the Rner Township Education Association. And I would just like to take a moment to express our gratitude to Dr. Sha Dvich. Not to talk about you in the third person, Sean, but when he said he needed to talk to me, I was like, "Oh, I know what this is going to be." And I had to kind of push down my selfishness. and I said, "Congratulations, and I

194know that you're ready for this new challenge, and that I hope um that the the students, the educational community, um the families of um Octtera know how fortunate they are. I'm thinking I might have to call over to the union president, send them some pictures of the convocation so that they know that you can uh dress up really well. Um but um selfishly, we will miss your guidance um and your dedication. and the way you listen and you run a committee and I could go on and on. So, I just want to thank you um on behalf of all of our members. So, thank you. >> Thank you, Amy. >> Yeah. And um Oh, so just to let you all know the teachers are very busy. We're very excited. Um we've had a really I

195was just talking to Dr. Bachelor today. We've had a really positive start to the school year. So, all of our teachers, our nurses, our counselors, our social workers, um our psychologists, we are ready to go and to see all the faces of our young people next week. So, that's it. Have a good night. >> Thank you, Miss McN. I noticed your pink lady picture didn't make it into the slides. I know that >> um I I also I wanted to echo and I was waiting towards the end but I I I think I can speak for all of us Dr. Dukavich when I tell you we are very very sorry to hear you're going. We are very very happy for you. We know this is, you know, a step that you deserve in your career

196um in all the best ways and and we know that people in Octterero will appreciate you and benefit from your creativity and your steady demeanor. Um it's been a pleasure to work with you. Stop trying to poach people from Rner. Dr. Bachelor won't say it, but I will. um you know he has built a wonderful team here and and we're really proud that you were part of it for so long um and you know may our paths cross again someday. >> Thank you. And and the good and bad for me is that Dr. R is a good distance away from here so you're you're protected. >> Okay, I'm finally getting this down. Adjournment. May I have a motion to adjurnn? >> So moved. >> Oh, that was that was the fastest motion I've gotten all

197evening. Go. Mrs. Solomon. Second. >> Second. >> The second from Dr. Babson. >> We Oh, I'm sorry. Shoot. I always forget that. Anybody want to vote on that? >> All in favor? >> Yes. >> I'm going to call that 80. >> Good night, everyone. Good night.