001Good evening and welcome to the special board meeting to conduct curriculum, finance, and facilities committee work of the Rner Township School Board. Today is Tuesday, August 19th, 2025. And I have uh there are three board members in attendance in person. Um Miss Stern and Dr. Babson are attending remotely. And we expect uh Mr. Thornton is in the lobby. He needs to be led into the call. And so there will be six of us in attendance this evening. Uh I'm going to start with the call to order and the pledge of allegiance. Please join us. >> I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America to theublic. >> One nation under God, indivisible with liberty and justice for all. >> Okay. Just for simplicity sake, I'm gonna ask the board members who are
002on um line to mute themselves unless they're talking. It'll just help everybody. Great. Thank you. Okay. Uh next item on the agenda is public comment. And just as a reminder for the community, public comment for a special board meeting is limited to the items actually on the agenda. Is there any public comment? Seeing none and understanding there are none remotely, we will move on. Um the first item on the agenda is curriculum items. And since Dr. Babson chairs that committee, I'm going to actually kick this uh to him and let him run this uh section three of the agenda. >> Dr. Babson. Sure. >> Okay. So for the curriculum committee, if you've had a chance to review the minutes from our June 3rd meeting, any comments or questions about the minutes? Good. Okay. All right.
003I'm going to hand it over now to Dr. Ditch. >> Thank you, Dr. Babson. And good evening and welcome back. Uh our first meeting of the year, also my last meeting uh here at Ratner. So for those who may not be aware, uh this meeting, >> that's true. I do have one more business meeting, but this will be the last board curriculum meeting that I'll be uh facilitating, I should say. And uh so as I'll be transitioning Dr. R as the new superintendent of schools there very very soon. I did want to take a moment just to share my great appreciation for the board for Dr. Bachelor for our administrative team for our full RER staff for just all the support and collaboration over the last six years. So RDER is a very special place
004very difficult to leave and that's because of the people here. So thank you. So, our agenda tonight includes a number of uh procedural items, agenda items that will be moved forward to next week for approval. However, they're very common this time of year. You'll notice a lot of uh themes from previous school years. I'll just go down that list and pause if there's any questions. So, first, there's a review of approval for one student club at the high school, the scrapbooking club, which is a great throwback. Uh secondly, there is approval of two overnight trips for boys lacrosse and cheerleading and sports have begun as many of you are aware. There's also approval of six contracts uh that are part of continuations to support our work within the three initiatives. They all should look very
005familiar, but if there's any questions, I'm happy to answer. The one very large uh contract for Renaissance is a three-year contract. So, we get a percentage decrease when we go for three years there. There's a book approval for a 10th grade English class called Before the Coffee Gets Cold. And then also there's approval this year. We always do our three handbooks and you know we take the opportunity at the August curriculum committee to highlight the student handbooks and the changes that are relevant within each of them. These handbooks are also posted on the RTSD website for parents and for students to review. Our hand our handbooks help to set expectations for the orderly operations of our schools and parents and students are asked to review these each year prior to the start of the school
006year. They're also available on our web page. Again, you'll notice the there is a list of changes, some very subtle, others just procedural each year. There's some policy language that that shifted a little bit there as well. And then finally, again for review, and we do this each August as well, are our three assessment calendars going into this year. So you'll see the elementary, middle school, and high school assessment calendars. I will point out there's no changes aside from one additional assessment, the qualitative spelling inventory, which will be administered three times over the course of the year. And this is part of our implementation of our new ELA program K to 5 into reading. So that's an additional assessment that will come throughout the year. Uh but again, it's part of our new reading program.
007So, we're excited about that. So, I'll pause before sharing the last agenda item, which is really just an update to what are the things we're going to be talking about at the board curriculum committee meeting this year. Any questions from the board? >> You, Dr. Davich? >> Yes. >> Committee members? So, I actually had a a question and a request that I understand the contracts. I don't have an objection, but um and I apologize. This is because I was noticing this on the finance committee meeting. So, this is not going to be your problem, but in the future, it would be really helpful if um the ones that are renewals, I noticed in finance we have like a prior a PY for like prior year and the number on that contract. So, it's helpful for
008us to understand when we're renewing what the change is. >> Okay. So, if that's something I don't know who's going to get stuck with your role next in curriculum, but it'll be helpful if that's something we can add in the future. Um, and then only because I know there are a lot of people at the high school asking this policy about no phones during the school day is on page 50 of the new handbook. I know a lot of high school students and their parents just kind of sign off and say they've read it, but if they actually have concerns and they want to understand what they're going to be held to, um, that's that's the page to look at in the handbook. Anybody else have any questions or comments? >> Okay, go ahead, Andrew.
009>> No, that that's it. And um, Miss Girtton, if you had any any further thoughts to add. I don't I I'll add a comment that um I'm happy to see the dance contract be eliminated. Uh that started way back when in early days and I think we it's nice to see that we can have dances and you know assume that we're all going to be well behaved. >> Sounds good. >> Great. >> All right then. >> I'm fine. Yep. Thanks. >> All right. Great. with the final agenda item for this meeting is really uh an overview for the course of the year. Some of the the key pieces that will funnel through the board curriculum committee is updates or presentations. All of these will actually be more articulated in the upcoming district initiatives review which
010is coming next week and a preview of the proposed initiatives for the current school year. Uh just to give you a quick overview of this uh and you'll notice a lot of continuations as well because of work that you heard about last year audits that already have concluded. Uh one which we're really excited about is a K12 professional development initiative that is going to not only engage our full administrative team at the building level but also uh teacher leaders that were selected last year and uh participated in a two-day training this summer in July with a consultant. His name is Dr. Michael McDow uh and a lot of the work his work is actually rooted in John Hadtie's uh educational research. So all evidence-based research and um this is all about small doable practices strategies
011not not big program implementation or things like that. And uh we're very excited about our teacher leaders and our building um leaders turning around this training with our staff this year. And I think it's going to make a real nice impact on instruction and also seem small, doable, and approachable. um for our teachers. We're we're continuing our structured literacy professional development alongside the implementation of into reading, our new ELA program. That's one of the contracts that are listed tonight from Jod Fleck. She's our primary consultant with uh the science of reading and structured literacy. So, you'll see that on there. She's been uh very well received from our teachers and our coaches and uh we're hoping this year will be a great continuation of that work. We have two uh we actually have three audits
012on our curriculum cycle this year. One is an a library audit K12. The second is the first time we've done this, but it's an audit of our integrated courses, so at the middle school and high school. And the third is also a first time, but we added social emotional learning into our curriculum cycle to ensure that whatever programs we're doing in any one of the tiers as far as MTSS goes, um we want to make sure that we're meeting the needs of our teachers and our students. So, that is also going to be an audit this year. you'll see that uh BCC presentations are planned for the the spring and early summer. And as I shared already, we're implementing a new reading program K to 5 into reading. So, we're really excited about that. We
013actually have training coming up for our teachers next week. Uh we're the whole our steels and IDS reignment is also now going into effect. So, that that created some scheduling changes for our elementary um uh staff and our and our teachers, but it's going to be I think a really great change for everybody. So, that's going into effect. We'll give an update in May on that topic. And then last year, we had a year-long high performing study of our middle schools and high schools. And from that work came some recommendations and next steps. And so this year, we're going to be engaging in a few of those next steps. And that'll be shared as well coming coming into play. Some are very relevant to the middle school, others to the high school. Uh in some
014cases, there's a lot of overlap. And then finally, as artificial intelligence continues to advance at a ridiculous speed, we're going to continue to work along with that. and Dr. Hans and his team will provide some updates this year as we continue to learn how to best utilize artificial intelligence uh with our students and our staff. So, I'll pause there. Any questions about the teaching and learning update for this coming school year? >> Silence is golden. >> Really like this. Lots of great stuff happening. >> Yeah. Yeah. No, yeah, it does look great. I The only question I had was um about the AI. I just I want us to be really sensitive and careful. You know, there are already studies coming out showing like very different and lesser brain activity in people who are using
015AI than people who are not using AI. I I as someone who works in the corporate world, if you don't understand AI and have some sense of how to use it, you're going to get left behind very quickly. So, I'm very sensitive to the fact that it's not something you can't know. you you need to understand it and understand how to use it. But I just I want to be very sensitive to the fact that we not just start adapting it wholesale, adopting it wholesale into our programs. Um I think it's it's something we need to be careful about. >> Excellent point. And do I think Dr. Hand and his team have taken a very pragmatic approach and offered teachers a lot of professional development opportunities around when and where and how to use AI.
016And then we're going to continue to learn and grow along the way. And I'm sure Dr. handle will be giving you updates throughout the year on what we're doing and getting more feedback then on how it's going. >> Can I just jump in with a question? I was wondering if there's opportunity to uh work with the high performing middle and high school study and AI and maybe some opportunities from our peers and learning. So maybe focusing or including some AI activities or understanding may be helpful. Great suggestion, DJ. And I will I will forward that along to uh whomever will be taking some of that work forward. >> And I and I apologize. I did not get a chance to offer my congratulations to you. Uh congratulations. >> Well, thank you very much. >> You
017will be missed. >> Thank you very much. We'll throw that suggestion in the chatbt and see what they come up with. I had a quick question about the ELA, the new program, the inter reading. What do what does it look like for professional development for all K through 12, I mean K through five, have we already done that for them? >> So, and Dr. Kenny, if he wants to come up and share some others because he's been primarily leading this. Uh, but last year once we made the program recommendation to the board and the board approved the recommendation, we actually started with some professional development last May. So, we had a full day there. Um, we've offered and Jim's been working closely with the publisher getting materials in the hands of our our teachers as
018early as last spring. So, they had much of it over the summer. One of the challenges we had is that it's a a version three which was recently updated and published. So, this is the third version of inter reading. So, they've improved it along the way, better aligned it with structured literacy along the way. And so, it's now more of an integrated approach. And then uh we gave teachers flex time last year also to just time to go through the materials with their colleagues and do some comparisons and also collaborate with their pilot teachers who we had a good amount of pilot teachers who worked in inter reading. Then they had some time over the summer. Jim sent out some flex time opportunities for some online sessions and then next Tuesday we have a full
019day training with HMH that'll be grade specific that will also help them launch the school year and plan for the school year. I'll turn it over to Jim for anything else. >> Thank you Dr. Kevich, I think you you covered a lot of it. So, right, there is the full day training on the 26th, next Tuesday, and we have another full day training scheduled for November 4th, the follow-up in service day. So, after the teachers have gotten the chance to teach the first several modules, come to a better understanding what they know, don't know, will follow up as well. There's a a couple additional supports that we have in place that uh that are sort of unique to this implementation. One is sort of on demand online coaching that our teachers will have some access
020to through the publisher. So the grade level chairs in uh in each of our schools in each of our grade levels as well as our MTSS facilitators and coaches will have a license where as they have questions or their team have questions they'll be able to re reach out to a coach on an as needed basis schedule you know as many or as few interactions as they would like to talk about their questions work through any planning they might need to work through get those things addressed. Um, in addition to that, so that's the a lot of the formal professional development that we have in place for all of our teachers. There were grade level teams of teachers who came together this summer as well to work on the curriculum and common assessment documents. So,
021they had opportunities, we had some opportunities to deliberate about what do we think appropriate pacing is for the new program, what are the assessments we want to require all teachers to give to all students and uh and what guidance do we have for teachers to implement effectively. So, we feel like we're in a strong place and a good place to start the year, but we also know it's going to be a pretty big adjustment for our K5 teachers in our elementary schools. Uh, but one I think they're also looking forward to. >> Thank you, Dr. Kerry. >> I'll turn it back to you, Dr. Babson. >> Okay. Yeah. No, I think that's fine. I think during the planning meeting u was able to cover some comments and questions. So, Thank you. Looks great. It's a
022nice testament to all the wonderful things happening in terms of curriculum and our offerings in in the district. So, thanks. >> Okay. Thank you. So, next on the agenda, um we're going to do uh the finance items. And since Ms. Solomon is not here this evening, I will handle the finance meeting uh piece. the members of the board who were on the finance committee, did you have a chance to review last month's minutes and are you okay with them, >> Mr. Thornton? >> No changes for me. >> Okay, great. Um, next item on the agenda. Well, I don't I'll let you get seated. Uh, but I think I will kick off the next section to um Mr. Pauling since I'm sure he can explain it a lot more eloquently than I can. Thank you very
023much. So, we have a number of routine contracts for approval andor ratification uh that were executed in the summer based on our uh resolution that we passed in in the spring for me to conduct uh business and then bring those items forth to the board um uh you know this at this month's meeting. So there are some uh benefit uh contracts there for our COBRA administration and our district vision insurance. The vision insurance is a um cost to the employee. So it's a voluntary coverage. There's no cost to the district, but we still have it on there as a benefit uh for the uh committee's approval. We have uh substitute nurses uh two vendors there um for services as needed um and the rates listed there which are increases to the prior year. Uh we
024have a contract with SOS group. Um we primarily use them for food service substitutes should we need it. Um we're at a pretty good staffing level uh with food service. I was just talking to the department today. Sorry, nutritional services. It take me a minute to get used to that. Um, so we're in pretty good shape from staffing perspectives, but as things change during the year, we have that to fall back on should we need it. Um, we have some temporary agreements, one with the Delaware County IU and one with Mr. with Dr. Kent Swigert for um, limited technology support services um, to help with operations in the department. Um, one of the big items I wanted to touch on was our annual insurance renewal. Um there was a a you know quite a significant
025increase from last year. Um there's a couple factors on that. Um and we kind of anticipated this back in in the late spring spring. We had gotten some information. Um and we're really everybody's paying for kind of the global insurance market. So in 2024 there was 27 billion dollar worth of claims related to disasters which was one of the highest years ever. Um so we saw an increase in our property as well as our excess liability rates um to cover those items. Um so that's where we saw the the increase in that um which was an again an industry we didn't have anything major here that impacted us. All of our other coverages were relatively flat or had very modest increases. Um that was really what what drove the the pricing factor this year on
026the insurance renewal. Um we have our Delaware County Community College budget which was a slight increase from last year. Um our bus route uh approval, a waiver of tuition for 10 RER a better chance student program again. Um and then the uh PTE approved tuition rates for both elementary and secondary um that are are calculated by the department every year. So I'll stop there on the contracts. Um >> um maybe mention to our global insurance carrier that we aren't all those problems, but it you don't think we could get a better rate with a different carrier. This is going to be >> We do shop it around every year. So our broker does solicit proposals, but um we saw that same information come in from a different broker at a different presentation and different information
027back in the spring. So, same information that was when we talked about our renewal with our broker. Um, nothing that we're doing. It's just an industrywide. We're we're we're kind of all picking up the slack for the the what's going on. >> Must be nice to have a business model where everybody else pays for your poor planning. >> Yeah. and and and in fact what we had to do with our excess liability is because our our current carrier with that would only cover us for a certain amount we did have to shop that out with a second carrier. So even in that so what that does is that carries us for additional coverages at 5 and 10 million and five and $15 million. So if we have high cost claims it's a secondary policy that
028picks up to additionally cover the district. We saw quite a bit there because of those high costs and the risk of us potentially having something that would trigger that. >> It's a shame in my mind that, you know, the township spent so much money to put in better water systems around here, you know, water retention and and it's not being reflected. It's not your fault. I understand that. >> Um but it's a shame it's not reflected in our insurance costs. >> Um >> one just quick correction there. I think there are 11 students in the ABC house this year. >> Oh, are there? >> Yep. >> Okay, we can correct that for next week. >> It's not not an urgent thing. >> That's one of those things that falls under finance because I'm not sure
029they know where else to put it. So, >> no, no, I figured >> not my wheelhouse, but I will make the change for next week. Thank you. >> Yep. >> Anybody else? Yeah, go ahead. >> Yeah. No, just so Brian, thank you for that information. um that that equates to about a 33% increase or maybe a little bit less than that >> which I went when I went to when my house went to renew its insurance last summer for the year which became irrelevant but I'm getting to a point here it was about a 33% increase so I mean I that that number that it's slightly less than that I'm I'm relieved um there was one uh factor that my my agent I don't know if this is available in the broader insurance industry um
030but one of the ways that they are talking about trying to keep cost containment down is structuring part of the insurance coverage and I'm talking about li um you know the liability damage the property damage stuff is moving to a co-ay um deductible um structure versus you know a set deductible level I don't know if that's something that would be a significant savings for us. Obviously, it's a riskreward, but um I mentioned that because they mentioned it to me last year. >> Yeah, I can look and see if that's an option. We kept our deductible amounts and all of our our baselines the same, but those are things that we could potentially look at to help mitigate those annual increases as, you know, our per occurrence costs could go up if we decide to increase
031our deductible from 5,000 to 10,000. Um it does help us when we make decisions when we have minor incidents here at the district of whether we're going to submit that to the carrier or not. Um so those things come into play with the with the property and the auto if we have you know especially with our bus fleet if something comes up. Um so that could impact that as well. Um but yeah that's something that I could certainly look into. Um and we can look at different options for next year and that's something that I'll work on with our broker. >> Well I'm not surprised by those numbers. So thank thank you. So, I'm sure you're working on it hard, you know, diligently. >> And and along those lines, you could even maybe set up
032a a fund where, you know, that some of the savings that we're not spending on the insurance carrier, we could put into a fund to help cover a higher deductible if something came up. >> Yeah. And if if something would like, you know, if it was related to a property, like we could utilize our capital reserve fund. um if it's more than that or what our comfort level is and what we have in addition there to what we've already obligated, you know, we could we could set something up like that. >> Okay. Thank you. Any other questions or comments on the finance agenda? >> Okay. Sorry, Doc. Mr. Pollen, keep going. >> Yep. Just uh the real quick, we had a donation um uh from the the Buchcci family of $1,000 for Ethan Elementary School.
033So, we thank them for that. Um and then we have um a few disposals recommended by our transportation department and Ethan Elementary School. And then that would conclude the uh the um action items on the agenda. >> So and just to clarify, are they disposals or will like the I don't know about the the instruments, but are the vehicles worth anything? Are we look it might be a sale? >> Yeah, those we would look to to sell if we can. Okay. Um yeah, usually with the with the higher ticket items like that. So like the um the 36 passenger uh school bus that's listed there that we would sell. Um so if it's if it's in good enough condition that it's it's usable. We'll normally look to see if we can sell it on the
034market. Um sometimes we see if there's other institutions. We had that happen where somebody would buy it from us and we kind of negotiate a price with them. If it's really nothing more than scrap, then we'll list it as disposal. put on a vehicle, then we'll try to get, you know, scrap metal cost for the disposal. >> Excellent. >> Okay. Uh do you want to cover the and thank you again to the Buchcci family that is very kind. >> Yes. >> Um the districtwide supplementals. >> Yeah. So I will tee this up. This is something um that we wanted to make a priority um during 2425 school year to review our supplementals. It's been, you know, at least a decade since we've gone through and done a comprehensive review of that. Um, so myself and,
035uh, Mr. Stitz, Mr. Beold, um, went through information gathering. We went through a a process where, um, we reviewed the supplementals. We looked at, uh, um, uh, where we had comparisons with other districts, um, interviews with our our staff that are in those supplementals now. Um, and Mr. Betold kind of really did the omen's work of compiling all that information and putting together um a recommendation that we have tonight. So I'm going to ask if if they want to come up. I know we we prepared some slides to talk about the process that we went through the methodology and then we have some recommendations for those supplementals um that we would ask the board to approve and whether you know we would do that next week or wait until September to allow the board time
036to digest that. um you know, we can we can discuss that. But um with that, I'll I'll let uh Mr. Be told kind of run through the the presentation and the and what we did to to get to here. >> All right. Good evening, everyone. >> Evening. >> I think you're on. >> You're waiting for it to come up on the screen. Yeah, we're uh so I we're going to go ahead and jump uh right to the uh the background slide. So we'll jump through and and dive right into it. So thank you. So just for context when we went and looked at this uh uh we have athletic supplements and non-athletic supplementals. For the athletic supple medals, we compete in the central athletic leave which is uh against local teams, lower Marian, Hariton, Konosoga,
037Marple, Hford, Garnet Valley, etc. So, they're really uh comparable districts and we used them when we were looking um at the comps. Uh the last time, as uh Mr. Pauling said, it was a 2014 2015 school year when we really looked at this. This means that we had very limited changes to our supplemental since that time. Um we've added some that's taken board action. Um and we've had minor adjustments to some of them has taken board action but for the most part the rates have been the rates in 2014 2015. Um we budgeted the budgets in there. Uh the study scope I'll I'll uh highlight we really looked at apples to apples and we'll touch on this when we look at non-athletic supplementals and athletic supplementals. Uh there are I see our meeting will end
038in 10 minutes. I will talk fast. >> Promises, promises. >> Yeah. So, we really tried to look at apples to apples. Uh when we did that, sometimes there's not enough comps. And one of the things I'll say about Radner is we really try to provide a lot of opportunities for our students. Um when we're looking at it, some other districts don't have uh the same type of supplementals that that we have. So, uh, and lastly, club sports were not included because we just reviewed them in 2324 definitions. Uh, essentially there's two types, non-athletic, which are flat rate supplementals, and athletics, which are tiered pay. And, uh, so when we we look at tiered pay, this is just steps. So, a level one means that a coach has one to three years experience. A level step
039two would be four to six years experience. A step three or level three would be seven to nine years experience. level four is 10 plus um and that is very common in the area. You have flat rate non-athletic supplementals and tiered pay athletics and our supplemental pay rate uh remained unchanged for a decade. Uh it is uh 2309. This is one of the ways that we uh helped to calculate compensation. It also impacts alleart non-curricular extra duty work uh which is budgeted for but that's the right people get paid for non-curricular work. All right, our payment methodology. Here are some common methods used by districts around us. Uh these can be used in combination with each other. So for example, u the percentage of leadership position, the point value or unit value and the tiered
040pay is all used in our athletic supplemental uh um calculations. So we would go and set a point value for a head coach. We do a percentage of leadership position after we set the head coach's value. So like an assistant coach would get 80%. Um and then tiered pay would go down through for all the rest of the assistants. Timeline. We spent the better part of the last year looking at this and was able to gather information from a variety of other districts, from our supplemental holders, from our booster clubs and really dig into uh what this means and then have internal conversations with our administrative team as to what makes sense. Uh the data sets we had were able to gather cal data from 2324 and this is for athletics at the high school
041level specifically. And then we also compiled 2425 which is last year's data for high school and middle school athletics and not non-athletic supplementals. Uh and then at the bottom one of the things that we noticed is that uh because we had not adjusted our supplemental rate uh we were um out of market um value for a number of supplementals. So feedback uh we were able to get feedback from supplemental holders and this is really valuable because we were able to get a new ideas for ideas for new supplementals and you'll see those in the one of the coming slides b changes to supplementals over time. So how's the responsibilities or the supplemental morphed uh over the last 10 years and then also things to consider. Uh so what what are some things that they know
042that other districts do or other people do that have a similar position? We also reached out to feedback from our booster clubs and was able to uh it helped us to understand the full picture of coaching compensation in the district. And so the booster clubs were able to go and let us know like some of them um are not able to give end of year gifts or end of year or any type of compensation. Some of them are able to give end of year gifts at the um end of year um celebrations that they do whether that's banquetss or whatever. and some of them help to supplement salary or pay additional assistant coaches. We looked at uh the feedback that we received from uh the stakeholders. We talked with the building administrators and athletic directors
043at the high school and the middle school. The administration's recommending the addition of the following supplementals. Um and uh yeah and the I guess this is a finance the uh the costs associated are included there. Uh one of the things we're looking at uh in conversation with the middle school athletic department we found two cost-saving areas. So um when we looked at middle school coaching structure uh the majority of sports have one coach per grade and we identified that for a number of years we had two coaches uh for the same grade for two sports that were one of them went unfilled. Um and so this would be this would bring us into alignment with other sports at the middle school. We will still run these sports. we will have the same number of coaches
044that we've had and it will be a cost savings of uh $14,000 and change. All right. So then when we look at athletic supplementals uh we the formula that was included in the 201516 study is uh included above. One of the things that we did is we looked at this and reviewed this formula. We updated the varsity and JV participation rates. And then we also based on looking at what other districts do included in injury risk, scouting respon uh responsibilities and lo local district compensation comparisons. Injury risk we were actually able to pull from the National Federation of High School Sports. They pro provide data u that is uh injury data by sport. And so we actually pulled that from there. Scouting responsibilities. other districts uh pay coaches uh for scouting for specific sports. So
045for I'll give a specific example. So track, you do not need to go out and scout how your opponent is doing the high jump or the long jump or how how fast they're running. You need to focus on yourself and what your technique is. It's very different than girls basketball. You want to know the plays. You want to know what they're running and their defense and their offense. And so scouting resp responsibilities can differ by sport and uh pay structure we remained the same. We have a fourstep schedule. We have tier assistant coaches pay. Uh the one of the adjustments that we made administratively when we talked uh we had some uh participation rates that slightly factored into uh certain sports making more than other sports for the same tier. So for example, our girls
046track head coach made more than our boys track head coach simply because of tiered participation rates even if they had the same amount of experience. Likewise, our boys tennis coach made more than our girls tennis coach because of the formula based on uh participation rates. So, one of the things that we did was we equalized pay for whatever was higher. So, if the girls team for a like sport had a higher pay, we made the boys team equal. If the boys team had a higher pay, we made the girls team equal. So, doesn't matter if you're a girls soccer coach or a boys soccer coach, you're in the same tiered pay structure. Same thing with softball and baseball. Same thing with boys and girls lacrosse. Same thing with girls and boys basketball. For non-athletic supplementals,
047uh this was the rate determination was based on market comparisons and what we felt was a um the the workload was for each role. Uh the difference between non-athletic and athletic supplementals and I we we put an example here. Uh you have a defined season for a PIAA sport. You know when you're going to start, you know when you're going to end, you know how many practice you're going to have. you're limited on the number of competitions. They actually have a competition schedule. And for a non-athletic supplemental, you could have one district that's got a robotics club that they meet all the time, all the time, and they go to a ton of competitions. And another one meets just for a semester, once once a month, uh once a week, and um and so the
048differences can be very stark when you're looking at non-athletic supplementals. uh we did recommend adjustments to non-athlet athletic supplementals uh because one of the things that we want to do is make sure we're attracting quality uh candidates and that was based on all the feedback and comps that we got. So looking ahead, one of the things that we want to do is to build in uh effectively budget and build in uh fair compensation so we can attract the best candidates. So a 1% increase is what we are recommending that the board approve for all athletic and non-athletic supplementals beginning in the 2627 year and that will help us to continue to slowly move the needle give Mr. Pauling and the board an opportunity to understand these increases moving forward um until we have a full
049review again and then also up our alocart extra duty rate from 2309 to $25 an hour. Uh we do have uh uh hours that are set aside for um for at the supplemental rate for a variety of different things in the district. This rate we're recommending stay at $25 an hour until the administration comes back to the board and says we think that we need to have an increase and the board approves it. >> And Mr. Beto, if I could before you get to questions just jump in. Um, so we're also recommending in there adjustments to the packet besides the 1% there's also adjustments to many of the different >> Yes. So the 1% is for 26 27 right and so there was a comprehensive review with uh increases for 2526 for this year and
050then the 1% increase would be for next and subsequent years. >> So if I can just jump in I just want to check with Dr. Hand on our Zoom meeting and our other three We might have lost them. >> So, yeah. So, I figured we'll just pause until we can get them back on. >> Yep. Yeah. DJ wins the prize for the first one back. >> Sorry for that little >> Sorry about that, DJ. >> I was just Do you think he can hear? >> Great. You're all back. Can just Will you wave if you can all hear me? >> Okay, great. Just making sure. >> Miss Stern, I didn't see you wave. I just want to make sure you heard you can hear us. I'm sensing from that face that she can't. M. Yep.
051Perfect. Thank you. >> Okay. >> All right, >> M. Stern, since you're off mute, do you have questions? >> I do. I Well, I do want to just Oh, hold on. I think I accidentally um have the meeting going on. So, let me turn off the the Zoom. But what I wanted to say was first of all in typical in typical fashion Dan you did uh Mr. Beal you did a great job. >> Thank you. It was a team effort. >> Um I was I know it was a group effort but you did a phenomenal job. I was part of that study 10 years ago. Um, I distinctly remember sitting in the office of our HR director and our fin our business administrator was there and I was there with Susan Michaelelsson, Dr. Bachelor and
052uh, so it has been a long time since we've looked at this and I appreciate the work. I fully support everything you did and I I like that you're building in, you know, you you're building in the the need for acknowledging that over time we need to increase our rates. So I thank you for being for forward thinking about that. Um, I think the only question I have about it is do as many matrix as you have and you've figured out the price, do you have positions you just can't fill? And do we need to do do you have you built in the detail of of specific market adjustments to recognize when the market tells us we need to pay more in order to get a high quality coach for our students? because to your
053point, we do try very hard to give our students as many opportunities and the best experience of opportunities as we possibly can. >> And I'll jump in and say the the board has been really great about that when we've had situations that have come up. And I I'll point to uh the swim assistant coach. We had a a serious issue. We've reposted multiple times. And fortunately for us, we were able to work out an agreement with Rack. we came to the board and said, "Hey, like we need an assistant coach at the swim level and we've been striking out." And the board was able to to move on that. We've also had some adjustments to other supplementals, specifically non-athletic supplementals that we've come to the board with and said, "This is important. We need to
054to make an adjustment here, and the board has voted those through." So, we are we are certainly um you know, not hesitant to ask if it is going to directly negatively impact students to make an adjustment. Thank you. That's that's all I have. >> Any other questions? >> Um I just wanted to say thank you so much Mr. Beckold and team. Um I think this is really an important um work that you've done to for a couple reasons. One, it was needed and also I think it really helps with some myth busting in the community because there's a lot of talk always about coaches and non sports whatever. So, I think this really helps for some clarity and I to be up to snuff in with other um centrally schools is really great to see.
055Thank you. >> I have a question. Go ahead. I'm really impressed with what you've put together also. And Susan, if you were in that those meetings early on, I do have a couple questions and I don't know if you know them offhand, but um as it pertains to supplementals, both athletic and non-athletic, it do we know how many we have in comparison to other schools in the Central League? >> So, they're all over the place, I would say. uh every district and we went through and pulled um districts and looked at them. A lot of them have uh a document similar to what we created um that lists all of them. Um again, like I would say we have more elementary non-athletic supplementals than other districts. We are we do a a really great job
056comparative to other districts in the Central League. Um, I would say that it really depends on what the district's priorities are and what the student interests are is my guess. uh because you when you're going through here um you'll see similar but different activities like we have the um Annenburgg Science Symposium and other districts may have the science olympiad and we have FBLA and other districts may have DECA and we may have ethics pole and they might not have anything and so like it's really uh I think that looking at them there are some uniform things that a lot of districts have and that you'll see oh like you There's everybody's got a um a marching band, everybody's got soccer teams, everybody's got uh but there's there's nuance differences as far as um you know
057what's offered from district to district and there's not a lot of rhyme or reason. I would just chalk it up to um student interest and board willingness and administration willingness to to pay for that. >> Okay. I think I asked that question because we're Radner is significantly smaller than other some some in the school district. So that's why it's so impressive. >> Thank you. >> Again, incredible research that went into I know this was a long time and it was involved a lot of effort on on everybody's part on the team. I I just want to clarify something there. You talk about a the pay amount is 2309. Are are coaches actually like putting in time sheets or is it just it's an estimate of what the time it is to do the work? >>
058It is they're not putting in time sheets. These are all flat rate supplements. So all of the athletic and nonathletic supplementals. Uh the 2309 rate is a piece of a formula that helps to gauge what we think that that should be. And then when you accept that either as a coach or a non-athletic supplemental holder, you are saying I am willing to accept this much money to do everything that's in the job description. So it's a piece of it that helps us to make an idea of what the the cost should be. Um but nobody's people are not submitting time sheets. They do submit time sheets for um extra duty work and so >> No. and and I ask and I I couldn't even remember who it is, so I'm not pointing fingers. I just
059remember when one of my children was in middle school being in a sport and I thought it was a five day a week sport and they never had Friday practice, which as a parent meant I suddenly had to figure out a Friday afternoon plans. So, I just and I was a little surprised. You know, I if it's a five day a week program, it should be or if it's only a 4 day a week program, that should be built into the supplemental as well. >> So, all of the middle school sports are four day a week. Well, and that might have been something I didn't understand. Don't anybody expect Fridays covered. Um, the other reason I asked went right out of my head. Um, oh no, and I guess the question, and this is probably
060a headnod from doc Mr. Stitzel at the back, you know, you added something. You said, for example, like some C coaches would have an expectation of doing scouting. Does that get put into like the job description for the supplemental? Um so we are revising so we've got uh the proposal for supplementals and then we have earmarked a number of them uh to um to revise the job descriptions for and both athletic and non-athletic. >> Okay. And then just from a reassurance standpoint in terms of board costs, you know, we'll have a sport that says it's like so football has a whole long list of coaches, but a lot of other sports have a head coach and a and an assistant coach. Does that mean we're limited to one assistant coach and the board knows that,
061you know, that combined amount is all we're going to that that sport's going to cost us or could it could they decide they need two or three assistant coaches and that's just they're all going to get that rate. >> So, we went uh position for position. Okay. >> So, every position that we had last year, we have in the budget for this year minus the two duplicate positions at the middle school plus the page of additions. So, if we had >> three um baseball coaches last year, we're going to have three this year. >> Okay? >> If we had six football coaches, we're going to have six. Whatever the number was last year is the same number that we're going to post for this year. um they're budgeted for and the only changes to the
062number of coaches or supplementals is listed on the pages uh on page number 10 in the uh page number 10 in the the PowerPoint presentation. >> Okay. So along those lines of that question, could a a team that has one head coach and one assistant, could the head coach decide to split the assistant coach salary in half and have two people if they wanted to if they worked that out with the AD and the principal? >> Certainly, and that's common practice. We've had people that, and you'll see on the board agendas for supplementals and athletic positions, we split and the board approves prrated uh through the HR office all the time. So for example here that we had a girls tennis coach assistant coach last year. Are we adding an assistant tennis coach this year
063or is it a change to the fee? >> We are. So we are adding these are brand new positions. So we're going to the girls tennis program is going to have the same number of coaches they had plus we're going to have an additional assistant coach at $4,038. So I last year they had a head coach and an assistant coach. This year they'll have a head coach and two assistant coaches. Okay. And the determination was made by the athletic department that we need an additional assistant coach for. >> They advocated for it because the team is uh anticipated to have 60 students this year. >> Okay. >> I'm sorry, Jen. Quick question. I followed all that. Where's the $25 an hour? Why are these dollar amounts not increments of $25 an hour? >> Because $25
064an hour is a piece of a formula. It is not the formula. It's a so you could have um again it's a a a complicated formula that takes a variety of different things into it and that 25 is is a piece of it. So it could be a fraction of that. Susan >> Q so and and volleyball did not they are getting also an additional assistant coach. >> Yes. So and I I can explain slide 10 a little bit better. So, um, we are getting an additional girls volleyball assistant coach because of the numbers, uh, at the high school level. We're getting an additional, uh, co-ed indoor track and assist. We're recommending an ind, uh, co-ed indoor track assistant coach. We're recommending a, uh, boys tennis assistant coach. So, those four athletic positions will be
065new positions costing $18,522 for the district. there will be all of the positions that those sports had last year will return and so these are additions of those uh based on student interest and so we've had an increase in these sports for a number of years of the the numbers going up and uh so yeah so these are these are pluses >> okay so it but it means that in the future the the is it the athletic department who's responsible or is it HR who's responsible for watching those interest rates be and when I say interest rates I mean, student participation rates. Um, I I just want to make sure we're being mindful of the additional costs and making sure, you know, yes, we have 60 kids initially. Maybe we have 60, you know, we
066have enough kids for volleyball, too. But if the next year half of them graduate, I don't want to >> I don't think the district should necessarily be spending the money for two additional assistant coaches. So, I'm hoping someone is watching that on an annual basis >> as opposed to just assuming they roll over because nobody volunteers. We have too much help. So that's a great point. And so um we did not have we don't fill positions that we don't have student interest for. So um >> girls softball did not have interest to run a freshman team this year. We had budgeted money for a uh JVB, which is a freshman head coach, and we didn't have players because they all got pulled up to JV. So, we didn't run a freshman team, so we didn't
067post it and the district didn't spend money on that. >> Okay, that's helpful. I just want to make sure someone's watching that. Um I I don't mind additional resources where they're genuinely necessary and where it benefits the students, but I don't want to have headcount just to have headcount. >> And and I think that's when we looked at the duplicates, we also didn't have >> No. And I appreciate that you guys did that at the middle school level. I think that's very helpful. I just want there's a lot of inertia once you get somebody filling a position and you just kind of put the same names in every year and you can kind of especially I I I also appreciate because I think it creates a lot of stability for the district the idea that
068the more years you're in the position the years of experience the more you earn because yes for them they gain some efficiencies right knowing how to deal with everybody but it also is so much more efficient for us not to be out hunting for a new tennis coach every year a new volleyball coach every here. Um, so you know, and it encourages people to stay, but I I don't want it to be one of those we just keep people because we've had them forever. So I just want to make sure we're so I'm not looking to get rid of people. I just want to make sure we're being efficient. >> And we have Mr. Stitz here. And I think we already have that in place, but I think this is a good time now that
069we're looking at it to make sure that each year when we have the supplementals between our athletic department and HR office, the thresholds are being looked at, especially with the assistant coaches. So to make sure that okay as the tennis team still need that additional assistant coach each year we can make and we do that now but I think with this we can make sure that that process exists between HR office and the athletic office. >> Okay go ahead. >> I had a quick question um for Mr. Pauling the impact on the budget you find this to work with your numbers. >> Yeah so we knew we were going through this process as we were creating the 2526 budget that we're currently working in. So, as we were reviewing the comps and seeing where where
070other districts were at, we knew that there'd be an adjustment that we'd be recommending. So, I did build money into the budget, there's a placeholder in there. We didn't allocate it by sport. Um, as we reviewed this and came down to, you know, the final recommendations based on the new methodology that was developed, you know, we had an adequate amount in the budget to cover the recommended increases in both the rate and the way that the the calculations were performed with each position. So, it's not something that we would necessarily have to phase in either. We could implement this in full um and then we would just build in that 1% increase that we talked about in the rate in subsequent budgets. So financially we are well equipped to cover it. >> And I I
071want to thank Mr. Pauling and and the board for doing that because we did toy with and discuss months ago, you know, maybe we would do a little increase one year and then a little increase to try to catch up. Sometimes it's hard to do that once you recognize you're behind. Um and so it was good that we went the the path we've gone. So I want to just thank Mr. Pauling and and the board for doing that and giving us that opportunity. >> Okay. So the the next >> one other question. >> Oh, sorry. Go ahead, Mr. Thornton. >> No problem. Uh, I see the Best Buddies assistant is uh a little bit of an outlier in terms of being lower than the others and I wonder about the comparisons and and the opportunities
072at other schools. How did we come up with that number? Can you just talk a little bit about how Best Buddies was calculating, how that may be different than the other positions? >> Certainly. So, this is a uh a new position. Uh we had a best buddies um supervisor and we did not have an assistant. Uh when we went through the um the interviews with uh staff members, one of the people that came forward was uh Mrs. Civetella at the high school who is the sponsor for Best Buddies and she uh pitched having a assistant to to help to expand programming for Best Buddies. So, as a a administrative team, talked with the high school, looked at um how we could help support this. We increased uh the um uh rate for the supervisor and
073we added an assistant to ensure that we could uh add additional programming for Best Buddies. >> So, but Best Buddies is a year-round program, right? We just thinking that that assistant program doesn't take that much time. Uh so this is a person who will be assisting the this Miss Civotel the supervisor in putting on additional programming for this. So this this came out of um something that Mrs. Civetel is very passionate about looking at what other districts do and she put together a proposal for this and so we were able to go and say all right like yes we're going to increase um what she's doing and then also give her an assistant that's going to be able to help her continue to build and foster the programming. >> Yes. Yeah, >> Mr. Thornton, does
074that answer your question? I I think you were probably looking at the number and saying, "Why does an assistant coach make $4,000 and an assistant to the Best Buddies program make 1250?" >> Yeah, it was a question of equity there. Absolutely. And just trying to understand the the needs and demands and the perception of that program versus the others. So I think my point was is the expectation that this is significantly fewer hours even though it's a year- round position. >> Um again I think this is something that um that when we looked at the position that we had because we had a best buddy supervisor, >> right? >> Um we were asked to add to it. So we added an assistant and we increased the hours. Um, you know, we're happy to come back
075to the board and say like, "Hey, we would need more hours for this, but at this point, um, uh, you know, we do have supplementals that are less than $1,250." When we look at the non-athletics, um, and that goes back to the slide where we talked about how many how many, you know, what is apples to apples in different districts for non-athletics. So, um, this is an increase on two different fronts. is an increase for the supervisor for that uh uh activity and it's a an an increase of a assistant that did not exist before. Um I will certainly uh speak with uh Dr. McNamera and Mrs. Civotella after this goes out. Um and ask them to keep myself and Mr. Sitell and Mr. Pauling apprised of this. Um if we need to add more
076hours, we will certainly come back and say to the board and say, "Hey, this is a position that we need to get more hours for because they want to do X, Y, and Z." And then we'll come back and request an increase. >> Okay. I I I think it's helpful and and this is probably where you're going, Mr. Thornton. I know we're not asking people to track hours for this, but maybe given that it's a new position and it does maybe look a little off and maybe it's just in the bucket of what we're looking at here. um if you know if the person who does that could keep some sense of their hours and you know whether it's like new because they're new or whether it's really you know it may be that it's
077only an hour or two a week and it doesn't end up being that much time but if it's significantly more than that it would be helpful to understand that. >> Thank you. >> Sure. >> Anything else? >> So just from a housekeeping perspective so we would we would want the board to approve the recommended rate changes. Um, so with our action meeting being next week, what we would propose is we could put a schedule together of all the supplementals and the proposed rates for board approval and then we'd subsequently for people that are on the agenda for next week adjust the rate accordingly. Um, we have staff members obviously as we were going through the buildings and interviewing them and talking to them and them giving us feedback like they knew this was coming and
078so they're all chomping at the bit to see what the new rates are. So if we have it approved next week, we can get that out to the staff as well as to the board as it becomes, you know, part of the public agenda, but then we can share that with the staff internally as well, so that they know what those recommended rates are. And then, you know, they wouldn't become official until the board would act on them next week. Um, if the board would need more time, we could push that back to September. Um, but we'll look to to to the board for direction on how you would want to handle that just to, you know, so that we're, you know, not pushing you into anything you don't feel comfortable with for putting it
079on for next week. >> So, and I'm only a little sensitive to it because I know the chair of our finance committee isn't here. So, I and I without kind of knowing um that the finance committee has talked about, it's it's a big change. Um, it's a lot to kind of process. Um, I don't necessarily have a problem with it, but let me kind of check in with some folks. it if we made it if we voted on it in September, we could still make it retroactive. It's not as if people wouldn't get the pay in September. It's just that we would have time to really walk through it and understand all the mechanics. >> Yeah. So, that that's actually the easier part is the the retro and that that mechanic. I think the other
080thing that Mr. Beal and I were talking about was with the staff. >> So, is they're looking to you know, you know, they want to know what the what the rates are. It's kind of like opening their present that we, you know, we promised them for the last year that we were going to give to them. So, um, so that's something that we may share with the staff with the caveat that >> it doesn't become official until the board acts on it. So, if we would need more time, we could certainly retro that back, but I think that would be more the urgency is the right word, but that's something that we would want to do sooner rather than later. >> Okay. Okay. Um, so that is the extent of the facilities agenda. I'm sorry,
081finance agenda. Miss Rosen Bloom, I'm told that you are prepared if you would like to to run the facilities agenda, but I won't make you do it if you don't want to. >> You just use your microphone. >> Okay. >> So, yep, we are live. Can I pass you? Would you like to run the facilities agenda? >> Um, sure. There's It's light. It's late tonight and >> excuse me, Miss Miss Don, my my apologies. Um, but with the restructured evening, I actually need to step off. Okay. >> Um, I I read through the document for the roof. I I will be supportive of that. So, thank you very much everybody. >> Okay. And we'll still have a quorum of five when she steps away. So, >> thank you. Good night everybody. >> Thank you, M.
082>> Good night, Susan. Okay, Mr. Morris is getting set up. >> That's fine. >> You don't. >> Okay. >> Well, so we while while Mr. Morrison is getting that ready, Mr. Morris, sorry, I always say Morrison. Um are the agend the meeting minutes from the facilities committee in June are those acceptable to the members of the facilities committee? >> Okay, great. So we've already covered the first item and Mr. Morris is just getting his uh presentation set up. There we go. Are we ready? All right. Um, apologize if it's not full screen. Um, but we have the, um, tonight. Uh, just a couple things. Um, on the agenda, I do have a a Rner Middle School partial roofing replacement um that I'd like to go over. So, >> let's hear it. This was news to
083me. So, I'm You're ahead of the game. That's so exciting. When we aren't saying this is falling down, you're saying I'd like to fix something. >> I would like to fix that. >> And as you as you set that up, too, just a reminder to the full board um and community watching, we're looking at next week's uh business meeting. We will have a presentation uh and an update with our design team on the status of Ethan. So, we will provide that during the full board meeting. And forgot to mention during curriculum or I think Dr. Cavage might have mentioned we will also be talking about at our full board meeting um a summary of the district initiative. So we do have two u fairly meaty topics uh for the board business meeting next week. >>
084Great. >> All right. Well, thank you. Um in your administrative packets, there are a lot of documents associated with this relatively simple project compared to um what went on the last two years at the high school. But it's because there's a different means and methods of procurement and and some other things that need to be taken into consideration even though it is a rather simple um roofing replacement. So the uh the middle school roof uh consists of three different sections or three different types and I'll go over those when we get to the aerial. Um but tonight we're talking about the shingled section um which is over top of the auditorium, main gym, auxiliary gym and some mechanical spaces. Um that portion of the roof was identified in our five and 10 year capital plan.
085Um the plan was to actually tackle that next summer. Um but we have been we have been chasing leaks. The roof is failing. We've been chasing leaks um all last spring um through the winter and springtime and um it it's it's time to move it up, right? So we need to accelerate that project. It's one of the rare roofing projects that we can actually accomplish while students are in the building um because it will not have an impact to um the educational um the educational day in the classrooms. All right. There will be a little bit of um um some area outside that'll be impacted uh for staging and and setup and things like that. We'll go over that on the next slide. Um but this is a great opportunity um to get this done
086this fall. Move it up, accelerate it. It'll allow us to bring some of our other roofing projects um ahead of schedule and has the potential of saving and we estimate um you know upwards of about a million dollars over over the next several years by moving this project up and looking at some other opportunities in the future um to avoid some of those assumed escalation costs. So that's where that that savings comes in with assumed escalation costs. All right. So again, we are talking about replacing the shingles over top of those um select areas. Um it will include uh new gutters and downspouts as well as snow guards and and other safety precautions there. Um and we are looking to change from shingle to metal roofing. Okay. So some of the challenges that we have
087uh with the shingled roof today is just the overall construction of the building with regards to shingles. Um, shingles have a tendency to really uh absorb the heat during the day. They hold the heat at night. Um, they do require a lot of ventilation underneath of them to keep their integrity. So, it's not the shingles themselves that's that's actually failing. I it's it's the design and installation method and things like that that that are failing. So, we are proposing to switch from shingles to standing metal seam standing seam metal. um a color to which we have not decided yet. That's on the that's on the agenda to pick a color. I do have a recommendation. Um and then also um that'll do a couple things. Um you know, as we look at sustainability um you
088know, switching to metal roof, we are we are going to get a 30-year warranty in regards to the the paint and the finishes and with proper maintenance um the actual steel itself. um that's used for the panels, but we're really looking at a 50-year roof, right? Um and again, looking at uh some of the the the roofing that we selected for the high school, it's renewable. So, in 30 years, if we're like, "Hey, this roof is dull and it's faded and it needs to be updated. Um it's still in good integrity," we just resurface or recode it. We get another 30-year warranty on top of it. So, it's it's literally should be the last roof that the um that section of the middle school ever sees. It'll be the last time that we rip shingles
089off, throw them in the landfill, produce new shingles um and all of those impacts. So, it's it's got a good sustainability um behind it as well. So, um we are doing a couple other repairs. Um there's a and I'll show you on the map. There's a parapit wall, which is just a fake decorative wall between areas um that that needs to be addressed. It's got some flashing issues. We're going to take care of that. And then we do have an issue um on the other side of a small flat area where the water actually runs over the roof. It's not supposed to. Um and it runs down the wall and causes some other problems. We've identified that and we're going to take care of that this year as well. And that's all included in this
090project. So, in our original um capital improvement estimate that we received um and we presented in the spring, um we were estimating that this roof section was around 2.2. Um we're coming in with a total project cost proposal for Maine's roofing at 2.1. So, we're around $132,000 below um our our budget or our estimated budget for that that section of the roof. So, as we take a look at the aerial here, um, a lot going on here, but the the shingled roof that that I mentioned are the darker areas there. They're outlined in red, but don't be confused because the red, if you look at the key, is actually some of the safety features that'll be installed to help protect the roofers um, and keep them safe. But it is those three darker areas there.
091And then it also extends out a little bit in front um, there where the bus loop is. So those those shingled sections will get the the standing seam metal roof. Um the flat section and I guess I can't there it is. Hopefully you can see my my cursor there. But there is a small section of flat roof um that extends through there. That is the section that we're uh is going to get um redone as well. So that'll get the alpha guard system that we just installed. It's not a big area, but it is the length of that um that we installed at the high school. So again, that'll get a renewable roof. Uh when the warranties up with that, we'll have the option to recote that and extend the warranty again. Um the parapit
092wall that that can be seen from the parking lot is this little tiny wall right here. Um so that's the one that has got the overflow scuffer and and the flashing issues. We'll take care of that and seal that up. That's been a a leak chaser uh for us. And then the other section or the other piece is right at the end here where we're going to build a small little parapit wall to keep the water from running out. It'll now go in the drain where it's supposed to go. Um so I talked about three different roof sections earlier and I just want to mention them so you're familiar with it. This is a partial view of the middle school. This um white area here throughout here and down the mechanical spaces can be found
093in a couple other areas of the school. That's the flat roof section that's identified in our our five and 10 year capital plan, but that is not slated for complete removal and redo. That is slated for a resurfacing or restoration project in a in a few years. Um, so and then the the green living roof uh that we have here is over top of the canopies for the bus entrance here. You can see it here. um as well as the the lobby and the and this um the bridges that go from the academic wing over towards the auditorium. And then what's not pictured there is there there are two areas. You really can't see them from the road or anywhere up on top of the classroom wing. There are two areas of of living roof
094up there. Um those um those are years out um because those roof sections those living roof sections are in really good condition. Um the living roof does a couple things. Um and and one of the most important things is it blocks the roof um from any UV rays, which is what deteriorates your roofing. So they're just they're trays of plants that are put up there. So they can be renewed, they can be taken off, and new plants put on and and things like that. Um so that section's in really really good condition. Some of the other things that are in the constru construction site plan is the the yellow outline there that you see um through the perimeter. So, we will need to install a construction fence to keep the area secure. All entry into
095this area will be through this area up through here. Um so, if we're bringing any materials in, um manpower, things of that nature will be up through here. Um, we will have a crane set up so that we can reach uh materials up into this area that is proposed to be staged there. Um, we'll have a dumpster. We'll have a storage trailer. And we're really uh trying to um not utilize the basketball court. We just don't want to damage it. I know um in in the past there had been some and that was resurfaced. So, we're really going to limit our activities on the basketball court, but that will be off limits. um during the project. Unfortunately, now when you talk about the yard work and the crane and the dumpster and things like that,
096we will be putting steel plates down to get us the crane in there. Um as well as um these large uh mats so that we can drive over the yard. We can set the crane up. We'll limit disturbance of of that area. So, um a lot of thought um put into the staging area. I did meet with uh Dr. Wick and Maine's roofing on site at the middle school. We went through this plan as far as what would be fenced off. We talked about the limitations during the day with the students to that area and the the entrance in and out not only for um gym class or or recess activities, but also during an emergency, right? So, egress through it. Um, and we do have a 12-oot wide emergency access right here at the
097fence area. Okay, so that's that's indicated here. And that will be available anytime that there is uh an emergency, we need to evacuate uh the building uh for any reason out through here. It'll also be available during the the the fire drills. That'll all be co coordinated with the school. So on such and such day there's a fire drill at 10:00, we will actually shut down roofing activities. Everything will stop. They'll do their fire drill. The kids will go out. They'll come back. We'll restart roofing activities. There will be coordination with uh the bus drop off and and pickup, parent drop off, pickup staff. Um kids entering the building. We'll get those uh the roof materials up prior to kids coming in or after the kids leave. Um so that we'll coordinate all those activities
098um that might you know impact or conflict with with anything like that that will all be orchestrated such as we've done at the high school. Um as well um as far as what's available to the students pretty much the entire the rest of the entire field is is available to them. So, um, as well as the, um, that's a softball diamond over there. Softball diamond will still be available to them. So, uh, a lot of play area for the kids during this. So we do um if we can get um board approval um we would um you know give them uh the color which then uh prompts a about a six to eight weed six to eight week lead time for the materials. So that puts us in right around the end of October that
099we would we would start this project. It is about 8 to 10 week process given weather right relatively short process but it is a lot of work. Um so we would hope to be wrapped up right around beginning of the year with weather dependent. So um and then everything will get restored and and opened back up. Um so um procurement process uh just real quick just want to touch on that. Um, you know, this is through the Keystone purchasing network which was used for the high school, but it's a different approach is through the construction procurement network. Um, and the reason why we chose that over the traditional KPN through uh WTI that we used at the high school is we're actually eliminating the construction management piece that that program offers, which is saving us
100money. Um, so we'll be handling the construction management and administration inhouse. um ourselves for this project. So um any questions? >> I have a bunch, but I'm going to defer to other people first. >> Okay. >> Sorry. Are you okay? Miss uh Mr. Thornton and Mr. B Dr. Babson, do you have anything? >> Ask Dr. Babson if you're okay. Uh, well, one, this sounds like a great way to save money. I understand that the inconvenience to the kids, but I think it's worth our savings at this point. We're always looking for ways to decrease cost. So, I certainly applaud you on that. My concern is uh if you could talk a little bit more about what it means to take the construction management piece in house. What does that mean in terms of uh financials
101and what does that mean in terms of staff and capacity? >> Sure. Um, so the construction management, this is this is um a relatively simple process as compared to if we were actually ripping a roof off um down to the deck, putting insulation back on um doing um high level flashings, making sure our crickets and our tapers and our slopes and the processes when you have multiple layers, every process has to be you know done properly and ensured that it was installed properly before the next process goes on. Um the the the process for this is um basically remove shingles. So uh I'll get into the construction piece and I'll get in the design piece. Remove shingles um where then when you look through the proposal, we'll then cover the entire uh roof with uh
102ice and water shield um to pretty much make it weathertight. Um and then they'll put the clip fasteners on. We'll um the metal will all be basically formed on site into panels um put up on the roof, fastened and seamed. So what does construction management look like? Construction management looks like after the shingles are removed, making sure that the plywood um all the plywood has integrity um and that we're not going over anything rotted. Um, it's making sure that the ice and water shield is installed properly. It's overlapped properly. Um, it's making sure that the fasteners that they're using are of the right length and style um, per the spec. It's making sure that the fasteners then the clips that hold the metal roof in are spaced properly. Um, it's making sure that when they
103seam the rolls, so when two pieces of roofing go on, they overlap, then they hand seam it, and then they they um they use a machine to roll it. Um, making sure that that process is done thoroughly throughout. um making sure that the details on the flashing and and uh the straps for the gutters and the size of the gutter and everything match what's designed by by by KPN or by TMCO basically, right? So, I will have a book with all of the specifications in it. I'll have drawings um that show all of the details um making sure that the overlaps are are done at at the very end properly. Um, and then doing a punch list. So, making sure that we don't have a lot of nicks and scratches in the metal because that'll
104do premature wear. Um, and and and things of that nature. So, that's kind of the construction piece. Um the other piece is just making sure that you know um the schedule of values and the pay apps all coincide that what they're billing us to date matches the work that has been performed, right? So they typically can bill us up to um you know if they're giving us an invoice in in the 15th of the month, they can project to the 30th of the month. And just making sure that we're not overpaying them for the work that they've already performed. making sure that the retainers are there. Um and and then other things that we're already used to um clearances, um certified payroll, um all that stuff. Now, I will say, you know, we do have
105the support of of TMCO, right? So, they will also be on site. So, this is not a um oneman show or we're not out in the dark with this. Um we'd also uh have uh David Mains roofing um who um has performed time and time again. Um they're the ones that just have worked on the high school. So we know that the quality of work is there. That doesn't mean we don't check them, right? But we know that um it'll be there. I'll give you an example of another project that I did where I did the construction administration for um a metal roof and it it was a little different. That roof we were able to actually leave the shingles on. This one we're not. And I have some some information in your documents as
106to why um we can't leave the shingles on. But um I found that they used a different clip to hold the gutter on. Um, and they were actually shocked like we were going to tell you before you saw that because they knew I was up on the roof all the time, right? So, um, it's just checking those things, right? And making sure we get quality control. But again, TMCO, the manufacturer, also stands behind their product through Keystone Purchasing Network. So they'll be on site um from time to time at least once a week, maybe two times a week, three times a week uh because they have a vested interest in their in their product and their name as well. Does that answer your question? >> It was Mr. Thornton's question. It does. It was pretty
107thorough. >> It does. >> It was just just a follow-up question for you if I could. When the project was originally scheduled for the spring, were we also incorporating the construction management at that point or is that a change uh based on the new timeline? So, it's not a change based on the new timeline. Um our our original capital improvement project, it didn't uh budget did include the project management. I just I took that piece out, right? Like that was I took it out. It has nothing to do with the timeline. The timeline moving up has to do with the fact that, you know, we we're just consistently experiencing um the what we call nail pops where the nails are working loose. They're working up through the shingles. They're actually ruining. That's what put holes
108in the shingles. It makes them loose. Every time we have a high wind, I have um I had the company come out. We do a full roof inspection. We replace a lot of shingles because of loose shingles after a windstorm. Um, and then every time it leaks, it's an uh impact to gym class, right? So, we got to put trash cans down. If it's after hours and we're renting the gym, we got to worry about a wet floor, things like that. So, moving the timeline up was really more of let's get we we recognize opportunity. Let's get this done and eliminate all of the impacts, right, and any further damage that might occur to the building. Yeah, >> thank you, Mr. Thornton. Other questions? Um, first of all, Mr. Mars, thank you. A couple things.
109I learned something tonight. I thought the live roof was the entire roof of the middle school. >> Oh, yes. >> So, that was And it's interesting to hear that it's still in good shape. >> Yes. Um, I'm also pleased to hear, you know, if you're comfortable and I trust you, that you're comfortable with the management piece and I think it actually gives us more comfort to know that you're connected to the process daily. >> So, that that's help I' I'm good with that. Um, I had a question about the roof over the auditorium. I understand a metal roof I've is can be noisy. So if we have I mean over the gym I think is okay and it's over the other pieces doesn't seem like it's um instructional space but the auditorium if you have
110a big rainstorm and you have a play or something going on or some kind of event >> how does that work? So I I that's a great question and it comes down to the composition of the um roofing structure that currently exists. So um metal roofs you'll you'll hear how loud they are and noisy they are during rain and a common installation method is um trusses with pland across um and then metal roof right on top of it. There is no sound dampening whatsoever. Right. I actually have a building that I own with that type of construction and when an acorn hits and you're in the building, it sounds way louder than what it you know what I mean? Um, but so we have to look at the way the roofing and is is currently
111constructed. So you have a you have a metal deck currently. Then you do have insulation there which offers the sound dampening. Then we've got plywood and then we're going to do an ice and water shield. So, the combination of all of those different um materials, uh the insulation and sound factor of the uh the insulation board that's on there, um will dampen the sound very considerably. Um we do not believe, and when I say we, um myself and TMCO do not believe that there'll be an impact um inside of the auditorium because of the the way the roofing structure, right? If it was metal roof, right, on metal deck or something like that, I would be like absolutely no. You know what I mean? So, and then in the auditorium, you do have all the
112clouds, right, that then help to keep the sound above them for deflection and things like that. So, >> I don't we don't believe that there'll be an impact on >> we will hear from the musical and uh artistic community if there is any noise. I'm sure. I would say, can I suggest that if we get a storm before we do the change, we have some type of readings on how loud it is now? >> I can do an audible reading. Yes. >> Yeah, it might be a good idea because it is it is a great question. Get the decibb now and then, you know, and then we can compare it once it's done and be able to hopefully say it's actually just the same or we're in the right, you know. >> Yeah. and we
113thought um on another project and the reason I say that with confidence is you know this is not um the first project that I've experienced um with doing this and um like I said you know did an entire elementary school and that was that was a big consideration right in the classrooms and everything like that so um you really didn't I mean there was no complaints after the roof was put on as far as as far as far as noise. So, >> well, the roof of Radner Elementary is metal. No. >> Yes, the roof at RER Elementary is also metal. So, good point. I was going to bring that up because um >> Okay. >> Yeah, it's green. Yeah. Um so, I was going to bring that up because that is our that's what we
114are looking at tackling next summer. So, I hope to bring to the facilities committee sometime in October um that proposal, try to get ahead. I know the board had requested that we get these projects in front of you a little bit uh sooner. So, um, we did take that in consideration. So, we hope in October to be talking about Rner Elementary School. I know we talk about a lot of roofs, right? But they are important. Um, top down integrity of the building and envelope is is important. Um, so, but yes, Rner Elementary School is probably 90% metal roof. So, >> Miss Rosen Bloom, did you have any questions? You don't have to. I just was asked. >> No, I don't have any questions. I I just have comments, but I think you're covering them as
115we spoke earlier, right? >> Um, >> and you covered, you know, where the students are going to go during this time and the time frame even if it does get extended beyond. I mean, the I think if the weather cooperates and, you know, we've got, you know, perfect scenarios, it's 8 to 12 weeks. Is that is that right? >> About 8 Yeah, about 8 to 10. About 8 to 10. 8 to 10. I mean, if we if we get beautiful weather and and they can and things go sceny, I mean, >> we might see it in six, right? But I I I I always I always try to go on the the safer side, 8 to 10 week project because, you know, this summer, I mean, we lost nine working days because of rain at
116the high school, right? So, um but they were they hustled as soon as they had a nice day. They hustled. I mean, we we made up we're about three days behind where I'd like to see us at the high school right now. But we're still going to be ready for school to start. So, I mean, you go over there today, it doesn't look like it, but come September 2nd, it's going to look like a whole different area. >> And we're just saying with that, you know, ready to start at the school. We will still have additional work at the high school into September, October like we did last year. So, the roofers continue and they'll wrap up somewhere in October with the high school. But when they wrap up this year, October, they did last
117year too. Now they're all done though, which is good. >> Yeah, they're they're done the construction piece. Now it's just some coding work. It's coding work. Same thing as last year, right? So when I when I say we're about three days from where I'd like to be, right? That's compared to last year. >> And just to reassure all those high school students I know who are watching, their spaces will not be affect the parking spaces will not be affected because they're going to move out of the student lot. >> December 2nd, it's going to look like a whole different campus. >> Perfect. >> Yeah. One minor question and I think I asked this before so if you don't have the answer you can you can let let us know later. Um change orders with at
118the high school we don't we didn't have any change orders for the roof >> right >> for this project. >> Yeah. So when you go to the construction uh when you go to the construction procurement network CPN as it's listed in there um you do you do give that up right because we are we are contracting directly with the contractor and not the construction management firm. But again, looking at the scope of work, right, removal of the shingles and and things like that. Um, and then since we're going to have drawings and we're going to have details and and things of that nature, right? Um, unless we have an unforeseen, right? Like we we um, now they've done core drillings, they've walked the roof, but that doesn't mean that when we rip the shingles off,
119we're not going to find some plywood. there's allowances and stuff like that, but we're not going to find some plywood or something like that that has to be addressed, right? But we're we're not we're not prone to significant change orders on on this type of project at all. >> Okay. Thanks, Ken. >> So, I don't need long answers on all these questions, but I do just want to kind of make sure I take No, I know. I know you are, and I'm like that, too. So, but I know everybody else is looking at the clock and wishing we were done. Um, so this building is not 30 years old. I because I know it was put up while I lived in the township. We don't there's no warranty on these roof on the roof we
120have currently. Was it only 20 years? Do you know? >> So, and that's that's a good point because it's not the shingles that are failing. It's it's it's the it's the way it's constructed and the way that metal deck and then the insulation and then the plywood and the shingles. There's no ventil. We're not getting the proper ventilation underneath of the shingles. So, the shingles just sit there in the sun and they just bake all day long. >> So, let me say this with my lawyerly brain. There's nobody who's liable to us for this failing this early. >> Not anymore. Okay. >> 25 years. >> Yeah. It hasn't. It's not 25 years. It's only 20. >> 26. Yeah, it's 20 about 20 years. Yeah, I think about >> Yeah. RER and then Yeah. Okay. Um,
121>> and this is not uncommon. >> No, I I hear you. I just >> a lot of school districts. >> It's frustrating. Well, it's frustrating when you think the building's not that old in terms of the envelope should be lasting longer. >> And we're not that far off from a roofing replacement anyway, right? So, when you look at years, um, it's not like we did it nine years ago and it failed, right? >> No, I hear you. I hear you. So, >> um, a couple things. So, I'm just going to go in the order of what's written here. the um I just want to make sure we're being sensitive. I feel like I remember there's some kind of retention space under that field, but maybe it's not where they're going to be storing things. >>
122So, we have geothermal equipment. So, looking at the plans and the prints, we believe that the geo thermal wellfield is beyond the fenced area. >> Okay. >> Um there is a underground uh covert that runs through there. Um so, that's been identified. However, we again, we're going to be putting the steel plates down um all of that stuff uh to get the crane in. So, it's not it's not a like a lot of moving pieces and then we'll switch to the LOL, which will be moving back. It is a piece of equipment, but it'll be running over top of the steel plates and the mats and things of that nature. >> Okay. >> And do warn them about that tennis the the baseball uh court basketball court because we have replaced that in the last
123five years. We've had to resurface it twice. That's why you don't see any >> No, I appreciate >> storage or staging. You know, there might be some boxes and stuff like that, but no heavy equipment. >> Um, is there any risk to the parking at the administrative building? I know parking is at a premium here. And I just thinking if they have to come around that curve and get in, are we at based on their access site, you're fine with we're going to that's all going to be coordinated so that they're in and out during times that they can they can get in and out. um we will need parking >> um for uh for their for their staff. Um so I believe >> I believe with the spaces that we have over at Renee
124that are empty they can walk across. Um I'm also you know we've the the the idea of township and parking permit on the street. Um I don't know if that's available. So we did kind of like mention that. >> Okay. >> Um to see if if we could do that but we're not going to take up any staff parking. We're not going to take up anything like that. >> Okay. The metal roofing and this is going to come. So, what's your color recommendation? I guess >> slate gray. >> The slate gray. And are you hoping that partially that because I worry about metal heats up and then is going to increase our AC costs, >> right? >> Or you're saying that the insulation and the structure won't that? >> That's what that is actually. The
125metal the metal will absorb less heat than the shingles and it'll re it'll uh it expel heat faster than what the shingles were. >> Okay. So >> it doesn't affect our heat efficiency in the winter though. >> Okay. You got to look at both sides. >> It's a balance. >> Um and I assume this is really more a question for Dr. Widick, but it seems to me like, you know, there are kids who really want to play basketball. I'm hoping, you know, in the fall and they're out there on the hard surface and I'm hoping there might be some option for indoor recess at least a couple times a week. Did you you didn't talk about that yet? >> I did not get into that aspect of the program programming with you. >> Yeah. Okay.
126No, that's fine. Um, what happens if they're not done by late January, which would be, you know, three months? Like, if the weather's bad, are we going to have trouble with this? >> They don't work. >> They if it's raining, they don't work. If it's if it snows, they don't they they don't work, right? Um, so we will um I mean, we have um we have an estimated timeline, kind of like same thing with the roof. So, we'll have a project schedule. We'll try to work within that. Um but um you know we'll we'll when we've we'll go through this everything in the schedule and and stuff like that like we'll we'll settle on you know a projected substantial completion date and and things of that nature. So >> they'll work till they get done
127and then they'll get done and and they'll they'll leave it if there's a storm coming they're going to leave it in condition obviously that we >> they'll leave it in tight condition. >> Yes. Yes. So they're watching the weather and aware. I just worry we don't want to make these leak problems worse. >> No. So same thing that we did at the high school um where you know again there was nine days this summer um that that they didn't work and that was because of looking at forecast. So if if they they think that they're going to open or expose uh a section of roof that is subject to leakage um that day and it's they can't do it because of rain or forecast, they're not going to do it, right? They'll they'll come back
128So then the only other question I had and it sounds frivolous. There is green trim on that building. Green metal trim on that building, isn't there? >> There is on the bus. >> Is it just on the bus side that I'm thinking of? You're not looking to replace that just for color match. It's okay to stay green. >> It's okay to stay. >> Okay. It wasn't part of your plan. I I know it's okay, but I mean, >> right. No, it was not for the And and we actually kind of talked about that like, you know, we could because it is metal like we could do um if if we could do a a resurface on that or a recoding, which it wouldn't be much to to change that green color if we wanted to,
129but >> and just why the gray instead of just matching the green? I know the green won't match because it's faded, but why not green like the elementary? That's the only >> again green is not going to look like the green that we have. I think green is going to be in the center of town. It's going to pop, right? Like so gray is a nice neutral color, right? It doesn't it's not too flashy. It's not too poppy. Um it it has a great over the years, you know, you are going to get sunfade, right? So it's not one of those colors that uh fade to something lime, you know, lime green. Um there's also a thing called uh when you talk about metal roofs, it's called uh oil puddling. Okay? So basically it's those
130dark stains that you get on the roof from um the road pollutants, right? So the oils and the exhaust fumes and things like that um just from from whatever's in the rain and you get these what they call oil oil looking puddles on the roof. So you won't notice like the the spotting of the roof that you would if you went with like a lighter color. So darker colors, your reds, your blues, your greens are are going to going to fade. Red to pink, green to lime green, things like that. Um, lighter colors are going to show more of the environmental impacts on the roof. Um, so it may may look dirty. Um, so the slate gray, in my opinion, is a good neutral color that kind of takes care of a lot of those
131different aspects. >> We need to have the color picked by what day? >> Ideally, I would love to see a color picked by next Wednesday. >> Next Wednesday. >> So, you need it at the board meeting so you can place orders on Wednesday and get the six to eight lead time. I mentioned this to board members for after the meeting if they want to stick around. The the color deck is right here. You can look and you can also in the next couple of days drive by the building and look and you know we have been bouncing around administratively you know between two colors as well. So, um, so your input would be helpful, you know, after the meeting or the next couple of days. >> In all honesty, you know, like if you were
132to go with green color, like it would fade to what Rner looks like today, right? >> Okay. >> It's also limited visibility from what we don't see a lot of. >> It doesn't seem like you would see the the people are going to see it. Most are the people who live in those condos that look over our field or the apartments across the street. >> Yeah. Well, not so much from that direction, but the further you get out towards Lancaster Avenue and like you might see the side of the gym. >> Okay. >> You know, things like >> have to go wander through town and see what I can see of the roof now. >> Okay. Um, a very thorough thank you and I echo the support of, you know, trusting you and and Mr.
133Dolan to oversee the construction on this. That's that's great. >> Anything else from the facilities? This was the last thing on the agenda. Okay, great. The last item on the agenda then is board announcements. Uh our next meeting, as we've referenced repeatedly, is next Tuesday, August 26th, uh at 7 PM in the RESH room of the municipal township building um at 7 as usual. And then next month, our meetings uh will be posted and advertised as required, but we will be meeting on the 9th, the 16th, and the 30th. The 9th and the 16th will be committee meetings and the 30th will be our regular board meeting. Check our website for more information. And with that we