2025-04-28 Scranton SD Special Meeting & Work Session

001Everybody ready? I call this order of the special meeting for the board vacancy. Please rise for the pledge of allegiance. I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for which it stands. One nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. Roll call. Mr. Gwick here. Mr. Casey here. Mrs. Chzik, present. Present. Thank you. Miss Fox present. Miss Merkel here. Mr. McCandrew, present. Mrs. Johnny present. Mr. Holmes present. Eight present. The purpose of this special meeting is for the board vacancy seat to be advertised has been advertised dually and to fulfill a position. Now we will entertain public comment. She was just here. I do have a comment to make too. Okay. All right. I'll call you right. She left. Okay. Superintendent McKini. Hi everyone. Good

002evening. Um so this afternoon I just want to go through some things that at West Grant Intermediate at Weston High School um we did have an issue. Um we were made aware that there was a note found by a student that was written on a student desk and it had an unspecified threat on it. Um once that happened, building administration immediately um were involved with the Scranton Police Department who I would like to thank for their quick and efficient response to the situation and the building was placed on a hold. Um while the building was placed on a hold, we went into an investigatory uh manner to make sure that there was not credibility to what was written on the desk. Um it's in uh the going into a hold is is basically what our

003policy states we would do. Uh the Scranton Police Department worked without us through the entire process investigating the situation to determine if there was any credibility. Um when we determined that there was no credibility to the threat, the hold was ended and students were dismissed floor by floor. So we had an orderly dismissal. Just so everyone knows, when a threat is made, we're always going to take the steps to investigate them. Um, regardless of of what we believe in credibility, we will take everything seriously um to always put the safety of our students and staff um at the forefront of everything that we do. Um we we didn't believe there was credibility to this as it was something written on a desk, but I'm never going to take a chance. Um, and again, I want

004to thank the Scranton Police Department for the amount of people that responded and just how easy and wonderful they are to work with. Um, for transparency, I did release statements on social media. A one call didn't go out until a little later. And just um to to to clear it up with the public there when when an incident happens, I'm considered um incident command in the central office. So, I'm I'm in my office. people are dispatched to the building and the people who are in the building, they're working on whatever the threat is at that time. So that's why sometimes you see a lag between me putting something out on social media and a one call and we'll work to address that so that happens faster. I want to thank the West Scranton High School

005administration, the district safety and security department, members of the central administration who responded, the Scranton Police Department for their assistance and all they did to ensure that our students and our staff are safe. Please, if you have any questions, never hesitate to reach out to myself, to assistant superintendent O'Donnell, or Kevin Carney, who's our supervisor of safety and security. But I just want to thank everyone for today and just give an update on that situation. I don't know if there's any questions. Okay. Thank you everyone. Thank you. Now, will you please go over the process that we are about to enter? Dr. Ke, uh is Amanda's not here? She's already moved. Okay. So, there's no public comment. So, Mrs. Orur, you um you are good. People are moved. So how this will work is that

006um the candidates who have sent in applications and who were vetted appropriately according to our policy um will have two minutes to make a public statement um on of their own and at that time when that is completed there is a series of six questions which you all have in front of you. Mr. Laffy will be reading all of those questions and then at the end of that we will have that candidate taken out of the auditorium. we will bring the next candidate in. Um, you have a rubric that you can follow. It is just a guideline for scoring, but you will also have a sheet with the candidates's names. You will be circling the candidate who you believe best fills the open vacancy based off their responses tonight. Mrs. Ore will publicly tabulate those

007and then we will bring the results forward to the board. Any questions? Okay, Mrs. Ore. Okay. to my tech staff. If anybody needs any help, can you just make sure they could adjust the mic and they could do what they need? And I'd like to all of you to notice Cody's fabulous shirt, ready for summer. He's the best. Uh, good evening. My name is Cara Kofira and I'm grateful to have the opportunity to meet you tonight. My interest in the vacancy stems from my academic and professional background in education management and my experience as a parent of three children in the district. I am also a Scranton School District graduate and I have confidence that the SSD can deliver excellent programs. I seek to serve because I want to facilitate the steps to providing greater

008opportunities and outcomes for all of our students. Education has been the focus of my career path since day one. I have over 20 years of experience in US and international education and three academic degrees in the field, demonstrating my commitment to strengthening student engagement and achievement. As the first person in my family to earn a bachelor's degree, I am forever grateful to the wonderful teachers, staff, and administrators that prepared me for success. I believe it takes a village to raise a child and that schools and individuals within them change the lives of children every day and serve to develop the next generation of community leaders. I would like to see budgets spent fairly and responsibly to ensure we can implement programs of excellence at all stages and locations in the district. Enhance extracurricular activities and

009facilities. Strengthen communication channels and ensure students and teachers well-being development and morale. Filling this vacancy is an opportunity for me to utilize my background and skills to serve my community. I seek to serve on the board because I would like to see the district continue to take positive steps forward and be a part of ensuring that we are meeting the needs of those within it and that the district fosters and nurtures achievement. Thank you. Um Miss Kafir, the first question tonight from the board is why are you interested in serving on the school board and what is your motivation? I may have covered some of that already. So, um, just to summarize, I really want to facilitate the best opportunities for our students. Um, I want to increase opportunities. I acknowledge the past few years

010have been very difficult in this district. Um, I'm seeing good things coming out of uh out of those challenges though and I think we should be looking to see how our district is presently and how we can continue to improve it in the future. Great. Thank you very much. Uh, the second question, what do you perceive to be the responsibilities of the school board? It's supporting the district's mission, evaluating our progress, establishing policies, reviewing those policies, maintaining and ensuring they are aligned with our federal and state standards. Um, serving as community leaders and advocates for improvement and change. Um, I feel like there are many responsibilities. Um, and each one of those is so important. Um, but I'm I'm pleased that um there are so many ways we're looking after and in the interests of

011our students. Thank you. Uh, third question. What qualities, skills, and experience would you bring to the board? I've my qualities of caring about educational opportunities, I think, is my first and foremost. Um, it's an investment in our students. its investment in our future. Um caring about college and career readiness with three students in the district. I'm seeing you know them from from just baby stages through this district now um up until our what we're preparing our students to do at the university level or career readiness level. Um, I think that I'm sorry I have so many notes on the page. Just just keep me on track here. Repeat the question again and just make sure I've certainly Yeah. So, what quality, skills, and experiences would you bring to the board? Okay. Um, I think I

012think I have an openness to um reflecting on our progress. I have an openness of um to to looking at outcomes, to evaluating programs um to seeing where our assessments are showing that we have room for improvement in our schools or curriculums or um on student progress. Um, and I think that my focus for preparing all students on their next steps, whether it's from elementary school into middle school or middle school into high school, high school into college. Um, thank you. Thank you. Uh, next question. So, if you were faced with a tough issue as a board member, such as raising taxes or cutting programs, what kind of data would you need to help you make your decision? I would like to see a lot of data. Um, in terms of what it would be,

013I would want to see outcomes, impact studies. I want to see student, teacher, staff feedback. I'd want to see focus groups discussing programs, seeing what's most important to them. If the priorities have to change, um, what are the most important things we can keep with us? Um, I'd want to know what can be done or accomplished to maybe perhaps keep programs, but lower budgets and and look at options and think creatively. Um, I I'd want to see numbers of of people affected. I want I' I'd like to see um where we can improve maybe by collaborations if we've got duplication in programs as well. Thank you. Next question. Board members often face intense public scrutiny. How will you maintain your ethical standards when you're pressured by influential groups with competing interests? I I think that

014that is is a significant challenge. I think you're right. The the need to address community concerns and diverse um opinions is a challenge for all school boards. If I was pressured into it, I feel um I I feel that I've always looked at things from many different perspectives. Um I've from different stakeholder perspectives. I want to look at the data. I want to look at figures. I want to look at numbers. I want to talk to people and hear um what they are saying so I can make up my mind as to um what I feel may be best moving forward. Thank you. Last question. District policy 304.1 nepotism requires that a candidate for a full-time position shall disclose but will not be disqualified by any relationship with a current director or the superintendent. Do

015you have a personal or professional relationship to any director or member of the administration? Or are any members of your immediate family employed by the district? No, I do not. Thank you very much, Jenny. You're letting them know not to leave, correct? Until that this vote is over, correct? Okay. Thank you. This is not the courtyard when I got here. I'm very excited to see the musical because I very much so enjoy Wizards. Don't even start. I'm sorry. Little positive reinforcement. There you go. A little encouragement. Good evening. Thank you very much for allowing me to interview with you tonight for the open board position. As you all know, I was a board member in 2022 and 2023. The Scranton School Board is busy and fast-paced. I bring my experience on the board, my professional

016experience, and the ability to move back into this position quickly and efficient efficiently as a benefit to a seamless transition. I have been educated at Marywood University. I have a bachelor's degree in applied sociology and human services and a master's in school counseling. My work experience includes Friendship House, Northeast Counseling Services, and the Stradsburg Area School District where I spent most of my career as a school counselor. While there, I worked in grades 5 through 12 with a majority of my time in 8th and 9th grades. I also, excuse me, I also have 66 post-graduate credits in school and child related topics. As a board member, I am committed to our students first and foremost. However, employees, taxpayers, and community are always part of any decision that needs to be made. This is not always

017easy. This is a balancing act to always look at how any decision you make will affect the stakeholders while being fiscally responsible with taxpayers dollars. Whether these are local, state, or federal dollars. In making these ongoing and difficult decisions, you must spend a great deal of time reading all the information that is provided as well as doing your research into the topics at hand. At present, we have a government that is making decisions that will greatly impact the future of all districts from the major changes in the Department of Education, stripping the department of its resources will be catastrophic for our students who need educational services and support. These changes will upset and could essentially alter what education looks like moving forward. We must have a board that is ready to keep up with these

018changes and stay on top of these everchanging conditions. I strongly pledge to commit my energy to the academic achievement of our students that they are prepar prepared to leave our schools with a plan for their future to continually work on all fair funding initiatives and to continue to improve student and school safety. Thank you for your time. Thank you, Miss Clary. We have a uh just a few questions for you. The first question is why are you interested in serving on the school board and what is your motivation? Sorry. Um, you know, you think back I think back to when we were all like 15 years of age and everybody would say to us, "What do you want to be? What do you want to do? Where do you want to go?" Um, and I

019always used, my answer was always, "Well, I want to work with kids." But I never knew what that kind of looked like. And it took me from that time till I was about 30 before I kind of molded it into becoming a school counselor. Um, I've always worked with kids, as you can tell by my past work experience. Um, that's always since I was a kid, I've wanted to work for kids. I retired a couple years ago. I was on the board for a couple years. Um, and I just feel like I have a lot more to offer. I'm not done. I still have the energy, the motivation um, to want to make a difference in our community for our students and our community. All with my background and my knowledge helping to make those

020decisions and continue to move the uh, the district forward. We've done a lot in the last six years or so and I'd like to continue to see that happening. Thank you. Uh, next question. What do you perceive to be the responsibilities of the school board? Well, our responsibilities are to be to spend the time it takes to be well informed. Um, we're provided information every week that we need to thoroughly review um and if we need additional information, get that information. But the board itself, we're uh responsible for budget um personnel approvals. Uh we're also responsible for uh strategic planning so to speak like um figuring out where our goal what our primary goals are, what our secondary goals are, and to make sure those goals come to fruition um and to work collaboratively as

021a group of 10. Great. Thank you. That includes the superintendent, not just the nine on the board. Yes. Uh third question. what qualities, skills, and experience would you bring to the board? Um, well, I said I think I said a lot of that in my opening, but to reiterate, um, my background, my professional background, having been a school counselor for almost 27 years, I come forth with a lot of background in education. Uh, I worked in a different district. I didn't work in this one. I worked outside of this county. um my education, my interest in children, my love of children. I just think that I bring that as well as my two years on the board in 22 and 23, I can kind of hit the ground running. Um I'd have to obviously be

022caught up in a few things, but I felt that when I left the board a few years ago that I still had so much more I wanted to do. And I had gotten to the point, you know, the the Pennsylvania School Board Association says it takes about 18 months to two years. And I thought, ah, yeah, it does. It takes you about 18 months to figure, you know, to kind of get grounded and figure out, you know, what you're doing and and have a clear understanding of everybody's roles and your responsibilities. Thank you. Uh, next question. If you were faced with a tough issue as a board member, such as raising taxes or cutting programs, what kind of data would you need to help you make your decision? Well, the data would be how it

023affects each of the stakeholder groups, from the students to the employees to the taxpayers to the community. I mean, um, making a, uh, an increase, whether it's cutting programs or whether you're increasing, um, taxes, you have to look at the whole picture, and you have to look at the benefits that you're going to get from making those increases. And I I when I was on the board, I remember saying, if we can explain to people where the tax increase is going, I think it's easier for people to accept a tax increase when it just goes into the oblivion and you have no idea where the money goes. I think it's harder for people to stomach. I think when you explain we need this tax increase because we're going to do A, B, and C with

024it, I think it's easier for the community. But I think just understanding how it affects everybody, like how it will affect the students, what services are we going to be removing, um are there other um funding that we can get to replace those services. So there's a lot of decision. It's really a balancing act. Um you have to take everybody into consideration and sometimes you're going to make friends and sometimes you're not. And that's, you know, you have to have thick skin. You have to know that what you're doing is for the best interest of of the whole. Thank you. Next question. Board members often face intense public scrutiny. How will you maintain your ethical standards when you're pressured by influential groups with competing interests? I have always done what I thought was right. I

025will always listen to people, but I don't necessarily let people sway me. I will listen to them and it doesn't mean I won't change my um mind if they shared information that will have me think differently about something, but I'm a pretty strong person and I do always do what I think is right. I So, I'm not sure if I answered your question. I I will listen to people, but that doesn't mean they're going to necessarily sway me. If I truly believe with my research and the information provided that I'm making the correct decision, I'm I will make the decision that I think is best. Thank you. Last question. District policy 304.1 nepotism requires that a candidate for a full-time position shall disclose but will not be disqualified by any relationship with a current director

026or the superintendent. Do you have any personal or professional relationships to any director or member of the administration or are any members of your immediate family employed by the district? No one in my family is employed by the district. I obviously was on the board so I I know several of you sitting up there. So, yes, I I know several um board members personally from my work on the school board. Thank you. If anybody has any other questions regarding that, I'd be more than happy to answer. Okay. Thank you, Miss Claire. Okay. Thank you so much. Thank you. Does anybody know these rubrics? Are these just for us? They're guidelines. Yeah. So, they're we're not going to be turning. Uh I I do not believe this is my first time going through this with you

027guys. We'll double check when this is where it gets back up on the stage. Turn that one. The circle name. Only the circle name is turned in. Only the circle name. That's what I remember from the past. I've just been directed by attorney Hazeline that you're only turning in the circle. That's for your use. Do I just start? Okay. Good evening. Thank you everyone for having me. I greatly appreciate this opportunity to be able to serve on the board hopefully a little bit earlier than the election. Um, I am I just have a passion for education and I'm very excited to be able to have the opportunity to help the students in the school district and help the teachers and everyone kind of get back to a good place where the district is a desired

028school district in the area and people want to come here and they're fighting to come into this district. So, I'm very excited for this opportunity. Um, I've lived in Scranton my entire life. I have a lot of friends that currently have school-aged children and are deciding where to send their children and it breaks my heart when they discount the Scranton School District and I want to help the district to come back to a place where people are excited to come here and students want to be part of the district and just have the opportunity that I had growing up. Um I'm a product of the Scranton School District and I couldn't be more proud to say that. Um I currently work in the city of Pittsen as their business administrator. I manage their budget and

029finances. I also run their human resource department and I own a small business um that used to be in Old World Forge and now it's in Pit Pittston and I only own it for the next month. I did um sell it so I have a lot of time now to dedicate to the schoolboard position. So, thank you for the opportunity. I'm happy to answer any questions. Thank you, Miss Shazaki. We do have a couple questions. The first one is why are you interested in serving on the school board? What is your motivation? So, my motivation is to help. I love helping people. I love being involved in the community. I'm very involved in the city of Pittsen working there and I want to bring that involvement back into Scranton where I live and I've lived

030my entire life. Um I have a passion for education. A lot of my career was spent in higher education and I just love the educational process and being on the school board will help me to help the students and bring my expertise in that area to the school board. Um, I want to help the school district become something that's desired and people want to be here and I want to help the students get a great education and a well-rounded education before they set off into the world. Thank you. Next question. What do you perceive to be the responsibilities of the school board? So, I think the responsibilities of the school board are not only to make policies and procedures. Um, I think it's to also help support the students and the teachers of the district

031and all of the staff too to help carry through and make this district successful and make the students successful and help with their academic achievement. So, while yes, the school board does set policies, procedures, protocols, it's also, I think, the board's responsibility to help carry that through um, and help be able to support everyone that's going to carry through those policies. Thank you. Next question. What qualities, skills, and experience would you bring to the board? Um, like I mentioned, I have 10 plus years in higher education in all different realms of education, higher education. I also have a lot of budget experience, so I do think I can help manage the school district's finances, help create budgets, help manage budgets. Um, I have very in-depth knowledge of grant funding and writing grants, so I also

032think that could be an asset to the board, too. Thank you. Next question. If you were faced with a tough issue as a board member, such as raising taxes or cutting programs, what kind of data would you need to help make your decision? So, for raising taxes, I would ask for past tax raises. I would ask for historical data as far as that's concerned. I would want um to ask questions about what the tax raises in the past have funded and the proof of what they did help to fund. Um as far as tough decisions, I think you just need to ask for history and for information from all parties that are involved before you make cuts and before you make decisions like that and ask for feedback and different things like that before you

033make a decision. Thank you. Uh, next question. Board members often face intense public scrutiny. How will you maintain your ethical standards when you're pressured by influential groups with competing interests? I think you always have to keep in mind that you are working for the best interests of the students and the teachers and overall the community. So, I think that that has to lead all of your decision-making and you can't be swayed by influential people or things like that. You really have to stay and stick to your ethics and your standards and you have to carry that through and just keep in mind that you're working for the betterment of everybody. Great. Thank you. Last question. District policy 304.1 nepotism requires that a candidate for a full-time position shall disclose but will not be disqualified by

034any relationship with a current director or the superintendent. Do you have a personal or professional relationship to any director or member of the administration or are or are any members of your immediate family employed by the district? My mother is employed um in the cafeteria of West Grant High School. Thank you. So, we just circle our choice, right? Our choice. Correct. The policy says that we're supposed to deliberate publicly on the selection of candidates once the interviews have been completed. I didn't hear. Um, the policy says that the board will deliberate publicly on the selection of candidates once the interviews have been completed. So, are we supposed to deliberate at this time? If the board chooses to, you may don't have to. I think we had three great candidates. I think that is a good

035good thing to have. I think I could kind of follow that up to say they were three great interviews and three really strong candidates, three people that really seem like they want to contribute to this district. And uh I think we're we're fortunate to have such a difficult choice in front of us. Agree. So we're not deliberating. Deliberating as far as everyone's making a statement more I think it's an individual. When you say deliberating, what are you specifically looking to do? Well, I mean I just it makes it clear in the policy that we're supposed to publicly discuss this before we make a vote. The board will deliberate publicly on the selection of candidates once the interviews have been completed. That's what everybody's doing right now, speaking what they want to say. Okay. So, everyone's

036free to speak. Yeah. Again, I'll just echo what I said earlier. I think each one brings a, you know, unique perspective and experience to this position. I think it's a good problem to have and it's encouraging to see three great people who want to be involved in our district. So, it's definitely a tough decision. Um, but we just have to vote who we think is um the best fit. Yeah, I second what Director Mccandrew said. Everybody's clearly qualified. These are some pretty impressive resumes. Um, and it's nice to see that kind of level of interest. Um, which is something you don't always see. So, thanks to all those who applied. I basically agree with what Mr. McCandrew and Mr. Borthwick said. I was highly impressed with the qualifications and the backgrounds uh and what seems

037to be the dedication that all three of these people possess. Um no matter who we pick, I believe that the taxpayers and the children of the city of Scranton will be well served. It was very good to have three very well-qualified candidates with the motivation to help our students, teachers, staff, programs, and also think about the taxpayers and to also say they feel they could make decisions without being um swayed. They were vote they would vote things with their hearts. I just want to thank the candidates for stepping up. I know this this is a tough thing to do. Um, I just this is definitely a tough choice. Three professional women that are highly qualified. So, I just want to thank them for stepping up and I know whoever we get, they're going to do

038a great job. Um, okay. Yes. Um, I agree with what everybody said. Um, I think the three people are all very wellqualified and interviewed very well. I do think they all three have different backgrounds and things they would bring to the table. um which I think would help us to um deliberate a little more but that's okay that we won't assign this we'll just roll with it when I'm not understand when you say deliberate you're basically everyone making a statement of what they want to say I think everyone's had that opportunity if you would like to say more you're more than welcome but everybody is basically saying what they want to say that's the equivalent of the having a discussion I don't recall like in 2022, but that's the last appointment that we did any

039sort of extensive deliberation. Correct. I mean, I think our votes are a matter of public record anyway. Yeah, they are. Someone could do a right to know if they want to know how we voted. So, that's an option. Yeah. I don't know. I'm not saying I think it's just to like we we're as a board of eight um selecting a person to sit with us and I think it would just be um helpful to hear each other's thoughts and ideas and um such but um it's fine. Everybody's thoughts right now are just very blanket that everybody would be qualified which I agree with. That's just not um helping us deliberate to an answer. Uh but that's more than fine how everyone chooses to respond. Can you share your thoughts and maybe help us like what

040you mean by more in-depth answers? Can you give us an example? So maybe we could help us say more. I'm I'm good with this conversation at this time. Thank you. If anybody has a question they want to specifically ask, they're free to. That's why this has been open. That's that that's the equivalent of a debate, a discussion. Um not forcing anyone to speak, but anyone is allowed to say what they personally feel. else. Mrs. Or will you collect papers? And there are two members of the media here to be with you while they are counted. And Mrs. Brieck. So wherever you head, there two members of the media and Mrs. Brieck will head with her. Okay. Yeah. All right, I'm going to stretch my legs while we're waiting. Thank you. Yeah, we got a sign.

041Get a take a Do you have any carefully now? That's awesome. She came back here to raise her kids. Cambridge needs to know. Yes. Okay. You want to call them back in before I explain it? Yes. So, you want me to explain before they come back in? No. Let explain it all while they're here. Exactly. You got it. Yeah. media come up on stage because you're going to be pick. I don't care who it is. I just need somebody up here. What's the pick? Oh, Jack. What are we thinking? They're going to go through it all. That's the name out of the hat. So, what do they mean? So they pick a name whose name goes first. First name goes like The um board secretary shall announce the order in which the candidates are ranked

042and if there's a tie among those listed prior to the commencement of any vote, the names of the tied candidates be placed in a hat and we be presented for a vote in the order each is drawn. So we will be voting. So So now that the candidates are back in, the results will be announced by Mrs. Or if there is a tie then the names will be placed in a hat and we will have somebody independent pull the name um via the policy as it exists. Attorney Hazeline just read that aloud to the board. So question if we go around and it's still a tie the first round. What do we do? Uh Glenna I didn't hear. Go ahead. If we go around, right, and you say the first name, it doesn't get five.

043The second name doesn't get five. Like, we just keep going until we get five. The first the first candidate with a majority vote wins. That's why you pull them from a hat. Yeah. But if it's a tie, that's what he's asking. Tie again. Yeah. Does it go to the courts then at that point? You keep going until you get a majority. Well, that's what that's what I could we have Mrs. Orur read the results. Can we start there? Yeah, I feel like the the the the policy says the first candidate to receive an affirmative vote, a majority of the seated board members will be appointed to fill a vacancy. I guess this is like the pope. We keep voting until we get one. Got it. Okay, got it. Okay, Mrs. Ore, can you please read

044the results? Sure. Uh we have a tie between uh Carol Clearary and Jenna Strleki. It's a 44 tie. So we'll be what what's the we'll be drawing the names from the hat. Now the names go need to go to hat which I brought for the purpose and then the neutral guy back here will draw them and then we vote. I don't you guys vote. Sorry. What's your name? Jack Kulkin from W Nepal name is the legal name. I can't. No pressure. Okay. Do we pull a name? Yes. Just one. Yeah. Yes. Ready? Ready. I will now call for a roll call vote for Jenna Sleski to fill the vacancy for the board position. Mrs. Z or roll call. Mr. Casey? Yes. Mrs. Chzik? Yes. Miss Fox? No. Miss Merkel? No. Mr. McCandrew? No. I'm sorry.

045Did you say no? No. U Mrs. Yianni? No. Mr. Borthwick? Yes. Mr. Holmes? Yes. It's 44. Motion fails. No. I will call for a motion to vote on Carol Clearary to fill the board vacancy. Mrs. Ore, roll call. Mrs. Chzik, no. Miss Fox, yes. Miss Merkel, yes. Mr. McCandrew, yes. Mrs. Yianni, yes. Mr. Borthwick, no. Mr. Casey, no. Mr. Holmes, no. 44. Motion fails. Is it going back around? If the motion failed, how do we just go right back to it? Can introduce another motion. Do it again. All right. I say I think it's like the pope. I think you just keep going. So, do we have to go back into the hat or do we have to do we go back through the order that was picked out of the hat? I I think

046we pick out of the hat again. You pick out of the hat again. Okay. I know. Thank you. Excuse me. I make a motion that we Call for a vote to appoint Jenna Stleki and I keep destroying that last name and I apologize to fill the vacancy for the board position. Mrs. Zor, roll call. Um, could I could we have um a question with this or no? Okay, sure. First of all, second second question. I'm just wondering if rather than keep going round, we should have a discussion at this point. Um, I'll I'll share with you my thought process. As as we said, um, to all of the candidates, I think all three candidates would have been fabulous. I think all three of them could have stepped into this role. Um, I think what we

047need right now is someone who can hit the ground running. So, that is why um, my consideration is for Carol Clearary. She's done the role. She can step up. She can sit down. She can be prepared to vote at the next meeting. So, I'm going to be very upfront that that's that's why my vote is for her. Like I said, I think all three candidates would be fabulous. I appreciate that all three put their time in here and have the experience, but I I do think that um Carol Clearary has the most experience and can really help help the board out at this time. I'm also in favor of Carol be for the same reasons that director Yanni said all three candidates had excellent resumes and we do have an election in no in May

048and but Carol can hit the ground running right now. And just to clarify, so the third person doesn't go up for a vote because they weren't nominated. Correct. Yes. The attorney stepped off to call the solicitor. Um Yeah, I don't want to give I don't want to give legal guidance that when she's back. Director Fox, please ask her a question. Everything. Someone had someone had a question for you, director. Can we know what was what the guidance was first? Guidance. Oh, I think the the president of the board will if the board is unable to reach a tie in the next vote. Um, then we will not be able to appoint a director and thus the solicitor at this time recommendation is that we would have to repost it and then try again. I'm sorry

049I couldn't hear that noise. What was that? If we are unable to reach a decision tonight, then we will have to according to the solicitor's advice repost this position and go through this again. And I think I think the question when the solicitor was stepped out was the third candidate because they didn't get any votes. Do they not we don't nominate that name. Correct. I didn't either. I'm sorry. When you stepped out, Director Fox asked a question about do we not name do we not bring up the third person's name because they never got any votes. Correct. Correct. Okay. So, we're going to go back. Got it. Yes. If the board can't agree, right, then we're done. We can't see anybody. Okay. So, may we go around then and just say the name of our

050candidate? Well, there's a motion on the floor, I believe. There's there's a motion right now. We're on a question and that's what roll call is. So, anyone anyone else have anything on the question? No. I just wanted to say about like the experience. I remember being a candidate in 2021 and coming on to the board. I was brand new to politics and the community gave me a chance. So I I see both sides here where we we do need the experience. But going off of my experience as well as as somebody new to the political scene, I I'm strongly um I'm confident in in the individuals that we have that either one would do great and they would hit the ground running with their experience. Anyone else? I call for the vote. Mrs. Z or

051So I'm sorry. What What was the motion again? Just so I know. The motion is currently to I nominated Jenna Sherlock. I'm sorry. Okay. To fill the board vacancy seat as a hat that the name that was drawn out of the hat by the media representative. And just on on the question, um I I'm in favor of all three candidates. Um I did get the opportunity to work with um Miss Treski, sorry to at Lacawana. So I I know you're fully capable and such. I just um do also agree with um some other sentiments of what is needed at the time for the next few months to get us through. Thank you, Mrs. Zor. Roll call. Uh Miss Fox, no. Miss Merkel, no. Mr. Mannandra, I I I like I said, all three of them

052are great. My first choice was Carol, but I'm not going to we we need to have a board member, so I can't have this go any further. I mean, I'm going to say yes. Um, Mrs. Yanni, no. Mr. Borthwick, yes. Mr. Casey, yes. Mrs. Chzik, yes. Mr. Holmes, yes. Five affirmative, three negative. Motion passes. I'm sorry, Morgan. Congratulations. Congratulations. Would you please come up on stage and be sworn in and take your place? Thank you to the other two candidates who put in. Thank you. My mic is honored. Oh, it is. Yes. over the next week. I saw your comment first. You did see. Yeah. Thank you. I got you. I'm going to make sure. You raise your right hand, please. Repeat after me. I, Jenleski. I Jennister Leki. Do you solemnly swear or affirm

053that I will support, obey, and defend the Constitution of the United States, Constitution of the Commonwealth? Do solemnly swear or affirm that I will support, obey, and defend the Constitution of the United States and the Constitution of this Commonwealth. and that I will discharge the duties of my office with fidelity. and I will discharge the duties of my office with fidelity. Welcome. Thank you so much. Congratulations. To the other candidates, I want to say thank you very much for um applying for the position. Um we hope to see you at some point. Thank you very much for your time and your effort and to the media. Thank you for assisting us. And to Mr. Strek, we welcome you to the board. Director McAndrews is going to work with you um this week on helping get

054caught up in speed. He and I talk. So after this meeting is over, if you two could link up. Thank you. Y with that said, can I have a motion to adjourn? Second. And I'd just like to note that I'm more than happy to help you in any way. Also, um Jenna, believe I need a break. Sure. Does anyone need a break? I think I think you thought Yeah, we five minute break. Did we Did we adjourn? Yes. Okay. Let me just We're going to take a five minute break. Okay, good. I'll close that. You know, you know, right? Yeah. Maybe the work session agenda for April 28th, 2025. Miss Zor, roll call. Mr. Here, Mr. Casey. present. Miss Fox present present. Mr. Mander present. Mrs. Johnny present. Mr. Holmes present. Athletics. Yes. Under athletics.

055Um, sorry. We will have a discussion regarding the Westraten High School wrestling cooperative agreement. Uh, folks, Mr. Geneal and Mr. O'Donnell have been sending a lot of correspondence on this. Um, and there's going to be two options that the board will need to take consensus on and as we just add a new board member, I would ask President Holmes to do that on Thursday of this week. It also gives people time to go back and reread any board memos. But the two options we would need to pick between are option one, which would be to discontinue the yearly co-op wrestling agreement with Riverside after this season and the season has ended. Um, if we took that action, the district has to notify district 2 and the PIAA in writing that it will terminate the cooperative

056wrestling agreement with the Riverside School District. Option two is to continue the wrestling co-op agreement between the two districts. Um, it automatically continues. However, we would have to have a motion uh to um approve it and then Riverside School District would do the same at their board meetings. Um we would then send into PIAA uh the paperwork and the fee. Mr. Geneala is here if there's any other questions. Um but as there was a lot of information given including some legal information um um a legal uh from the the solicitor. What I would ask at this time and to let the new board member catch up is that you decide if you have any other questions you can reach out to Mr. Jennles or Mr. O'Donnell. um on what you like what clarification you need

057and then a consensus would be taken as to which motion I'll put forward on the agenda. Could could we address the legal advice that we've been given at this time? because I think it's important that we I mean we say discussion here and I think I mean we were just told was it last week that um any of these PIAA sanctions could prove devastating to the athletic career of West Scranton wrestlers. So, I mean, may I finish? I'm sorry. Um, I think it says, "With this in mind, continuation of the program with Riverside while providing opportunities for a few wrestlers poses devastating possibilities to many more Scranton wrestlers. I understand that Principal Stevens has, you know, tried to put some things in place, but the recommendation that we have in front of us is that

058it would be in the best interest of the Scranton School District to discontinue the arrangement with Riverside in the future." Correct. Let me finish that by saying I'm a westsider. I want to do what's right for West Scranton wrestling. For us to pursue this. I have real concerns that we could hurt our Scranton students and those students could end up losing a scholarship if something were to happen regarding these PIAA sanctions. So I think as directors we have to think about our Scranton students first. And has that any of that legal guidance changed? No, we asked for an updated legal guidance at our meeting on Thursday and that legal guidance has not changed. Um, and I will always recommend to the board to follow legal guidance. Okay. Are we expecting our new legal council to

059provide any new legal guidance? That is the other thing that I did put this when I met with them on their radar and they were to get back to me after reviewing the situation. But again, there's a lot of documentation for them as well. Okay. Thank So if when I get their information, I will also forward that out to the board immediately. So my question is if we make a decision to keep or get rid of this co-op. Either way, we still have to go in front of PIAA correct and they could sanction us whether we keep this or not. So it's not like we end this co-op and we're there's no more sanction. It doesn't go away. Correct. Oh, correct. The the the sanction is the sanctions they're taking us um regardless of. So

060again, this voting this to next week, yes or no, does not change the fact that we're going from the PIAA. They're not dropping the sanctions. And do we know do we have a date yet for that? I do not have a date. Mr. Jenna, have we been given a date on the next PIAA hearing? I think everything will be going forward. Could we have legal reach out to see if they can get us a date? Because this has been going on since the end of wrestling season. And I feel like they're dragging it out cuz if we have to make an important decision, I would like to see if we can get the ruling first, at least get something on schedule to get this over with. So, so I assume there's no way to know

061per what Director Mccandrew just said. Um, would the PIAA give us guidance on if it's favorable or not to dissolve this? Like I don't like how would we we won't know personally if us dissolving this would have or not would have an impact on their decision. Like if if they were to make a decision and we said we're dissolving it, they might be lighter, but they might not and we won't know. They won't give us any type of correct. PIAA will not get form. One one interesting thing I learned and maybe you could correct me if I'm wrong. If say we pass this um co-op and Riverside pass it, it still has to get approved and passed by PIAA themselves. Correct, Mr. General? Correct. So if PIAA doesn't want us to have the co-op, they

062can say, "Yeah, don't do the co-op." But I don't feel like they're giving us any guidance or anything. I don't know. Yeah. If they don't like it, they could just not approve it. Okay. So, just to clarify, so if we approve it, then Riverside approves it and then it goes to PIAA. And if they don't want us to do it, they'll know. That's Yeah, they can go either way. Do Do we know that for sure? I mean, I'm just reading the legal guidance here and it says you have to balance interests and risks. So, if you're going to balance interest and risk, I'm always going to heir on the the side of what's in the best interest of Scranton students versus the risks, which again, the risks are um having the entire West Scranton wrestling

063program um discontinued by the PIAA. Again, I'm a Westsider. I don't want to do this, but I I'm always always going to say what's best for our Scranton students. And we've got some really good wrestlers. I don't know. Could a scholarship be jeopardized? I don't know. I I just I right now I don't feel like we have a risk because whether we approve it or not approve it, they're basing off the previous year and they're going to rule any way they want. So I I don't even know why we're even have this discussion until we have the PIAA hearing once we have the hearing. But again, if this is something we could say, hey, we'll get rid of this if this sanction goes away. That's a whole different story. But we're not hearing that. Yeah.

064When So why don't we wait until after the hearing to make a call? I I don't know and I I would never make comment if it would or would not impact the hearing itself. I will have legal reach out for a date for the hearing because I wanted to confirm. I had not been given a date. I wanted to make sure Mr. General did not have anything. Um the current legal opinion is from uh from King Spry. I did put this on the priority list of Joyce Carney Moran. and we'll follow up with them as well tomorrow to see if they differ in opinion at all. So, is there do we have to take this consensus this week or is this something that can as director Borwick said, can this wait until potentially after the

065hearing? Is there a reason why this has to be done this week? There was a timeline, Mr. Geneala, that you were concerned about um with the approval process and that's why Mr. Geneala had asked to put this on tonight. Um, so that was where the concern to move this forward was. Correct, Mr. Gentleman? Correct. Uh, the board, our board will have to approve it in a motion. Riverside's board will have to approve it motion. Last two years, the timeline was Riverside approved it April. We approved it in May. Then we did the sufficient paperwork and the fee. It's May starting Friday. Has Riverside? If this rolls into the summer, I mean, I don't know how much I know our board's going to meet. I don't know how much Riverside and if if this is brought

066into next school year, I I just don't want to keep other districts held hostage either. Has Has Riverside approved it on their end? Not that I know of. Can we reach out to Riverside to see if they're even Can we reach out to them to see if they're even entertaining it? I mean, I I think it goes down. I think they want I think they want to, but I think they're waiting on us. But they approved it first last time. Correct. They approved it first last year. I have not heard I did not get any information on whether or not they that's another piece of information I can give you by the can and also I guess I ask legal this is there a a caveat where we approve it based upon and if the

067PIAA rules against us then we you know we dissolve it like is there let let's backtrack the PIAA I called Mr. Majik is he said it's an automatic renewal unless we put it in writing and we want to discontinue it. It's automatic renewal. So therefore they're going to give it the stamp of approval if we submit the paperwork and we want to go through it. So PIAA is automatically going to renew it unless we stop it. And it's not going to make a difference on the hearing. No. And I if I'm well there the only way that's going to be discontinued is if we put it in writing. We want to discontinue it. Otherwise, PIAA is going to let it roll and it's going to be an automatic. Right. But Mr. Manjacus, who's the head

068of PIAAA, right, in this area, he's the head of our district, too. He's right. I don't know if he's uh Mr. Lombardi is the head of PIA. That's what I meant. But he's one of he's one of in your conversations, he never said, "Hey, if you guys dissolve this, this sanction goes away." No, never said that. But I'm also understanding, correct me if I'm wrong, Riverside, we can take a consensus and ratify it at the next board meeting. Riverside has the same ability, meaning we do have time to wait to allow our legal team to go back to PIAA and say, "Here's the two scenarios. Which one would be one that you're willing to accept?" And again, I understand you're saying about voting meetings, but Riverside, like us, can take a consensus and ratify it

069at a meeting at a later date. So basically what I'm hearing is that we need to allow our legal team to go forward, speak directly to PIAA and say what can we do so that we don't hurt our students. Um honestly truly hard question. What will you accept? Come back to the board in writing. We get something in writing. We can take a consensus based off of that and whatever the consensus is, we can ratify it at a future board meeting. So the time constraints is not really there as much as everybody thinks they are because all boards have the ability to take consensus then ratify it at the next meeting and and that if you notice that's one of the reasons I put discussion and not discussion motion because I I knew that there

070was a possibility we want to table this at this time but I also knew that there's been a lot of information given on this. There's been legal opinions given on this and if there were further questions or information such as you just gave me to reach out to Riverside to see if the new legal has anything to have legal contact PIAA I would need to ascertain that information for you as well. So uh Dr. Gating would any part of this conversation today have an impact on the hearing? I know some of the the legal guidance we talked about in private session. Um, but I just want to make sure that what we're talking about today is stuff that we are able to talk about and it's not gonna negatively impact this at all. Nothing that

071I've been told at this point that this will change the fact that we have to go to hearing for the next concern. There's nothing that I've been told that that's going to change that. Mr. Gentle, I know you've had conversations. I don't know if you've received anything different. Did not. I did not. My no it's it's uh it was there was an an issue number one and this is issue number two that's on my opinion and this is just my opinion I feel like we always react quick right like we let's have this hearing and see what happens because we can react if I could come back and say hey there's no sanctions and now all these kids there's 16 kids in this program that you know are are moving up in this program that

072have nowhere to wrestle. So I think I think instead of just reacting let's have the PIAA hearing and then make a decision. That's why I motion to table this at this time. Second. Second. Mrs. Z or under discussion. Mrs. Z or roll call. Wait, we don't. Yeah, it's not there's no there's no motion. It would just be a directive not to put the directive not to put the motions on. Well, right now it's not not a motion. Yeah, it's not a motion. That's why I would have asked for consensus for a motion. So, we'll probably just hold on until our packet and receive more information. And I did Oh my god, it seems like 9,000 weeks ago. When did we meet with with JCM? Wednesday or Thursday? Thursday. Thursday. Thursday. So, I just met with

073them going into the weekend to give them the list of things that had to have priority. Okay, that's fine. Okay. So, we are pulling this then from the uh the voting meeting next week. Yes. Okay. Budget and finance. I thought they were both looped in together. I apologize. No. So, this is Mr. Director Yanni. Uh, sure. Would you like to discuss band uniforms for both high schools? Yes. Both high schools need band uniforms. I will say very clearly, it is going to be my recommendation to you that when we get the cost of these, we should approve them. It has been over a decade since either high school has had new band uniforms. Um, Mr. Laffy is exploring options. We are looking at a cooperative agreement as possibly being able to do this to expedite

074the process um to get this done. It will be a cost, but the kids have gone at least 10 years. They need new band uniforms. They absolutely deserve it. Yeah, 100%. We We get new sports uniforms all the time. I think this is a no-brainer. We These kids deserve it. I think if we could vote on it now, we would. I think in favor. So, we're looking at a cost of approximately 800 I'm sorry, 80,000 to $120,000. It is not budgeted in 2025. So what we will be bringing forward and we'll do this under budget and finance but will be a budget transfer to move those allocate those dollars. So we do have the budget available to go out and solicit some quotes. Um there is quite a lead time on this. So we are

075exploring possibly a cooperative option to kind of hopefully get something in front of you for Monday night. The one good thing is usually at the beginning of the football season, it's very warm. And a lot of times, having been a high school principal with a large marching band, they wore khakis and a and a golf shirt for those opening things cuz it's too hot in the band uniform. So, I'm hoping that could buy us a little bit of time, too. But, there is a design element to this and then an actual production element. Well, while we're talking about the band, is there any equipment they need, too? Like, have have we explored that? Because I know again sports, we're always getting new equipment, but I would have to check in with both principles. Okay. Um,

076I've met and I know I've updated you guys. I've met with the music teachers quite regularly. Uh, the biggest concern that I can remember from that and I don't want to I would have to go back through all my notes is that we could only have 50 kids because there's only one person and you could only have one bus. So eventually if there was interest, you'd need to look at an assistant band director and a possible second bus for um a larger marching band. Can you find if we have been turning kids away because we're close to that 50 or I I I will I will get that answer and put it in the packet if we've had any issues beyond 50 kids. Okay. Um I don't know that off the top of my head,

077but I can tell you that was one of the things that the band director from one of the high schools mentioned to me as we're slowly trying to build back an instrumental program so we can help build the marching band. Okay. Thank you. Um I have one other item if if you would allow it. Uh, President Holmes. Yes. Under athletics. I just wonder wondering if we can get an update. I know that I'm not sure if it was feasibility studies or what actually went out regarding the gym at West Scranton and where does that stand? So, that was put out and all it was was um, and Pat could give you this in much more detail. It was for people to come in and present on giving you a design. Okay. So, where does that

078stand? Yep. So, we we released this publicly last week or maybe two weeks ago, excuse me. Um we are having proposals uh due this week. Um it's label it's in our open go procurement platform. It's called west high school gym gymnasium feasibility study. Okay. Um it is not on the agenda to award at the May 5th meeting. Um we feel we want to evaluate the proposals and then potentially have a presentation to the board related to the services that they could provide. So this would be if we move forward with it would be something that we bring to the board in June. In June. Okay. Yep. All right. Thank you. But we are opening uh proposals on Wednesday. So, it is moving along. Correct. Thank you. Before we continue, um I just wanted to circle

079back to the band uniforms. Um this was something back before we had the athletics and student activities uh committee. This was put on an education committee meeting about a year and a half, two years ago. Um it was brought to my attention and just with with the uniforms, with the band equipment and everything, it was just very very aged. Some students didn't even have um a uniform, I was told. um at that time it didn't really move forward. So, this has been something that has been an issue for quite some time. I'm really happy to see that it's on the agenda and we're actually moving forward with it at this time. We're also, just so you know, informational, Mrs. Griebeck is working with the high school bands as we're going to try to start fifth

080grade instrumental lessons next year um as as for the kids. Uh, we're going to be sending the high school kids down to talk about the instruments and band and stuff like that. So, it's kid-to-id conversation. So, Mrs. Grebeck is working on that now. That's that's the good stuff we like to hear. Yeah, an update on that will be on the education committee meeting next week. There you go. Pat, I know I brought this up before and we just never got around to doing it, but I think right around now would be a good time seeing that we're talking about instruments and things that we're going to be needing. Maybe uh you could actually block off one day for you and I or whoever else would like to come to go down to the state uh

081surplus. Um because we may be able to cut some of our expenses on this if they have it available. As I said before, it all depends on what day you go in. I mean, today you could go in and you could have a saxophone, a drum, and then uh the next day you come in and it's gone. But I think what we need to do is go down and find out exactly how it works. Talk to the people and tell them what our needs are and find out what they actually have. Sounds Yeah, Dr. Keing, I guess we will assess what our needs are first and then we will coordinate some some dates. Thank you. budget and finance. Mr. Lafy, Mr. Under the Sorry. So, under the consent agenda, we have motion to motions to

082approve uh the bill list and exception bill list, delinquent tax reports, treasurers reports, repository sales, budget transfers, disposal of assets, and budgeted p uh purchases. And then we'll have a discussion and motion on real estate assessment approvals, if any. Right now, we have one uh that attorney Werta is working on that is in mediation. We are waiting on a offer to settle from opposing council. If we have it in time, we will have it on for Monday, Monday evening, and you will receive a full u a full briefing in this weekend's packet. Okay. And then we have information on contract updates. Uh at this time, there's no uh uh information to share about contracts that are purchased under policy 610. Okay. There's just a question quick under uh for bill list and exception bill list.

083Is that that's available come Monday night? Right. That's not available like I was I was reviewing the legal bills. The bill list itself will be available Friday. It'll be in the board's packet on Friday. Okay. Uh Pat, um seeing that we're on the budget, the more and more that I hear about this, the more and more I get scared. Uh as we all know that I went to Atlanta for a national schoolboard conference. They had one session that was dedicated to the u uh cuts that are now now going on in the federal government. And um they basically said they don't know what's being cut. We don't know what money we're going to have, what money we're not going to have. Um they did mention that in previous years whenever they'd do a continuing res

084resolution they would list where all the money would be allocated to. This year in the uh CR uh it was one line with the amount of money and the way they explained it. Congress isn't saying you get XYZ for this XYZ. They're basically saying here's 1.5 billion, 2.5 billion that you're going to have um Department of Ed divided up. The Department of Ed is being dismantled as we speak. Um I think what we have to do is and I know that we have some some programs that are on the uh um on our agenda to do. I'm getting very very nervous especially after I spoke um to some people today concerning what's facing us. We have an iceberg coming down the road whether or not we know it or not with our hospitals. Um I

085believe you said we'll lose $1.8 8 million in funding related to through taxes on the hospitals related to the sale of the hospital that we anticipated of going forward with last year. Yes. It's approximately one 1.8 million. That's providing that it's being sold to a nonprofit. That's correct. We're going from a profit to a nonprofit. So along with the Trump tax cuts and along with this iceberg that seems to be floating down from um Gibbon Street down towards uh the administration building and it is an iceberg because if they pack up their doors, we're not only going to lose $1.8 8 million in property taxes. We're going to lose wage taxes, um, business, uh, payroll preparation tax. Yeah. So, I mean, the effect is going to be a lot greater. And I think we need

086to I think we actually need to start thinking about um where we could be and maybe pick a date and put a halt on all purchases except for emergencies. Um because I don't want to see us get back in the same boat. And I'm hearing now that we want to we want to rent this, we want to rent that, and we have this Let's find out right where we are with the federal government and what money we're getting, what money we're not getting. Uh I think we need to also consider like before we make any uh major decisions. Uh see where we are with the hospital because that's a couple million dollars. We're going losing tax funds and okay, we're we're in April now going into May. Our budget starts in um January uh December.

087I think what we need and I love this phrase that I did pick up from the conference. The one person said, you know, right now we're in 2025. We had all this COVID money coming in. We're we're we had more money than we knew what to do with in 2019. We're putting band-aids on things. Well, now right now, I think we need to start putting band-aids on things. And I think that's a great conversation for Director Borthwick to have a budget and finance committee meeting where Pat, you can get the information and possibly come back to us and speak from a point of what we actually know versus what we actually hear is going on. Absolutely. Yes. So, we are also hoping um Maggie Murphy is going to the federal programs conference, the state level

088conference this May. Usually, that is where we get an idea of what our funds will be. We are hoping that she can bring back and it will obviously be a board memo some more substantial information on what is currently just a guessing game. And Pat, one more thing about the uh under budget. I know we talked about numerous times. I know the city wanted us to work with them and look into it, but have we been looking into the Have we got an update from the city about challenging some of these nonprofits or looking into it? So, the update most recently was I believe they're still gathering some of the information related to the nonprofits and working with the the county's office with the county's assessor's office. They started this like two years ago, didn't

089they? So, they have nothing after two years. Well, I wouldn't say two years. I I I wouldn't say it's been going on that long, but it's it's been a decent amount of time. Can we reach out to them to see if they have a timeline to get some What is this for the hospital? It's for the nonprofit. There was correspondence that that they had set to go out um I believe sometime in March. I will I will see the status of that I related to sending correspondence to nonprofits to provide supporting documentations for that status. Um I will get an update from the Awesome. Thank you for anything else? N that's under budget and finance community relations. Um there'll be an update on the B Smart program. Dr. Keon, Mr. O'Donnell executive. No, we're just

090we're still working with Yes, we're still working on this BS smart program. This was brought to the board a few years ago and the BS smart program has been in some of our schools at back to school nights, community event nights. uh but they're asking us to take it to a different level and we are doing some research on that as we speak to see where to see where it will go and what the ramifications will be. So we are investing some time and giving it to our new uh legal team to review the specs of it as well. So this is uh uh this was done in 22. This was when they were first brought up to uh to this board and you'll handle it back in 22 with open houses and at building

091orientations and meet the teacher nights. They had a pool set up for for this program. So, we continue to work on it and we will inform you uh when we get some more facts. So, just a quick question. I know and I remember them coming and speaking and it's been at our um some of our events. Is there when you say they want to take it to the next level, is there any other districts that it's at that level that we can kind of look at? No other districts in NIU 18 or 19. Okay. Uh we've asked those tough questions of the the program and we've asked for some information on how it's gone over and some statistics of it. They have no we would be the the for northeastern Pennsylvania. So we'll be getting

092an update on some of the other information. So, so there are some that's and that's I know the board always has questions like that. So, Mr. O'Donnell is still working on gathering some of that information. We need to meet and go through the information to see if there's any other questions that I could think that you guys might ask me so I could have those answers on stage. Okay. Thank you. Mr. O'Donnell, can you just give a high level overview of what the BS Smart program is for those that may not know? It's safe gun storage. Yeah, it's safe gun storage. I have a handout that I will give to all all the board members so they can review it and there is some past correspondence from 2022 and uh it's about safe gun storage

093and uh you know having our our home safe for all of our students not only for the students but you know as we all know if you have kids you know you your kids are going to other kids houses and uh this is part of a program that it's a national program uh to to provide information for uh parents, grandparents, whoever in the household is to make sure their guns are locked up when uh their kids are there and also their kids' friends come into the building. But I have I have a little handout that I will pass out to all the board members that we've been working on it already. Thank you. Thank you, Mr. O'Donnell. We'll have a motion to approve the following donations. EOCC to Scranton High Transportation to Wils University. Tracy

094Bumgardner, Tommy Cmba Scholarship, Books a Million summer book drive to Scranton School District, bike rack to West Intermediate from Ian and Painting. A question on the Tommy Salumbbo scholarship. I know we're getting close to graduation. I think they want to implement it um this year. Is there a way and possibly we can get a consensus this week to get the ball rolling on it? And if not, you know, the sooner the better. That's the feedback I got. That's up to you guys if you want to consent. I think I think that'd be a great idea. Just I mean it's been a devastating loss and this is a nice bit honor. Can we just do it right now? So we have it take a consensus consensus right now. Like to make a whoever I'll make the

095motion to second to read it out. I'll make a motion to uh make do a consensus to approve the Tracy Bungardner Tramy Salumba scholarship. Second. around. Um, could can we talk about it? Oh, I mean, I I'm I'm I'm certainly in favor. I just I wanted to understand a little bit more. Um, and maybe I missed it if we got information. So, if you could just update me. Is it something that um Miss Bumgardner is donating the money or? Yeah. And Mr. Ducas, I have to pull it up for you too right now. Mr. Duca is not here tonight. I thought I saw something on it. I just wanted to make sure there was something in the board packet on that, right? But it would be a scholarship in his name and his honor. Sure.

096Okay. It's and it's to a a West Scranton student or just any Scranton student. Do you remember? I believe it's West Scranton, but I don't Right. Rob's not here and I apologize. I think I read it and I just wanted to refresh my memory. Okay. I have to go back in. I'll clarify for you guys. Yeah, I think it was in the packet. Yeah. Okay. Y What's that? Oh, yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. And I just wanted to be clear that it's not it's just consensus. Consensus. Yeah. Is that a motion? Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. I I'll send an email to inform that we can move forward. Thank you. Yep. That's it for community relations. Education. We will have a motion to approve permissions to attend meetings, conferences. Motion to approve outofstate field trips if

097any. Motion to approve 5 through 12's social studies curriculum. Motion to approve prek curriculum. Motion to approve um K through8 steels curriculum. And then a motion to approve special education settlements. One there is one of those. I have a question about the prek curriculum. Is this something new because I know I know we had one in place that is being used. Um so how does this differ? So this is different because it aligns with the octell standards that are required for the partnership with Head Start, but it was written by our own teachers. Okay. Thank you. Operations. All right. All right. Um first we have an update for West High School Auditorium stage renovations. And before we get the update, I just want to say the painters and whoever helped, if any other maintenance guys

098helped, the stage looks great. Looks painting. It's unbelievable. So hats off to them. Thanks for the hard work. It looks great. Let me take it. Yep. Yeah. So, um, we we recently released a RFP back on April 12th for the West Grand High School Auditorium stage renovation project. Um, it's come to our that RFP included a single design build type concept. Um, it's come to our attention that most likely this contract would require a general contractor, some electrical, and possibly abatement, which would require compliance with the Pennsylvania Separations Act. So, this project is currently on hold at the moment. We're going to issue a notice to those uh potential uh vendors or biders who were interested in it. We're going to work with our legal team. We've already sent it over uh to make sure

099that any edits or addendums issued to the document are done so correctly. And um we will turn it around as quickly as possible and hopefully have something for the board sometime in June. And I don't know if I missed it. I just want to double check. Is there has there been an update about Scrant stage? I know there's lighting issues and stuff. So, we are also working on that too. So, we should have an update for you at the end of May for that as well to be able to replace those. Um, I was there for the musical and whatever they did to um to uh make it work uh for that. It was it was very nice, but we do need to get that done. Um, and then just as well with here, but

100I I echo everyone's sentiment. It really looks awesome up here from what it was. Great. All right. Anything else? All right. All right. So, next we're going to have a motion to approve West Intermediate gym ceiling design fees. So, the last time that we had put the change order, which is the next these go together. Um, Director Casey had asked a specific question about what are the design fees. We had sent this to you. It's $2,800 $2,892.83 in design fees on the $80,000 project. Um, I'm not changing my recommendation. This is to remove the drop ceiling in the West Intermediate Gym and to be able to have the um open ceiling. Um I would like to see us move forward with this and not have a drop ceiling, which is what's in the scope of

101work right now. Agree. Anybody Aaron? Yes. These fees are uh general construction, mechanical, electrical. We're not on the I got to read that. I'll let you read it first. All right. Anybody else? So the design fees again are $2,892.83. All right. So discussion possible motion to approve change orders for cost associated with work to remove the acoustical lay in ceiling and provide an open ceiling. First one is GCO005 general construction contract which is $19,42710. MCCO00003 mechanical construction contract which is $1,979.50. ECC00007 electrical con construction contract for $38,400 and PCC00004 plumbing uh construction contract which is 20 $20,32721 which drum roll gives us a total of $80,13381. So that's the total project and those are the different elements that are necessary to complete all of the work to not have a drop ceiling and to have

102the open ceiling. In addition, there's the the the fees which I I named which would be the first motion. So again, I I believe that it's in the best interest of the students not to have that drop ceiling. Um having served as a building principle for a long time, drop ceilings end up with a lot of broken ceiling tiles. Um so I I'm going to stick with my initial recommendation to move forward with that. Okay. Anybody else? Yeah, I have a question. Um for the electrical con uh construction contract and the plumbing construction contract were they bid publicly advertised specs bidding the bid the contract itself the larger bid that or sorry the larger contract that the change order is going to fall under. Yes, those were bid publicly. Yes. Could I have a copy

103of those bids fast? Certainly. You sp you want the electrical and the plumbing. Yeah. And the legal ad. And the legal ad. Okay. Anybody else? And all this is for the design fee of $2,000. $2,892.83. Pat, if you could get them to me before our next meeting, I'd appreciate it. Absolutely. Anyone else? We can put them in the packet for this week. If I could have them sooner, I'd appreciate it. Erin, you good idea? Yeah, this is a little bit off topic, but we're talking about West Scranton High School. And since we're here, I I just want to note that a member of the public stopped me um during our break because they had concerns about our doors and the wood that is replacing them. So, I think this might be a good time to

104just let the public know. Sure. What what we're doing with that. Yep. So, we had had a we had had a fight. This I could tell you what triggered it. That one of the windows had smashed. It's single pane glass. They're old doors. They're they're not replaceable. Um we needed to do something for safety and security. Um and today we had an issue where we had to have a hold. So, we want to make the rooms as secure as possible in those situations. The plywood is not attractive. I'm not even going to try to sit here and defend it, but it's what we needed to do in a short-term temporary fix to secure those doors and to make them as safe as possible. We released a bid for interior doors on Saturday on April, yes,

105April 26, the West Grand High School interior door replacement project bid was um was released. So, that is out to the public now to look to replace those doors throughout the entire school. Remember, we've already approved a bid to replace all the fire doors on the stairwells. This would now be the interior doors as well as exterior. Do we have a timeline? 3 weeks. We have to advertise that for, right? But I'm just time like it might take How long you might think it? Well, we would have to see what what's brought back to us and then we would I can't I can't give you like No, that's okay. No, I'm just wondering because you could conceivably be done for next school year like the work done over the summer. I I don't I'm not

106promising anything cuz if I promise you guys are going to hold me to it. No, no, no, no, no, no. I'm asking for a different reason. I mean, what if we did something with our art? I mean, our kids are unbelievable artists. Well, so right now, Ryan, um Dr. Stevens, tonight we I said, "Do we have one done yet?" They are looking to vinyl cover them and put artwork on the front of them right now. So, we are moving down that path. As soon as I have a finished prototype, my goal is to put that in an email to you guys and be like, "Hey, look what we did. We just don't have the one." Yeah. I was even wondering if they could do it as like a like a senior project or or like

107some kind of contest for the kids. Make it fun. Or I was hoping that was a surprise. Director McAnthony. Okay. Yeah. I was hoping I could say, "Look what we did." Think alike, right? Uh actually when I was walking to the lady's room, Dr. Stevens ran upstairs to see if one was done and she said that uh I give you one second. They are still we're testing vinyl colors to replace the old peeling missing room numbers that appear on the glass above the door. Wasn't um so so that's kind of where they are. They did start to coat some of them. I know you guys can't see this. I'll send it to all of you so that it's blended in and it doesn't just look like a piece of plywood. So, as soon as I

108have a prototype, it will be sent to you. All right. Cool. Okay. Thank you. Anybody else? All right. Next motion to approve groundkeeping equipment. Vote for Mr. Lafy because I know you know this better than me. Yes. Uh so in this weekend's packet, our operations uh department provided a memo related to a request to purchase um some new groundskeeping equipment. Uh just a little bit about our groundskeeping department. It consists of two individuals at the moment and the equipment that they do utilize. I think me much of it is nearing its end of life. Okay. So, so they're looking at a new um a new piece of equipment that would aid in the restoration of our fields as we go throughout the season. They have demoed this piece of equipment. Um they used it at

109Paglia Field in March to help restore compacted and unplayable infield in less than one hour. Um as as you know, our teams, not all of our teams play at their local schools, right? So, I mean, we have fields across the city that we have obligations to maintain and keep up to a safe plane condition. So, uh the recommendation is to uh is to authorize the purchase of this piece of equipment. It is $49,000. Um it there is a budget in the operations department for replacement equipment and new equipment. It would come out of that budget. So, it's not something we need to take out of any type of budgetary reserve or or another line item. Um so um again the recommendation is to uh move forward with this and again Mr. Rucker's here as well

110if you have any questions. No I just want to say I mean we're 200 and some million dollar budget. You know first thing people see is our outside of our buildings and and I think they should be as whatever equipment we need to get to make sure they look you know beautiful. So we want to attract people want to send their kids here. That's the first thing they see. So I think it's good that we're looking at getting some new equipment. Is is this going to be used everywhere, not just athletic or just athletic? Rob, why don't you expand on some of the other uh utility that this product has or versatility, excuse me. It is uh Thank you very much. It is a four-season product. It's not just necessarily designated for baseball, softball, any

111type of fields like that. There's different attachments that we could end up procuring. I think there's a total of 38 or 48 attachments that we could also utilize this for things such as snow removal. Uh right now we've had we're focusing more on turf and grass uh and being able to maintain that better. Uh there's this is something we anticipate to be able to use year round and having this equipment cuts down on manh hours. Am I correct? Overall having this piece of equipment significantly. Yeah, just looking at what we accomplished at Pagia Field in that short amount of time, we had it I wouldn't say it was, you know, MLB level, but we took it from hard compacted soil, like if you you could bounce a a baseball off of and it would come

112back up in your hand to, you know, a more playable comp almost competition ready surface in about an hour. So, looking at this from the perspective, it almost pays for itself in the long run. Normally, that job that we did in an hour would take almost two weeks. Uh and and and that's really weather dependent. Uh it's it's definitely it was a game changer. I put that into the into the memo. So, just to clarify, this will be used across the district, not just on athletic or would this be used in various areas or just at Well, one of the one of the attachments that I put on called the arrow baiter system, which is something that's more designated to run over your grass, which you could, for example, you picture the the lovely grass

113in front of of Scranton High School. It would be something that would come in and break that up and and it more or less getting some more air into the soil so we can seed better and get better grass production. So when it's not being utilized for baseball or softball fields or anything like that, we can use it additionally for just general grass. Okay, that's what I was just checking. And then um it says no laser kit purchased at this time. Is that that's not something that you believe is necessary? I believe it is necessary. I just don't think that it's something I did not put on yet. But what the laser will allow it to do is you could put a laser kit out to the outfield of a baseball field or whatever field

114it is that you're looking to grade and then you would go to a high point and a low point and you would say grade it more or less from here to there. I'm simplifying it grossly, but what would happen is once you establish that parameter that you want the field to drain in a certain direction, at that point, the controls come out of the user's hands and they are literally driving it around and that laser is talking to the device and the device is automatically manipulating the controls to grade it wherever it is and get it more toward that area, which really helps with getting water off the field. The more water you get off of a baseball field, the better it's going to be. So, I assume it's significantly more expensive that you didn't

115include that if you think it would be necessary. I don't have a pricing on it, but I wanted to be able to equip it to be able to do that and it's something I would look to procure uh for next season. Could it always be added on? Always added on. That's why I got I respect the piece of equipment laser ready. And I don't believe the base station is is a grossly significant cost. I don't think it's going to double, but I can absolutely get pricing on it. But having the ability to go do it is cheaper to have it available able to do it than it is to try retrofitting it after the fact. Do we presently have the money in the budget for this? Uh yes, Director Casey. So, uh in the operations

116budget, there is new equipment and a replacement equipment line item that this will come from. And we're not overdrawn on that. No, we're not. Okay. Anybody else? All right. Next, we're going to have a motion to approve operations hero work order system. So, this is the work order system that we have been piloting. Um, we have processed about,300. Correct, Rob? We will be at 1300 this week. Um, work orders through this system. Um, we're asking to move forward with this and the financial impact is larger the first year. Yeah, I think year one is approximately $45,000 because it includes some initial setup fees, right? Some implementation integration pieces. And then we're looking at approximately $27,000 annually. Obviously, that's adjusted with inflation. Can we possibly get some testimonials of of our employees who used it and

117what they think about it? Uh, yes, sir. I actually put a testimonial in the board packet. I must Okay, that's on me. Okay. Sorry. No, that's on me. No, you're right. You're right. I have it here if you want me to share it. Yeah. You want to give a couple out there? Sure. There's only one in the packet. I can read the one from from uh her testimonials. I appreciate the system simplicity, easy use, and full functionality. I'm especially pleased that it recognizes them. Each time I log in, it just works. Okay. Can we reach out and get more just for general? I mean, one's great, but as many as we can potentially get, I think would help the board. Okay. Yes, absolutely. Can we get that in the pack? Make sure it's in the

118packet for this week. I'll do my best to have it on the packet. Anybody else? And this is we're approving to purchase Oh, effective May 6th. One year contract. Okay. Can I just jump back to that groundskeeping equipment? I'm just sitting here thinking about it. Doesn't Lacawana maintain the fields at at Scranton High? Some of them. Some. Just some. The baseball. I know they definitely baseball. Yeah. Yeah. I believe it's just baseball. Softball. Softball. Baseball. the fields that they utilize. And director, obviously, we also um you know, we have fields up at the East Grand Little League that our Northeast and South intermediate schools use for softball and baseball. Obviously, um some of our West students play at Sloan and Betagley, I believe. Sloan Bagley. And we also renovated the uh softball field at Trip

119Trip. All right. Great. It's a good question now because it got me thinking. Would their employees be using this equipment? No. Okay. Want to double check. If I had an unlimited budget, I'd turf everything so I never had to hear about lime in the field again. I just want to say that to the public. I agree. I agree. I agree. Um, in regards to the the last thing we were just talking about, um, operations the Yeah, the system. Um, it's the refine the advanced reporting tools that we have requested. Is that something that they already they definitely do and they're just working on it or I I missed the question. I'm sorry. Um it's a next steps for um what is it? Operation Hero. Operations Hero. Continue working with the Operations Hero developers to refine

120the advanced reporting tools that we have requested. Yeah, they have some reporting tools now. Um they're sufficient for basic data, but I'd like to work with them and it's something that they've offered out that we can start requesting more detailed and more customized reporting. Uh again, we haven't paid for a subscription, so it's it's it's available, but I I want to work with them to get more actionable dashboards, more actionable reporting that I can give to you. We we took a lot of um we heard a lot of concerns from staff over that school due system. So, this is this is what we think is going to replace that and staff's going to be happy. Is there any kind of a trial that we could do with this? We we've been completing a trial since

121no since November. Okay. And we're we're at we're going to be at 1300 work orders. I mean, we've instituted preventive a maintenance, exterior, interior checks where it it generates and it's it's it's trackable data. Perfect. And and this is what the staff the staff seems happy with this uh my operations team. Yes, absolutely. Okay. What about did we get feedback from faculty? I know that's why I think we're ask them to put we did one but I want numbers. Okay, the more you can get the better because we want to ensure that again not knocking anyone. This doesn't turn into another school dude. So, preferably teachers at all the schools, not just one school. I'd get a couple from each school if humanly possible. Negatives, pros, cons, what needs to be improved. We want real

122feedback because the last thing we want to do is vote this in and teachers come back and go, "This is just as bad as school dude." We want something that's again user friendly. people are again the people using it great feedback or negative feedback as much as you can get us good or bad I think that will help all the directors in moving forward Rob can you get to Sydney first thing tomorrow morning and see if she could do this through a thought exchange very quickly yes I just want to I just want to state with with that um you know I was recently at a conference with the other directors of operations and it was one of the things that I brought up uh how do other school districts and I was in a

123room of 200 of to me and I asked how other school districts manage work order systems and do they open the work orders up to teachers and it was a resounding no. Uh the reason behind it is there were some stories from from school districts where it was opened up and and their work orders went from a manageable number to 2,000 a week and it becomes an unmanageable and it becomes garbage in garbage out and it just completely flooded it. So, one of the procedures that we're looking to implement is having that building supervisor being that first level of defense. If there's a issue that is in the building, bring it to the building supervisor first. Let them triage it. If something that can be triaged at the building level without putting a ticket in,

124for example, changing out a trash bag in a gar in a can be a work order. Um, let them handle that. And if it be if it warrants having external work performed by trades or otherwise having the building supervisor implement that work order into the system and at that point we're at 1300 and we're doing our absolute best to keep up but we have 200 open right now that we're still working through. If I was open to floodgates we would be well beyond anything manageable. But possibly is there a reason why there's over 2,000? Here's my fear. Who's going to police that building supervisor to ensure that they are taking reports? I was just going to say we'll we'll ensure that there is a system of internal reporting within each of the buildings so that

125nothing goes missed. That would have to happen. Do we think we would have that by next week or should we consider pulling this motion maybe till the June meeting so that we have sufficient time to get that feedback and have that plan in place? I I can talk to the building principles right now. This doesn't pulling this does not affect us. Am I correct? And your installation if we decide to go forward pulling it for another month does not hurt you in being prepared for school. I will um Does it or is there a trial like we still have a free trial for another month? I will get that information to you and have it for the board packet this week. Awesome. I was going to do Can we have the contract in the packet

126for Friday? A I'm sorry. I'm having a hard time hearing you. The you um Mr. Mr. Laffy, sorry, said the cost out, but I don't think we have um you will absolutely have that. Yes. Okay. It is around that mark that uh Mr. Laffy stated. Okay. Yes. Thank you. And circling back um what makes Operations Hero so much better than School Dude, like comparatively speaking. Speaking with those that have utilized School Dude, um and I'm going to quote Miss Miss Henahan here. Um it never worked for her. It would never recognize her as a user. Some months it would, some months it wouldn't. It it was consistency. There were consistency was was broken. Um I don't want to go up and bash a vendor publicly, but there was there was issues that we were not

127able to fully work through. Okay. And how about a price comparison? Uh Mr. Laffy, maybe that's something that you would know like what is the difference with um school versus Yeah, I'll have to get that for you. I don't have it off the top of my head, but I we can certainly provide it. Great. Thank you. Anybody else? Okay. All right. Next, we're going to have a motion to award elevator service contract. So, Oh, do you want to go? You want me to go? This came with the elevators for the first year. Yeah. Obviously, this is a service contract for the three new elevators that we installed at the schools this year. Um the contract uh came with a a service contract built into it for the I believe for one year. Uh this we

128have a proposal for to extend the contract for a service contract for those three elevators at a cost of $780 per month or $9,360 a year for 5 years. When when Sorry, Ty, you go. My my question is because I know that the the elevators were delayed in being completed. So shouldn't the time frame start from when they were working and available for us to use instead of say now? I know they installed them by now, but they were not usable for us until anyone remember the time frame till November, December. So, shouldn't this be something a company should be looking at at that time frame? Again, warranty start when the car works. No, I I completely agree, President Holmes. I this becomes active at that point. Yeah, you we're just trying to get be

129proactive with getting it to the board and having it ready for you. So, we're not starting to pay until December, correct? We're not starting to pay until we reach the end of our built-in contract. Okay. Can we have that in writing just because I'm from the company just to ensure there's no questions. I I believe part of it doing it early also. Was there some discounts? Was there I think there was discounts applied in there also. Right. And I'm okay with that. But I want to see something in writing from the company, not from our perspective. I'll have that company into our packet saying this so that we all feel more comfortable going ahead and voting just because again the company did delay without us knowing till the last minute. So right now I don't

130really take their word unless it's in writing. Understood. I'll have that for you in a weekly packet. Thanks. Was this in a previous packet? No, it wasn't. Okay. By the way, you were in the room with 200 good-looking guys like yourself. Balls like us. Always. Must have been fun. Yeah. Anybody else? All right. And finally, last one. Motion to award Western immediate a proxy floor bid. So, this was put out to bid. We will be bringing forward the lowest responsible contractor and we will be opening them on Wednesday. Perfect. Nice. Anybody? And this is a rebid. If if you recall, we received only one bid on the first project. So, we uh I'll use the term rejected it, but we declined it uh due to lack of competition. So, hopefully we have some more competition

131this this time. Okay. Great. Good. Personnel. All right. Under personnel, we will have a motion to approve the personnel report. policy. We'll have we'll have a motion to approve the second read updates and revisions on excuse me on the following policies. 103 discrimination harassment affecting students 104 discrimination harassment affecting staff 234 pregnant parenting and married and 817 responsible contractor. And I just want to just comment on that. So, the responsible contractor um policy will mirror the city's responsible contractor ordinance. Correct. There's one that was written by John Frank, right? So, we like we are technically well, not technically, we are following it anyway because we're all of our schools are within the city. So, this is kind of doubly right. I mean, am I now it's now becoming our own policy as well, right? So

132the only thing we need to be sure of in doing that is if the city's changes, we have to make sure ours is updated accordingly. If we so choose to to align to the the like I don't know what that change would be. You would want to look at that change and assure that you would want to align to that change, right? Because we have to follow the cities. That's my point, right? We have to follow what's going on in the city. So we would have to then make sure that when they update, if they do, we do as well, right? I just I I feel like and Glenn I'm gonna I feel like given a cart blanch answer to that because I don't know what the change would be. We would have to look

133at the change and assure that the change is what we want to put. Do you know what I mean? No, I'm in favor of it. Absolutely. I just want to make sure that we're aware of that. It's something we we would want to stay on top of to make sure I think that we would be in line with the city. Let me help clarify. We don't have to do it because the city's doing it. That's the city is doing that for itself with its own contracts and contractors which is what we're mirroring. We're not legally required to do what the city's doing. We're simply adopting what they are doing and the and the county is doing because we're so decided permaning and zoning all correct. Yeah. Yes. We will always follow up the for the

134discrimination and harassment policies those are just reflective of PSBA changes. Correct. Any changes there Mr. General are all PSBA changes that came through the PNN. Correct. Thank you. There's been some big federal changes. So that's why some of Yeah, they're like half the policies crossed off and then rewritten and because there's been some big federal changes. Vendor relations. Uh Mr. Casey's not here. So Director Chzik, oh sorry. Um we will have an update on security services. So, this is another um bid that was put out. Uh Kevin Carney is um doing some extensive work on um everything that was uh brought back and working with the legal department and we will be bringing in a recommendation to you. So, that that's going to include the cost out of include an extensive cost out. Okay. And

135all that'll be in this week's packet. I will make sure that it is. Okay. Thanks. I have a question. I know we're looking at possibly hiring our own. We have a lot of great security officers through the company. Is that something we could recruit them? Is there issue? You have to be very cognizant of the language in contracts right now. So, um that's why legal needs to vet everything. Okay. Thank you. All right. We will have a motion to approve the mom and pop contracts if any. Motion to approve updated list of transportation drivers if any. Motion to award 2025 lumber bid. Motion to award 2025 medical bid. Motion to award 2025 sports bid. Motion to award 2025 consolidated supplies bid. General office supplies art supplies, music equipment and supplies. Motion to approve between American

136Lung Association and SSD. Motion to award food service management company. I don't know if there's anything on that. Yeah, I'll give you a little background on that. I I I did provide a memo in this weekend's packet. Um, but as you are aware, we are required your food service management contract is a one-year contract with four optional renewals. So, at at at least every five years, you do have to go out for competitive proposals. It is a process that is overseen by the state. It's the Bureau of Food and Nutrition. So, it's it's very it's a it's a structured RFP process with their standard um RFP documents. Um the district did begin uh advertising for this back in February 2025. Again, two area newspapers for three weeks as required. Um it resulted us it resulted

137in us receiving six proposals from qualified food service management companies. The next step in that process was the formation of a review committee. That committee was formed and included representatives from act 93, the SFT local 1147, the SEIU 32BG maintenance and clerical. Um, we score based on multiple criteria. Uh and and this year we chose to score on cost, years of experience, guarantee which is a financial guarantee that of profit return to the district, service capabilities, financial conditions, accounting, reporting systems, personnel management and student engagement and quality assurance. So the committee has scored um has scored all six proposals. The RFP document does allow um you to negotiate with none, one, or all of all vendors who meet a minimum point percentage. It's commonly used. It's known across the state to commonly use 85%. That's

138what we've used. So, of the six proposals that we received, five of them um exceeded the 85% score. So, currently, right now, we have five. We have a very competitive uh uh proposal here. Uh we have five vendors that are separated by less than three and a half points. The committee would like to propose a best and final uh offer to all five. Uh it's uh what we would do then is they may come back and reduce their cost. We would recalculate that score. Um again, it is allowable by the division, excuse me, the bureau the bureau of food and nutrition. I've confirmed that in writing. I've also had our legal department uh look at it as well. They've signed off on it to go ahead and and proceed. So, tomorrow morning, we will be

139requesting that for them to return their best and final to the district. Um we will rescore and then make a recommendation for the board. I'm going to ask the same question about the um security. We have some great employees who might work for a certain vendor who know our kids and do a great job. Is there opportunities for them possibly if we go a different direction to apply to or does it prohibit them because of I think my my understanding is many times a lot of the um non-management staff would most likely uh have opportunities to uh to uh to transfer if if there happened to be a change in the food service management company. Okay. And since we have five qualified bid bids, this is an opportunity for basically like you said, so cost

140reduction. So you're going to say if you want this contract, you need to be need to be able to provide the best fiscal option for the district. Yeah. So again, this is a best and final offer. You know, they most likely will if they so choose to continue to participate, they may reduce their cost. Cost is the number one criteria in this process. It's ha it has to be that's that's mandated by the Bureau of Food and Nutrition. Um, we will recalculate those points if there are changes to the cost, retally and the the the most advantageous or highest score is the one that's recommended. Um, odd question. So, you said it's the best final offer. If let's say everybody comes in and two of them are close or whatever, what if someone says, "Actually,

141you know what? I can go lower. We're not going to let them try again." I have been writing from the bureau that it's best as last and final. So, okay. So, this is Okay. Yeah. I I would defer to our solicitor's office to see if if further negotiation can come. Um but the the document I have in the writing states best and final. Got you. Great. Thank you. And I I think you put in our packet, but if you could just clarify, you know, for the public who's on that committee, um who's involved in that decision and review? Certainly. Um so I'm acting as the negotiator, so I'm not a reviewer, but again, we have representatives from the act 93. So we do have a principal. Uh we do have representatives from the SFT. I

142have a school nurse involved. Um the SEIU 32BJ maintenance. So uh one of the uh uh district maintenance staff that may work with our food service management company in the cafeteria area of operations and also our our 32BJ clerical piece which um uh is a a member who has worked uh is currently working with in the food service realm of the district. Right. She handles all of our uh claims for free um excuse me, our reimbursements for our national school launch program. Okay. And there's no board members on there. Correct. No board members. Thank you. Mr. Laugh, you have a question. Um currently we have Aramark. Um they do a phenomenal job in our schools. They also at the elementary level they have staff that oversee the students at recess. Is that a part of

143this process? Are we looking to continue like with that have um the food service personnel oversee the students at recess or how would that work going forward if they do not secure um if we do not continue with them going forward I guess uh that's a great question Director Chzik. So part of the RFP document, you must list the um the labor and the positions that you anticipate. That way, everyone is submitting proposals based on on the same. So inclusive in our RP document is an extensive list of positions that we in that we intend to have within the district and it includes the lunch monitors at the elementary school. Okay. Thank you. You're welcome. So, and to clarify, you said cost u this is very overseen by the state and cost is the number

144one. So, there's other factors that or like so when this comes back, it's just whoever is the lowest now that you're so there's three areas that you have to score on. The state makes you score on these three areas. Cost, years of experience, and guarantee. And they actually set the amount of points that are in each of those categories. You then can choose to mult you can you then can choose to evaluate on additional criteria. Wait cost years of experience and what guarantee. Oh guarantee. Okay. So what a guarantee is is um someone may state that we guarantee that you will operate at a million dollars of profit this year. Um if for some reason uh we did not let's say we only operated at $100,000. they'd be responsible for basically paying the district $100,000

145assuming that there wasn't any what they may call an exception to the guarantee. Like maybe we didn't operate 180 days of school, you know, but um so but then we choose to continue our evaluation on other criteria as determined by the committee which include again service capability, financial conditions, the accounting reporting systems, the personnel management and staff, student engagement and quality assurance. engagement and this is all in the this is all in the memo that's in the board packet. Um, so is can we get or no I guess we don't need information at this time but um so is I from my understanding airark puts our current vendor puts money into our schools if we at some point didn't they put money into West Intermediate School maybe is it was it West intermediate school um

146so is that something that many times I without being a little more specific I'm going to have a hard time answering that question. But but let me just say this. Many times the they will our food service management company will solicit grants for us, competitive grants which we can use to uh it's on the district's behalf. It may be for a school breakfast challenge, right? And we may win $5,000. We can use those dollars to purchase equipment to um you know to expand our breakfast offerings. Additionally, the profits of the program that go into it's fund 52 in our in our oper in our uh in our governmentwide financial statements, but uh it's uh fund 52. The profits of that program help us maintain the operation. So, when there's when there's equipment that's necessary, um

147those are the dollars that we use to do that. Okay. Okay. So, if there were like changes and such, it wasn't necessarily from the vendor per se. It was probably from a grant or so years ago years ago we did switch from a um a purchase of service system and it was included in a proposal that they they would upgrade the purchase the POSOS system at the schools where the students enter their PIN PIN numbers if they need to um at their cost but then they would amortize it or depreciate it over the life of a five-year contract. We've that's been fully amvertised. Um and um that was many many year years ago. So So whichever vendor comes in, we should see something similar uh such as applying for grants and and things like that.

148I would imagine real quick speaking about grants and grant writers. I know we lost the grant writer we had the um we shared with the city. Any update on what we're doing with that? Are we replacing? Are we doing our own? There's two positions that we have to bring forward and that's one of them and the other one is the replacement for Pat's office as well. Um, and we're working on those job descriptions to bring those forward to you. Perfect. Thank you. Sorry, I do have one other question. Um, how long has the current vendor been with the school district? I have no idea. Well, um, at least 12 years. Uh, prior to that, I'm not I'm I'm not exactly sure. Uh, I I'd say it's at least 12. It's at least 12. Okay. And

149I know uh Director McAndrew had sort of asked this, but like if we go with a different vendor, um I guess if those individuals with Aramark would lose, I don't want to say lose their jobs, but they would go elsewhere unless they were to apply to the current vendor, whoever wins. us as I stated earlier like I I'm it's my understanding that many of the non-management positions would most likely have a opportunity if there was a change in your FSMC or food service management contractor vendor, excuse me, um company uh to to apply for those jobs. I I can't obviously guarantee that all positions will will be there, but rest assured that every position that we have in the district right now was in the RFP document that we hope to maintain, if not expand

150our staff. So, we're not looking to reduce the number of positions that we have that we have in the district working in the cafeteria. I want to know like if they would like if like a new vendor would come in like with their own staff, I guess. Well, I mean, this is this is similar as the the bus contract, right? So, you had one bus company with certain bus drivers. You hired a new bus company. They might I'm sure they probably did hire some of the people, but assumingly so. Some of those people would have to be moved around with the comp. They work for one company and they would have to either quit that company or get moved into a different position with that company. Um, so just as like if company A, they

151worked for company A, they would either have to go to a different city or state with that company or get hired by the new company, there's no guarantee for anyone to remain where they are unless they decide to put in for that and apply for it. Um, yeah, like like I said, like like each each food service management company in their proposal identifies a management team. So, they're coming in here with with a GM, you know, like that's they work inhouse with these FSMC's. Okay. Um, but I would think there will be opportunity. I I can't guarantee. I can s research it tomorrow in further detail. I wasn't anticipating this question. I just put a note down on I that legal needs to review the transfer um what in education I would call a transfer

152of entities and it's not the same in that practice. But what would the transfer be and what's the current contract language? And I don't know that. So I cannot make comment on such things right now. I don't know if Do you want me to continue? Pardon me. Yeah, we Okay. Um, so a motion to award food service equipment bids and then a discussion 2025 2026 PSBA membership. So some people have asked me questions um on do we need PSBA? So in my time in administration, PSBA has been utilized in my capacity as a superintendent and a senior administrator um as the entity that provides policy updates through what we call the PNN which is released five to seven times per year depending on legal changes. Um there's also member services that you all have including

153board member training for new members um that has to take place. Um and then there's administrative services as well which are are benefits of the membership. Um we have um a more robust package which also helps provide with administrative regulations that align with policies. I do not know and I when I I need I I need to work with legal. It's one of the things that I put there if there's another option beyond the PNN for policy updates. I don't know of one. I'm not saying one doesn't exist, but policy is extremely important and aligning policy to law and when you get policy at the end of the policy, it references all the other policies, cross policies and the legal point to that. I don't know of anything else that does that and gives you

154those updates. So, um I will continue to ask those questions, but the PNN um both in my capacity as a superintendent in another district and here and then the explanation in the PNN as to why policy changes need to take place is something that I don't know if it exists in another capacity. So, I just want to state that on the record. Aaron, yes. the little bit that I see of PSBA and NSBA. Uh I'd recommend that because of what I stated before about the uh um federal funding and the way that the federal um government is treating education. Um, I would recommend from my own point of view that we uh stop doing business with PSBA. I've lost a lot of trust in them and that we be able to go with the NSBA.

155But I and that's that's what I'm trying to clarify to everyone. I don't know if NSBA will give me state level policy changes like the PNN gives us right now. Well, that's easy enough to do. You pick up the phone and you call them. Correct. And that's that's I just wanted to go on record stating that because I know that that people have said, you know, why PSBA? I'm giving you my Aaron Keading why why I've needed the PSBA in my capacity and see I fully don't you have a superintendence uh organization that you belong to CASA does not give me the um does not give me the policy updates like the PNN does good I did give you a book of policies correct you did yes but that so so what the PNN does

156is and I'll use the policies that are on here tonight. There were broad sweeping executive orders that were given that changed how policy how how law exists. Our policies have to align to law. So the PNN is sent to us and it says you need to change these policies because law changed and you need to align to the new law. I'm saying that that is a resource that if if you don't have PSBA, I don't know, and I've tried to do some digging around. Who else provides that? I I follow what you're saying. I I think I have a quick simple thing that might be able to fix this and get that answer. Can we reach out to PSPA and say, is there do you represent every do you work with every school district in

157PA? I I know there's one other local district they don't. Can we reach out to them and see what they do then? Yep. There you go. Does that work, Bob? um see if that gives us another option to to look at. In other words, give her time to go out, research, come back to us. Well, that's all I'm asking for. Yeah, that's what she said she was going to be. And Ty, I'll be honest with you. Uh since I've been talking to people with NSBA and PSBA and everything else that's been going on, I have lost a lot of faith in PSBA. Uh, matter of fact, PSBA broke away from NSBA and um at a time that we don't know where the federal money is coming or what's it going to do. Uh, I think

158we at least need to join NSBA just to find out what's going on on the national level. PSBA is on the uh state level, but we need to keep our eye on the ball on what's going on in Washington because to be quite honest with you, everything that I'm seeing that's happening in Washington, we're going to get cut federal funding. And one of the things that they mentioned, and you may want to uh consider this, Aaron, with your PR department, we need to go out and tell the people exactly what's going on in Washington because if there's cuts, when it gets down to our level, it's one of two things. We either cut the program or we raise taxes. And nobody's going to be sitting here saying it's Donald Trump. They're going to be saying

159it's Aaron Keading, it's Ty Holmes, it's Bob Casey, it's Katherine Fox. They raised our taxes. And then on the other hand, you're you're going to have where the programs are cut. Well, we're we're really trying to get our preschool program back. Well, funding on that might not be there. And all I'm trying to do is say, "Hey, listen. wake up. Look what's going on in Washington because it's not a pretty sight. And even the experts down there, the lobbyist, they don't know what's going on. And Aaron, I I'm laughing because and I'm I I I don't know. When I was in Washington DC, I was sending email communication to the board, taking notes as those experts were talking to us, and that's kind of what they said to us. Correct. Nobody knows what's going on.

160So in your email from me when I was in Washington DC, there are very very detailed notes of everyone who spoke to us talking about the difference between budgeting and reconciliation talking about where they see concerns and loopholes. So like I did try to provide all of that when I was in DC and update the board regularly. Erin, what we need to realize and what the people of the city of Scranton, the parents of our kids have to understand is we're having one gigantic iceberg come at us and all of a sudden where we're used to having CO money, we're not going to have CO money plus we're not going to have the regular funding that we had in 2019. Right? And that's why I said we should have a bud budget and finance meeting

161where Pat and the budget and finance chair come up with a plan so they can explain all this information to us exactly where we are. I agree with you. And the reason I'm so adamant is because everybody seems to be floating through life and saying, "Oh, it won't affect us. It won't affect us." Well, guess what? It's affecting us. And you better realize, everyone who's sitting on this table and everyone who's watching out there on YouTube better understand that it's going to come down to this board and this board's going to have two choices. Either to raise taxes or cut programs. Again, we don't want to cause a panic. That's why I said let them get together, gather the information, present something without guessing because we do need to get the information from Washington, from

162the people that you're right. We need to do that because if we start talking about taxes, we will cause a panic. We need to have accurate information. You're taking it from one point of view. I'm taking it from another. Okay. I've seen this bird and guess what? We need to cause a panic and we need to get the people writing uh whatever our congressman's name is. Does anybody know who he is? I did I did meet with him um when I was in Washington DC. I did explain that our federal funding touches 160 positions as Mr. Laffy reviewed in one of the meetings. I did explain that there's $6.6 million of our money that's embargoed right now that we already spent and that we required. The only thing that was in our um additional spending

163was $370,000. So, I did I I met with him personally and his staff and I did go through all of that when I was in DC. And what did he say? Well, right now they're in the same point of limbo. Um, I believe that a lot of times some of the things that are coming out are not really getting to um, elected officials and and meeting with Senator Federman as well much more timely than we're getting it watching the news in the morning right now. So, there's a lot of there's a lot of guessing that's taking place. Um, if you go back to those notes that I sent you, the budget information, um, particularly and and and and how things could be moved around, um, was explained to us in details. And I know my

164notes were choppy and God help you, how many spelling mistakes were in them, but um, I I did try to give you guys everything that I got when I was down there. Well, did you ask him if he'd have a town meeting in one of our schools like I asked? We have not been able to establish a town meeting yet, but it's not something I've quit working on. I do have a meeting. I was just called today. I have to go to a meeting on uh Thursday morning over Penn State's campus. So, many of the representatives will be there. I'm going to try to capitalize on that moment. Okay. Um I'm just going to leave everybody with this one message. Come December when everything sort of fleshes out, I don't want to be here saying,

165"I told you so. Remember today." Okay. And Ty, it is time to panic. I understand that, but I'm I'm asking them to go back and gather information so we can accurately. I got it. I understand that. Can I just briefly on the topic of discussion? Um, per what director Casey said, can we get information on potentially joining both? Is it possible to join the NSBA as well as PSBA at the same time? So, the other thing I'm sorry, you're fine. Okay. The other I I didn't I I jump and I I apologize. The other thing is there are multiple membership levels to PSBA. So, I will also give you that information. Okay. But I I understand director Casey's concern of PSBA not being part of NSBA. So with and like you said, maybe we could

166look at being partners of both because I understand you want to get all the information you can. I want as much information. Yeah, I'm understanding of that. So and I do understand how much PSBA supports um various administrators. Um so I don't want to see us lose resources while we're trying to gain information. So I think that's but right now what's going on between PSBA and SBA is a major power struggle. I mean there's no other way I can put it. PSBA is trying to and a couple others are trying to start their own organization. NSBA is trying to educate and we we have more researches. The better information we can have now when we broke away from NSBA, it was probably because of financial reasons. Right now, I don't think we could afford to

167uh to not be part of NSBA. And I know everybody's tired of hearing me speak and I'll be quiet. C could could we also get some input from our board secretary, Mrs. Our regarding PSBA and then perhaps Mr. Geneala since he oversees um policies. Maybe they could provide us with their thoughts and whether how much they use PSBA and you know what what the benefits they are or the you know pros and cons if any. Could you both provide that the packet for Friday please? Mr. Mr. General Lea, could you also provide something in writing to the board packet? Both of you just got a memo assigned. Catherine, all I'm trying to do is sound the alarm and make sure everybody at this table and in the city of Scranton realizes we have we have

168a couple icebergs coming at us and it's no longer 2025. We have to start thinking like it's 2019 when we didn't have the money and we had a large deficit. I agree. Just about and at that um ask for a motion to we're not adjourning yet. Hold on please. Just so we um we did not have an executive session tonight and I thank Glenna for coming and and sitting in for John Fine seat since John couldn't be here and we're transitioning to new legal services uh for the next meeting. There's two items. Um a security um with the security officers. There's some stuff that needs to be done and then some information on salaries. Um we will do executive session next week at six o'clock and we'll do both of those items there. So we

169will not do executive session tonight. Um but thank you Glenna for coming in and being our um with us tonight. So and John Fry and John where very much wanted to be here tonight. Um, I'm not the default because they didn't and the default because they couldn't. Thank you. And thank you to King Spry for all that you did for all of our students while you were here with us. Well, I I felt it a great honor um to be your uh lawyer and also your special ed director. Yes. And uh I'm here to tell you you have wonderful people and I'm in a unique position to know that because I was part of the team. You were. And and we agree with you. We do have some some pretty wonderful people here. You're right.

170Thank you. I also want to thank Kings Pride for again coming in, helping us out, negotiating us through a tough time, solving a lot of our problems, providing guidance and answers. Um, we were able to accomplish a significant amount of of things in a positive direction because of the guidance. Um, we appreciate the professionalism, the dedication to the district and that goes to everyone in your office. So, please extend a thank you from me. I will say from me to the entire organization. We greatly appreciate you all and wish you nothing but the best of luck. Second what Ty says. Definitely have a a 6 pm executive session in the alumni room on Monday. Okay. Thank you. Most to adjurnn.