001activities committee meeting please rise for the Pledge of Allegiance flag States Mr B here Mr Casey Mrs chesk Miss Fox m g Martin Miss Merkel Mr Mander pres Mrs Johnny Mr Holmes present six present three AB I will now turn it over to the Athletics and Student Activities Committee chair thank you Mr holes on the last couple meetings we had a conversation concerning the gym at Westside High School that it may have been a little inferior I put it on the agenda tonight so that we could talk uh start a discussion um my personal um point of view would be um to um One have a little disc anybody who want to talk about it yeah I mean I think it's definitely something we've been talking about for a while um I definitely think it's
002needed we have to figure out a path forward um for the gym that's what we're talking about correct I'm having a hard time hearing you yeah this thing is I just text um but yeah so I think it's definitely time that we take a a good look at it and look at options right so if we put out an RFP um and see what we get back whether it's you know a different location at the high school whatever but if we get some options to look at and see how much it might cost I think that should be our first First Step so you'd like to put out an RFP for for what Ty or um John we're talking about the gym um top item number one right yeah yeah see the feasibility of where
003like some ideas right so since I've been on the board I know this was passed back in 2015 or around there that there was options of doing it in the school at West you know or at a different location maybe over at trip or something like that if we put it on our where we have these contractors or Architects give us an idea you know leave it open-ended to say hey we're looking to put this where do you think would be the best fit how do you think it you know could be done so that would be a starting point for design and feasibility study correct yeah I I think again I think we've been talking about it for a long time but not understand not knowing the cost right we could look at the
004cost back when it was actually approved back in like I said 2015 or 14 I forget when it was um we know those costs have definitely increased significantly with inflation and everything so let's see what it would look like and then we can go from there so this would be a starting point I do have it on I understand what you're saying where like what's the timetable for tier three to start I guess don't want right okay so um well if that's the case I'd like to get moving on this ASAP uh i' like have a resolution authorizing the administration to do an RFP um as soon as possible uh we don't have to act until we get everything in uh but at least it'll be a start um Mr Holmes can we have a
005consens or how do you do this on a poll what yes pardon me you can do a consensus at a work session what about at a committee meeting oh a committee meeting huh yes you can so could we have a consensus of the board if they want to do that for the next meeting just put on a resolution so this this would not probably correct yes um how do we get a consensus John or how do we ask for a cons to have a resolution put on the uh agenda at the next meeting to move up the uh um design and feasibility study of a um a gym at Westside High School by no means does this committ us to building a new gym it's an exploratory step that I think that we have to
006take just so I understand is there like what is the reasoning that you don't want it to wait for the timable that the superintendent provided to us like what what is the reason to I I get what you're saying of why it's needed by what the rushing I guess like what what is the justification for the rushing well my justification is um I've seen how we've been working on rfps all this year and uh very as far as I'm very few have actually come to FR and I know that from my experience uh in purchasing that these are usually a long and um tedious exercise and uh I think that the students of West Side has been denied long enough uh proper gym one of the reasons that this has become like a pet project
007of mine is and I think I mentioned it before is that um my daughter played in that gym my daughter had D1 offers she played in the gym she got hurt in the gym all the D1 offers went by the boards now I'm not caring about the D1 offers I just think that the Westside people deserve a gym of their own that's actually can't use the president and uh I'm only planning on being here another three years and I'd like to have it moved up so that by the time that I'm off the board uh I can actually see some progress and I think that we need to move on at ASAP I think for one reason for me to be in favor of looking at it sooner than later it has been there was
008a resolution passed almost 10 years ago so they have been they have been waiting for almost 10 years for this but I also think we can be creative here it doesn't have to just be for athletic use obviously it'll be great for the community um when the Scranton uh booster club had the uh it wasn't the globe charers I think it was a wizard they had that night out for the the community it was I went to it was unbelievable was packed we can't do that over in the west side um I also think like I said be creative with it I know we're looking for some cyber class classrooms because I don't know if we're going to keep them over at trip maybe that's an option build a couple extra rooms in there you
009use it just use it for more than just obviously a gym use it for a community uh and also use it for maybe you know District business day-to-day business so I'm in full support of this I was at school about a week and a ago the gy was absolutely beautiful um I would like to see the Westside High School have the same type of gym um just for more Equitable opportunities as far as Sports go between the two schools so I don't know what we need to do to take the next step I would like to see us some things at the same time as far as the different tiers that we have so I'm definitely in full support of this I'd like to Second what uh Danielle just said um you know West Granton
010deserves to have facilities that are equal to what's provided to students at Scranton high school and this fusibility study is a step in the right direction and when it comes to the various tiers and rfps I mean we can walk in Cho at the same time we can send out two rfps at once at them especially since this has been on the docket for I think it's over a decade I I think one thing too I missed to say that the the building reconfiguration plan that we received from mckisson did not address this at all the only way it addressed is if we close a high school so even if we're going to keep two high sches open that plan there did not address the need for a gym at all so that was kind
011of shocking to me I did bring that up multiple times to the administration and you know we never saw an option for it so I do think we have to have something in place because we don't know what and I know everybody's waiting to hear uh what Dr ke is going to present to us um for the building reconfiguration plan and I and it school meing which I sure it will be then we do have to find a long-term solution for this Mr President can I make a comment that might be helpful um uh I think it's important you know so that Administration can do um and carry out the board's intention here to give a little more specificity uh if you're going to do an RFP it's going to be meaningful you're going to
012need a design of specifications and that that that means you're going to to in that cost but if you're looking for uh you know some parameters about you know what this might cost before you decide to invest in in specifications the administration can probably do that informally by um well through Dewey or contacting some other um U consultants and getting ballparks um because I don't know I'm not sure how you would send out a ballpark RFP and you know how you would compensate the joh uh approximately 10 to 12 years ago the board did receive a feasibility study um and I believe the feasibility study um gave you the cost and all that um I have been informed that the person who wanted to do it said that he would upgrade it at no cost
013but uh from what I understand he was turned down on it but are you as is is the board asking the administration to uh have created an RFP that can be responded to by um by contractors or designers or Architects by Architects and Engineers not construction yeah we just want for design okay yeah but yeah but in order to get an actual price you're going to have to have a design well that would be feasibility study would do that canas RF of yeah right yeah all that should be included well that's what I'm saying is that what the board is saying well we would of course we would want to know what it costs well I'd like to ask but I didn't get a cost for the design and possible construction uh do two birds
014and one stone we're not committed to either one so as long as we're doing an RFP let's get all the information in front of us so we can make a valid well I think you're gonna have to have a design before you know what the construction costs are that's what I'm that's what I'm saying I'm just trying to I'm trying to clarify what the board's intents intent is so that the administration follows the direction of the board so I I just want to give everyone I finon we now6 million sounds an extraordinary amount of money construction it's not so the only I did go through this exercise in my we looked at and our initial step was to release an RFP to get what spe like how much would it cost here's of overall you're
015asking for is is actually a feasibility in cost analysis yeah well then why don't we do that for the next meeting put a resolution out for uh a consultant for a feasibility study and a cost analysis um for the um construction of a facility at Westside High School Jenny do you have that we do need to take consensus and you can do that by r yep you now once do you have an understanding of exactly what it is could you read it off feasibility study and cost analysis put your mic closer sorry feasibility study and cost analysis for the new gym at West High School okay that's what we're doing on call please uh Mr Casey yes Mrs chesk yes Miss Fox no not at this time Miss gar no M Merkel yes Mr mcandrew
016yes Mrs yni Mr borwick yes and Mr Holmes yes six affirmative two negative moot consensus so you'll have that pred for the next meeting Athletics resol well someone will take care of resol well I'm asking for a resolution it would just be a motion a motion so if I could just at this time then ask um I know we've talked a few times about the and I'm confused on how this will play in with your what you're bringing towards for us but it was spoken about how priority wise West Granton High School needs doors and windows and a chem lab and a stem lab um and I know that those have to come first because it's education and safety so can we get those numbers I I don't know how and I don't know I
017stud portfolio has some of those numers would be yes there aref and and measures to beated SCH so I think we have to have those convers I understand that um it's consensus of the board to move forward with this but but um in terms of Education we have to make sure that we're having these conversations at the same time which I'm sure you agree you agree to have those conversations and I believe they're already in the uh planning stages right uh and this would be on top of it right that's just to how Dr keing said we only have 186 million Max borrowing so we have to have those full rounded conversations that's all you know I I was on my way over today and uh I was thinking about this and I know how
018many um rfps are in the uh in the works and I keep hearing one at a time one at a time uh I remember when I was with the state I used to have five to 10 going at one time do me a favor could you all talk to the mic we're heing thisan we can't no no we can't hear over here that's the problem I usually have um so I just think that we have a very capable uh administr ERS who know how to walk and chew at the same time and I think they could do more than one RFP at a time and um that's what I'd like to task them for and this is just to get an analysis of what it will cost so this can be added to that number
019that we're looking at so a little bit in my defense we did release them six and seven at a time so it wasn't one at a time just for clarification on the public rec no I understand uh I'm just not seeing uh a lot of them come through uh we did just approve a number of them at the last board meeting well I understand that uh maybe it's because I dealt with that as a profession I'm used to seeing a lot more and I'd like to see a lot more in the future but uh I'll be happy with this resolution and um um we'll be on top we'll be moving the the project forward thank you the next item is uh it was flag football for girls um Danielle you asked to have this at
020I did uh thank you director Casey so parents from the community have been reaching out to me regarding an interest in girls flag you speaking the mic we can't hear you I'm sorry it's really hard to hear tonight so parents from the community have been reaching out regarding an interest in girls flag football so I reached out to Mr jesa about this and he was putting some information together um I I think this is a great thing this is a sport that is gaining popularity around the country um Not only would it give our girls another opportunity to play in a sport but also it has the potential to open the door for college scholarships so um I thought this would be a great opportunity to really let the public know what we've been working
021on I know it's not close to being done there's still a lot of information being gathered but it would be a good starting point to hear Danielle oh when you mentioned this I talked to Ted Anderson and correct me Chad if I'm wrong there is no League presently available for uh girls flag football um Poss am I right T or wrong together [Applause] well Ted after our conversation I thought about what you what you said and probably a good way to move into into a new athletic program instead of diving in and H especially when there's no other teams in the area maybe within West Granton and uh Scranton High uh started in a mural League to see where the interest is and um to uh shine some light on it and maybe if we
022could start planning in urals get all of our information and try to have a a program set up for uh this spring if I could just add uh and I I have three handouts at your seats and my one Memo from November 13th is the letter behind it basically uh me talking to Mr bucka and Mr Anderson and and basically Mr Anderson just said there's really no information out right now I I mean I don't want to be repetitive here National Federation has to get the information out and behind that is a letter from the PIAA basically saying it's just been freshly sanctioned this past September waiting for for for more information to be fully implemented for next school year and I you know I just found out confirmed from Mr Anderson I thought it
023would be a Spring sport and it looks like it will be for the spring and behind that letter is out of the five upper 500 600 school districts schools in the state basically in the Philadelphia and Pittsburgh area there's only 64 sponsoring I just wanted to say thank you Mr jza to you Mr Anderson and Mr buka for looking into this thank you I think this is a great opportunity um I know there's like I said there's still some work to do but I think this is a great start you're [Applause] welcome well possibly uh can the athletic directors uh look into the possibility of an inter mural uh program for this spring and get back to us for the recommendation how's that Erin well right now we first need to start with an interest
024inventory to see how many girls we would have to see if we could even staff an intermal leag and there's no one to play correct Ted H how about we start with an interest inventory we do a survey just to see how many girls would be interested in the sport and we could bring that back to you at the next work session how's that can you work with Mr Buck to do that that sounds fine is that okay with you wonderful yeah thank you at least we're bringing it to a Forefront uh the next one is a presentation uh by Mr Brian ran who has contacted me about the conditions of uh pretty much I think it's all of the athletic facilities and for Westside High School well I am primarily focused this presentation is
025primarily focused on the football you know division but it will benefit every sport across the board pretty much throughout everything uh my son plays football for West Granton and he's been playing football since he's about 7 years old I'm a former football coach myself I put a little bit of information on the very back page about myself the last item is by far the most important uh uh put does everybody have a copy of the presentation and uh I have a PowerPoint as well now I don't know if anyone can see that on their screens there or not or if it's have it in you just took the paper okay very good so my son played freshman and sophomore ball and he kept telling me you know this doesn't work that doesn't work this is
026inoperable that's an inoperable and yeah everything you're 15y old you take with a grain of salt but he continue to tell me and I said okay so I decided to go ahead and do an independent investigation and see what I came up with and I went ahead and do that and turns out um I did a comparative study as to the assets of West Granton versus the assets of Scranton high and where we stand as far as equity and equality between the two schools and the two football programs uh the purpose of this is to seek Equity between the two schools identify opportunities and increase the safety of our players while reducing liability when I went to look at the West Scranton practice field the field is a a 20 yard divot um in the
027practice to right here behind intermediate uh in the middle of the field so it only allows them to kind of use half of the field uh a student was reportedly now I have never confirmed this I don't you know I haven't talked to any teachers or coaches or anything about this I've kind of did this on my own and my son helped me with pictures and so on and so forth trying to figure out what was happening uh it was reported a student had sprained his ankle about two years ago on the field because of the holes and the divots it was unable to play several games because of it um it's creating a dangerous airon it's something that has to be has to be looked at there's broken glass and garbage scattered about the
028entire field and I have inserted photos of this evidence uh in your packet there as well uh with one porta potty at the practice field which many times and I saw it with my own eyes has been knocked down its side now that's obviously got students fing around but nevertheless there are no bathroom facilities no water facilities no anything when these kids are out practice and a lot of times in August uh is very difficult when you're practicing a 95 98 degree weather you don't have direct access to water or bathroom now our trainer uh my son told me brings a big container of water you know for an emergency but uh practice equipment uh stitch together damage and Antiquated uh again I saw this with my own eyes a lot of it is very
029old equip for practicing these uh you take a look at the photos that's the main dividend the field there and photo 1 a photo 1B are two pieces of glass that we're on the ground there glass shards scattered all about the practice when I comparison to Scranton High's facilities Scranton High has full access to Memorial Stadium safe practice surface full access to locker rooms bathrooms and Water West Granton has the option to practice a Memorial Stadium however it would require the students to run from West granson while carrying backpacks chome books and all their football year approximately 1.6 miles to make it the practice for 3:30 in the afterno standard practice time it's not entirely feasible to do that because a lot of the Freshman sophomores and juniors do not have their own vehicles and
030those parents are unable to actually get the kids from the school over through Memorial Stadium in adequate time West Granton locker room uh the locker room at West Granton I've back this up with photographs as well the locker room uh has an operable ceiling fans several don't work others only have one that's in photo 2A most of the wooden lockers do not have doors and are falling apart the players have no way of securing their belonging safely photo 2B the concrete walls are deteriorating uh that is photo 2C the showers are inoperable contain trash and it was reported to me again I did not see this with my own eyes but there were deceased mice in the showers and as you can see 2 fan with one blade 2 B and 2 C and 2D
031are the other areas as well comparatively Scranton High has state-of-the-art climate control in the locker room Scranton High has fully functional showering facilities Scranton I has metal lockers to keep the students belongings safe and secure the last element I looked into and I only chose three topics and I know there are many more uh I work out the weight and workout room now this I I don't have pictures of but from what I've been told and this has been reported to me was granted as limited quantity of workout equipment much of which is Antiquated and or damaged many students have to wait in line to use a bench water machine uh it is also uh this is a pretty significant situation and I believe uh many know about what happened here was brought to my
032attention this was last fall I believe during session I'm sorry last spring uh a live electrical wire fell from the ceiling during a workout session creating a potentially catastrophic safety situation when we look at scanton High's work workout uh rooms again I don't I didn't have access to Scranton High Scranton high is equipped with the latest state-of-the-art weight workout equipment along with a clean and safe environment spron has access to a second weight room Memorial Stadium I know that Mr munack graciously donated a lot of money which he's an amazing guy a wonderful squ antonium uh to S high for a lot of their facilities and I thank him for that uh what we're looking for is basically just an even Equitable Shake in West Side so that everybody's the same across the board uh
033two statements that I have was um while driving my son and this I was part of this situation this is actually what kind of launched me to go forward and look into this and see what the facts were because the facts are definitely just the facts it's it is what it is while driving my son and several of his friends in Memorial Stadium for practice I was including conversation between them one player said we a Westside player do not get the best stuff because we're always number two I said asked I said what do you mean by that and he said well we're just we're West we're second with I said no you're not no you are not you're not nobody in the school is second grade nobody but then he went on to say
034I wish I could go to scand high he said well my mom lives in Westside and I said no I said you are a westsider you got to be proud of it be proud of he said why think think about for a moment take a moment and think when we graduate these kids and they go out into the world and they think that they're second grade why why I spoke to a former player who gr graduated in 2020 I asked him what his experience was playing for West Granton he he recalled helping and assisting coach build practice equipment with 2x4 lumber and P this is a conversation didn't come out too well in the PowerPoint but my son and I were communicating he was on his way to the Western uh Wayne game just this
035last year and what he said um I bled out some of the words in there because he's a westsider uh he said they have working toilets here and I said wow okay go for it I said you will be able to get a shower when you get home speaking of that they've got showers with working showers with soap dispensers are SP to take one to it a West he said dude this place is a house automatic toilets sinks soap dispensers working metal lockers a water bottle station I said that's some serious stuff and he said even handicap accessible lockers my feeling this is standard equipment he found it amazing that at Western Wing they've got to him Advanced Equipment so in conclusion we us our public servants respectfully request Equity between our schs embrace the
036opportunities and put forth this put forth by this presentation with haste reduce liability by creating a safer environment for all of our students to embracing a policy of equity promote an environment through measurable actions that will allow students from both Scranton high and West Scranton high that they are all First Rate if you have any questions for me Mr Ron the director of operations Mr Rucker will meet with you as soon as you're done so he's ready to meet with you Mr Rucker if you could just he's right there very thank Youk you and I would like for the members those on the althetic Comm please do a comparative study of your own this is where I pass the ball to our public servants okay this is where I pass you guys and ladies the
037ball to move forward look at the assets of Scranton look at the assets of West this will benefit every sports team that we have and every student and every child in our community thank you Mr Ruan I I do have two questions for you uh number one um I don't know if you would know the answer but how long have these conditions been aware of I began this study about uh six months ago started looking into it I imagine they've existed for quite some time okay you know and I and again I I want to add this if I may you I don't point the finger at anybody I don't look at anybody as to blame for this but this is the reality and these are the conditions you know I I honestly I think
038we've got good staff we've got you know I think we're in order as far as the people but we we can't make a cormet meal in McDonald's kitchen as the same goes know we've got a guy like you know Jake manette he's a great guy you know I don't know him personally but as a former football coach I watch how he coaches he's a young Joe patno that's what we have you gota we got to have the right tools you got to have the right equipment because if we don't you can't go in you can't fight a Sherman tank with a a BB girl and and that's what we're dealing with us we just want equality we want equality that's all we're ask my second question for you um have any of these issues been
039reported to the district anyone been that's my awareness again I'm this is this is independent this is something that I'm doing and this is me reporting you know to the district ask you what my finds you know for and I ask that you know look deep into it get the committee together do a comparative study to you know the locker rooms the weight room everything and compared to what Scranton High has and then you will see for yourself you know what I had seen so this doesn't happen overnight um so Mr lafay I would say we should probably like we've got to evaluate this if there's glass on the field uh I'm familiar with that 20- yard divot I mean it's not going to be safe for players if we don't even that out and
040um the the situation with the ceiling fans the concrete you know I presumably someone had to have noticed this and and that's like I said since it doesn't happen overnight we need to figure out why this hasn't been taken care of and then we need to come up with an action plan to to address these issues especially um if if a live wire fell while people were working out the waight room I mean that's that's not acceptable yeah my son was in there when it happened and the coaches got you know reported a maintenance maintenance did their job they got it know tie it off you know but still yeah this stuff doesn't happen in a vacuum though so we need we need to take we need to take a look and work on it
041safety and health concern with dead mice too that's just awesome I think one thing um that I saw in here about using uh Memorial Stadium more for practice and than lugging the equipment back and forth if if I'm not mistaken Mr duuk or Mr Jen uh Jenna when you guys were principles didn't the maintenance staff bring back their football equipment after practices okay so that might be something we can start up again back okay okay and I also think that um I we talked about the the weight equipment in the weight room I was down there this summer um um with Coach Manti I did see it it does need an improvement I know Scranton is getting old as well I wonder if there's something we could look into what our grant writer maybe there's
042a physical fitness health some kind of Grant we can look into maybe kind of help get get that rejuvenated um for this one you know even if other schools that we have there's independent grants federal state I mean there's a lot of different foundations we could approach you know okay Mr Holmes uh from everything that I'm hearing tonight uh this isn't just a one fixed item it's a multitude of items that need to be fixed over a period of time and a period of financial uh what I'd like to see done uh under your direction as president uh is possibly set up an in-house Committee of uh the business manager uh the two athletic directors the principles create a priority list of what needs to be done in the order that we'd like to see
043that we can do them as far as a timeline and financial and uh uh I'd like it to be an ongoing Committee just not so that we have Mr ran or another parent here from Westside uh come and speak and then they leave and then it's forgotten I'd like it to be an ongoing committee to start the Improvement of WestSide Athletic uh facilities yes I think that's the superintendent's call she can direct the full-time staff to do this without us having to do anything other than saying could you work together with your full-time staff collaborating with your principles and directors and come with principal Steven will be in touch with you and including the the parents from the athletic programs okay thank you Mr Juan for your consern ladies and gentlemen thank you very much
044thank you for your time thank you okay the next um I'm sorry Dr Casey could I just ask one one more question could I ask one more question on this yeah sure um I guess Dr keing Mr laffy like is this all new to you what you're hearing all of this there was something in the board packet when I first got here within the first couple months about the field conditions part of the construction so there was something s out about the field conditions the locker room area needs work I talked to somebody about it when we were down there the first day of school that was the first time I was ever down there but not the so I have full color photos in this presentation I'll leave you know best thing take a
045walk over and check it out you know what Aon but Mr ran just admited he did not ra complains right but I'm saying nobody within our within West Granton High School our athletic director our principal nobody has brought this to anybody on the central admin team's attention none of it the field conditions again were in a board pack because they were R okay the wait room and the lock was into my office they have now and will be addressed the only information I've received also previously was some Equity between practices discuss West scho obviously while it's available it iswhat of an inconvenience for the students to have be able to get there I do know that they have the opport to practice th Friday home games all the other issues why uh Dr Keon um
046one of the things that I've been speaking to Mr lafy about was the possibility of us going down to the U State Surplus uh in Harrisburg and it's been my experience working with the state it's almost best way to put it is it's a huge fle Market things may be there today they may be gone tomorrow and it isn't like well all the lockers are gone we got to order new ones it's a hit and miss type deal but uh I do know from my past experience there has been times where there has been lockers there in excellent condition there has been weight equipment there that the district can purchase at a relatively inexpensive uh cost um now I know that Mr lafy and I were planning on going no date set but possibly um
047Pat if we can go down within the next two to three weeks we could at least get an idea what might be there and what we can um possibly get to help the Westside situation um at a very minimal cost and we could actually find out how to do business with the uh state Surplus for other items in the district not only Athletics and this might be a way that we could start helping the people from West Side I have one final question um I was just wondering who from the district actually oversees the facilities that Mr Ruan described like is there like a single person is it like a bunch of combination of people if you run a high school you as the high school principal or any principal walks or facilities but I
048would put it on one person because there's operations and as a superintendent ultimately director ches is my responsibility I own it I will never put one of my people down I need to own it he's going to speak to the director of operations I already text the principal to meet with him tomorrow morning and I'm on top of it I take full responsibility thank you I I wasn't you know I'm not pointing the fingers I'm just saying like if someone's checking these facilities routinely that's all I asking absolutely positively in the end the superintendent's responsible I want it Aon I'd recommend that we look look forward not backwards uh we we now know that there is a possibility of a problem that exists let's address the problem um and just go forward with this get
049make what's wrong right that's all we ask absolutely thank okay next item Mr Ron thank you very much next item is building reconfiguration um I don't know who put this on but uh we'll entertain whatever you want to talk about on it if it pertains to Athletics it doesn't you know put this on Jenny I've requested it I think it does U pertain to the conversation we're having this evening particularly in light of the gym for West Granton I I feel very concerned that we're discussing these items in vacuum we're we're discussing one offs and I I think everything that has come before this body tonight just goes to show that we're not going to get anywhere if the superintendent and her team can't focus on a list of priority issues in a reasonable time
050frame so I I think it's only fair to be looking at this in the context of the full picture and I I know Dr keing you have a timeline for a recommendation I I guess just an update on that I've met with um obviously pfm actually at 9 o'clock tomorrow morning I have another meeting with pfm on what is financially possible as I said the largest issue is we have $186 Million worth of borrowing capacity and the average cost of building anything new is between 350 and 450 per square foot based on what I'm finding right now those are rough estimates don't hold me to them by the dollar um so there's there's issues with what's possible to be done that I'm running into as I'm slowly starting to do this we had an unlimited
051budget it would be different but when you're operating within $16 80 million of of work and today I met with act 93 who's extremely concerned because the cameras still haven't been updated in buildings and that's a 1.7 or $1.8 million investment just to get Safety and Security where it needs to be it's it's playing a juggling game of what can we afford and what can't we afford so yes I have major major concerns right now of what is actually possible with that number and remember it it's like all of us once you Max your credit out you have no more credit to borrow so if a boiler goes or a roof goes or something catastrophic happens our borrowing capacity is no longer there and again I would love to operate in a world of unlimited
052funds but there's a lot of you at this table people who because of your own worlds in business and industry are well aware of how finite 186 actually is I don't want to turn this into a budget and finance discussion but is16 million of borrowing realistic is that I understand that's our capacity but that doesn't come free correct that's part of what we're working withf to see obviously you just know that's what our base is that we can borrow against currently right now the question becomes what can our sustain the the plan that I have initially come up with to present to you and again it's a plan you guys could tell me we don't like the plan start over again it's just a plan obviously everything I do has to be run through doctor
053sailor and it has to be run through pfm because we have to see if financially what I'm suggesting is even possible the other thing that I started to do is meet with some of the local developers in the city of Scranton and ask them you know what what would a building go for could we make any money is this land buildable can we do stuff here so like I'm trying to exhaust all of the answers to be able to say to you okay here's my plan and this could actually work and and and it's actually possible to do and again it's a plan you may hate the plan and you may say start over again but I was very surprised that our max credit is $186 million now if you look at the dewy binder
054we have 350 million dollars worth of upgrades that would have to happen if we kept all the buildings so we don't have the borrowing capability to do what's in that giant binder behind my desk so then it becomes a pick and choose moment I want every kid to have equal access to everything but I think a West Grant and gym is a wonderful concept but I also think a chem lab is really necessary for college to kids I think that equal stem programs is awesome but I also think that interior doors and windows have to have Safety and Security to them so you're right there has to be a priority list because 186 is 186 and we don't have anything over that and I'm I am not a financial person that came from the financial
055people because I need to know what I'm operating in to try to see what can be done trust me guys and I'm speaking very openly and publicly at a meeting I walk around some of our buildings and I'm like hey there's table wires being zip tied to the ceiling because we can't run the infrastructure to supply the technology that we need for that building I it's it's nobody's fault it's the fact that the building is so old that that's the only way that we can run the cable wire so so there's a lot of things that I see as I walk you know the schools that were built in the early 1900s they're not made for loud classrooms that we have with a lot of our exceptional population so that sound reverberates through the entire
056building as other children are trying to learn there's a whole environmental concept that goes to looking at these buildings as well I would love to have a checkbook one day if I have a crown and a wand and an unlimited checkbook wait till you see what I'm capable of doing but without a crown and a wand and an unlimited checkbook I got to work within what we have and 186 is not a lot Aon I don't disagree with you I commend you for your foresight what we're discussing here tonight is far as the possibility of a gym over at Westside High School uh by the feasibility studying the cost analysis it's not costing us anything but it's giving us the information to make a valid decision that's all we're asking for here there hasn't been
057one person here tonight who said I'm firmly committed to with Jim they're firmly committed to finding out the information that has been long overdue that has been done 10 years ago by a former board and it keeps getting put on um the back burner am I aware that we need doors am I aware that we need other things yes we are but right now my committee is for the Athletics and I'm addressing the Athletics and I'm trying to get the information to present to this board so they can make a valid decision I'm not asking anybody to make a commitment tonight and by no means should this mean to anybody in the Westside Community that they're getting their gym right away it's that we're looking into the cost analysis the same way that we would
058look into doors windows it just happens to be that Athletics is my committee it's been brought up to me and and I'm looking at it and I'm asking the board to look at it uh from an athletic point of view and if the numbers come back and we can't afford it then we can't afford it like anything else but before we make if we're going to make a solid judgment that we can't afford it at least we need to know what we can't afford and as I said this is on the agenda because it's Athletics if it was something to do with science I'd be bringing the same same issue up on science and we'd probably be getting the same argument well we can't afford that I walked over in Scranton high school and I
059went up to the old where I had at the old Scranton Tech uh chemistry and what what I was surprised at is that the lab tables that I almost failed chemistry this is my committee and I I'll wrap it up when I need to understand when yes you're out of order Mr Holmes you you are out of order but but the bottom line is okay I'll wrap it up uh we'll now go to the next program um equity in school programs I just wanted to say one last thing about Dr King's remarks if I could I first of all I appreciate your honesty Dr keing I've I've kind of been waiting for that I've been waiting for you to to really speak um now that you've had an opportunity to get a handle on on
060our finances and what's going on so your remarks are very much appreciated and I just I just have to throw this out there since we're talking about wish lists um my one of my first meetings with Dr keading was I had real concerns about we haven't met the basic level one safety issues so I'm going to just toss that out there and be on the record that we still haven't met those so we've got to find the money for that um th those are issues that I I can't say clearly what those are here in public but all of us sitting here know what those are and they're not met so I I I we've got to find our focus on this board I I feel like we've lost our focus and if we can't
061focus on basic safety if the teachers are going to Dr keing and saying there's not PA systems in the schools they have safety concerns so I just wanted that on the record okay I'd like to keep this uh relating to Athletics extracurricular activities and the next one is update on the auditorium we missed equity and after school program is there a grade level or because I was just a grade level or is it high school based or is it Middle School based that we were looking at this no okay I this is a very broad question and before I ask that question thank you I I Echo what uh director Yanni just said I think that's the most realistic conversation we've had at this board table in a long long time and it's reality and
062we have to work within the confines of reality and I I appreciate your Camp I am just broadly concerned with some of the items that were brought forward this evening I again we all agree we want to have every activity every opportunity but resources are finite whether their dollars or staff or rooms to do these things in what I want to know is is there a process and if it's different at each level that's fine and if that doesn't exist can that be established or are we somewhere in between where it just needs to be fine-tuned and and perhaps articulated so the secondary schools the three intermediates in the two high schools have clubs ironically this was a concern brought up at the sft as as well because over the years and to no fault
063of anybody what has happened is say West gron intermediate has a newspaper club and couldn't staff the newspaper Club after it was posted and nobody wanted it they may turn that into the chess club that is an example that is not anything that is true I'm just using that as an example so you may have different things at some of the schools because stuff has been shuffled around like that the sft asked me any open positions to please make sure that they were posted so I can send it to you guys in the board packet I have a list of the of the five secondary schools all of the clubs who are the advisers and how many hours they they have for those subjects I have that some of it is lack of Interest by
064students some of it is maybe there's not an advisor for it that that they've kind of become different in the different buildings um I actually just met with Julie Scher Cohen from University of scr this morning to try to build out more Partnerships um with what we could do with the U and one of the things that I said to her was we need to give the middle schools more because that's that vulnerable population of kids that just needs more after school activities and more things to do and more things to engage them so that they have options be on going out on the the streets after school so that's something I'm I'm working on and trying to engage local partners with we did start at Northeast Intermediate School an MMA partnership this year that's
065a pilot there this year we're seeing how that goes at this time and then we're looking to find something for the two other middle schools the and and Mr Anderson's the audience the PIAA is sanctioned Athletics we're not running any club sports right Ted so all of our sports are sanctioned they're contractual all the coaches are part of the contract and they're the same at both schools correct so we have equity in the athletic opportunities I would love to see again if I had an unlimited checkbook the junior high sports program be come back to build those feeder programs for older Sports thank you Mr Anderson for that one clap um again but it's finding the money and how can we do that and finding the field time and finding everything else but your athletic
066programs are built on that and I mean I'll I'll use Old Forge as the example the junior Devils go into the junior high team goes into the high school team and it's why they're a Powerhouse and they are who they are in football because they have this amazing feeder program from six years old to the day you graduate so I think there's things that we have to start looking at with opportunities like that we did put the music lessons back in for fifth grade this year hopefully that's a catalyst to get more people involved in music um because I think that the music in the Arts is such a necessary part of kids being engaged in school so I'm hoping we can keep growing things there but it's not an overnight fix and it's going
067to take a little time and I'll make sure you have that club stuff in your board packet this week it's already done Erin if you could schedule an hour to meet with me after Thanksgiving I have some ideas how we can raise money without raising taxes to help some of these athletic programs um Partnerships are going to be huge to make a lot of this happen and and I will say that a lot of the senior staff is out now engaging the city Mr O'Donnell's out engaging the city we're trying to get involved with a lot of different organizations to build those Partnerships like the library when you asked about IT director chz like today looking at that University Scranton is going to open a new stem building trying to get our sixth graders to
068be able to go there and how can we build that into the budget so that they can do those programming we're going to need to keep building on those Partnerships Aon I agree with you I'm speaking purely from um an athletic Chairman's point of view on how we may be able to raise some money uh to afford uh different things that different people haven't thought of uh I'm sure that we're not the only School District in this and we're not inventing the wheel but I do believe from people that I spoke to um uh that there is money out there that we can go and we can get through sponsorships um am I keeping you up by any chance no but just I'm listening I just wrote raise money one hour meeting Bob Casey well
069when I asked for this meeting Aon I asked for it to be alone because I knew that there was a lot on the agenda um I'll move I'll move forward uh can we now have an update to the auditorium Mr R regards to the West Granton High School auditorium we did meet there again today I received the quote from the the uh members of the San Union working through a local contractor that they deal with Stage CHS cannot engage us directly uh price on that around $2500 to pull everything out of the ceiling and render it safe we also uh reviewed some options at other buildings in regards upgrading lights uh that is something that will end up having to go out for some form of solicitation uh that is not something we are prepared
070to move forward with at this moment but we're starting to do our research on it so essentially though what it comes down to is Scranton High School needs lights they need a new lighting system and they can be operable West Scranton High School literally needs to remove everything out of the ceiling and start all over again and it would require abatement and a lot of work um my previous District was about $370,000 to redo the auditorium and didn't require that much extensive work so you're looking upwards of 600,000 to a million dollars I would probably air more toward that million dollar Mark um there's I believe there was a show or something recently to play where they Ed the water fix and it looks as if that water fixture wallet was already to play leaked
071and we have a large bow spot in the stage floor now um so there's there's a bit more into that I I believe even in at West High School I'll have to go back and check but I believe there's a possibility for some abatement underneath the stage that if we were to do it could be pulled out so just so everyone has the five-year-old's understanding at West Granton High School literally what they have to do is if you look up right now and see all these lights and all these runners that $2500 is they're going to go up and take all that out of the ceiling not replace it just get it out so it's safe for people to be on now take it down to the floor render it safe and then take the
072existing rigging and render it safe so if you look over and I believe it's on this side you'll you'll see the rigging which is the uh ropes and the pulleys and the counter weights a lot of times especially at West gr High School uh some of those pulley and counterweights are suspending about 600 pound weight in the air to counterbalance the weight of the curtains to make them go up and down evenly so there's thousands of pounds of weight sitting in the air that have to be rendered safe but you just said the stage is also there's a bow in the stage floor now too right yes so is it unsafe to use the stage at all that has to be assessed because that you saw today it's it's a bow in there uh it's
073yes we I just out saw that today you can repair a stage by no means am I an expert stage repair but you can repair stage with removing certain boards or replacing boards I've seen it done at numerous schools that isn't the main issue and that's something that's new what just everyone looks up like so there's not going to be any lights there's not going to be any stage Runners there's not going to be any side curtains it's literally going to be a stage yes I'm sorry I couldn't hear you pretty much in effect of doing that correct we need to pull it out s um um I'm sorry we definitely need to pull it out of the ceiling to render it safe so that way they can at least use the stage four something
074but that using it for any other purpose besides practice is there's no the Aesthetics of the stage are going to look like a shell that's the best word but then are they getting portable lights or something to be able to use the stage we didn't even go we needed to get just the assessment of what it would cost to bring everything down to make it a safe space and I when we talk the first thing I said was we need bless you we need to get a cost on this because there's holiday concerts and there's I know last year I went to see puffs when they did the spring play so there's other things that are taking place but right now like I I just want everyone to know the the level of what has
075to be done and it's significant okay so from what we heard this evening West Scranton High School needs a new auditorium at approximately probably close to a million dollars and they need a new gym and they need doors and windows and a chem lab and a stem lab correct um so the the the seats and everything are fine and they did put a new sound system in like a year or two before I got here yeah it was a while back yeah right the seats are gorgeous over there they're very nice yeah the lighting and the curtains are what we have to look at I gave you a rough when we redid the high school I gave you a rough ballpark of what it cost us to everything down and reinstall LED lighting but I
076didn't have some of the other issues that we're going to run into there and also your house lighting there's there's a significant amount of work that needs to be done in that area so doc Dr keing could you and your team come up with a plan for both high schools so that they can have their Productions I don't know can we rent somewhere for them to to be able to put on their Productions I mean to some of some of these kids it's just as important as as the sports team there on you do have this stage and you do have an auditorium at Northeast and Southeast okay so maybe maybe we could talk to the the principles and then the uh the directors of those programs they're not safe either uh we we're having
077them evaluated but I will tell you now right off top of my head that you know I I'm not confident in that but we are going to have them evaluated so we definitely want to come up with a plan because and I know too from my son doing drama like they they're over there for you know several months ahead of time and they're marking everything on the stage so they they would need access um all the players would need access to to those stages to practice on I mean for all of their dance moves so I don't know I'd like to be able to do something for all of our our theater students this stage is this stage is we're we're getting all of them evaluated every stage will be evaluated right but I'm just
078saying the time frame if we could I know they do their spring Productions and that's a really big deal so yes like you were saying I just make sure that it's as important as Athletics to people because students get scholarships for athletics but they also get College rides for Productions sure so we don't want to take that is also look at your extracurricular activities EXC and that's a major part it is a big Point yeah I will I will get I will meet with them and I will have a plan thank you if nobody has anything else the Athletics committee is Jour excuse me wait one second I'm sorry I don't know if I don't have an updated agenda but and I only need three seconds CU I know nothing about lacrosse i p so
079I think 4.04 is it still on or is that Tak I pulled it oh you pulled it after discussing with u all right so I don't have an up uh the only reason why I put it on is because I realized that's an upand cominging Sport and uh I noticed that Abington and prep uh all have and uh looking at a way that we may be able to attract some students to our district that may not come um and I think I'm looking at it for like trying to build our enrollment up but I was told that we have no interest or maybe we could do a survey on that I think I heard that field hockey has the highest scholarships G I tell you principal W Valley West High School I signed five division
080one girls Scholarships in field hockey on one day well most turned away scholarships or girls golf the the the reason why I'm I'm sort of more knowledgeable than the average director on all these is because my niece did play in the Olympics for uh field hockey and her H didn't bring field hockey forward huh you didn't bring field hockey forward no because her husband is the actual number one lacrosse player in the world so but people have anything else I'll call the athletic meeting for adjournment and I will excuse myself because I need to run out and give Mr suus something out of my car and I need to take care of some personal matters motion to journ call call the order the Education meeting roll call Mr bwick here Mr cas Mrs chz pres
081M fox pres M Martin pres M mer pres Mr mcandrew pres Mr Johnny I'm here Mr Holmes president now turn the meeting over to director M thank you director Holmes um I'm not going to give a report at this time I just have some updates Mr janza building scores P good evening everyone yes uh since our last Education meeting I did tell you there was going to be a flurry of data and I I have another for you that first page is just a review You've seen that page before as far as our test scores pssas SATs keystones all that act on on our subgroups that you've seen before since that has come in our uh Future Ready PA index is uh our new public school report uh it's got a grand total of 12
082targets and just about all of them there are reviewed with the headings six of them are federal uh accountability measures and it's achievement growth college and ready elll attendance and graduation so again please look at it if you have any questions uh we have the three colors of dark blue green or red there is no yellow there is no uh light blue so determining on whether or not we exceed it fell below the targets will be the color diagram an up arrow means that we increase from last year a down arrow we could have a down blue we could have an up red uh a down arrow means we decrease a little bit last year a circle means we pretty much maintain the same tons of information there I could spend all night but please
083take a look at it uh after that I did put our building level scores our building level scores is our new Public School report card which is our old SP it's on based on a 100 point scale and the five colors are in play dark blue light blue green uh yellow and red uh the scores for each school are there from on 100 points scale we did manage to have four schools in the green area and then I did add peos is not a test P stands for the Pennsylvania value assessment system which will determine your growth which means where this you know the students are directed as far as predicting going in the future and achievement which is where they are at a single time it's a statistical analysis of both that's what peas
084is and we've had great growth grades over the last few years uh there's 15 targets for growth and that's great through eight in pssa ela math two in science because it's only tested every two years and the three Keystone subjects that's a total of 15 we don't have growth in grade three because it's grade three it's the initial year so we begin growth in grade four so out of those 15 targets uh Scranton School District met or exceeded the PA standard of academic growth uh out of 12 of them so that's that's pretty impressive and all the all the guidelines and all all the uh results are there for posos I'm proud to say that um we we did rank the public school the public access to peos just came in Thursday and we I
085in my opinion I think we did pretty well uh three three we scored in the dark blue in ela pssa we ranked 137 out of 64 districts which is the top 21% uh in biology we ranked 164th out of 581 District which is the top 28% in literature we ranked 114th out of 583 districts which is the top 19 and a half% so our growth is really doing well uh and the 15 targets are definitely uh outlined in this packet and at the end of the packet does include our PS PSAT results which is the preliminary Scholastic aptitude test a little bit of a rundown for our 10th and 11th graders it's like a preest before they take the actual sat uh so that's all the data that came in since our last meeting which
086was a data flurry which really picks up preliminary what scores that come out in June so the final end result is pretty much came last week so believe it or not we're ready to roll with our next round of testing for the winner keystones which will start right after than director Merkel may speak for a second so so I if I was sitting here right now and I looked at these scores the first thing I would say is what are you going to do about them so I just want you to know that working with Dr sailor um and Mr DeLuca is really taking a charge on this right now we've partnered with the University of Virginia The Darden School of Business on their partnership in leaders in education we'll be sending our three Middle
087School principles in addition to the principles from our three largest Elementary centers to the University of Virginia um I'd like to thank the Department of Education pte they are sponsoring this and it is a very Hefty bill it is a half a million dollars or more for us to be part of this today Rob and I were on a call with University of Virginia where schools who have successfully completed this program have seen double digigit growth in their academic achievement scores um following through this it is intensive it is a lot of work we have already begun doing that University of Virginia was out here in September doing focus groups with teachers with administrators with staff members to gather the culture the climate and the F for where we are right now we'll be sending
088an executive leadership team to the University of Virginia in March um we also have Rob core change for leadership is that what it was today yes core change team core change team which began their first first meeting with University of Virginia today it is a 20-year program that has been shown to make huge differences I can send you the research on this Pat was with me it's unreal when you get down there and again this is no cost to the district pde through Dr sailor is sponsoring this for us and that's one of the major professional development steps that we're taking to be able to start addressing these issues thank thank you Mr G and thank you Dr ke for that update and those are the upates love Mrs re mtss updates good evening everybody
089please excuse my horse voice uh the last time we met I talked about um that the district had received critical supports through patan and the Neu for mtss mtss as you recall is a way to tear in supports for students students who are struggling they can be struggling academically socially emotionally and with trauma the good news is I wanted to share is that patan and the Neu have scheduled three virtual training days uh coming up very soon the first one will be with administrators in the district the second one will be a cohort of Elementary principles and the third one will be a cohort of secondary principles following that every school who has a cohort team of mtss members will also then receive individual in school consultation on new enhancements so then they can share
090those with their school staff and faculty so it's a very long in-depth process it takes time to do it and to do it well but the next phase I wanted to share with you tonight and that's the training that's going to be taking place any questions thank you thank you thank you so much good evening everybody um I was asked to put together for you special ed numbers so what I did was I have on the first sheet you will see the schools the disabilities and the numbers that are in each of the schools broken down according to disability and school um as you can see we have 273 autistic students in our our schools these days we have 13 1,356 learning support 196 emotional support 133 life skills kids but 33 of those students
091are 19 to 22 20 multi-handicapped we have 362 that are just speech we have six visually impaired and 19 hearing impaired that gives us 2,365 students and that doesn't count the six that we have in prison um if you look below that I have put there for you these are the kids as we call in the hopper for Diagnostic PL they're have they're all in for Diagnostic placements they're right now we have 126 elementary students that's K to K to four uh we have 43 which would be 5 to8 and from 9 to 12 we have 21 giving us 190 you will also notice that especially at the Intermediate School level we're doing evaluations at St Paul's trior County trioral Academy and depal so we not only do the evaluations in our district but if
092we have a student in our district who's attending an outside school we also have to take care of their evaluations um if you flip to the next page these are the students that are placed outside our district um we have right now 54 that are placed outside our district and that's just within our local lacana County um I didn't have a number for kids that are in Behavioral Health Deo you know placed by Je probation or something they're not included so with that being said right now we are circling 2, about 2,400 special Edge students um so and that's as of this afternoon the other two things that I wanted to bring to your attention and I'm so happy to tell this um we had our own balloon parade at monachello this year and we
093had the cutest little turkeys kids dressed up in little turkey things and if you look on our the website you will see pictures from that and the other thing that um we did what I shouldn't say I did Mrs Bradley did over at Armstrong the autistic classes did a lesson on farm animals and I don't know if you know this but Mrs Bradley has a horse farm and Mrs Bradley brought down a pony and the kids saw how the pony was transported and how he was taken off the tri Trail and they got to feed them carrots and apples and there's pictures on the website of that too um so they were two activities that you know our our and they were all autistic students that participated in both those activities thank you any questions
094so as you can see our numbers and special continue to grow um stem and seals hello good evening so last month I had talked a little bit about the steals um updates with the state I had actually just spent the past Thursday and Friday down at the pen cell conference in Harrisburg looking at the professional learning behind the steals changes uh from the state level and I know last month ioke we talked a lot about the pathway at the high school level and some of the concerns that we were seeing um in order to implement the steel standards uh to meet the state mandates and guidelines we are going to be pushing the pathway changes off uh scheduling begins uh first meetings start in mid December and so to try and rush through and make
095changes without fully vetting them and making sure they're in the best interest of the students we felt it would be a much better approach to actually pause and wait on those while we switch over all of the curriculum uh across K through 12 to meet the steals mandates and then go back and look at the the concerns that some of the teachers had with potential changes and additions that we can make uh to better suit our students especially with the uh financial literacy mandates that the state is coming out with and those High School requirements we want to make sure that we're not pigeon ho holding any students um at the high school level so that was one of the things we decided to table uh after curriculum writing concludes um k through eight we
096met with three different vendors um the teachers are working through their scoring rubrics to see which of the resources we would like to Pilot uh and moving forward in that direction uh stem is beginning to write their uh 11th grade curriculum for students uh next year for 11th grade uh I continue to speak with some of the colleges on the kind of Partnerships and programing that we can offer students um I recently just helped um with uh Miss Cosgrove um and Mr Ricardo and Mrs toy on the PA Smart Grant uh for computer science and engineering across the middle school in the high schools which brings me to tech ed um at both scren high and West grren High um the updates uh to the new room at West Grant and high in the basement
097for the cad engineering lab in sports as well as the cad Lab at Scranton high school and uh the furniture and all the materials have all arrived we are just waiting on the desks they were supposed to be arriving this Friday looks like they're going to be arriving closer to December 4th um so not too far off uh but the chairs have already arrived and the installation team will be coming to put those together um so that that lab will be up and running and uh part of the PA Smart Grant if we're lucky enough to be a recipient um we are partnering with laana and Johnson College on some teacher training and professional development as well as curricular materials for both of those um areas and then the last one was oh so the
098trout in the classroom was another thing that we had worked with stem I have also reached out with lacak um and uh one of the other Community Partners uh for trout in the class room and it looks like that is something that they may be funding to expand into some of our other buildings as well that's all I have for this evening you're welcome I just want to say I recently had a tour of the STEM Academy and it was so impressive it was great seeing all the students and everything that they had going on so great things are happening there exciting exciting Mr Su do you have any updates or since we talked last okay does anybody have any questions from Mr Suma and Technology um Mr Bucket emailed me today as of today
099we have 799 students in cyber schooles told me the numbers fluctuate a lot start after the first quarter now they could fluctuate you'll go up in the spring semester yeah Dr kingk updates I had a meeting to with Miss Boland uh they are still seeking further clarification um on the partnership with Ace and with Head Start um and at this time cannot commit to an agreement um tomorrow morning at 9:00 a. representatives from Head Start will be in to answer and give clarification to the questions that were asked and I will be putting a m on the board packet thank you so very much so in order to have our first class January I have to have it on the December 9th motion so I'm giving it theity try right now all right appreciate it
100okay a couple discussion items that came up speech and debate at both schools you bring that back I don't know director chess asked for it and she said she got clarification but I don't know what it is I I when the club information goes out you'll be able to see all the clubs that are there so that may be a good jumping point off director chz and I will I I'll actually email you guys tomorrow morning it's already done that works thank you um discussion about a grade five an so the elementary schools are on a standards based report card they are not on a traditional numeric value report card so running a honor roll GPA is not something right now that you can do because it's a standards based report um I have been
101asked and I directed uh Mr O to bring the report card committee back together again because there are questions and concerns on the entire Elementary report card to look at what needs to be modified so I believe that as a work in process and if things change um then that may be something that can be looked at in the future thank you Library updates continuing to work with the Scranton Library elementary schools have already been there for their tours and they will be pushing into secondary schools and for and with the pair of professionals again we're trying to do an overview of all the pair of professionals right now um to see what what can be done there so I don't have an answer to that right now is there anything else anybody wanted to
102ask tentatively depending on how the schedule goes we' like to have our next meeting in January that's all I have okay motion meeting concluded we will now move to the budget and finance committee [Applause] meeting you go right ahead and invite them Pat by all means should where's I'm gonna share my computer I didn't get one so I'm good okay so I'm in there y I'm in there and it says enter meeting should ask for your name on the right yes that's just asking for your name thank you volume down youd we can't all have our volume on [Applause] thats should be good evening everyone my name is Ian Tyson and I'm from public financial management um it's great to see you all again this evening um we're here to present an update on the
103fiveyear projections um in September we came before the board at a previous budget and finance committee meeting and we presented a preliminary projection using the district's adopted 2024 budget with some adjustments with some uh preliminary plans that have been discussed by The District's Administration as they were heading into the budget development process for the coming calendar year since then we've been working with Pat to uh receive new financial data um and update those projections um with the 20124 uh with the 2025 proposed budget here I just included some highlights that are in that budget that have been discussed with uh with the district and you all in previous discussions um but here there are a couple of notable changes that are happening next calendar year including receiving the full impact of the funds from the
104Commonwealth the final spend down of the eser funds which uh mostly Tak Place uh at the end of this this year um and then new investments in Staffing and programs through the second phase the Intermediate School teachers um meeting the needs of students and then um preliminary grant funding and Staffing for pre kindergarten classrooms these charts should be familiar for those of you who have seen our previous presentations um the pie chart on the left shows the district's revenues in the proposed 2025 budget which totals about $225 million about a third of the district sources are coming from local taxes and other sources with a majority of those coming from the real estate tax the largest share of the district's funding comes from the commonwell which provides 62% or a little bit less than 2third
105of the district's Budget on the expenditure side of the equation about two-thirds of the district spending is for salaries and benefits which covers the costs of Staff in the district's buildings and um and the central office everyone ranging from teachers to administrators par professionals other support staff and those in the central office as well now I'll quickly run through some of the assumptions that we have here in the projections but many of them carry over from our from our presentation in September on the local Revenue side we're still assuming a slight decrease in the district's assessed value um going forward from 2025 here we're using the assessment that was provided to the district and planning for next year's um calendar year budget uh we show the impact of the transition to the payroll preparation tax
106and again uh hearkening back to our pie chart on uh on the on the previous couple of slides this is where the majority of the changes in the district's funding will come from uh for State sources for basic and special education funding we're assuming continued increases to the Statewide funding formula 225 million for basic education funding and a little over 6 million for special education funding so these are essentially the increases that the district saw in Formula based funding um carried forward into the future uh we do not show any increases to the hold harmless line that was included in the 20245 budget and for ready to learn block grant funding we assume that the district receives this adequacy and tax Equity supplements in 20245 and then no additional funds through those lines for the
107remainder of the projections on the on the expenditure side um we're assuming that the dis contracts continue until the calendar year 2028 and then thereafter we show growth in um each of the different um bargaining units um assuming about a 1% increase for everyone my apologies I for employee benefits we're assuming that healthcare costs grow at 6% in projected years which is based on the district's um uh recent recent Trends in spending that enrollment stays at the 1,000 students in 20245 and then Grows by 30 students per year in each of the future years for NB service we have the district's current debt schedule provided by um Mike Vin the current the district's Current financial adviser this includes the the borrowing um the the $10 million bank loan that's impacting that's being issued in the
1082024 calendar year as well as the plan borrowing for 2025 thereafter we assume that in 2027 the district takes on an additional 30 million doll of debt to continue capital projects and investments in the district's buildings and then similar to one of the scenarios that we showed in September for curriculum replacement we assume that after 2024 in the expiration of the district Sesser funds that the district replaces future cycles of curriculum with General funds with general fund dollars this beginning in 2027 now here's our Baseline multi-year uh Financial projection using the district's 2025 budget as the starting place here this um just takes the district's budget with no adjustments and then adds those growth rates on the revenue and the expenditure side through the next 5 years so on the local sources side we assume
109no future tax increases and continued decrease in the district's tax base we assume uh historical increases in the formula based funding for basic and special education and then no additional ready to learn block R funds after the 20245 calendar year then on the expenditure side we assume historical growth in most of the district's um spending categories so here in 2026 we start off with uh a a slight deficit after a balanced budget in 2025 then in each of the years that grows by about three to six million depending on two major assumptions one is the cycle of the curriculum replacement and then the second is the borrowing impact so that is one of the reasons or both of those are the reasons why you see such a large jump in 2027 and then again in
1102029 so this assumes no future tax increases and historical growth in state funding and similar to our presentation in September we included a box here showing the the funding that would be required to balance the district's budget over the five years and here the district would um um would need to receive one additional year of ready Al block grant supplements that would be the tax and Equity um tax equity and adequacy supplements that you rece in 20245 um as well as 3.3% annual tax increases so bringing this all together what does this mean for the district um this Baseline projection is a very important um tool that could be used by the administration and the board in planning for future years it highlights areas of stress in the district's budget and lets you um adjust
111some of those assumptions over time so that way you can see them take effect um and plan ahead to make sure that you have a um action steps so you can address any pressures before they become major problems in the district's finances in the short term we don't see um any major pressure points in the district's budget um there's a slight minor uh negative result in 2026 without a tax increase and then over time um without additional funding uh the the gap between the expenditures and the revenues grows so without those additional Revenue sources the district would have to um uh find other means to balance its budget uh so just based on our analysis of the Baseline projection we assumed that with some additional funds whether that's through local tax increases further down the
112line additional State funding as the state steps in and um addresses the fair funding lawsuit um and continues to make increases that you've seen over the last last year um and then control in some of the the budget categories that have seen some increase spending in recent years um we believe that the district could maintain its stable finances well into the future um so as our concluding slide we uh we leave you with some of the thoughts that we left in September um that in addition to planning for next year there's a several several lenses that you could take to some of the Investments that you're considering for next year um for those that are the highest priority you could identify funding sources um whether that's this year or in future years to sustain them
113um you can defer Investments until you have more certainty around the state's uh education budget as the governor comes up with the proposal earlier in the calendar year and then towards June as the legislature takes up the final proposal and enacts a budget um you could also phase in Investments over time similar to the district's approach with the uh restoration of the intermediate school schedule and the hiring of those teachers um or you could uh take a look at the available funds that you have and determine which Investments you do or do not want to take in the future or the near future so with that that brings me to the end of our presentation and I'm happy to take any questions from the board Ian thank you very much and I hope you feel
114better oh Ian I hope you can hear me this is Katie I there's a little bit of an echo but thank you very much I believe I could hear director go Martin and then it went to uh to mute again I think under Pat's name tell than thank you thank you any other questions Pat I I do have uh two questions here I'm sorry I'm trying to get muted so this doesn't ech just get out oh okay sorry thank you the $30 million in assumed in 2027 in touched on the death service obligations what is that number is that knowable like when you talk about borrowing $30 million I guess my question is we're living in Mill million we can we can provide that it's included in the district's service schedule add in 2025 we
115can we can provide that information for you and when we know 3.3% tax increases beginning in 2026 because we are looking at the 2025 budget is that meaning one year from now we'll be looking at potential increases going into the 2026 or when we go through this process in 2026 we'll be looking at them for 2027 I believe it's beginning in 2026 as you showed it was a very slight deficit in 2026 only about $400,000 requ to learn supplement and tax increase 3.3% starting in 2026 so a year from now and that that is not part of the Assumption I don't have the um that right in front of me but where we get to $30 million at the end of this timeline here does that assume a 3.3% increase and going forward or is
116that if we do absolutely nothing this is this is if we do absolutely nothing to change these red numbers to Black balance it's 3.3 million beginning in 2026 and the ready to L okay pad is this correct this is figured out without any additional Revenue we all know that we are looking to receive additional Revenue per the lawsuit that was settled so this is basically done without those numb is we have nothing to project so this could potentially change within an instance because that has already been settled we just don't know what we're getting these projections are based off the foundation of what 2025 assum which is maintain our additional funding this year 225 million added to formula forf addre so it's looking at I always say put it in in non-accountant terms it's looking
117at we got a one-time investment in funds and we're not going to see that again just keep that money in the ready to R so some of what Pat's going to go into when he goes through his budget is that we're going to hold a little bit until we see in February what the proposed preliminary state budget is when the governor addresses the state any other questions on Ian's presentation thank you have a good evening thank you getting off yes I can yes please so the next um item on the agenda is proposed final budget updates um at your desk there a one pager here that if you can please reference the blue header so just just reving this here in front of you as top R there obviously what the appr ased onv we
118assumed in a beginning fund balance of about20 million this will be updated for final adoption for Budget submission purposes um but it included revenues of 226 million um expenses less the budgetary reserve these are the true expenses in the budget of approximately 222 million um an ending fund balance if everything was to be coming perfectly we'd end our fund balance with 24 million and that budgetary Reserve is what's currently built in of .1 million do me a favor speaking to the my people at home who are watching say they can't hear me okay thank you so the the Top Line represents what was previously approved by the board again $225 million revenues expenses of 221 million and a budgetary reserve of 4.1 million what we're uh making some adjustments on here this evening is and
119it as we reviewed we we did add some positions to the budget um one is more of being a proactive measure uh to prepare ourselves if this were to happen um uh next school year so we added an additional eight fulltime equivalents for professional and Par professional staff related to autistic support being that these positions are merely a a reserve for if our numbers continue to climb what we're proposing is to pull them out of the salary and benefits line items and shift that funding into the budgetary reserve so you're looking at in the expense column a reduction of salar by 635,000 our our FICA tax is about 48,000 and a reduction in our paser expense by about 218,000 when you reduce your peers and your f um expenditures you also have a reduction in
120revenues so obviously the state the state reimburses the districts approximately 72% of our of our pension and FICA obligations so we're reducing revenues by 35,000 and 157,000 for for heers additionally as as I just mentioned before we will be we recently priced and will be closing on our 2024 C's uh for Capital Improvements um with the updated Debt Service schedule we need to make an adjustment to what was presented by about $57,000 so in total we're adjusting revenues down by 91,9 se7 to a total of $225,600 7,321 and we're adjusting expenses down by $44,988 to 220 m882 649 and we're increasing our budgetary Reserve to 4,788 78867 again that those adjustments are you know the E full-time equivalent for artistic support is us being proactive to hopefully you know have some budgetary Reserve available if
121our numbers continue to climb um kind of piggybacking off what Ian just mentioned um possibly how can the district balance you know possibly like deferring some of our investments well some of our investments were certainly in in the salaries and benefits category so in the presentation there was many positions um added to the budget some of them we feel we would like to move forward with you know a upon adoption for the start of the new year one of them would be some Eld supports for our growing ELD student populations um the staff related to our mental health supports such as our school counselors uh to replace um our our social workers to replace the sbbh programs and obviously we've already begun the moving forward with the middle school vice principal some of the other
122positions that are included in um Dr keing and I would recommend that we wait and see kind of what happens um with the with the governor's proposed budget come uh come uh February and and into the spring before moving forward some those we would like to leave them in the line items for salary and benefits not move them to the budgetary reserve but it would be our um our plan to kind of wait and see to see what kind of uh is is proposed for us come the 25 26 proposed budget by the government thank you are there any questions on those changes Pat just I know this is probably a question more for Mr Wolf how many current positions do we have budgeted right now for that are F filled for instance do we
123have potentially looking at filling an additional 80 positions by the end of the year or that we had scheduled for the beginning of the year that we already budgeted for I think you and I have had this conversation before you that answer count many unfill positions there are be right because what we we had spoke about previously is that we would budget hypothetically 80 positions and that will be built into the budget we will only fill 30 of those leaving those 50 unfed that we already budgeted and that money will come back to us correct that will be our money that we did not spend correct I would think uh yes if if if if a position is budgeted and remains unfilled um and it happens yeah it happens every year a lot what happens
124most of the time for those is there would be maybe a permanent sub or a long-term sub placement for that position depending on what the position is um but there certainly could be budgetary savings based on the rate for what we budget for the for the position what a permanent sub or longterm if you could put something in the package just where it shows us what the number was at the beginning of the year versus where we end up at the year and there potential call savings that would be good information for us to know Pat over the last couple weeks I've just been listening to different people and I'm I'm getting the impression that we have a um we have an absentee problem with our employees you're you're seeing more people take time that
125you may not have seen in in time previous to co so for me to sit up here and go with 100% accuracy our attendance rate has grown by such and such a percent I can't give you those numbers I can get you those numbers and I would do that for you people there there is higher levels of absenteeism um we see it in in some units more than other units um than we've seen in the past what I will say and I'm saying this without fact or research behind it is this is a societal issue not a Scranton School District issue um you hear it when we speak to people in business and industry um in a lot of other areas that Staffing is still an issue and attendance is still an issue so we
126can get you um uh probably like a fiveyear look back right um with the csiu system uh I may not have that for this week's packet but I could get it for the following week's packet but yes I I believe after the pandemic you've seen a a switch in how people take their time it's also generational just to be clear we're talking about staff not students yes staff yes us staff hope I can do that for you thank you anything else on the proposed final budget updates and we will move on to the overview of federally funded programs director chz had put together a a very good email with um some questions about the potential implications of changes at the federal level so I Pat is going to walk through that in a broad way
127and then if we have any specific questions I also ask that we wrap our head around I'll just move to the next and then we can jump back the the State education funding sources because I myself don't have a good understanding of from where all of those dollars flow obviously much of it is state revenue but I have to imagine that there are some buckets that come from the federal government through the state and to our district so before Pat goes into his presentation um here's my my three minute lecture on on because there's a lot of talk about the collapse of the Department of Education so under the Department of Education when it comes to K12 education there are major pieces of legislation that have been passed where funding is linked um the elementary
128and secondary Education Act which we in our life time know as the reauthorizations called No Child Left Behind in the every student succeeds Act is the first major piece of federal legislation idea or the individuals with disability Education Act would be the ACT protecting our exceptional children those are the two major pieces of legislation you also have Perkins now we're not directly affected by Perkins because Perkins is tied to your ctc's the other area where you see Federal implications is through um the National School breakfast and lunch program so that's another area of pass through to the states and then then finally you have Medicare and Medicaid access reimbursement but that is not through the Department of Education that is through the Department of Health and Human Services so even those enti even though those
129entities are overseen by the Department of Education those are federal pieces of legislation those pieces of legislation would require an act of Congress to be disbanded or taken apart um what has been talked about is how the funding now your titles fall under the elementary and secondary Education Act is how you would access that funding could be changed so Pat's going to go through our specific numbers but there's my 5c government lesson on education um the rest of it is controlled at a state level um at this time and we do have a robust Department of Education in the state of Pennsylvania um so those are your your major pockets of funding that you see and what is Fally implicated at K12 schools here one quick question um and I I don't know if right
130now is time or place but uh what's going to happen if uh the department of Ed on a federal level is uh it's why it's why I just kind of went through my mini lesson whether the department itself is there Carter P the department so the department started during his administration or not was under different department before that those are the governing pieces of legislation that we abide by through the state regulations so for example Ida is chapter 14 of the Pennsylvania state standards um of of our our regs so those then come into the state regs that we have and they're enacted at the state level so again what I'm saying is whatever the entity is those pieces of legislation would need an act of Congress and I'm not a social studies teacher for
131the record um to be overturned or to be taken away hope that makes sense so in other words for us to lose money Congress has fact on it no because what I what I was saying was the they could they could change how you access federal dollars um right now title the title monies are set up in a specific structure that could change idea is a pass through it comes through our neus and passes through to us so idea covers our our exceptional population there's a birth to five part and then there's the the school Age part so again they would have to modify those pieces of Law and they're pieces of law they're not it's like it would require a full act of Congress to change those pieces of law so I just I
132just wanted to let everyone know like what actually funnels down to us and is impacting the everyday movements of what's going on the elementary and secondary Education Act becomes the chapter 4 test standards and the pssa and Keystone testing that's how Pennsylvania enacted it Ida becomes chapter 14 and the Pennsylvania state regulations so there are that they pass down into what we have in Pennsylvania by no means I'm just giving you the the 5c for those of you who aren't a tech H I'm sure I usap with this Marine somewhere in college the 5c educational overview okay okay so next we'll go through the handout in front of you is um it's about about five pages or so front back so just on the inside of page one which is is number page two at
133the bottom FOC on our title grants um obviously the district has receiv received federal funds to the and R funding in Prior years we will not be discussing that in here the only funding in the 2025 budget for ESS is some carryover funds as we previously discussed but on page two it gives a breakdown that the district receives Title One Title One Part B title two title three and title four and there's a brief um description of what U you know what the purpose and uses are allowable for for each moving on to page three at the top we provided a a fiveyear comparison of all title grants in in totaled and you'll see that back in 2021 the district was receiving approximately $6 million in in all titles titles one through four um and
134currently right now in 2425 our funding is over 7.7 million so 7,727 391 so we've seen a a steady uh increasing increase in our funding over the last budget Cycles at the bottom of page three it's just here's a pie chart of each title Grant in total so we receive approximately 6.4 million for Title One um we'll go smallest to largest uh 533,000 in title 2 494 th000 in title 4 approximately 220,000 in title 3 which comes in two parts and approxim 32,000 one part just moving on to page four um you'll see that from a function um breakdown the largest allocation of what we spend our title dollars on is for the Fally funded regular program see that's 5.2 million um it's followed by uh the 2100 support services for students um that's some
135of the Intermediate School uh guidance counselors um we also you know we look at the 2850 being the thir at 440,000 that's the cost related to our uh Federal entitle one Department um at the central level um you know the Top Line there is the 5000 267,000 that's an indirect cost rate so that's a that's a fee that the district takes from the grant for administering and running the various various title programs and then you'll see all the other categories of functions that we that we allocate some of our title budg moving down to the bottom of page four we have our funding and it's now it's broken out by object so obviously as you can see the the largest share of it much like our general fund budget is related to the salary and
136benefits of the staff that's um that's funded with with our title dollars approximately 6.7 6.5 million of of the total moving on to page five um our current allocation this year is 6,448 th000 again much like all of our title grants um we the largest share of this is going towards the salary and benefits of the staff that that are funded with this um you'll see just in the brief description of each object what exactly we we're funding with these we'll focus just on salary benefits for this conversation but feel free to review the other object as well um again these are the salary benefits of the reading are reading and math specialist and interventionist um some intermediate school counselors our federal programs Department we cost partial salaries of our Title One program manager our
137e program manager um a staff accountant in the federal program's office a clerk in that department obviously the director of instruction as as well we do utilize the purchase Services of the 300s the 500s as well for a set aside for homeless and Foster Transportation um your 600s are your suppes Title One School building budgets and R their parent family engagements and again as I mentioned before the indirect cost rate that we have been fortunate enough to to utilize over the last few years we' we've applied for it to PE and are able to take a share of the of the funding to offset any of the indirect costs that we um incur to to run and manage the program moving on to page uh six part um approxim 32,000 um you know you'll see
138it's uh it's not a large Grant but we do have some extended after school learning activities and obviously the supplemental materials that we use to purchase supplies for the for students in the institions page seven is title two total $533,000 um the largest share of that is to F the for four class size reduction teachers and any staff development activities outside of our contractual School deck you'll you'll see a lot a lot of our meetings every meeting we approve permission to attend many times this is the funding that you'll see indivual application so any of the professional for sta can be funded and is funed with this this with this funding source jumping over to page is title three um total is $220,000 the largest share of that of almost $170,000 is salaries and benefits
139for our language guides our divers coordinator and and some professional development that happens out outside the school day and our and our parent andum over page n our last title Grant is title uh title four $494,000 um again the common theme is the we spend majority of our grants on salary benefits of our staff we're funding the salary benefits of two College PR professionals two chrysis counselors one youth enrichment director and we pay for some schoolwide positive behavior programs and events out of this as well at the at the building level aftering noted there's also some other funding sources that are federal um IA we our allocation this year is 2.4 million there's a pass through from the Neu um we fund currently the salary and benefits of approximately 30 special education teachers out of
140that out of that funding source and then the Medicaid access um we are this this number as you heard me I believe present back in October this number is increased we have increased we're going to draw down for Budget 2025 estimate approxim down 1. million it is a federal source and it's we've used this over the years to fund salary benefits of professional professional and I should add um support there is one that is also funded out of the special education department with this F sour as happy to answer questions on the federal federal funding allocations in our I don't have a question but I just wanted to say thank you Mr lafy director G Martin and Dr keading uh for acknowledging the questions that I sent in my email um about two weeks ago
141and also Mr lafy for creating this overview it was very helpful so thank you I mean I I just think it's important to have a grasp of what the federal funding does look like if if I'm doing quick math here correctly I'm coming up with close to1 million that sound about right so I to tax our way out of that at a local level is is not realistic so you know I I think we want to be very cautious to be monitoring all of this and and not speculating and and reacting to things that haven't happened but we certainly want to convey that we are keeping an eye on all of this before you move on Pat just so I don't forget I don't know if all of you are signed the educ education voters
142um email list if not I I can forward that along it's Susan Spa's I I if I have this correct I believe that is her day job and the presentation she was coming to do about Fair funding is is more of a a sideline um but this I have found that this group puts together very comprehensive and clear information certainly they are on the side of supporting up public education if you can even call that aside we should all be on it but I I think they offer very measured and and fact-based information and they just sent an email yesterday with a link to a memo from another group that really did a deep dive into some of these issues so if you don't get that I'm happy to send the link along if you
143could forward that to me that would be great absolutely and Pat yes very appreciative giving these numbers it's very interesting to see it broken down like that and just see where the money goes to and it's it'd be doomsday if we lost that funding so you know um we definitely can't lose that but it's great that you put that together so we can have a good comprehension of it and hopefully we won't have to prepare for the worst but yeah just let me just say that um this is the federal funding that affects our our general fund I'd be remiss to say not mention the national Lun program is also a very large Federal fund insource for us as well thec provides yeah that's I mean again that's something that's very important that we have
144to make sure we we get the funding for and keep so thanks for pointing that out the results be if we lost that the free um launch program like our I get that that would be Beyond us but I mean what what happens there because I I don't want to know talks locally even of not having that program like what would that mean for us and our students you either afford it or you don't we don't collect income information smaller districts still do because they're not eligibility larger districts that follow under the Community eligibility program don't require that paperwork but I I mean it would be and there's a lot of districts around who do it we still send the paperwork home on the first day of school and you have to fill out to
145show if you meet federal guidelines and then there would be like remember there used to be like free lunch reduced lunch and full paid lunch trying to end up going back probably to a system like that I have no proof like I'm just yeah so would there still be reduced lunch with thate yeah there's still there's still schools who don't fall into the eligibility program who have that it's it's scary to think about I mean remember during covid making sure we got our students meals because some of these meals are probably the only ones they rely on so I I'm praying to God that it stays the way it is and doesn't change it's maslo 101 you have to meet somebody's basic needs before they can they can be good I won't you all right
146now I'm a little cranky because it's 19,000 degrees up here right there with you a little Rob turn them down we don't need the color some of them I [Applause] mean last we did Reach Out directly to they responded basically our our lar will that as us I think turning the lights out during this conversation was very effective thank you you sure wasn't last call how could you not turn off the Red White and Blue on I used to do it back in high school you want to go back anything else for the budget fin we will be bring thatd to you V I think you made it brighter president holes I relinquish meeting to you we will now move to the work session agenda for November 25th roll call Mr B Mr Casey here
147Mrs chesik president M fox Pres Miss G Martin present Miss Merkel here M Mr mcandrew present Mrs Yanni pres Mr Holmes present n present budget and finance okay under budget and finance we will have motions to approve the bill list and exception Bill list motion to approve Delinquent Tax reports motion to approve the treasurer's reports motion to approve repository sales motion to approve budget transfer motion to approve disposal of assets all under consent agenda and Mr lafy I know we've talked about this before but would it be possible I I want to make sure I'm understanding this correctly the the legal bills that are in the drive are the ones that we have approved I'm not getting that wrong right that's correct okay right is it and this may be also a question for attorney
148fre or someone in his office is it possible to get those by the work session rather than going into the voting meeting I mean certainly we'll have to work with our you know internal administrative team that signs off if if that's something that could be discussed because director Yanni and I I think were reading each other's minds last month and had similar concerns and aired on the side of caution not to approve before we were able to clarify that the information that concerned us was in fact in there we also talked at one point about making those searchable and I I know that might be complicated in order to protect them yeah you know but if that's something that can be discussed again that might be helpful okay I know that I have an adobe
149software that does allow me to search I'm not sure how that works when upload drive because I know we don't have the option to download them which I think is is as it should be but I because I was trying to figure out if I had that to CH a lot of we had put a timeline in Asal to us F we would have to make they get us those bills like Wednesday so that preliminary raction happen departments so then Peggy can do another redaction before upload so would be like Wednesday I don't know if they beur okay does that make sense because we have to do a hard cut off date then that they would come in to us you'd be two weeks behind from what you're getting now and I thought like is
150this how it always was because I thought at one point they weren't as up to date as they are now or is that not like um the bills that we're going to get between now and whenever we get them um there is up as depart I guess okay because I thought are sent by firm on a monly basis they get to the department sign off that okay because I I know we don't have access to the previous legal Drive anymore but I thought like offand like so now is November and I thought it used to be um and this is just trying to remember from when I was clicking on things all the time that it used to be for like September and October but we were proving it in November or like it was
151a few months back maybe not sept but is that it September October okay would like a few months prior to one that we were voting because I remember when I was trying to find something or line it up it was for two months not like very recent but if that's okay and just just to kind of build on that um I would really like to see or figure out a way we could group together um the bills so that I can follow them a little bit better um I I I wasn't comfortable voting yes at the last board meeting because there was information I was looking for that I didn't think we should have incurred expenses on and and it wasn't all grouped together so how how can we do that like I think it
152goes back to what director go Martin said can they be searchable can they be grouped together I think we work we may be able instead of scanning them as one four five bed something yeah I mean I I I don't have a problem if we're not I mean I guess that would be up to all my colleagues if we're not approving them as timely even if they're searchable and grouped together that that's kind of what I'm looking for I I I I think so and I I think T you're on the same wavelength here I would want to understand what is feasible and then make sure everybody is comfortable with it if it adjusts the timeline of the information and when we're approving we have a staff meeting tomorrow where we can start the conversation
153but our legal meetings are usually Thursday which is Thanksgiving so we won't have a legal meeting again until the following Thursday so this may not be in this packet okay but the legal bills that we see are provided by in the format that they are are provided by John's office correct so it seems as the format that they are that's provided by accounts payable we we accounts payable after processing or preparing doesn't up no but they but the document itself is what's coming from him our staff redact them approve them and then they come to us so if there was a true formatting type of ation that would probably start in John's office will Beth of December so email now have cont on okay yeah I think just the the issue at hand was being
154able to review them prior to the work session so if we have any questions cover obviously within a capacity of what you could speak about publicly they could be spoken about prior to um the voting meeting I mean I don't think we would see a difference if they were two weeks behind I that's just my thoughts of I don't um I just I don't I never looked at the Timeline I think purade so closely of more of what's in there what am I approving so as long as I I think that would be a conversation that we could all have but I think that would be fine and I want to make sure that I'm I'm clear this was not a question of a billing practice of of anything being wrong or appropriate on the
155bill you this was just the matter of no I think I think what would help me if we could have in a really broad sense um an idea of how decisions are made to incur some of these legal expenses um for instance we had investigations listed on our legal bills so I was trying to add up the totals for an an invoice titled investigation number two and then there's charges on there for an investigation number three so I want to be able to take a look at this and understand the total that was spent on an individual investigation so for the legal bills coming up on the next um next voting meeting are there investigation number three bills in there so would you want to pull that off the consent agenda at this time just
156in case there's questions yes yeah that's a good idea and then if I could just get a a broad idea how decisions are made to incur legal fees for investigations that's my discretion with the consultation solicitor we believe that it's something that has aity adice of the solic okay and decision so I guess my my question would be then how should that information be reported to the board at the time or should it not depends on if I can talk I can't I can't cart say that because if there's something criminal nature I may not be able to share that with you if it's something maybe HR related I may be able to give you a general overview of it but can't give you detailed information on it so it's G to kind of be
157a case toe situation depending on the parameters around it and usually I will say to John John can I share this or not and he'll tell me no so like or yes and I'll give you a generic General example if the district receives a subpoena of any I cannot share that information okay and I may need to do an investigation based off that Suba coming in so I can never tell you that okay and I may need their help right right so an investigation into an elected official is that something that should be shared with the full board I guess to attorney F I guess that's my my [Applause] question ter are you consider um speaking about my investigations uh yes you're more than welcome to have them to what I'm sorry you're more than
158welcome to have them well and and that's one of my concerns is I understand the employee confidential confidentiality component absolutely I would think that could be redacted but we're we're incurring legal bills um for these investigations and and director Casey I'm I'm not saying they should have even occurred I I wasn't aware that they occur agree they shouldn't matter of fact I'm not disagreeing with you and and I'm not bringing it up to to point that out what I'm pointing out is we're not being transparent with the public we're not being transparent with how taxpayer dollars are being spent I'll be per L honest with you I'd like them to be uh made public because on all of them I was exonerated matter of fact I have a question and I keep being told you
159can't ask this question where in the complaint the one complaintant just can we ijust for everyone's protection employees are involved I would not disc that is why executive sessions happen so that issues can legal issues can be discussed do you tell me if I'm wrong no you're right I think don't want to get sh sure I get that I mean I think director Yanni was trying to avoid right yeah no I I wasn't bringing that up no I I wasn't bringing any of that up I I think if I can just help put this together really quick I you're saying you know you put your piece in and and um you were not no no one said what this was about I understand but the problem that's coming at hand here is there's things that
160have not are not talked about publicly but there's people who are talking about them publicly and then people are being questioned so I think that um nothing is said publicly towards the legal bills and things like that and then directors are being questioned about them and then they were never spoken about on the floor so I think the question at hand is you know to clarify the process for the public of okay some people know it's out there now how did this happen it was approved by the superintendent or such at the time and these were bills that were paid and that's just the the public conversation of it matter of fact the first investigation I remember the board was only U uh directed to pay only $1,500 on it um but as far as
161I'm concerned any member of this board who wants a copy of any of those admin uh in investigations as far as I'm concerned you're more than welcome to have it I'm not hiding anything it was all done by an independent investigator and on it wasn't done by the superintendent it wasn't done by Pat lafy it was done by somebody who was independent right and then that's those are the charges that we incurred so that's I'm saying I did absolutely nothing wrong and no I'm you know I've been going around and I've been getting by one Department a group of people that maybe I'm asking too many questions I don't know I mean I'm at the point where I can't even walk into a school and uh certain people would love to come and investigate me
162uh matter of fact I'll tell you what uh last year around this time we can't we can't have these you know what I always get cut off and I never I don't think he's disclosing anything that's confidential I'm telling you if you want them you may have them I'm not hiding anything okay I I think I think then solic telling us absolutely following saying stop absolutely it doesn't matter what someone starts to say what if you accidentally say something in a process that leads to the identity the only thing for the record that I I do I'm I'm sorry bre is that in some of these situations if it is appealed the board also becomes the Judiciary board so you and that's that's a hearing process so having this having me in an executive session
163say hey we investigated Pat lafy we did not we did not um and and that's going to come to you then I'm tting that case Okay Jared just I just I just want to say one other thing I I think it might be helpful then and I did suggest this to uh director Holmes that we as a board have a very broad discussion of the principles of governance and Leadership so that we could discuss all of this in a really transparent way um with the public just like director fox said so I'm going to restate my interest and my request to um director Holmes I know that he vehemently denied that request stating that I was what I was going to be finger pointing and and and acting negatively no that's what you put I
164would be finger pointing um and and I I guess one of the things I've always remembered is assume positive and end and that's that's what I've tried to do with you I don't because you do like to call out what I said is that I would not don't excuse me I'm speaking what I said is I don't think I have to sit here and listen to you say with me you don't what I'm saying again is I didn't want anyone to finger point so what you saw was a cut and paste email that went out and I made it clear to you that that was a email sent out because what I didn't want was this conversation to happen where we would get into this so it's attempt because we have people sometimes get that
165they're professionals and that childish and try to Goat others what I'm trying to avoid is US embarrassing ourselves and having these conversations I made it very clear that everyone has access to that document all year long correct we can have this conversation executive session I believe certain people want to have it publicly to call others out to go to others I'm trying to avoid that because that doesn't serve the people we serve properly and when a superintendent can call for an investigation again under 000 she doesn't need a board permission and again when the solicitor tells me to stop I don't listen to director Yanni I listen to Sol absolutely so I was telling you to stop because I felt as though you were going there and potentially we could Avail someone's personal information that
166does not need to get out thus causing ourselves to be in the lawsuit because that is a smart thing to do and I was discussing things very broadly speaking Cara from my point of view MH if you can't get them from the district I'll find try to find them if I didn't throw them out I'll be more than happy to give anybody on the board uh a copy of them and just so that you're aware on the second complaint I have an attorney already on file to file a lawsuit um against the people who filed against me for the main reason there's uh discrepancies between the uh complaint and the investigation and but what I'm saying okay so the only thing that I want to clarify a motion to recess for five minutes I second
167I said my more than welcome by the way posting on social media as well I also submitted bills I think your incendiary remarks on social media should definitely be discussed publicly and it was refused excuse me Dr bwick are cursing up here wow and you've said it three times since I've been sitting here this evening if you can't act professional what what is that I should grow up we're having a very professional conversation we're taking a 5 Second 5 minute recess e e e need no I just just for the record everyone's returned after the recess of ninee President said's just not back yet he'll be back you going note that one is missing right now yep I'll make a note of that bud bance please continue yes and we are removing the bill list
168and the exception Bill list from the consent agenda we will have a motion to approve the 2025 general fund budget as reviewed at our earlier meeting and discussion or motion for Real Estate assessment approvals yeah I do not have anything this time however obviously our voting meeting is December 9th so we have a couple weeks on that and do we have any contract updates jump am I okay Community relation relation okay uh we'll have a motion to approve donations PS Bank to Neil Armstrong Elementary and West High Pride team to West Granton High School um was that in the packet what I don't why is West High Pride team to w in high school is that what are they donating they're they're donating direct decorations I don't know if it's teachers that are bringing in
169decorations for Deck the Halls so there wasn't any monetary amount on there but okay I'm not sure that we even need to have it on there but I just to cover myself I did I think we're anyone have any questions okay education motion to approve commissions to attend meetings and conferences motion to approve out of state field trips and if necessary a motion to approve special ed settlements there are special ed settlements for correct and two I'm operations motion to approve motion to approve the 2025 health and safety plan there are no changes no and just so you know this will be the last approval of that but Pat and I looked it up and you have to keep it active until all ERS is exhausted so this should be the last approval of that
170are we adding this feasibility study and cost analysis doing yes Personnel all right so on the non-consent agenda we have a motion to approve the Personnel report and then we have a discussion motion uh for crossing guard compensation paing are we having a yeah regarding the I guess regarding the uh crossing guard compensation do we have an update on that pad or uh yes um I'll provide more information in the packet I did want to speak to attorney gilbride one more time however we've been in touch he believes that the council is is U possibly or is encouraged to look at updating this compensation I will have more information in the board packet I will say that the city's Scranton administration had some other uh requests related to the management and administration of the crossing
171guard program however we're not there just yet but we still feel that we can possibly move forward with updating the conversation for the for this um uh for the crossing guards while that other discussion is still ongoing all right so for next meeting we will be approving crossing guard compensation you'll be presented with an option to sorry yes okay thank you y I'll get it it'll be in this weekend I wanted to touch SP with attorney one more time okay okay um policy we will have a motion to approve first read updates revisions 005 organization 308 Employment contract board resolution 253 SSD update gender identity and expression 823 opioid antagonist it's a new title um I would like to provide a brief overview as policy chair with policy 005 it was asked to be included
172on this agenda um several months ago policy 005 was revised to State a board member is ineligible for reappointment as committee chair of the same committee upon the expiration of their one-year term um this revision was was passed with a majority vote I received two emails recently from two different directors about this policy um one email stated that some directors might not be expecting to hand over the reign of their committees and would like this clarified to possibly reconsider um based on that I I um moved forward with adding it to the agenda a little bit of background here when the revision was adopted I stated it was a way just for all directors to remain equal and I still feel the same um I'm still opposed to a director sitting as a chair of
173a committee indefinitely as we we are all equally elected we represent the entire Scranton Community not just those under a certain committee we were elected to represent the people as my friend May Connors would say when certain directors feel that they are entitled to remain as chair over other equally directed excuse me equally elected directors it gives the appearance that those directors are more important than their board colleagues so just to help balance everything and remain equal that's where this whole revision came from and like I said it was passed several months ago um I still remain in support of this revision but um as asked by my board colleagues um we it's back up for discussion for a possible revision again I think this was also added because there's a psba component to it
174yes sh so Danielle just for clarification is this this is only for for all the reasons you just St is this this is only for committee chairs not for board leaders ership I believe when it was passed it was just for the the board the committee chairs okay so in the policy it only reflects the committee chairs not board leadership correct okay you say by school called uh any chairman or any um board official can be removed with five members of the board well no you're not you're not exactly correct that was in practice there was a recent right that's what was actually just removed from this policy the the changes in the current policy but theoretically you you meet those qualifications five directors can have anybody removed from uh that that that was the
175standard wisdom that was certainly the advice that I gave for 40 some years until this case came along it is a third circuit case so it's going to of uh respect uh I don't know I don't know I can tell you I I thought the case was off the wall but I'm on the court it's five votes on everything so I mean if you want to remove Mr Holmes go get five votes they did it back in 19 I know but this is this is 2024 John I agree and sometimes my history uh comes back to haunt me but back in uh the 80s we had a president of this board board and uh she was removed by five members of the board but I know you're saying the law has been updated I understand
176that I'm just giving you a little bit of History you know um Mr Casey before that case came down uh me and uh I say 90% of the school Law Bar in Pennsylvania would have agreed with you I know as I said I'm going back in time but the psba recommen recommended changes in this policy are in line with the third circuit ruling is that correct and yeah there's there's one thing that I'm not sure requires a full hearing reques some kind of opportunity circuit as I said I don't think any school practitioner would agree with before which is that there's a property interest that have who would you have do process in front of so in other words five people want you gone they you now go before the five people minimum that want
177you gone and you have your due process you get your say I mean it's a paper tiger ultimately you're going to have a vote of the board itself and I would say that unless there is a violation of some protected right some protected class or something like that um that that those five votes are probably going to Prevail but only after notice notification here and that's not to remove someone from the board that's from the committee post no no well that's that's specifically from the president's position but the other officers I think there's no reason to distinguish them based on the opinion but I don't know about the committee posts but president the secretary the treasurer any of those positions uh the same the same logic would apply I don't see any reason why they
178would be uh thought of any differently as having you know property right that could Tak away without basic I the the reason I asked that this be added to the agenda though is in addition to those recommended changes that language that director chz recited I think it is at odds with our book of rules that states that the board president has the authority to appoint committee chairs and and I think the board president's authority to appoint committee chairs negates any claim that any of us are are somehow holding on to a seat I think we each have the right to request to continue our work no I agree I I don't think that the the third circuit opinion uh could be um extrapolated to commune chair right I don't I don't think I don't agree
179with you I think it I think it applies to uh those offices that are identified by the school code which are president vice president secretary and treasur school code does not make any mention whatsoever of committees and I mean my my feeling with this I I was clear about it at the time I I think this takes a a tool out of the board president's toolbox to be able to structure the board in a way that is positive for the governing of the district but I also ask this question again I mean I I don't have a problem with accepting the will of the board and moving on but I asked it at this time because well first of all when we received the information for the uh reorganization packet I assumed that we would
180be seeing the principles of governance and Leadership on this agenda as well as the Book of Rules so I would join the chorus saying that that should have been on this agenda but particular to this matter I'm getting the impression from some emails I think um director Merkel you had a a potential future meeting date on your agenda this evening I'm getting the impression from some of the conversations I'm hearing at this table some emails that I'm I'm seeing go by that there are people who may be in the middle of what they're trying to accomplish or who may feel they've just gotten an understanding of their role as it pertains to a committee or built relationships with administrators and I I think if they would like to continue in that capacity they should at
181least have the right to make that request of whomever is serving as board president after reorganization so I guess um just to be clear so attorney fre um the president's choice would then supersede policy 005 as far as the appointing of committee chairs then the way I read um policy as it currently stands is that the president has the prerogative to appoint committee chairs and appoint people to the Committees and that's typically the way I see it in done in most districts but John I don't believe that's in policy I believe that's in the Book of Rules and that's where I saw it I I guess I'm I'm calling it The Book of Rules we call it something else but I mean my understanding was always that policy ruled the day if I'm not a
182disadvantage not having the documents in front of me right so it's hard to really it's hard really give you professional advice without having to I guess I'm just looking like how to proceed with it whether it's something we vote on to change or if it's if it's the President's Choice regardless of the policy then we just leave it as it is and move forward so I think would would you like John to send you his legal opinion on what supersedes what that would be wonderful if we could send it to the whole board that would be great thank you but now just I'm sorry I can't be more precise really don't feel like could be more precise without having the documents sure sure John you need time to research so so then but if it
183comes up that the policy is more important in this matter and there are directors that want to retain their seat then is that something that we would want to bring up for oh we can make that change for the next meeting correct yeah it's already on here so I think it would just come up for a vote then is that correct the board can make whatever policy it wants with regard to committee chairs so since this is already on here we could recommend the change if there was ones that wanted I don't I don't know any circumstance besides what you were saying about Marie how she was it seemed like she wanted to continue her work um potentially in that area so is that so do we wait for John's email and then see if
184we want to well I'll look at it prop this before I did send you guys an email you and Aaron I'm sorry you and Virginia an email asking that question as it was proposed to me so I could get guidance and provide it out I sent it to you what last week was that where I said a question was asked could someone please provide me with guidance so I can provide the accurate information instead of guessing I did go back and read Roberts h of order my interpretation of it may be different than what you see John but last week I did send an email asking for guidance specifically on this so you could provide your legal opinion to the board when it when the question was raised thought I get I'll look at it
185tomorrow a light dat to because I actually did Jenny I had you bring up the motion too correct that was voted on when it was voted on correct yeah just director Holmes so I could just say something I'm sorry Katie no go ahead um that night was very confusing with voting on some of the changes with that policy because Tom just reminded me and Sean we all thought we were voting on something else so it was very confusing the way everything was presented that night so that's why we asked for it to be brought back up again so then can we just like the other items say can we take a consensus if there's members enough members that want to see the change in the policy so that we know where we're going instead of
186I mean John's decision on this doesn't even matter if enough important members want to change the policy I right policy chair how do you want the policy to read um so maybe what we can do we could leave it as it is and we could go around and get consensus yes or no whether we are okay with it as it is right now or if we'd want to see it changed as as it is I don't okay um I have it open here if that's helpful yeah that would be sure thank you the same school director may not hold more than one Office of the board no commissioned officer I'm no I'm lying that is the wrong thing I apologize I scrolled I've lost it well just actually I just have the line if that's
187all that everyone's worried about I have it right here where it says a board member is I'm sorry ineligible for reappointment as committee chair the same committee upon the expiration of the one-year term yes so the consensus would be do you agree with that that you have a one-year term or do you disagree with that that you should be able to hold a multi-year term that's what you're going to take in senses on Jenny go call yep's that talks about President's basically we take a vote right now but you're saying it doesn't matter what the policy says as long as the majority does am I correct so the majority can supersede the policy majority can make any policy so we can take a roll call on that right now to supered that's basically what I
188said before yeah five can we clarify if we're saying yes we want it how it is if we say no we would like to change the one year how about if we just go change and don't change why don't we do this wait for the legal opinion and then we'll make but as we said we don't need the legal opinion if there's five members that want to change the policy anyway yeah you said five so right now five do the consensus if we want to option one read it again please so she can so because option one a board member is ineligible for reappointment as committee chair of the same committee upon the expiration of their one-year term and then option two is if you to strike okay Jenny yes you have that option one
189or option two so the board member is going to tell me option one or two correct correct okay Mr borwick option two Mr Casey I passed Mrs chesk option one to stay the same Miss Fox to change Miss G Martin option two to strike out Miss Merkel option two M Mr mcandrew option two m Mrs johnni one Mr Holmes option two one two three four five six now I could vote I think heing stop you didn't announce the vote I passed no I could come back now according to Robert's R I'm allowed to vote now announced actually I vote for number one okay so then it's 53 no change okay we voted for the change there should be wait did you say five three there should be three to stay the same should be there
190should be nine three for option one is did same six for option two and six for option two so then at the next meeting the voting meeting it'll that part will be removed and we'll be voting on it revised right follow up with ber with an email just to make sure please okay you don't want to policy that's everything for policy vender I have one other question about the policies I I believe that everything is other than what we've just discussed everything other than 253 gender identity and expression is a psba recommendation is that true no okay no there was um uh our our transgender policy uh is not not consistent with what BBA says and where did those recommendations come from I don't were were place so so yeah I I had been called
191into a situation where I referenced the policy and upon referencing the policy I asked for a legal review of the policy um and John reviewed it and then he said this is not aligned with psba regulations okay psba suggestion of policy so is what is in here now what are the recommended changes aligned I think I we talking about the changes that I suggest gend I mean yeah well specifically there was a concern about what name change and it's our change it says that on their SC School distri change okay yeah and I I think that the policy as you know prior to our changed uh our our recommendations for changing essentially would have allowed um uh name change even on official documents you know at the request of we definitely do not that okay
192so the changes were uh as as you see certain things that the student can Quest um other things that definitely need more formality to have changed and I think we address that in the CH it was like a uh to have the to have the change the record change it would have to be on the birth certificate or court order but I mean what I am reading here it looks as though this preserves the students dignity respects how they would like to be addressed still stays also puts the district in the appropriate legal standard in terms of documentation and that's yeah that's kind of what I was going to say when I took a read of it and I'm not an attorney what I what I knew of current case law which is what you
193eventually have to align to we did not align with current case law so I John to review the policy so that our policy aligned with the most current laws um so the child rights are defended but we also have the most legally defensible actions so can you recommend this I recommended the changes that uh I was asked to make Case Closed anything else on policy vendor under vendor relations we'll have a motion to approve mom and pop contracts if any and a motion to approve the updated list of Transportation Drivers before we before we we have session I need 10 minutes of your time um in room where we normally meet right back here tyan we'll be able to have the resolution on the gymnasium on the agenda corre that was St I just wanted
194to make sure okay before we go Happy Thanksgiving everyone stay safe motion to adjourn minutes okay