School Board Meeting - 4/16/26

001I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for which it stands, one nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. >> May we have roll call? >> Jason Decker >> here. >> Mary Lee Hall >> here. Samantha Hall >> here. William Hall >> here. >> Jeremy Hash >> here. >> Jennifer Hankle >> here. Nathan Hankle >> here. >> Lisa Staler >> here. >> I'm answering for >> She doesn't have much. >> Joseph Wilson >> here. >> Thank you. I'll entertain a motion to approve the April 16th, 2026 board agenda as presented. >> So moved. >> Second. >> Any discussion? Any naysay or abstensions? Hearing none, that motion carries. Entertain a motion to approve the March 19th, 2026 minutes. >> So moved. >> Second. >> Any

002discussion? >> Any or abstensions? Hearing? None. That motion carries. Which brings us to 4.01. Uh Caleb, >> how you guys doing? >> Good. Spring. >> It's coming very fast. Um it's much much warmer than when we last had a meeting. So, no complaints here. Makes running outside a little bit nicer. Um, got mostly dates for you guys today. Um, few other notes. Um, starting on April 4th, which is the spring career expo. It's a, um, great opportunity for career seminar students to participate in a mock interview with multiple community members. So, if you're a parent or community member interested in helping to support this event, reach out to Mr. Mr. Amberman in the high school counseling office. Then on April 29th is the arts and tech fair from 5:00 p.m. to 8:00 p.m. It's a

003K through2 art and technical education um event. There's also a balsa and salsa um portion of it. I'm sure some of you remember from last year. I um I'm a judge for that. I'm very excited. Um I've heard there's some good salsas in the works. Um then also that night is the spring orchestra concert. Um they've got a great show planned. I've got a few friends in orchestra. Um heard some good things so far. Then on May 2nd, the high school prom will happen at the Valencia Ballroom from 6:00 p.m. to 10 p.m. And postp prom will follow at the high school. Um it's always very fun event. Everyone's all dressed up. Um then May 4th through the 8th is teacher appreciation week. Another very exciting event. Um that's great opportunity um to pro provide

004shoutouts for staff members who go above and beyond. So I challenge all the students, parents, send an email. It's all it takes to brighten a teacher's day. Um also starting on May 4th, not as amazing as AP exams. um got a few that I'm a little bit nervous for, but we'll be okay. Then on 12th and 15th is key or sorry, 12th to 15th is Keystone exams. So that'll be for high school and middle school students in algebra, biology, or English 10. Then on May 29th, can't believe I'm saying this, that's the last day of school. Um, and graduation will be that night, I think at 6:00 p.m. or 7:00 p.m. I don't have an exact time for that. Then a couple other notes for everyone. I was invited to attend the America 250 PA

005event at the National Constitution Center in Philadelphia. Um, that's an event in Philly where PA senators picked two high school students to represent their district. Um, I was um I was chosen by Kristen Phillips Hill. So, special thank you to her and to Mr. Pausner. Um, he made our first first meeting when I went up and shadowed possible. Um, and additionally, I also tied for first, but I've been saying one to make myself feel better. Um, the York County Bar Association annual law day contest. So, I'll be attending their law day event on May 1st with Dr. Sterner um, as well as Mr. Pausner. So, another big thank you, Mr. Pausner. Um, then a few athletic notes. There's lots of events on campus. I'm sure sure you all saw as you were parking. Um, boys

006lacrosse, which it sounded like we were winning. I heard some cheering. Um, middle school track meet. Um, and I think volleyball of some sort. I heard Mr. Carrington say. Um, then I also talked about this at last meeting. Patrick O'Brien broke his previous school record again um with a height of 15 feet and one inch. I think this is the second time that he's beat his record. Um very very impressive. Um also very fun to watch. Um then I did actually have a piece of last meeting that I wanted to pick out. Um hang on, let me find it. I wanted to ask a qu clarifying question about a comment that you made, Mr. Hankle, saying um what was constitutionally required by school districts. I was a little bit confused by that because we are

007not a district that does anything at a bare minimum. Um not athletics, not academics, not theater, not music, nothing. And I think when programs start to be cut, it will become a little bit more real to parents in the district that um that will be the bare minimum. And I think I'm a good example of someone who has used the school district for what it's meant to do and prepare you for the future. Um and I would be very disappointed if other students that are younger than me would not have the same kind of opportunities or access. Um, that's about all I have on that, but just a little clarification would be appreciated. >> Sure. I mean, I I can answer. Uh, I think you have to ask that question about what your constitutional obligations

008are because the things that are above and beyond that are in fact discretionary. Now, just because they're discretionary doesn't mean you don't do them, but it means you do look at them and decide whether or not you do them. And I think we have to balance uh the interests of the taxpayers with the interests of the students. >> And if I could if I could comment um so later on in that meeting and I'm not you may not have been there because I know sometimes they get pretty late. Um it was established by Mrs. agreed that even with all of our budget difficulties that we're dealing with, no student programs are being cut. None. Zero student programs are being cut. So, I think it's really important that we're heard on that. There are no student

009programs being cut in the current budget that we we're working on. >> I think another one of my concerns was not backfilling positions. I know there's a situation the high school where >> sure >> a third of the language >> and we're going to get we're going to get into those weeds >> desperately >> right >> um you know but the the there's a lot of re realities behind uh not backfilling those positions that don't really have anything to do with what the the decisions that this board is making. They're really based upon the decisions that our community is making in the number of students that live in our community. And we have no control over that. This board has no control over that. The administration has no control of that. Our teachers have no

010control over that. That's a decision that's being made by our community. There are a lots of reasons for that. I'm sure um >> some of them are even student interest. I mean, foreign language specifically, it's student interest that is impacting those decisions. you know, but the numbers I don't I think don't people think people that really understand the how much of a percentage it has dropped 11.6%. You know, since since 2019 so it is inevitable that this is coming when when you have that sort of percentage of drops. So I respect your your perspective and I love the school as much as you do. I loved being here sounds like as much as as you have >> and and felt like this place gave me a great sound off as it has also for you

011>> and congratulations all those wonderful things that you're going to be doing. Are you going to go to law school after college? Are you thinking about that? >> Probably not. Um, I'm thinking PR right now, >> so likely no law school, but >> that's awesome. >> I would just like to encourage you. I You took the time to ask for clarification and to give people a chance to expound on what they meant. Not enough of that is happening. Well done. >> What a perfect gentlemanly behavior. I'm impressed. All right. Uh, moving on to item 5.01. We're going to have a proposed budget presentation by uh, Susan Green and Trevor Carrington. All right. Thank you. So um just to kick us off with our budget presentation, this will be um sort of highlights from what we've

012had the past few months. So we started presenting the budget uh first version of this was November. We presented a budget last last month uh at the finance and budget meeting. So in March and then we'll just get rolling to our presentation. So uh just some high level. All right. So, our objectives, uh, we're just going to really give again that summary of the budget, um, this evening. It's on the agenda for approval. Um, if you would like to kind of see more of those details, we had that big budget presentation in in March and that was uh, available on YouTube if you'd like to watch that. So, again, we're not going to rehash all of the same conversations, but again, just going to show the highlights. And then finally, we're going to conclude with

013what the next steps of this process are. So a year ago in March u March 2025 we talked about some budget vulnerab vulnerabilities that we had um a lot of those vulnerabilities have come back or they never left. So we presented those throughout the year and again just to highlight them. So revenues um we have little growth in our real estate tax assessment. We beat that up last month. So again, not to rehash it too much, but that was a vulnerability and a concern we had last March and it continues to be a concern we had most recently in March and again this month. Um, our earned income tax, we didn't talk about that last year. Um, this is an area of a concern and if you think about our big budget kind of wos

014this year, revenue is a big item for it. Um, interest earnings, that was something we talked about. Interest earnings, uh, we have less cash to invest. rates are going down too, but less cash means less interest earnings. And then just the uncertainty or or limited growth of state and federal funding. Uh as far as expenditures, we have some health insurance. We had large increases past several years. We continue to see those increases. Um one item that wasn't there was the cost of utilities. Talked about that in November, again in February, again in March. We've talked about that a handful of times. Those are uh cost increases we keep seeing. And then lastly, uh, debt service. So, we've presented on some capital project needs from the district. And again, uh, need to talk through what our

015debt service looks like for that. So, before we talk about what next year looks like for the budget, just it's important to focus focus on our projections for this year. Uh, this remains unchanged from what we presented last month. So, again, if you like more detail, that March presentation would be helpful to watch. But really this year it looks like projected revenues um compared to budget are down by about $343,000. We don't like it when revenues go down. We like revenues to go up. Expenditures on the other hand, those are down. We like it when expenditures are down compared to budget. Um however, overall we are using projecting to use our fund balance this year. That would be one of the first times and we kind of used it last year but really that was

016for some capital transfers. Um, so again, we're showing that we're going to use about $1.3 million of fund balance in 2526. Again, that doesn't include what we're uh transferring for capital projects, but it's just important to note we do anticipate using some of our fund balance this year to uh make the 2526 budget kind of wrap up. So, expenditures, I'll cover expenditures. Mrs. Green will get the revenue side this time. Um, we have our base budget. So, the budget we have on the agenda tonight for approval is round number about $68 million. So, $67,990,227. Um, that represents a decrease from our budget in 2526. So, revenues didn't like couple slides back you saw revenues, they weren't up from projections. Um, without raising taxes, one of the things that we have is a decrease in our

017expenditures of about $414,000. So 6%. One of the big factors we focused on this year with our budget was enrollment. And as Mr. Hall mentioned, we do have that decline in enrollment. So again, this is just a highlight of the chart we showed last month. So in 1516, we had 3,100 kids that we were paying for. So that's what that blue line represents. And then now in 2526, our estimate for that is 28.47. So about a little over 2,800 students that we are paying for. The line on the bottom is the students that are attending here at Southern York. So they're the students that are coming in every day. Um again in 1516 that was about 3,000 students and now it's just right under 2700. So we do have that enrollment decline. And so one

018of the things that comes with the enrollment decline is really looking at our class size. So, this is something that we don't just wake up and do in February and say, "Oh, we have to look at class sizes for next year." Um, this has been a process that we've worked with our entire administrative team for a very long time. So, we've been working um collaboratively with this team for many months to understand what our enrollment looks like this year, what it looks like next year, what those projections are, and then what the staffing requirements are for next year, and what levels of need we'll have. So, again, it's something we look at our classroom teachers, classroom sizes, um the needs for our special education teachers, and then what other supports are needed for um our

019student population, how we can serve them. So, how does that relate to the budget? Um, enrollment, talk about teachers. Next step would be the staffing based on that enrollment. So, really to kind of start getting into some of the numbers, the budget that we have on the agenda tonight, our proposed budget has a reduction of 13 professional staff positions that were removed from the budget. Um, last month it was 12, but we can get to that last part in at the end of the presentation. Uh, reduction of seven support staff positions. Um it's important to note and it's something we noted in March. All of these positions will be reduced through attrition. So these were positions that there's a retirement resignation or just unfilled at some point. Um and again these were done these determinations

020and decisions were done um through lots of meetings um throughout the year really to understand what our student needs uh at all building levels were overall. How does this look for the budget? Um, so we have a salary decrease of 1.87% compared to 2526, which is about a decrease of $539,000. Where do these 13 + 7 positions come from? Um, so as I mentioned, attrition, it's important to note that we did look um, so in 2324, this attrition, how does it relate? So we have the 13 and the seven for this year. Since 2324 through attrition and just budgetary practices we are down 20 professional staff positions. So that's 13. So in those years prior we have reduced an additional seven just not as drastic as 13. So what are those 13 positions and where

021would you find them? Um they're in kind of spread throughout the district. So we have secondary core subject level areas um elective courses, special education staff. We also have elementary classroom teachers and then other specialist positions. So, it's not just one area, it's truly districtwide. Then we have seven support staff positions that are either unfilled, will not be filled due to vacancies or resignations. Um, those consist of pair professional positions. Um, but then the vacancies and love of not filling those positions is shared everywhere. So it's not just pair pro positions, it's operations, it's maintenance and technology. So it's again just like teachers, it's spread districtwide. It's not just one area, one specific class, nothing like that. So next we so we're professional services firm or organization. Uh we have about 69% of our budget

022is salary and benefits. Spent a little bit talking about salary. when you reduce salaries, you would presumably have a reduction in benefits. So again, this is an overall decrease of about $95,000 year-over-year. There's two factors. One is health insurance. That was one of our vulnerabilities that we thought of last year. It continues to be an area of vulnerability. So you can see we have an overall decrease in our benefits this year. Um however, health insurance is an increase of $443,000 was about 7.2%. 2% budgettobudget. It's important to know that 7.2% budget-to budget increase is after a rate increase of 15%. So the reason it's not 15% is because of choices for the the individuals with insurance, but also those retirements, resignations, and positions that are going unfilled. our Pasers, so our pension system, the amount

023we pay as a district that we're obligated to pay for pension, and then social security costs, which are on every salary dollar. Um, that is down by $457,000. And really that is just a result of staff reductions, but then also we did have a reduction in the Pasers rate this year. So kind of two factors mainly though the biggest factor would be reduction of staff positions because pasers just to give context is about 33 cents on every salary dollar. So when you reduce $1 it kind of is amplified. Then we have purchase services. So this combines kind of everything when we don't hire somebody it's a purchase service. It could represent um contracted subbing, but it also is encompassed in this would be student placements, transportation, some variable things. This one is different. This increased

024by about $94,000 or 70.79%. So, a little under 1%. Um, some of the largest drivers here would be contracted professional services. So an example might be we have a uh professional position that is not being filled but in order to meet the same level of needs. We are contracting that out. Other items would be student tuition and placements. That is just the whole gamut of everything. I'll touch on that on the next slide um in more detail, but that's up $57,000. Then we have student transportation. So student transportation, it doesn't look like it's that significant of a change. It's only $21,000, but it's the combination of two things. We have a decrease in our f first student cost would be our district transportation. So, at some point in the budget presentation in March, we talked

025about our changes and kind of the budget decisions we made. One of those was the reduction of three bus routes or three three buses from the 206 27 budget. So that is what kind of contributes to that decrease in our first student expense, but that is net with an increase in IU transportation. So we do contract that out. So overall the the down of the first student and the up of the IU transportation nets at that $21,000. And then liability insurance. This had been going up for many years. It's actually nice to see it leveling out. Um that's not as drastic of a change. So, I mentioned student placements that was up about $57,000. Student placements could be many different things. So, we have students that attend York County School of Technology. We have those

026that are um kind of placed through the Lincoln Intermediate Unit. Um they might attend other local districts or other educational placements. Also included in there would be um Charter and Cyber School or Lincoln Edge, which is our kind of option for that. Um really it's important to note we we have the obligation to meet every student and serve them but there are times where students might have better op or different options. So for that family maybe attending that cyber school um or York Tech something like that. Overall why is this important to talk about? It's about $6 million in our budget or 8 point within rounding 8.8% 8% of our total budget expenditures are for our ability to meet all those student needs at those other uh educational placements. Kind of speeding through this, but

027the rest of our expenditures would really be supplies and equipment. Um that increased by about 130,000 $129,000 or about 3.5%. uh some cost drivers there. I don't want to beat it up too much, but natural gas and electricity, we had talked a lot about that um at some the other presentations. So really, we're just seeing increases in the rate, some adder fees which are contributing to higher costs there. Um some highlights with reductions would be diesel fuel and replacement equipment. Um really go back to utilities, we do hedge, so we are looking outward for those costs. We are looking to lock those costs in when they're good. um diesel fuel, we have 75% of our fuel hedged in January or December time frame. So, we got a good price then. Um we have not hedged

028the rest of the 25% because we are waiting for rates to go down. Um they're way too high right now. So, we'll have some hopefully better rates in the coming months. So, really what does this look like? This was again a quick presentation of the expenditure side of the budget. Um, if you like more detail, if you're watching from home or need to remember, um, we presented on it in March, but really here's the high level. We have a budget that's right under $68 million. It is a decrease of just above $400,000 or about 6% um, change compared to last year. Turn it over. >> Okay. So, we will take a look at the revenues now. And I know a lot of times um when you're looking at budgets, you spend a lot of time

029on the expenditure side, but the revenue side is just as important. Um it is the second half of the equation. Um so our total revenues, you can see on the pie chart to your left, if you're looking at the screen, um most of our local most of our revenues are local revenues, about 64% um 35% from the state and a little under 1% um federal and others. So, um, really we're looking most of our revenues coming from local sources. Um, and then the chart on the right of the screen, um, of those local revenues, most of them are property taxes. So, as Mr. Carrington said, um, some of the concerns we have right now with revenue, look at our, um, this is, you know what, we skipped a I thought we skipped a wrong way.

030Sorry about that. Yep, we missed that slide. Um, so this starting off revenues, we talked about the different um types of revenue, but we wanted to show you this um this slide because the importance here is that our revenues are very stagnant. You can see the last um real percentage increase was the 23 24 year and that really has to do with the federal revenue that we got at that time about $2.1 million and as you can see we're down to about um $469,000 now. So that was the the money that came from the pandemic. Um and since then we have had very stagnant revenue. So um very low um percentage changes in that area. um really um looking at local overall um having a decrease there. Um some of that um from the local

031standpoint is due to um Homestead Farmstead. So we'll talk a little bit about that. So the Homestead Farmstead um increases that we've gotten from the state are really appreciated. So that money goes directly to reducing property taxes um for constituents that have approved homestead farmstead properties. Um since the 2122 year there um we have received about $800,000 to reduce um taxes in the district. Um so as you can see um median household um went from about $34.90 down to 3353. Um, and that's important because that was a great amount of money from the state, $800,000, but really that all went back to our taxpayers. So, from a funding standpoint, um, we weren't able to use any of that for um, our electricity increases or our diesel fuel increases or any of those types of things,

032even salary increases. So, but it is great for our our taxpayers. So, um, from 2122 to current, um, taxes, uh, for median, um, households are down $136. So, um, we hope to see those continue. Um, we got about a $250,000 increase from last year to this year. We will learn more about that probably somewhere around the May first time frame. >> Is there any risk to downside on that? Could we see a shock where we get less homestead? Well, I will tell you, I forget the year because they run together, but um several years ago there was a very tight budget at the state level and there were talks about that. Um so we had a lot of fear. That is a fear we have. I don't quote me on this, but I think it

033came out that they can't do that, that they can't lower it. I don't know that to be fact, but I think that's what came around and then we got the same exact amount. But I will say this, um, for the first 10 years of the program, we literally got the same amount every single year. It never changed. So it didn't start changing till about 2122, which is why we put that on the slide. Um, as our first starting year. Um, so I do like to give a shout out to the state because from about 2006 to 2021, there was no change at all. Um, so when we got more properties in our district, people's um, homestead farmstead went down from that standpoint. So, it could go down if we get more properties that qualify, but

034if you're getting $250,000, your risk is is lowered by that. But when we were getting the same exact amount each year, the risk was higher and we would have that. It go, you know, um the amount would go down by like $10. So, it looked like you had an increase without us giving an increase. So, budget summary, you kind of want to take everything and and and put it together now. So, um as Mr. Carrington said um really to balance the budget this year, we looked at um ways to be able to do that since our revenues really are not increasing or very stagnant. Um so overall we're we've removed 13 professional staff positions from the budget. Um seven support staff positions from the budget. Um two additional buses for a total of three. So

035we did not fill one of the bus routes this school year. Um it'll be two more for next school year. Um and reducing our building budgets by about 10%. Um we do still have those increase in ex in expenditures due to education and health insurance and then of course the utilities that Mr. Carrington talked about. Um it does not include any amount for millage or future building updates. So that is another area that we're going to need to continue to look at um as the district moves forward on possibly doing some renovations. Um and this budget does use about $2.7 million of fund balance. So we do have a pretty high reliance on fund balance. Um and if you uh watch the presentation from last month um there's a recommendation to try to um reduce

036that reliance on fund balance to balance. Um so this kind of summarizes overall um our our revenues are lower than our expenditures by $2.7 million. So we're using fund balance. So, if we look at our fund balance um from the beginning of this fiscal year um to the end of this fiscal year, we're estimating to go from about $27 million down to about 16.2 million. Um a lot of that for capital projects, but also um using it in the 2526 um fiscal year. So, history of our tax increases in the last 10 years, we have not raised taxes um multitude of times. Um so this will be the seventh year in the last 10 years um that we would not have a tax increase. Does keep us at the lowest in the area um by

037uh significant amount. Um we we kind of joke if we had the next person's up tax rate. Um we would have a lot less budget wos because it would give us about $4 million more. Um but we also have on here our homestead farmstead um median assessed property. Um so we do have the highest assessed property and our market value personal inacome a age ratio which really show shows the wealth of different districts and um the lower the number the higher the wealth. So um we are also considered um the highest we close to the highest wealth district. I think York Suburban's pretty close there too. Um we did present four budget options. Um what you've seen tonight is is option number four um from that presentation. Um and again as we roll forward fund

038balance because we always look at fund balance it's our cash reserves. Um it's important to keep an eye on that as we roll that forth um from this the end of this fiscal year. Um we do have a board policy that says we have unassigned fund balance of a minimum of 5% that would be about $3.4 million. Um we do have a potential to to need additional funding in Lincoln benefit trust next year about 210,000 and then that leaves us about $12.6 6 million of which um right now we have assigned for the budget deficit that we talked about 2.7 um leaving about $9.9 million for future capital projects um but significantly less than when we looked at starting July 1st 2025 budget next steps. So on the board agenda this evening is the proposed

039um budget for approval and then the final um budget approval in May. Um the in the proposed there's not um while we look at tax rate and those kinds of things there is we do not set the tax rate twice. You only do that in May um when the final budget is approved and then we will know the information on the homestead farmstead amounts and be able to bring that forth. >> Any questions? Lots. Um so if I could sort of go slide by slide. So, I know that we're seeing a decrease in the earned income tax amount uh coming into the school. Is that indicative of our aging population, people retiring, things of that nature? Is that why we're seeing a decline there? >> We believe that's what it is based on what we

040have. Um this would be the first year that we've had that. I'm honestly hoping it's an anomaly because sometimes there's timing differences with that. Um so the the problem not problem but the the concern with earned income tax is that we don't get the majority of it until May, June, July and August. Um when we acrew it back it's based on when it's actually earned. Um so we have not seen the majority of it yet. >> Okay. >> One of the things I had mentioned in the past is you know if you just use the voter role data as a proxy you see an average age over 60 that would obviously be indicative of people retiring. So that my assumption is that people are retiring and dropping off of the earned income roles and that's

041causing them >> because they are retiring. But it speaks about it speaks to our it's data that speaks to our community and its demographics. >> Yeah. And and I I've said this before, but I think it's it's going to be a long-term concern uh for us. I'd be surprised if we see it bounce back anytime soon. >> Okay. and and really in that same time frame and and the slide was not on here and a little hard for me to read, but we have seen pretty significant increase from the state over that time um in state funding. >> We have, but I the one thing I'll point out is remember 800,000 of it does not does not do anything for balancing our budget. It's going right back to reducing taxes. So, right. >> Um, I

042I think we have to be careful that we pull that piece out when we we look at it. >> And but in that farmstead, Homestead, and that was another one of my questions, that's not money coming from the school. That's essentially money coming from the state and then we're redirecting it to the taxpayers >> or pass through. >> Well, we're lowering we're lowering our our real estate tax that we're receiving and we're we're back filling it with that state money. >> Yeah. And that money is offset by the state. It's not a negative to the school districts also. >> No, it's not a negative, but it it it doesn't pay our bills. I guess I'll say it that way. >> But what I'm basically saying is yes, their property taxes are being lowered, but they're

043really ultimately being lowered by the state because the state is giving us that money in return. >> Um so just kind of moving on slide by slide. So even though um we are seeing a reduction in in professional staff teachers um that's about half about half of that is being seen across our elementary schools uh according to some information that I had gotten earlier and that we are still going to average right around 21 kids per class in our elementary schools taking that into consideration and that 21 is with well within our normal margins >> well within our policy. >> What's that? >> It's well within our board policy. >> Um, well, I I don't have the chart in front of me, but I had I had seen a chart that we averaged >> between

04420 and 22. >> Yeah. Right. Right. It was between 20 and 22 was our average >> going back like 10 years roughly about 10 years or so. I think it's about how far the chart went back was 10 years. So um now not that classes don't make bubbles and make difficulties cuz of course that that happens but we are at well within the margin of class sizes average where we have been for the last 10 years >> with with the reduction of the of the staff. Um, and then I I I took a little bit of li liberty across multiple slides because it sort of broke out all over the place and because it it looks like the total reduction in in the budget is about a million dollars across those 20 employees. Taking in

045the salaries, health benefits, and pasers, I just took those numbers and put them together. It's like it's almost $1.1 million of reduction. Um >> do you want to say something? >> Yeah. Um I Are you just combining the total change from those slides? >> Uh all I was combining is uh you say uh salary overall decrease plus uh overall decrease in in health insurance plus uh you say result of staff reductions would be that the peasers is down 457,000. health insurance there's actually an increase but there's a decrease in piecers and there's a those both figure into the overall decrease of 95405 in benefits so >> okay so then it would only be a million not 1.1 >> well it's so salary is 539 >> correct >> and then benefits are 95 so it's around

046you know what 630 >> yeah I30,000 >> is is the pasers the 475 It says result of staff reductions. Is that not accurate? Is that >> it is accurate? But it's so you could say that that's that Yeah. But it's offset by the the increase in health insurance that is happening in spite of >> Right. Right. Well, it would have been it would have been magnified. >> Yes. >> It would have been significantly magnified. >> Yeah. So if you're if you're saying what is the what is the impact of of the attrition? The health insurance isn't it it would actually be higher than that if not for for that. So you depend. >> Yeah. Can I can I clarify a minute? So on the slides are the overall budget numbers for those categories, but remember

047the existing staff will still get increases. So it isn't all due I mean the the actual reduction in position is going to be a much higher number because we have existing staff that would still get increases >> but it would be compounded if if we had not had the attrition. >> Yeah, absolutely. But I just wanted to be clear that that's not the it's a much higher number because you have built-in normal increases. >> Yes. >> Um Okay. Um, so and I don't know that you'll have this number right off of the top of your head, but I would be very interested in understanding um what is entailed in the uh 10% decrease in building budgets and you 10% of of what you know um I I don't really have a a a good understanding

048of what our our building budgets are and you know what how that what that 10% is and what sort of an impact it it does or doesn't have on the budget. >> So um each of our buildings have um money that comes to them for um their internal use in their building. Um so their copers um their books in their libraries, their field trips um trying to think of the other mage supplies, teacher supplies um >> copers is a larger line item, supplies are a larger line item. So, if you look at your detailed budget booklet, and I think we sent a description out of what is in here, um, but in the back of your detailed budget booklet, um, there's each of the building budgets. Um, and they each got a 10% reduction. And

049so, um, they're going to they'll be working through what that means. Obviously, cop from a copier standpoint, we have agreements for that. So, it's not going to be copier. So it would it would be in the areas of supplies, field trips, um other things like that that um we would be we would just have to tighten about more in those areas. >> But do we have do we have a sense of what that 10% what is it? What is >> Yeah, it's a little less it's less than $100,000 overall >> across all the buildings. >> Yes. >> Okay. >> Yeah. they don't they because their supply or their uh their staffing and all those things transportation is is done district-wide. So, it's really those specific to um like I'll pick on the high school like

050family and consumer science at the high school would have part of that building budget um for their use. So, it's those types of of budgets. >> So, if we I mean I I I don't know if it breaks out quite this way, but across five buildings, that's basically about a $2,000 >> per building decrease. 20,000 she said 100,000 20,000 would be the total per building. >> Right. Right. >> But it's a 10% decrease in the 20,000. >> No, no, no. It was a $100,000. A little under $100,000. I think it's like $85,000. >> It's about 20,000 per building. >> Yeah. The buildings are different sizes, but average. Yes. On an average. >> Okay. Okay. Thank you. Um so, um move moving on to the the fund balance. Um and and I think this is my

051the fund balance that we're talking about is the unassigned fund balance basically for future building projects was it its purpose. Is that the same thing as our rainy day fund? >> It's all inclusive. Fund balance is fund balance. We we >> we do not have a separate rainy day fund. >> No, that that is all the money we have. So on that last slide, when we say is it June 30, 2026, we estimate we're going to have $16.2 million and then I split it out. That is it. That's all of our money. >> Yeah. The 16.2 million. >> Um that includes the mandatory 5% plus uh >> that's where I was. >> Right. Which is why we broke it down to kind of show >> 3.5. >> Right. Okay, that concludes all my questions. Thank

052you. All right. U moving on to item 5.02, educational updates by Dr. Eert. >> Thank you, President Hankle. School board, as Caleb said, spring is here. so thankful that the weather and the temperatures are cooperating more specifically for our uh spring sports athletes who uh kind of filled the campus are filling the campuses every day here. Uh continuing under my uh safe, supportive, and collaborative theme under safety. Just as a quick reminder, just make sure uh parents, community members, as you're on our campuses, please make sure you're following those speed limit signs. Uh we as I mentioned a lot of students are out not only our students competing but we do utilize our facilities for uh yoke uh for the local uh youth sports. So just make sure you're being safe around our campuses here

053on Maine but also at friendship and shrewberry. Under supportive a couple congratulations I want to mention here. One goes out to Sophie McCullum. She was selected as the Rotary youth. She was selected to attend the Rotary Youth Leadership Conference this summer. She'll have a great opportunity to learn some additional uh leadership skills while representing our district. Uh congratulations goes out to Jacob Awanowitz. Uh he was selected as a winner for the $2500 National Marriage Scholarship and you know we just want to thank you know Jacob for all his hard work and congratulations for earning that honor. And just want to make sure I'll have a lot of uh upcoming events to uh remind everyone. Please make sure you come out support our student athletes and musicians. Uh it's great to see the uh the pack

054gymnasiums, the fields, but also you know in the auditoriums for the events. Had the opportunity to go to the high school jazz band and band concert and it was simply amazing. Uh the place was packed and congratulations all the seniors who were recognized last evening. Hope sure hope we can replace that number of seniors that are graduating for the band under collaborative. I just want to take an opportunity to let you know Dr. Bryce and I had an opportunity to visit the middle school's social studies showcase that went over the last two days. Yesterday was seventh grade, today was eighth grade. Gave parents an opportunity to come in and view their child's projects that were specific to uh the content. a lot of engagement, a lot of discussion, students presenting and talking to you know

055each and uh every parent that kind of walked through uh regarding this. So big huge thanks to the students, teachers and the administration putting on this great first uh successful event uh that they tried to do to increase the parent engagement within the building. I also wanted to thank all the teachers for an amazing school year. Although my formal school visits are completed, I'll continue to visit the classrooms between now and the end of the school year. Uh very impressed with you know the grade level and departments uh that discussed you know data discussed uh student growth in their PLC's. Uh so a big thank you to the administration uh the coaches to specialists uh for all the hard work that they did this year and continuing that growth that we have been doing with

056high reli high reliability schools. A bunch of the coming upcoming events. PSSA testing starts on Monday for grades 3 through 8. Elementary has a coral concert at the high school next Thursday, start at 7 p.m. Southern uh Southern Elementary's primary music night will be on the 28th of April and then followed by the high school percussion festival will be that evening at 7 p.m. Uh high school has their Night of Wins performance on Monday, May 4th at 7 p.m. The middle school will have their National Junior Honor Society induction on May 5th starting at 6 p.m. And the middle school high school coral concert will be on May 6th starting at 7 p.m. A lot more concerts to kind of throw out there. Uh we have the sixth grade band concert on May 12th, followed

057by the middle sixth grade orchestra and middle school orchestra concert that evening. Senior scholarship night will be on Wednesday, May 13th. the elementary board recognition uh which will be on May 18th. Looking forward to uh presenting all those students in the elementary school with their end of the year awards. Elementary band concert will be Tuesday, May 19th, followed by the elementary band concert on Wednesday, May 20th. That's all I have. So, let's have a great last month and a half of school. >> Why not? Choice is yours. >> Thank you. >> That wasn't even planned. All right, moving on to item 6.01, public comment. Uh, I'll just give a reminder that uh when you get up, please state your name and municipality of residence and then just refrain from any kind of uh profane, defamatory,

058or or other comments that would violate the quorum. Uh, and our first uh first person is Ava Melioscus. Did I get that right? >> Mosow. >> Mowascus. Thank you for coming, Ava. >> Good evening. My name is Ava Molasquez. I live in Glenrock and I am a senior at Cesaru Hanok High School. I'm here to propose that our school district install solar panels to reduce annual electricity con costs and increase sustainability. I've completed this research as part of a year-long project in my science and literature class, and I would like to present my findings with you all here tonight. Our district currently spends a significant amount of money each year on electricity. According to the finance and budget committee meeting on November 18th, 2025, utility costs are expected to increase by around 123,000 just during

059this school year. That puts us at around 840,000 a year just for electricity, and it will continue to increase. It is projected to be a major cost driver in the 2026 2027 school year. If we can reduce these costs in the long long term, we can allocate more of this money to students education. By installing solar panels within our district, we can generate our own renewable energy. Almost 5% of Pennsylvania schools have already gone solar, reducing their annual electricity costs by 65 to 110%. Some of these schools have completely eliminated their energy bills and are able to receive money from the extra energy they generate. Although there is an upfront investment, solar panels typically pay for themselves over time through energy savings. To cover the upfront investment, there are plenty of grants we could apply

060for and tax incentives we can claim. For example, Pennsylvania's solar for schools program, which helped 73 schools install solar panels in 2024, has returned for 2026 to help even more schools do so. With this grant covering 50% of the costs and additional money from the inflation reduction act covering 30 to 50% of the costs, 80 to 100% of the costs of this project would be covered. This program gives funds on a rolling basis until funds are depleted, but the final deadline is December 31st, 2026. It would be best to apply sooner rather than later to have the best possible chance to have the project being f fully covered. In addition to saving money, solar panels would make our district more environmentally friendly. Solar energy does not produce pollution or greenhouse gases unlike traditional energy. The

061decisions you make today will shape the future that students like me will live in. This project will not only show our district is committed to protect protecting the future but also teach students about how important that is. There would also be very education be many educational opportunities that come with the installation of solar panels. Solar panels could be incorpor incorporated into our science, technology, and engineering classes, allowing students to learn from renewable energy systems on our own campus. Our environmental science classes would derive even greater benefits as they already includes units on the different types of energy resources. Given the growth of the renewable energy sector, this could provide meaningful opportunities for career exploration as well. Many school districts across the country have already implemented solar panels and are saving money while reducing their environmental

062impact. Our district has an opportunity to do the same. I asked the school board to explore the fle feasibility of installing solar panel canopies based on the reasons I have provided to get today. This investment would benefit our schools financially, environmentally, and educationally. Thank you for your time and consideration. >> Thank you. That was amazing. >> Right. Uh Tracy Ranken, Eva, it's hard to go after you. All right. Um thank you guys for having me tonight. Tonight is one of the rare moments in life when you can feel time shifting. When you look at a young person on the brink of adulthood and reflect on every step that brought them here today. As my son graduates, this school district has helped mold him into who he is today. It all began with having a magical

063principal, Mrs. Coons, at Friendship Elementary. It was then followed by having the loving Miss Rose, who took Tristan by the hand every morning at dropoff. Tristan began kindergarten with Mrs. Lewis who supported every idea he wanted to share. Mrs. Deer would be Tristan's first grade teacher, bringing purplishicious expectations into his life. He told Mrs. Deer about wanting to collect coats to help others. And that conversation changed the course of our family's history. This district was something I saw on TV shows. A major reason was because of the amazing human being, Mr. John Weaver, who is the heart of Friendship Elementary. John is the head custodian, but he's also the centerpiece of a lot of the true magic that is Friendship. Then there's Miss Dashu and Miss Derner. They set the high bar for Tristan to

064grow academically and be exposed to career paths in just fifth grade. Incredible, incredible memories were made with Mr. Wagman who was his PE teacher. We finished Friendship May 2020 where Tristan was blessed to have Miss McCra who made him feel loved and valued. Dr. Wine Miller and Dr. Stone were very supportive inviting Tristan back to Friendship this year to keep the mission of codes of friendship going throughout the school district. Tristan then entered Southern Middle where he met Miss Sandy, the head custodian. Miss Sandy treated Tristan and his friends as if they were her own kids, forever to be part of their stories that Tristan holds very close to his heart. Mr. Walls was forever instrumental in Tristan finding his voice in eighth grade, getting to know Tristan as a person. Coach Noles and Miss

065Marhka, who provided a place to write about empathy and support coats of friendship still today. In ninth grade, Tristan was lucky to have Miss Mooney who showed him love every single day. Mrs. Walker who let Chen know he was heard and valued. Miss Chano who looped with him from middle to high school teaching ways to care about the world around him. I Miss Eisenhart set the bar for feeling confident in knowing she would be an advocate for Tristan always. Mr. Mike is here tonight. The amazing substitute who cared about Tristan and his mission of coach of friendship. Coach not we'll call him Doctor for this conversation who made Tristan feel confident owning his uniqueness. Mr. Reposn who challenged him to think deeper. Miss Cabrera who allowed Tristan to never feel like a bystander and a

066part of the conver and be always a part of the conversation. Miss Wil who tr truly watched over my son. Mr. Lewis who made him feel challenged and heard. We then moved to senior year. This year was maybe the story book ending the movie closing scene or TV finale. The conversations in the hallway with Mr. Meyers who would catch up with Tristan. Miss Sue Miss Sue our incredible custodian who would give Tristan a warm smile. Miss Bernell, who is also here, to make Tristan feel like he could do anything in his career path. He was given the opportunity to have his creativity and pure enjoyment shine in Mr. Barnhart's class, which was then beautifully matched with Mr. Martin, who gave Tristan the opportunity to work on passion projects that filled his soul. Miss Rupert gave

067him opportunity to step into leadership and collaborate with others. Miss McGee provided a safe space for Tristan to feel truly cared about. Mr. Amberman giving him the opportunity to interview with colleges well beyond normal college application experiences that led to so many opportunities. Miss Plats who supported him since first grade with his passions, initiatives, and always finding time to encourage him. Mr. Trevor also Carrington who is here tonight who gave Tristan experiences and connections he could never have dreamed of. Knowing that my kids are always safe with the front office staff of Miss Delo, Miss Eli, and Miss Hanoski, Miss Betsy Treadway being an amazing human and support system for Tristan always to Mrs. Morris always being present and empathetic, hearing what he needed and what we needed and then showing how she could support

068to Dr. Sterner also here being a support system, always communicating, showing compassion, having the willingness to listen. During his freshman year, he also met Mr. Bowers. Mr. Bowers told Tristan that he had his back in ninth grade and would forever have his back. My son not only had teacher and Mr. Bowers, but a true mentor, a person who would make an impact in so many ways, shaping the human he has become. So tonight, I want to thank you publicly on record to our school board. Thank you for the SYC staff members and every adult who I may have missed in this who gave love and support to Tristan. Thank you for seeing his potential. Thank you for giving him room to grow. Thank you for discovering who he is and who he can be. You

069didn't just prepare him for graduation. You prepared him for life. And for that, my family will always be grateful. Thank you from the bottom of my heart for creating a magical school district that I never could be dreamed I would be true but it was. Thank you guys. >> Thank you. >> Abby Bernell Good evening. Uh my name is Abby Bernell. I live in New Freedom Burough. I would like to raise concerns related to the proposed budget. I speak to you tonight from four different perspectives. First, I was a previous student of the district. I was validictorian of the 2014 class. I'm also a new parent, a taxpayer, and the perspective of a teacher. 12 years ago, this school was my everything because I had the opportunity to participate in many sports and extracurricular activities

070that made me feel a part of this community. Academically, I couldn't have asked for anything better. I had incredible teachers preparing me for AP tests to save money in college as well as general life preparation. After high school, I excelled in my actuarial science program that set me up for a lucrative career in the analytics world. I attribute this success to the amazing foundational education that I gained from this school district. After college, I relocated to New England for work, but I recently moved back home as I wanted to start my family. Three months ago, I had my first child. I knew all of the opportunities that I was afforded in this district and I want to see my son and my future children have those same advantages. There are many alumni that have chosen

071to make southern York County their home for similar reasons. We want what is best for our children for our future. With all of the proposed cuts coming, that future that I envision for my son seems threatened. Once you make the decision to remove positions and potentially programs as necessary, it will be much more challenging to add them back in the future. About a year ago, I took a huge risk and quit my corporate job to try my hand at teaching. An opportunity opened up here at Sesy in the business department, which I accepted as a long-term sub while I pursued my teaching certificate. As a teacher, my goal was to positively influence students in our local community in the same way that my teachers had influenced me. I thought that my background in the business

072world could give students a unique perspective and prepare them for life after high school. Based on comments from a survey of my students at the end of the semester, I feel that I accomplished this goal. They shared how important it was to learn about budgeting, saving, and investing early, bare bones of our curriculum. However, they also shared curiosity about many other real life topics that we were not able to cover in just one semester. I have this information in a Google form if you would like to hear more. Educators have the responsibility to promote a hunger for knowledge. Eliminating teaching positions also eliminates learning opportunities for our students. Existing teachers will have to pick up the slack and add more to their already full plates, which in turn will reduce their ability to be as

073effective. The district prides itself in its achievement of the varying levels of highly reliable schools. But the way that this budget is being handled does not seem to align with this initiative. Level two of HRS is effective teaching in every classroom. With less staff, it seems unlikely that we will be able to maintain this as there will be larger class sizes or content being shifted around too much to different areas. As someone new in education, my eyes were open to the reality of the knowledge gaps that are present for high school students. For example, I had to explain many times to classes of juniors and seniors how to convert a percentage to a decimal for various calculations. I tell you this not to discredit our hardworking teachers, but to show just how vital it is

074to maintain our teaching staff. These deficiencies are already occurring with staffing at the level that it is. So reductions will only hurt students further. These are the students who have already had such disruption in their education during the pandemic. It is important now more than ever to support them the best that we can. I'm sure that we can all agree that no one wants to pay more money in taxes, but I understand and taught students this past year about this necessary evil. Taxes have not been raised since the 2122 school year. Over that time, inflation, which is an important concept that we taught in finance, increased by approximately 11%. This means that things cost 11% more on average than they did back in 22. When things cost more, this means that we need to increase

075our income or our revenue as well. Even the Social Security Administration accounts for this every year with a cost of living adjustment that increases the benefits people receive. This total increase since 2022 was 18%. Since the assessed value of properties do not increase each year, you are reducing the spending power of the district whenever you do not increase taxes, at least in line with inflation. With the proposal that was given, Miss Green shared that median taxes would increase by about $10 per month with tax increases. During the last board meeting, there was discussion about rights sizing our school staff. There should be similar attention paid to rights sizing our revenue base. Southern York County has always been a special place where we valued our students. Please help to maintain the wonderful community for our children

076where they know that they matter. Thank you. >> Thank you, Evan Bernell. Hello. Uh, I'm Evan Bernell. I live in New Freedom and also coach basketball at the middle school. I'm here to say I oppose the staffing cuts and see flaws in the proposed budget. The refusal to raise taxes in line with inflation is shortsighted and ignores the root cause of the budget shortfall. The tax rate here is competitive. Uh when we bought our house about two years ago, I thought the appraised value for tax purposes was a mistake because it was so low. People need to recognize that they are getting a phenomenal deal and one that is too good to be true to adequately serve the the school district's needs. Taxes could be raised for consecutive years and the district would still have

077the lowest tax rate in the county. I believe it would take four consecutive years of increases to match Southeastern for the second lowest. Ultimately, the risk of people leaving the area because of a tax increase that would still result in the lowest tax rate in the county is lower than the risk of people leaving the area because the cuts to the school district are worsening the student experience. Fiscal responsibility is more than cutting costs. I acknowledge that the board is in a difficult position in part because of the large expenditure associated with recent building renovations. Rather than debating past decisions, we need to move forward. Ignoring the revenue half of the balance sheet is irresponsible. You can't say that you're fiscally responsible while ignoring revenue. Costs are rising across the board and revenue needs to

078increase to prepare for this. Uh an example is the Chromebook presentation last month. I thought the presentation was very well done and logically laid out the need to get ahead of increasing costs. Um, it made me think that this is not isolated to the price of a Chromebook and operating costs will continue to rise across the board. Refusing to acknowledge the revenue shortfall only kicks the can down the road. I wonder what is going to be different in three years if our revenue base is flat and everything else increases in cost. I worry about what additional c what additional cuts could come next. As I said, I coach here and potentially making sports pay to play would drive lower income students away from our teams and hurt their hurt their ability to make friends and

079develop socially. While it sounds drastic, I worry about what the district will have to do to squeeze revenue from other sources if it refuses to increase the tax base. There's a suggestion last month um to only offer state required courses and use the foundation to fund electives and other classes. I feel this would be a mistake because it would limit the amount of courses available to our students while also eliminating funds scholarship funds that have already been earmarked. These cuts are going to worsen the student experience and are not sustainable. Yes, the enrollment numbers are lower than they were 10 years ago. However, I believe that students today require more individual attention than they did in years past. This age of students is susceptible to phone and screen addictions which impact their attention span. 25

080students in 2015 may have been easier to teach than a class of 22 22 students today. I've not I have not encountered a teacher who is not working to their fullest ability to provide for their students. And I do not feel that our teachers are by any means inefficient. Increasing class sizes and reducing support staff will directly worsen the classroom experience. The cuts eliminate resources for the remaining staff and send the message that support will continue to dwindle. Additionally, teachers may be forced to teach classes outside of their area of expertise. This move harms the district's reputation and will limit the district's ability to recruit the best teaching talent going forward. I don't work in education, but if I'm looking for a new job, I am turned off by companies that recently conducted layoffs. Um,

081I'd also like to say the board needs to publicly list each of the positions that are being eliminated. This board campaigned on a promise of transparency, and the community deserves to know which resources current students will not have access to that previous graduating classes did. Overall, the proposed budget both worsens the student experience and fails from a business perspective by ignoring the district's need for a higher revenue base. I don't see the vision for how this improves the short or long-term outlook of the district. Thank you for your time. You >> Michael Aguero. Good evening everybody and thank you for having me. I wanted to come here and tell you that I probably out of all your speakers tonight am the least prepared for this and I realize that now it's my first time in

082front of you. I probably should have been here in March where I really could have had a better look at your proposed budget and to have uh proceed with a lot of the questions I do have. But I do want to offer a couple perspectives on observations I have. Uh I've been uh truly very honored to be a substitute teacher in your school system, the elementary and predominately this year in the middle school and the senior high school. And I've uh observed a lot of things that uh you've probably heard. I'll put it out there that your position, your job, and the task you have in front of you, it's not one that I would rush into as far as uh getting that budget sound and fixed. I see you coming out in the losing

083end no matter what decision you make and I truly respect that. I do concur that if I could be passionate about just a couple things. Class size. I do tend to agree that that is something you really should take a strong look at. I think if you go going with the larger class sizes because of budgets, I think the students are going to be on the short end of that no matter how hard the teachers try. And that's just a personal observation, but I think it's probably shared by many. The next thing I would tell you is I heard the phrase that we're not going to cut student programs. I truly hope that's the case. One in particular would be the languages and I've had some experience on that this year. Uh, I will tell

084you that if I was a freshman or sophomore and a particular language was going to be taken away from me, I would hope they would be wise enough to know that this would be an opportunity rather than a hindrance that they could really pull up their uh bootstraps, so to speak, and make a positive out of it. And as they apply for colleges, they could say, "I started out with one program. I know you have a two-year requirement, but I the program was cut and I chose another language. And I think truly they're going to come out ahead, but if I was a junior, I think I'd have grave concerns about that. I'm behind the eightball already for something that I had no control over. And I I I don't have the answers for you,

085but I just hope that you would consider that truly because I think it it really merits your attention. I think the students truly are relying on you to help them in that situation. Something that they probably didn't know they were going to get themselves into. And then the last uh subject that I would bring up is the EMT program. I hope truly that uh if it's possible we can keep that going. I will tell you being retired from the Bureau of Emergency Medical Services for the state that is not a program where you could have 25 plus students. It's just not going to work. It's it's a very very demanding course. Imagine an AP course level course and then you now got to apply that to somebody to save their life. And we have had

086a couple students in the community that have graduated from the program and have uh done CPR and have saved some lives. And I I truly from the feedback I've gotten from the students by way of the teachers um because I don't know them obviously that uh going into the college and the courses that they have taken the EMT program was a huge springboard into their success. So outside of that, Miss Green, it's pleasure to see you tonight. Put a face next to a voice. I also uh I'm going to look into the CPR program that you have and uh I have a lot of questions and if uh it's something that we can do a match that would uh save you some money and help your teachers. I'll be glad to do it. That's all

087I have. Thank you. >> Thank you. All right. Uh 6.02 board discussion, public comment. I'll open it up. Um I just wanted to say that uh I wish she was still here, but Ava, that was a fantastic presentation. >> I think we'll I don't know if we've looked into that before, but gave some specific things to look into and I think we'll >> Yeah, we have and I know um Dr. Sterner um Mr. Carrington and Mr. Buffington did meet with her also. >> Mhm. Great. Great. Um, yeah, but she gave us a couple of specific things to look into and that's really really valuable when you're when you're proposing something to give those specific uh avenues like the solar for schools grants and the the grants created by the inflation reduction act. Um, it's nice

088to have those specific leads given. That's that's really well done. Even if even if we look into it and it doesn't work out, really well done presentation. I really appreciate it. >> And I did ask her to email me that. Okay. So, she >> and if she does, I can forward it on to to everybody. >> Great. Um, okay. Uh, any other discussion of public comment? >> Yeah. I would also like to commend Ava. That was very thoughtful, well spoken. I would also like to thank Tracy for all of the time that she has given to this school. >> You your volunteer time here is incal incalculable. I mean, it really is. and you have done so many great things for our school. So, you're saying thank you. Well, we we need to say thank

089you. >> And her heart and compassion. >> Thank you so much. >> And >> you've given so much >> and has definitely not gone unnoticed. >> And to take the time to go through your son's journey and all of the different teachers that impacted I I know that made their day. Thank you so much. >> It's beautiful. And if if I could comment um to to the one uh talking about the Chromebooks um because I don't know if you're going to stay um but that came back and it came back cheaper than the last time we bought them >> and we're buying more. So um you know that >> we're not buying more because they're cheaper buying more. We're buying the number we were buying. period. But they came in cheaper than they did the

090last time. About about $40 roughly a piece. >> Yeah, it's by about like 15%. >> The cost. >> That's that's a that's a good thing. That's a win all the way around. >> Yeah. I just wanted to say that I'm thankful that as part of this budget process, we we aren't proposing that we're cutting any programs. And um you know in my career I've been part of things that are growing and I've been part of things that are shrinking. It's much more fun to grow right because growth can solve uh a lot of problems. Um and I hope that as a district we're kind of at the end of our decline in our student population. But you know I think it's important to go through a thought exercise and think about a district of 500

091students. What type of resources, what type of programs does that district have? >> Then move up to a thousand. What type of resources, what type of programs does a district of a thousand have? Go through that same thought process for 2,000. And the point being that a lot of what we do around here is really going to be determined by our student population. Um the word sustainability was used earlier and it's important that our schools are sustainable, our budgets are sustainable and that this the school system is sustainable within the community and um if our student population shrinks, then we have to make decisions based on that and that's part of our tough work that we have to do here. If I can just hop on the back of that, I mean, I like the

092data that you brought with the um talking about the Chromebooks and, you know, the 18% increase in social security, but that 18%'s got a stretch between groceries, gas, you know, uh your electric, everything else that a senior citizen does have. And our our district is in a very interesting situation where what's the percentage that are as senior citizen like 65%. >> Well, the average is over average res. >> How many of our residents are senior citizens? >> I don't know that. I just know the average age >> and we don't have a lot of businesses. We don't have that in our It's mostly homes. So, it's it's an interesting situation where you have not a lot of businesses, a lot of people over 65 and they're not leaving. They like the area and it's hard

093to go to them and say we need more money for less kids. >> It's it's a tough cell. It's a real tough cell. And you're right, sir, what you said. It's not an easy position. Um, you know, I I earn income in this area, but then I have senior citizen parents. So, it's it's a tough cell. Um, and I went to this school and I love this school. >> So, you you are very correct. It's hard. It's a hard cell. And I just want to piggy back. Thank you so much for coming in, Mr. and Mrs. Bernell, and speaking your heart and giving back to the district and moving back in. And congratulations on your new baby. Super exciting. Um, and I I would love to see your Google form. If you could send that

094to either myself or all the board members at sycd.org, I think that'd be great and helpful. Um, and I agree with you. Um, you're not the only teacher that has that I've heard say that Students need more, Mr. Bernell. Students need more attention and direction and assistance this day and age with the challenges of technology. You know, that that attention span is waned. And we've heard from staff that, you know, I become more of a behavior management person rather than a teacher when I have more kids in my classroom. And that really resonates with me. I I I feel like it's it's our responsibility to make sure the bills are paid. There isn't any new programs, but we aren't cutting anything, which is is great. But I also understand that when someone retires or just

095leaves on their own accord, changes career, however they're doing it, that leaves a hole for someone else. And that means when if there is a behavior issue that there isn't someone that you can call and then that takes away from the education of maybe the other 20 children in the classroom and where does that put the staff and that puts them in a position where they aren't able to teach and do their job which causes discouragement and then what are you going to do? look for reference letters, maybe go somewhere else, and then that's going to create a slippery sliding slope, you know. So, I I completely get that and understand. And as far as budget costs go, my concern is that if we don't slow and steady wins the race, like what you said,

096this is not going to improve next year because through attrition, we might not be able to get 20 staff members that aren't here. So, that's not going to give us that benefit. Maybe we're not going to be able to sell the land that we have because of other reasons that we'll talk about later on in the meeting, but we're still going to need to have that revenue that's still going to need to come from somewhere. And none of us want to raise taxes, but I think that it is responsible to have a measured tax increase. I'm sure you saw in the presentation that there were four different options that we had. So, I am one not for the highest level. I think that was over 4% but of the 2.96% I think that's responsible and

097measured and that that will help offset some of these things so that next year we're not in a position where we might be right up against the tax index which is upwards of 5%. So, it's it's a struggle, but I appreciate your feedback, everyone that sent us messages, you know, throughout the week regarding the budget. It this is different. I've been on the board during those years when it it's we can do this without a tax increase. This year, it's a lot harder. This is different. Feels different. We have to be responsible to fund the program. So, thank you so much for coming out and your bravery and speaking and I appreciate you as a sub coming in too and helping with the EMT. I personally know two that were certified in 20 during the

098class of 2020 two 2024. Yes, 2024. And that really sprung them out into different careers in the medical field. And it is a blessing to have it and it's staying. So, don't worry. And that's all I have. >> Make one one last uh comment. So in in regards to the transparency of the positions. >> Oh yes, I did want to ask that. >> Know I know that resignations are are listed. I mean and they have been listed in the agenda in the past, right? >> But that not is not necessarily as clear as as stating what these position. >> No, it just says what the person's name is. We don't see the actual position that they're holding. If it's a teacher, it'll say teacher. if it's a pair. >> Yeah, we see if they're a

099teacher. >> Is there a way to elaborate on that for the >> But I I would be interested in having that some light shown on that that we can, you know, I'm not sure what's the right format for putting that out in, but so that people do understand what these positions are and where they're coming from. So what I would say is we will know more in a couple weeks and at that point we can share with the board specifically here the >> don't do anything premature. Right. >> Well and so the public understands that okay we're committed to 13 positions. uh but if we have 16 and three must be filled and that may change in the next 3 weeks based upon other potential resignations or retirements or what have you. Um so it's

100a moving target that I don't want to preamply >> lock into >> um get people upset or or um >> so how about when we're clear of it, you know, and it's all in our rearview mirror, then we could >> That's right. potentially put that out >> in in a in a clearer format so people can understand. >> I wanted to make one comment. Um so I want to thank everybody for coming out and just putting a face to what happens in our district. I think we try to go in and visit the buildings and we see it, but it's always wonderful to hear that experience firsthand and the impact. Um, a couple years ago, um, Mr. Gonkey sat on this board and so I had the opportunity to get to know him and he

101was a wonderful man and he and his wife served for like, I don't know, 20 years, a really long time. And when I was sitting in his living room and I was talking with him because I love the story, the reason my husband is from here um, and we moved here and I know that other people move here because they sense the community, right? That's why we came, the community. Um, and one of the things that they that Mr. Gronkey was sharing with me because his wife had passed away is that she was a real advocate of trying to advance this school out of kind of an agricultural mindset. So, we obviously love all of our rural areas. It's beautiful. I love driving through it, but really just taking that um focus and trying to

102bring more of a college to it. And so, Mrs. Bernell, when I heard you speak, you were the recipient of that, right? of that vision, of that dedication of that board, to see that need um and to be able to, you know, work to be able to do that. And I just think that the stories from our community are worth noting and hearing. And I just wanted to share that with you that that's what I had heard from that very beautiful family um and their their legacy that they had. So, thank you for that. All right. Yeah. Um, moving on to item seven, the consent agenda. I'll entertain a a motion to approve the consent agenda as presented. >> I actually would like to lift something out of the consent agenda. Do I do it

103now or? >> Uh, yeah. Go ahead. And >> Okay. I'd like to lift out uh 7.09 and that's the renewal agreement with uh in instructure for canvas cloud subscription. >> Okay. All right, we'll move 7.09. So, I'll entertain a motion to approve uh all items from the consent agenda except for 7.09. >> So, moved. >> Second. >> Motion and a second. Any discussion? >> Um I do we want to touch on the change that we made to >> I was going to ask that threshold of we've changed how like the dollar value of the things that we will put in consent agenda versus their respective committees. Um, for this first month, we kind of set 10,000 as the threshold. I know there's some conversation among the board as far as what that level should be

104going forward, but at least for the public to know, consent is going to be things that are under that threshold dollar amount. >> And that threshold is approximately $13,000. Is that >> if you're going with the the quote limit? Yes, >> the quote limit, >> right? So, there's a a limit beyond which we have to follow a more formal process uh of of going and getting quotes or or bids or whatever. Uh and that limit is around 13,000. So, I think we're we're going to go with that limit for now and not have anything in consent because things in consent can get kind of just I mean it's one big motion to do a lot of things. Um which is efficient in terms of time. Uh but we want to make sure that we're really

105looking at items, >> right? Yeah. >> Yeah. There's 25 on here tonight. >> Yeah. >> With the understanding that a board member can ask for something to be >> pulled out and then we could have deliberation on whatever that particular issue may be >> like 7.09 tonight. Yep. Exactly. Um so it's it's I think it's it's helping. It's a nice balance what we're we're looking for there uh of being efficient with time but still making sure that the things that need to be looked at are looked at. Um but we're looking at all of them but uh all right so we have a motion in a second for uh everything except 7.09. Uh we've had discussion. Any ns or abstensions? Hearing none that motion carries. All right. I'll entertain a motion to approve 7.09. 09.

106>> So moved. >> Motion. And do I have a second? >> Second. >> All right. Motion and a second. Uh discussion. >> So I just wanted to lift this one out because we hear a lot of negative at times, which you know that's that's just the business of life, right? But I want to highlight something that and she's not here. Dr. Hughes did for us. Um, we when we were meeting in our education committee, uh, we were looking at this and I'm going to kick it to you, Dr. Repert, in a second here, but we were quoted for was it near $10,000? >> Yeah, it's about $10,400, I believe. >> And she told us in the meeting, well, don't write that down just yet. I'm working on a deal. And she said, we've got an

107ongoing relationship with these people. I think that they can make it cheaper. And she did. And I just thought that that was amazing. Is there anything you'd like to add to that, Dr. Rep? >> And and I I think just for the uh the for the public's knowledge is when we look at a lot of these contracts and we're looking at the resources that we're doing, our administration is really doing uh making the effort and contacting to see is there any way instead of an increase, you know, just because of, you know, from one year to the next and maybe it's 1% 2% 3%. but because of the relationships that we've have and taking a look also at the resources that we're utilizing. Are we utilizing the resources to their full extent as well? So,

108we're doing that not only in negotiations with these contracts, but also looking at what we're utilizing within our district to see are we getting the best use out of them? Are we utilizing them and can they be, you know, removed from the budget if they're no longer being utilized to that extent. And I would also like to add given given public comments and the nature of the climate that we're in right now, there are positives that come out of situations like this, there is it's hard, it's tough, but I do see a lot of this as an opportunity. And the fact that we can find savings, I don't know. I don't know that that kind of outcome happens all the time in times of plenty. It's very easy and this was something we were going

109to do anyway and now we get it for cheaper and this is not the only thing that has changed and I think that the greater scrutiny that's happening specifically with things that we're not changing that we need but we can maybe have it be at a cheaper rate or maybe looking at things that we've been paying for a while that are ongoing renewals that we don't use at all and don't factor into any of the things that we do and save lots and lots of money. It's happening and it's happening because of the purse strings tightening and because of the tension. It is an opportunity. So way to go Dr. Hughes. That was amazing. >> Um Mrs. Hangle, do we want to discuss the link dashboarding software? >> I'm sorry. What >> as the as

110another example of what you were just talking about? >> Please do. >> Um one of the things that we discussed with uh Dr. Reert and Dr. Hughes and Mrs. ankle was that there's a dashboarding software they came to us with that we are not using. So we're discontinuing that automatically renewing subscription >> and that's to the tune of just under $22,000. So these are the kinds of things that we're finding as Mrs. Engles described going and taking a second look at these things and making sure that okay we got it. Are you still using it? How is it being used? So, it's it benefits the district in the long run that we're not just that we're looking at these things and making good decisions. >> How long do we know how long that was being

111renewed without even using it? >> Uh, it the initial the initial contract was 2021. >> Oh, I thought it was 2019. >> So, that's five years. >> That's five years. And >> and it was it was one of these things where um >> it it we may have gotten it started using it and then >> the other data tools like the stuff provided by the state for uh PEOS and I forget the other one you had mentioned >> E-Tric >> Etric that those tools advanced to the point where we didn't need this separate data lake software anymore dashboarding software. So, you know, kudos to PTE for having that, you know, tools that replaced 20ome,000 of school spending. >> That was a great find. Thank you. >> And that was that was our district that founded.

112That was not I mean, to be clear, that was not >> Yeah, that wasn't us. That was the district doing their due diligence and and coming up with quite a win. >> Yeah. >> Like, f you have two Netflix subscriptions. >> If what? It's like finding you have two Netflix subscriptions. >> What I'd like to put out there, I think it's interesting um or sometimes challenging because I think this isn't either not a new practice either. So like the data warehousing system, it's great at first and you need it at first and as time goes on you need it less because there's other systems that replace meal. Um, but I think that's happening everywhere, but they're not board agenda items, right? When we don't come back for an agreement >> if it's a renewal, >>

113automatic renewal, >> right? So, I I think it's good practice to just in our discussions to be sharing that. Not that it shows up on a board agenda. that >> that that is kind of uh under Trevor Sue's guidance, but um it's helpful to also be cheap at part to >> I would be questioning those kind of things all year long. >> I wouldn't mind seeing them come up as an information item. If if we have automatic renewal uh renewals that come up during the course of a given month, having them met there at least as an information item attached um I think would be >> you could help. >> Yeah. I mean some of it's going to show up on the bills for payment, right? >> Yes. >> But you'd have to pick and

114choose through those. There's that's needle. >> That's a lot to look through. Yeah. You're saying you could although now they're in Excel so they're easier to filter them, but you could put them all in like you're saying just one information item including all subscriptions versus each one separately, right? >> Yeah, I mean you could do that there. It's also I mean bills for payment. The other thing about it is it's hard to parse because it's it's very it's very condensed information. So um >> I think we can talk about it more. >> Yeah. Yeah. I mean, you could you could flag those like with with an asterisk or something in bills for payment or something. Um, yeah, I have some other ideas, but I'll I'll discuss those with you later. Uh, okay. So, we're so

115we're still on 709. Uh, any further discussion? Any nays or abstensions? Hearing none, that motion carries. >> Just a big thank you to Dr. Hughes. >> Not even here to be thankful. No, not even. Um, all right. Move to brings us to item 8, uh, education. And I'll turn it over to Mrs. Henkle. All >> righty. 8.01. It's quick data for high reliability schools. Dr. Rupert. >> Thank you, Mrs. Henkle. Uh, for the board, you have information with level uh 2.5, which focuses on job embedded professional development. That information is uh attached for you. >> All right. 8.02, our special education plan. Uh, Dr. Reppert and Dr. Rogers. >> Thank you, Mr. Hangle uh the special education plan which was provided last month for your review uh and speaking with Dr. Rogers uh did not

116receive any additional feedback regarding any changes uh regarding that. So for this night for this evening it would be the motion to approve the special education plan that would sign and then uh I'll work with Dr. Bryce and we would submit that to the state. >> Dr. Rogers, anything you wanted to share? Um no just just to reiterate the from last uh month's presentation this is part of our timeline that's uh under a requirement. So um upon this approval we'll be able to meet the timeline of uh May 1st deadline for submissions for PTE for approval there. Um what was publicly uh presented may need to have some revisions based on what the PDE or Pennsylvania Department of Education provides back to us. Um but otherwise this is our um final submission that we will

117be approving today. >> Thank you. >> Does anybody have any questions? >> All righty. Go ahead and move to approve the special education plan dated July 1st, 2026 through June 30th, 2029. May I have a second? >> Second. All right. Any other conversation or questions? Any nays or abstensions? All right. That motion carries. 8.0 03. This one's a good one. Graduation date for the class of 2026 and that's going to be Friday, May 29th, 2026. 8.04 is Keystone testing. Dr. Robert, would you like to highlight anything from that? >> Yeah, thank you, Mr. Hankle. Just for the public, as Caleb shared earlier, Cale U Caleb exams, the Keystone exams uh will be starting at the secondary level on May uh 12th for algebra for the middle school, high school as well as English lit and

118biology. So schedule is out. >> Righty 8.05 is information as well. Uh speaker approved through the vetting process. There are two and it's our junior achievement program. Dr. Do you have anything you'd like to highlight on this? >> Uh, just one thing I just wanted to highlight, not just specifically with these two speakers, but for the year, uh, the board has gone through and vetted and we've approved 25 additional speakers for our schools throughout the district. So, I just wanted to highlight that total for the year. Okay. >> And that does not include the two yet. >> Good memory, Dr. >> One of which is coming tomorrow. Um, so any board members obviously stop by. Um, it's supposed to be very, very good. Uh, Rohan Murphy, he's a I'm sure you remember W double ampute

119wrestler from Penn State. Um, you found him, I think, or >> I forget who. >> Yeah. >> Very inspirational. >> Fantastic. >> All righty. 8.06 06 stage 1 curriculum maps. Uh Dr. Rupert, do you have anything with that? >> Well, I'm going to stay on my same theme of number of maps. Just as a big thank you to all the the teachers and staff that have brought forth the maps throughout the year to this date, not including the AP human geography. 33 new maps have been approved by the board. You know, that's really going to uh you know, just goes back to the hard work and dedication of our teachers. All righty. You know, it doesn't have a motion for some reason in this one, but I'll move to approve stage one curriculum maps as

120districtwide master maps, and that's AP human geography. May I have a second, please? >> Second. >> Uh, any questions? Any nays or abstensions? That motion carries. 8.07. These are additional field trips. Uh, Dr. Reert. >> Yes. for the board. Uh we do have an additional field trip which is an opportunity for our students to participate in a math contest at Gettysburg Hack Campus. Um typically we bring to the board in June of every year a list of field trips for the year, but whenever there's additional ones that come up, we do bring those back to the board to have our students afford the opportunity to participate in those. >> Right. I move to approve that additional field trip to Gettysburg for the math contest. May I have a second, please? >> Second. >> Uh, any

121questions? Sounds like an amazing opportunity. Any nays or abstensions? That motion carries. 8.08. It's an agreement for Yellow Breaches Educational Center. Uh, Dr. Ruffford. >> Thank you, Mr. Hegel. for the yellow brereeaches. In the previous years, our board has approved two uh seats for yellow breaches. This is an increase of one additional student for our primary students K through two that they can attend those programs to meet their special needs. I move to approve an agreement with Yellow Bridges Educational Center to purchase three elementary academic placements at a cost of $40,000450 per student for the 2026 2027 school year. May I have a second, please? >> Second. >> Uh any questions? >> Um are we currently using the two? Is this is an anticipation that we're going to need a third? >> Yes, we we

122currently use and it's revolving. So as the students in the program if they're discharged or go to another program and uh Dr. Rogers can work with his team and >> I can clarify a little bit more. The board actually did approve an addendum to that where we had an additional student that we did enter into young beaches this school year. So this is a renewal of that contract students and we're going to truly benefit from this program as well. And do we pay if the student doesn't go or is it only if we have students there? >> That's a great question. It is a paid slot. >> Yeah, >> I can guarantee you I will find another student if one student happens to move out of the district um throughout the course of the school

123year for next year. >> Okay. And I'll also say for the board just as another purpose as well too, the tuition that they delegation is charging is actually much less than some of our other out of district placements that are similar placements uh for that. So even though you're paying a fixed cost, I think that's helping us in the long run for um kind of some sometimes where we have movements of place. So even though it might be 40,000 for a year, but we might only use maybe 75% of that, it still is a cost benefit as doesn't know. >> Okay. Thank you. >> Is there competition for the slots? >> Like is it does it benefit the district? I know you already have somebody in mind and so it does it's a non-issue but

124like making sure that we have them but not necessarily knowing that we have a particular student in mind. Is it a good idea to get ahead of it or >> So, um, when we presented the the contract the first time that the board approved it, it was because this was a new program within one county and in order to for that program to get on the ground and then have sustainability staff and supports for everyone. there is mutual agreements amongst many of the districts to consider um the cost fixed fixed cost of of placements and that um and we recognize that very beneficial to some of our students within that um it benefits some of our students who may may or may not have u opportunities to really engage in um out of home experiences

125and out of out of the out of community experiences as well too. So all of our students have some community based experiences as part of their program every single um week almost uh for the majority of those students. Um and it really gets them a greater level of exposure to um opportunities beyond the school setting. Um but it also has a very uh um robust program for uh students who have um some needs with uh mental health or emotional regulations, things like that. and that would be very very beneficial find a place that would really fit. Yes, great. >> Thank you for that. I appreciate that. >> So ju just to make sure I understand is this to is this to perform a service that is mandated by the state? Um is this to perform

126uh something that's beneficial to a student or is it both? >> It is it is both. Yes. uh because there's a continuum of services that for special education that we need to provide. So certain students do need to have what would be considered like a private academically licensed program that's more restrictive environment but the reason for that is they may have behavior that impacts their learning or that of others and therefore they need a little bit more specialized programming for that. So yeah it is a part of the continuing services we provide as special education altogether. >> Thank you. Still learning these things so I appreciate that. Sure. >> Any other questions for Dr. Rogers? >> Yeah, real quick. So, just just clarifying my mind. You're saying we have the two seats that we are

127currently using and we need another one. Correct. >> We we have a third one. We're utilizing that one as well, too. This is a for renewal for next year. So, we're currently ili utilizing three and we anticipate that we're going to continue to utilize those three slots for next year as well. >> Thank you. >> And if the student wasn't placed here like the same student be placed somewhere else. >> Yes. perhaps even a greater cost. Yes. >> All righty. Any other questions? Um any nays? Thank you so much, Dr. Rogers. Any nays or abstensions? Hearing none, that motion carries. Uh 8.09 updates from the AI committee. Uh Mr. Wilson and Dr. Repper. >> Okay. Thank you, Miss Hankle. Um I just want to touch on AI committee meeting will be next week or two

128weeks. I don't know if it has been rescheduled. >> Okay. Uh the next time the AI committee meets, we are discussing we're currently reviewing an AI handbook that um the administration and the committee has put together to sort of guide us in implementing what we're implementing, how we're implementing and the guard rails around that um for the district. So that's what we're currently reviewing. Anything you want to add to that, Dr. Robert? >> Yeah, the other thing I would just put in that is very few districts have a very similar uh format or a handbook. We've referred to it as AI due to the um you know the focus with the generative AI policy always looking more of like technology um of how we're utilizing our technology within our district. So, uh, looking forward to

129getting some feedback at our next meeting and then bringing back a final copy to the board, you know, for the approval. >> Okay. Thank you. >> Thank you guys. >> Thank you. >> Uh, 8.10, it's our ingenuity license. Dr. Reppert. >> Yes. This is just for our annual use of the egeneuity where our students are utilizing this for uh credit recovery as well as there's an additional part for our students in the e program that they're able to access the uh resources as well as the uh curriculum. I'm going to go ahead and move to approve an agreement with Lincoln Intermediate Unit 12 for 70 Ingenuity 3 through 12 reusable student licenses for digital learning software to be used for credit recovery and 20 learning, excuse me, language and literacy digital uh licenses to be

130used for our ELELLL program at a cost of $10,48.96 for the period of September 1st, 2026 through August 31st, 2027. May I have a second, please? >> Second. >> Uh, does anybody have any questions about this? You'll you'll remember that a couple of months ago, we actually got an email from a student that was recently able to graduate using these services. And so that was wonderful to hear and encouraging. Any other discussion? Any nays or abstensions? Hearing none, that motion carries. 811 addendum to the agreement with is it OELS reh rehabilitation services incorporated Dr. record >> and just for the board uh within the executive content this is for the continuation of the speech services do the resignation that we had at the elementary >> right I move to approve an addendum to the agreement

131with Austin's rehabilitation services through the remainder of 2025 2026 school year ending June 30th 2026 may I have a second >> any conversation questions Any nays or abstensions? All right, that motion carries. 812 addendum with Oill's Rehabilitation Services for a three-year agreement. Dr. Repper, can you explain to us the difference between the two? >> Yes. So, the the previous one we did was just for the continuation of services for the students for speech. Uh this one is a three-year agreement for student students that have occupational and physical therapy that's required as part of their individualized education plan. >> Thank you so much for that. All right. Move to approve an addendum with OEL's rehabilitation services for a three-year agreement ending on June 30th, 2029. Second, please. >> Second. >> All right. Any uh conversation, questions,

132any nays or abstensions? That motion carries too. 8:13 revisions to the 2026 2027 district student handbook. I know there's going to be conversation with this one. Dr. Reert, would you like to start? >> Yes, I will. Uh, so what for the board, what you have this month are the proposed revisions to the 2026 27 27 handbook. A big thank you to the administration for the many meetings that we had reviewing uh the now one all-encompassing handbook which used to be three separate. Uh just wanted to highlight uh you know on the changes and updates that each of you have uh just a couple that uh were new added to the policy as well as updates. one which was the addition of the non-instructional minutes for the elementary school. Uh we added based on some legislation,

133Act 67, the residency disputes uh regarding student enrollment and many of the changes with act 44 uh based on weapons uh that came out in December of 2025 have been updated within the handbook. um as well as a specific focus on the habitually truent students. Uh that has been added uh specific to cyber students that are currently enrolled that are habitually truent that are attempting to enroll into uh a cyber charter school. All of those have been updated within in policy so during the year. So we updated that within the student handbook. Um so any uh questions, comments, we will take those into consideration to take back uh to make any potential revisions for to and then bring that final revised uh revisions back even with feedback that we receive uh to have a have

134the handbooks approved at the May meeting. >> Um well I do have a couple things I just want to touch on. get some um get some feedback on uh one quick easy one on pages 54 and 60 we have the honoral referenced. We might want to just put them together so it's clear because it's kind of it's a little disconnected there. There's a gap between them. One's in the awards section, the other one's a little bit more freestanding. >> Is that with the honor roll, Joe? >> Yeah, the honor roll. this this the information is a little disconnected. Um the one thing I I I know this board's talked about in the past as far as the non-instructional minutes and we appreciate everybody adding them to the uh to the handbook. Um if we had

135a recommendation to put to that, should we discuss it as a board first before passing along? Okay. Um, based on kind of what we've been hearing and what we were seeing, what we're seeing in research, um, we'd like to try and see how to increase recess to a little bit more for our younger students specifically. Um, traditionally, I guess going back to about 2018 or so, K through three had two reset two recess periods during the day. Um, I'd like to see if we could get back to that, but we'd have to increase the minutes that they would have for recess. The numbers I just wrote down, just kind of spitballing here, for kindergarten having two periods of recess totaling 60 minutes and one through three, two periods of recess for 45 minutes total, not

136two 45 minute periods. And then fourth through 6th, boosting that a little bit to 35 minutes because we know the benefits of recess for children. You say grades fourth through six or >> fourth through sixth 35. >> Just wanted to note that as we increase non-instructional time that time will have to come from somewhere else which would be instructional time. So just >> not necessarily because we have the home room and end of the end of day home room each of which are 15 minutes long. I would say we should probably start take you know take from those first if possible >> and I do know our elementary does utilize that for morning and afternoon meetings you know to get things situated but that could be discussion that we have with our administration. >> Yep.

137Um, one other thing as far as the non-instructional minutes, you know, we do have in board policy the pledge and the period of silence. Uh, as noted in policy, we should probably have that included with this information in the handbook. On page 18, we're talking about cell phone and devices. I know we talked we've had numerous conversations about cell phones. Um, and there's an idea that's kind of being floated around now that would kind of bridge the gap between having students not have access to their phones at all and having access to them all day. And that is the concept of off and away all day where students when they come into the building are expected to shut off their phones, stash it in a backpack or wherever they can store it and it doesn't

138get turned on until the end of the school day. Um obviously we would have to reference any medical exe exemptions from that for you know diabetes monitors and other medical reasons. Um, >> I'm I'm supportive of that because if if the idea is that screen addiction is driving behavioral problems, then let's not let's not allow time in school to contribute to that >> and also to take the phones away from the kids, which is the whole point of why the parents well >> you would have a lot of upset parents. You took phones away. >> I think there are legitimate >> or locking them in the locker. Yeah, I think there are legitimate reasons to have the phone after school so you can contact your parents for sports >> after. But during if there is

139an emergency and kids have to get the heck out of the school, >> they have their phone with them once it's not on. >> As long as it's not in the if it's in the locker, you got a problem. >> Right. You know what I mean? >> Yeah. >> Yep. I think it really kind >> require in the middle school. >> Yeah. We require exactly that in the middle school >> that turned off their >> phone has to be in the locker, >> right? That's what the hammer says now. >> That's what it it's what's what it >> currently says is that they must keep their phones in their lockers. >> So, uh not that I'm in total disagreement of any of this, but wouldn't we have to change our board policy, too? And that

140would have to go through a cycle before this can be just requested to be updated because it doesn't really match, does it? it it would allow for this. >> Well, turning it off. >> Well, the the policy right now says >> they're not allowed to have them >> in exceptions. >> Yes, with exceptions. So, >> right. >> Again, maybe >> want that out, >> but it also be okay for you. >> I mean, it does leave it to sort of the discretion at which the handbook, >> right? I I don't see this as being inconsistent with that to be more to be stricter in the handbook than the policy. The policy allows the handbook to be less strict, but I don't think it requires it to be less strict. >> And and that's not r

141new, right, Dr. Bryson? That that's what currently exists. That's not new. >> K through eight. >> Yeah. Right. K through eight. >> They're away. >> Caleb, what do you think about this discussion there? >> I mean, That's that's tough to say cuz it won't impact me at all. Um, >> if it were, >> I right now don't see an issue with the current system. I feel that at least in the classes that I'm in, with the exception of my study halls, there's not really people like on their phones in class cuz they're all working >> and they're they're doing their work or taking notes or reviewing for a test or anything like that. >> But you're in all AP classes, right? So all the >> primarily AP classes. Yeah. I I think there's situations in

142which kids are probably on their phones and I have seen that happen but the teachers have swiftly taken care of it in accordance with whatever guidelines were in place at that point and I think if this isn't really showing any huge issues for say just the high school >> which is where phones are allowed the post then I don't see any need to change it really. >> For me, one of the convincing reasons to do it u all day is that there's the distraction that the phone poses when you're actually looking at it, but there's also the distraction that it poses when you looked at it 15 minutes ago and when you know you're going to look at it in another 30 minutes. Um, and that is what phone addiction is. And so people a

143lot a lot of us uh we can't we can't look away from you know we we pick it up we pick it up and if it's in it's in the bag or in the locker but allowed to be out during in between classes it's still being picked up multiple times a day. It's being and and so there's not that break from from the usage of the phone which I think would be really good for the the health and mental health of of the kids. No, I I think this goes along with um kind of what we're talking about as far as screen time, social media. These are detrimental to children's well-being. >> And the evidence is pretty scientific evidence on this is pretty clear. >> To piggy back on one of the things that one

144of our um public commenters, uh Mr. Bernell said, you know, I mean, I think that the points that you just raised marry some of the things that he was talking about, you know, the distractions because of devices. This would handle some of that concern. Also, extended recess time. If you're dealing with distracted children on devices, more recess time will help with that sort of thing. So, those do go hand in hand, I think. And we should probably also include smart watches in this. >> Said if phones are turned off, smartwatches should not be notifying. >> Well, a lot of Well, a lot of phones, like I'm sure yours has cellular connection on it, right? >> The smartwatch itself. >> This is >> this fancier than I am. >> Yeah. >> This might be different. I

145think it varies on model. I know mine does cuz it's slightly beefier >> um than like a typical Apple Watch. But >> mine's Yeah, mine's a I have the dumb one. Sorry. >> Yeah, I mean I think it varies on on company and by model, but I know you can get ones with with cellular >> Yeah. >> capabilities. Yeah, I mean I think anything anything that's going to give notifications should be should be off during the day. >> Joe, do you have other things? >> Um, >> yes. >> Uh, I just a couple. >> Uh, Chromebooks page 19. Um, I think we either need to remove or define what digital citizenship means in the handbook as far as what it means in Southern York County. Um, I do have a slight change to the one

146of the paragraphs in there about promoting, you know, promoting positive digital citizenship. I have a slight change to that. promoting responsible use of technology, research skills, and preparing students for an everchanging world. I think it >> shorten it, >> slims it down a little bit. And um you know, as far as 21st century research skills, I don't think they're really that different from 20th century or 19th century. Just being able to research using the tools that are available. Um, one thing that we do not have in there and that is any sort of details as far as any opt out of Chromebooks for our, you know, for a parent to opt their child out of Chromebooks in our schools. And that's one of the big topics that's kind of floating around in the in the

147bigger n national conversation. >> Is that even possible? it is, >> you know, >> is it possible for this coming school year, >> right? Well, >> what would they use? I mean, I'm not being adversarial. I'm just wondering like what >> would fill that? >> Well, if if a parent obstacle, uh, where they may be doing projects, etc. on a device, they would not be able to utilize that. They'll be doing paper pencil. >> In your experience, do you have many parents that do that or >> In my experience of being when I was at middle school, we only had one one uh one student. >> Okay. >> Well, I mean, even if we don't add that now, we need to at least have a plan for how we would implement something like that. >>

148Yeah. Yeah, I think it'd be it's probably tall order to do that in the next year, but I think continuing to look at how how we can add that. >> It is trending and it is coming and we need to have a plan for it. Maybe it never >> maybe maybe well and for some classes >> maybe it doesn't work at all. If you take a computer science class, >> yeah, typing would be tough. >> It may be that the opt out is limited and that your class selection is limited. If you want to do a complete opt out, you have to select from classes where opt out is supported. >> Maybe it would be what would happen then? >> Yep. >> Uh, >> so you see that frequently? I'm just trying to think it

149through. >> It's just you don't ever really get away from >> I don't know a district, but it's the news right now. This is trending. Parents opting out their children from Chromebook use in schools and districts having to figure out how to how to >> accommodate it. accommodate that >> because they see the data coming that >> increased screen time makes children >> Yeah. I mean even the parents that we've talked to that say the Chromebook when it comes home is a challenge in their home they don't want it there. >> Is this the younger age groups primary school you're talking >> middle school that you're saying? >> Well I mean it could be it could be elementary could be middle. I don't know. again I >> in what you're seeing what what brought this

150to light for you was >> well there was a news article we referenced during our presentation a month ago >> um that is showing that this is starting to be a trend for parents I'm just saying we need to at least have a you know figure out what that looks like if a parent say comes in tomorrow and says hey this is I don't want my kid sitting on the front of a screen what does that look like for their education And I don't know we have an answer right now, but if we don't discuss it and start thinking about how we could accommodate that, we accom we we normally do accommodations for a lot of students. >> Sure. I wonder though how possible that would be for high school. I could kind of see

151it in primary, but high school would be even harder >> because, you know, you're preparing a generation to serve in the next career level. And I don't know, a career that doesn't include some sort of a >> I think the opt out would have to be that only certain classes can support opting out. And if you >> if if you want to take a class that doesn't support it, then you can't do that if you want to 100% opt out. Or maybe you're just opting out of everything you can because you're trying to reduce. So maybe you say, I'm opting out for English class. I'm opting out for the math class, but for I do want my child to take computer science. So, >> right. >> Yeah. >> Can you help me understand what what

152is on the table? What is on the table for the change for the handbook? >> This is this is just discussion at this point. >> So, >> these are re these are changes that Joe's recommending. These are things that you know just from reviewing just making suggestions and obviously if somebody else says that's a terrible idea >> and and I think to be fair with this one you're not making a specific recommendation at this time for a change. >> No, not for the not for the opt out. It's it's kind of a question. How do we handle it? I mean my question is really how do we advance this conversation because we can have and we can talk about opt out but opt out is really just a symptom of a greater bigger issue conversation

153that we want to have right so that's what I want to figure out like how do we move that forward >> and I I don't know that I'm asking because I don't know >> well and I think from the education committee there was conversation as far as trying to implement whatever that structural change is as part of the comprehensive plan that's going to be taking place next year. >> Whether we move it forward before or after that is kind of up to the board, >> but there's a lot there's a lot to be gained by doing a lot of the the changes with the comprehensive plan that that I think >> definitely time is on the side for that, right? Because that's a change. It's like a big change and so aligning it with that

154I think would give us some I mean I'm thinking practically you know if we are not going to be digital and we're going to switch to something else like I really want to understand what the budget implications of that are because we're staring at some numbers that are not great right now and maybe they'll be better with that and that would be great. I have no idea. I don't know. >> Yeah, that's absolutely something we're going to have to look at. I think right now we're trying to hit lowhanging fruit like cell phones. Cell phone usage there's no budget impact really there. there's no major change to how we're delivering curriculum or anything like that. So I think lowhanging fruit we'll probably get before the comprehensive plan like uh we'll we'll look at cell phones

155we'll look at anything like that that we can but I think the made the bulk of the changes are going to be comprehensive plan uh >> it has to be I think they've got to be discussed and discussed in a >> a committee environment where stakeholders are involved >> um and that plan is a three-year plan not a hey let's do this >> two months them now and >> we're scrambling. >> Yeah. >> Uh and so are all of our staff. So >> that that is in my mind clearly the the place for that discussion to happen and evolve over the course of next year. >> Um page 31, I think we should probably have some sort of expectations for homework for parents. So, I know we we originally had in there it was like

15630 to 60 minutes of homework, but that's not there anymore. I if that was And >> you don't want homework? >> No. >> Yeah, we're not giving you any. >> We're not giving you any. >> I know that, but I I think it's nonsensical. >> Um page 39, parent guardian online access. We have Google Classroom and Canvas in there. Um, this is more of a question as far as should we be using two different systems or is there a way to optimize so parents don't have to learn one system for middle school and then jump to another one for high school. >> I think that that won't be a handbook change probably because we can't make that change right now. >> But that that's something to look out for next. something that's been discussed. I

157part of it part of it is a financial reasoning. Um, Canvas's a higherend product and costs more utilized by the high school only. And if you want a content management system at middle school, Google Classroom becomes that kind of baseline model that we use to teach them how to access. >> So, >> makes sense. We can talk about it, but that's the reasoning behind the two. >> That's good to >> know. Okay. Um, last one. Page 41. Parking. >> What page? >> Page 41. >> Uh, we changed the kind of tolerance for tardiness getting their your parking permit remote revoked from 6 to 8 before you're in trouble. I just was wondering what the reason was behind that. Dr. Ster, you speak to that one? >> I think it's just lined up with other existing

158party rules that we had. There's a interventions that go in, excuse me, at different intervals of parties. So I think it was my assistant principal looking to line up those interventions with the consequences that were being assigned. Okay. Is would you consider having a parking permit on the campus being a higher a higher level of responsibility? >> Sure. >> It's a privilege to do it that way. is well and again this is kind of a question for the board. Do we think that they should be held to a higher standard than other areas or >> you know what I can just pipe in as a parent quick because it and Caleb chime in. I'm sure you drive back and forth to school. that can happen super easy as far as tardy goes for drivers that

159are coming in because the traffic since the change in the district. Everybody's coming in one way and that backs all the way up past the Manassie farm and you know sometimes all the way down around the corner. So these kids are just kind of waiting and they need to be safe when they're coming into school and so some of them are late and I feel like the front office ladies are are super nice about it. You know they don't hold them within the seconds you know if they're maybe two minutes or something I think you know is when they get dinged but you can only have a certain money and then you get detention or you know risk getting your parking m you know parking pass taken. So six is actually a low amount, I

160think. And I I've got a good kid, you know. He sure he's going to sleep to the last second and then come out, you know, but he he tries to leave himself 10 minutes and we live two miles away and sometimes that's not enough, you know, to get here park because everybody's coming to the same spot at the same time. And I don't I don't think it's a bad idea. I don't look at it as as an an abuse option. I look at it as, you know, those those good kids that are trying to get here and have their parking paths, it can be a challenge for them. Sometimes we don't ride the bus. >> We only have one way in. >> I guess it' be useful to know how what's the what's the average

161number that uh or some some kind of statistics on how many students are getting like is if half of our students are getting six of them and or more uh then that No, I'm I'm just saying that would represent a problem that maybe isn't the students. Um, so it'd be it'd be useful to have some statistics on it. Is is it two students that have been getting six, you know, and or se seven and and this is upping it to eight so they're not that it would just be useful to know how widespread this is to to kind of guide those sort of decisions, I think. >> Yeah. >> Okay. >> I have one. Um, so in the student code of conduct, I would like to have and I think >> what page? >> Uh,

162so it's kind of in around page 74. I guess it starts on student behavior code is referenced on 73. Um, yeah. So, and this could go maybe down after the section on bullying or harassment or maybe before it. Um, I'd like to have some specific language that would say that um, no one is allowed to solicit behavior from a student if they if they are if they know if they reasonably know that that student's parents do not permit the activity. that soliciting behavior in an activity where the students parents are known to have forbidden the activity or to to said the activity is not not something their child is allowed to participate in that that would be uh that that would be a code of conduct violation to do that >> and you're talking student

163to student. I mean I don't want I certainly don't want teachers doing >> right that your your concern is student >> yeah a student to student um that uh you know that if if a student says hey come over to my house I want to watch this with you and the other student says no my parents don't allow me to watch that that ought to be the end of the discussion like hey come play kickball with us I don't really feel like it I it's okay if the student says no no come on it'll be fun like I have no problem with that but if the student if the student says no my parents don't allow me to play kickball Maybe there's a medical reason. Maybe there's some, you know, there could be a reason

164for that and you should stop asking at that point. Um, so I'd like to see that made made explicit. >> Is there something that happened in your experience? >> Yeah, I I'm aware of a situation where that that was and I don't want to get into a lot of details because it involves individual students, but I'm aware of a situation where that was happening. like a harassment, bullying, >> it could be, but I I think bullying and harassment tends to be repeated. Uh whereas I think this is at that point that should be the end of the conversation. If you say my parents and and it's different. No, I don't really feel like it to ask again. I don't consider to be bullying and harassment. But to say if the student says no, my parents

165don't allow me to do that. I consider it different to ask again after that. I consider that to be a different a different matter. And it goes to our um our mission, vision, values, right? We we expressly um discuss parental rights and >> coordinating coordinating cooperating with parents. So >> I mean it it feels like that could be an unimaginable moving target. So obviously, like with anything, you have to be able to prove it. And so much of this stuff is is he said, he said, she said, he said, he said with bullying, this person came to me and did this three times. Prove it. So yes, I understand it would have to be provable, but if there are email messages back and forth, text messages and provable. >> Yeah. So everything kind of >>

166are you talking like making it sort of a racketeering thing where when this other thing happened if this violation also happens then it gets more serious or >> potentially I mean it is it would be a violation and if like anything it has to be proven and that is always a problem everything we have in our student code of conduct where a a teacher doesn't see it happen it doesn't happen on text it doesn't happen in email if it just happening in the hallway. Yeah, you still have to be able to prove it, but that goes to everything. That goes to bullying and harassment. That goes to every single thing here. If you can't prove it, but I think if you can, that should be a that should be a conduct violation. >> And what

167what sort of consequence would you connect to this? >> Um I mean, I think like with a lot of our I I think it would be similar to some of the bullying and harassment consequences. I think we could base it on that. I'm going to leave that a little bit. I think that's that maybe is an administrative discretion thing to both workshop what that would look like in the handbook and then also workshop how much latitude they need. I mean, would would something like that already be covered in a in a bullying situation where if someone was continually berating a kid to do something and then >> Yeah, I I think that would fall underneath Title Nine under the other forms of harassment uh that if someone is consistently at somebody about something they don't

168want to do or prescribed to do, you know, that individual could say, you know, report to an administrator you know, I'm being harassed, they could file that title N and non-discrimination paperwork and then be addressed through that process. So, in that in that sense, you know, Mr. Hall, yes. I mean, because with harassment, it doesn't what every little kind of harassment is. Um, it's, you know, harassment is based on, you know, the one who's receiving that and how they're feeling regarding that. And I would imagine conversely the consequences for such actions >> are not concrete. >> You you are correct. >> It's in fact the code of conduct the consequences are spectrum right depending on the scenario. So, if they're completing um they're completing paperwork or they do a statement on this and it's determined,

169okay, it's not bullying, but we're still going to meet and have a conversation about what's right and wrong and why that is still a consequence. >> It is. You know, >> the the word that Dr. Robert used that I don't want to apply in this situation is consistently. I don't want it to have to happen repeatedly. I want it to be my parents said I can't. That's the end of the conversation. >> I I think probably have to work on the wording because the the range of things here, right? Like >> my mom I told you my mom doesn't let me have aspartame, but you offered me a piece of tried and gum twice. Like that's like one end of the spectrum all the way up to >> then really severe things. So >> that's

170exactly why I think that we the consequences need to be similar to where it's on a spectrum. there is discretion that the administrators can apply. I don't want to have one penalty for doing this because you're absolutely right that the I mean one you may not know that the gum has aspartame it and in that case I don't even think I think that's a conversation to say okay you didn't knowingly invite the student to do something that that you know that uh they they are not allowed to do but future reference but if you knowingly do it if they if you say you know come over watch this movie with me no my parents won't allow that oh come on they don't have to know that to me is a violation right there that that

171is already a violation I I think and well I think it would depend on you know if that were the end of the conversation fine if if they were continually berating them about it over and over and over again I I think there's already provisions that there would be consequences for doing that Um, >> yeah. I think it's it's worse if you're doing it repeatedly. >> Sure. >> But I think I I want even one time >> if if and it's fine for there to be a spectrum of consequences, but if if someone says my parents don't allow me to do that, that really should be the end of the conversation in my mind. >> And Mr. Frankle other student responsibilities on page 773 number two >> you know the second paragraph it says it

172is the responsibility of each student to respect the rights of teachers and students you know and and the students so I'm looking at >> it's respons 72 >> page 73 >> oh 73 okay >> so I'm looking at the >> number two where it's the responsibility of each student to respect the rights of says and students is in there. So, it's a student respecting the rights of other students. I don't know. >> I'd like it to be more explicit than that. >> Okay. >> You could put students parents. I mean, you could you could you could add parental rights there. >> You can add parental rights to accomplish what you're looking >> you could add parents, but I would still like it to be explicit so that there's no question. Um, >> is it just

173parents? >> What? Oh, guardians. I mean legal guardian. I think >> uncles. No, >> legal guardian I think would be the >> But I could live with my uncle. >> Is your uncle your legal guardian? >> Maybe, right? But I mean that that is definable. But I think when we start getting specific in the terminology, it locks our administrative team into that, right? >> Which is kind of the purpose of the flexibility with not only the consequence but also the actual framing of that incident. I understand what you're saying, but an implementation of that becomes going to what Bill or had just indicated becomes excruciatingly difficult um to determine if if I say no, I can't do that or I'm not supposed to do that or I don't want to do that. I that I

174think what Dr. the reper was indicating is then you got to respect that right. Who told you to say that or who said you can't? Is it different for a kindergartener versus an eighth grader? Yeah. I I I'll say again the two situations. Hey, come play kickball. I don't really feel like it. Oh, come on. It'll be fun. Not discipline. Not not not discipline worthy. Hey, come play kickball. No, my parents said I can't. Oh, come on. It'll be fun. Those are different. So, >> President Hegel, if you can when you we were talking about the the verbiage. >> So, if there's something, you know, over the course of the next couple days that you could share with me, I can take it back to the administrative team because we'll have to come back with

175>> Yeah. And I'm happy to accept recommendations from them about kind of back and forth on the workshop. So, I >> Okay. So, I'm I'm I'm struggling with this. So, I'm trying to figure out like what's the anchor to how we're making a decision because we're not voting on this. We're just giving decisions, right? And so, like what if my decision is I want to allow 30 days for a kid to be absent without there being any ramifications. Like, what are we anchoring what we're saying with I feel that we are not in a situation to be able to know like what is going on at the high school, what is going on at the elementary school, what's going on at the middle school, and we're weighing in on things based on our preferences. But

176what I would love to see come from this conversation because I think these are all really good things. But I'd like to punt this over to our administrators and then have them come back to like what's achievable and what's not achievable. Like not right this second because I'd actually really like to close this conversation out so that we can move on. Um but but I don't know can we do that? Because again like what what I >> it's like there should be an anchor for how we're making a decision on what is included like a rubric right of what is included or what is not. What if I just really want to be able to have all those days absent? Do you know what I'm saying? Like that we all can agree that's probably not

177a good recommendation, but like what am I anchoring it to to not do that? And that's where I feel like having building administration guidance would be super helpful. >> Yeah. I mean that that's ex that's exactly what I want. I I'm making a recommendation of my own for something that I'd like to see. >> Okay. I just wasn't clear like is all of this stuff going like will we get this handbook back next month and it's going to have all this stuff in it because Jeremy doesn't want homework. the parental rights thing to be a huge >> but parental rights is like a huge thing with the cell phones like I'm I feel I don't I don't know I mean we I don't know. So I would just love to be able to get some

178of that feedback >> and as we've done uh going back to the previous years of be sitting in the chair when we brought the handbooks to the board the board reviewed provided feedback and then based on the revisions that were made and the board approved approved the handbook. >> Okay. And then I know I believe it was last year uh President Hankle or a year prior there was something that we tweaked at that May board meeting in the handbook that I had to go back and make the revision after you know that that revision. >> Mr. President, I motion to close discussion. >> Okay. Well, it's actually who's >> No, it's not an accident. >> It's Jen right now. It's me. >> It's not an accident. >> You know, you can move to close this.

179>> That was a good try. >> You can move to close this. move it to the current chair. >> All right, that brings me to 8.14. Other items business, I have none. Back to you, President Henle. >> All right, I'll turn it over uh for item nine, finance and budget. I'll turn it over to our treasurer, Mr. Decker. >> Thank you, President Hankle. Item 9.01 is our financial reports. There are a number of them attached for your information. I will provide some brief highlights of the treasurer's report. So in our general fund concentration account, we started uh the month with 3,380,95.18. We had deposits of 3,654,572.117, dispersements of $6,337,9125 for an end of month balance of $696,76610. Moving on to our tax collector accounts, we ended the month with $34,41.3. Moving down to investments, we

180started the month with $36,31,323.30 net of interest, purchases, deposits, maturities, and redemptions. We um we ended up negative1,700,48266 with an end-to-month balance of $34,600,84064. The details of those investments are listed below on the report. Any questions or discussions on theformational items? Moving to 9.02. These are this is our uh review of bills for payment. I will make a motion to approve the bills for payment as attached. Do I have a second? >> Second. >> Is there any discussion? Any nays or abstensions? Having heard none, that motion carries. Item 9.03 is exonerations and refunds. There are none. Item 9.04 is our budget transfers. So, I will make a motion to approve the budget transfers as attached. Do I have a second? >> Second. >> Is there any discussion? Any nays or abstensions? Having heard none, that

181motion carries. We heard uh item 9.05 is the resolution authorizing the 2026 proposed final general fund budget um and directing the administration to advertise. We heard a detailed uh presentation before in the agenda. So, I will make a motion to approve the resolution authorizing the 2026 proposed final general fund budget PTE 2028 totaling $67,990,227 and direct the administration to advertise as required by law. Do I have a second? >> Second. >> Is there any discussion? So, um, being that we're not going to be voting on the tax implications because there's nothing to vote on, um, would this be an appropriate time to discuss that situation? >> I I believe we will have a a tax levy that we'll vote on in May. Mr. President, so we could discuss it now. We could also discuss it

182there. So, whatever you want to do. Um, I mean, I'm I'm I'm fine with with with discussing it in May. I I just would for me personally, um, I would like to have the opportunity to speak to the public in why I took the position that I have as far as raising or not raising taxes. I don't know if anyone else on the board has that desire, but I definitely have that desire to communicate that with with the community. Don't we need to communicate that now so that the CFO and the business manager know what to present us in May? >> I I think the the vote on this action will dictate what they present us in May, but um Mr. Hall certainly if if you would like to make comment, please. >> Well, I

183mean I don't I don't have a problem with reserving it for that time. I just want to make sure that that time is presented. that >> yeah there will be an opportunity certainly >> yeah there it'll be a vote so there will be discussion there >> okay >> so tonight or may your preference certainly >> I mean because we're we're we're proposing the budget as presented >> this evening so I I'd like to at least have an opportunity to speak into all but I can that next month is >> and and really the bud budget isn't final until next month anyway so next month is the real final vote on the budget as well as on the tax Right. Because we have to have it out there for the public to see. >> That's all.

184Thank you. >> Thank you, Mr. Hall. Any uh other discussion? >> Any nays or abstensions? Having heard none, the motion carries. Item 9.06 is um this is a motion to approve the food services management agreement. So I will make a motion to approve awarding the food services management company contract to Compass Group USA incorporated by and through its Chartwells division for the year July 1st 2026 to June 30th 2027 as required by the P Pennsylvania Department of Education. This is the third year of a potential five years. Do I have a second? >> Second. Is there any discussion on this item? >> It's hard to believe it's a 30-year word. >> Any nays or abstensions? Having heard none, the motion carries. Okay. Item 9.07, 07 board of education to receive information relating to a procurement

185review conducted by the Pennsylvania Department of Education, Bureau of Food and Nutrition. This is anformational item. Um, does anybody have any comments or discussion on this item? Moving to 9.08. This is the student Chromebook request for quote. Um, so this was uh a pretty good outcome as I saw it. It it it reduced our our Chromebook price from $434 per unit down to $365. Um, do I have a motion to award the student Chromebook request for quote RFQ to Trafera LLC for the purchase of 550 Chromebooks at a cost of $200,750? >> So second. >> We have a motion. We have a second. Is there any discussion on this item? >> Great price. A lot less than we thought. >> Absolutely. great result here, especially given um some of the presentations we heard earlier and

186the shortages that are out there. Okay, great. So, I have a motion and a second. Do I have any uh nays or abstensions? Having heard none, the motion carries. Item 9.09. So, this is a services agreement with integrated health 21 for health screenings. Um, I'll make a motion to approve of a services agreement with integrated health 21 for health screenings for a period of one year to be offered in conjunction with the district's wellness program. Do I have a second? >> Second. >> I'll start with discussion. Just, you know, working for private employers, um, health health screenings bring results, right? they they uncover things that people that maybe aren't in a normal cadence with their doctor uh don't know about. Uh it's it's just a it's a lowcost uh item that can deliver some some

187pretty big impact to health and health care costs. So I fully support this. Any other discussion? >> Ounce of prevention, pound of cure. >> Exactly right. >> Apple a day. >> Okay. Any nays or abstensions? Having heard none, that motion carries. Item 9.10. I'll make a motion to approve the purchase of CISCloud, a Google Workspace cloud backup and data protection platform at an amount of $7,180 from E+ Technology, Inc. for the 13-month term of June 1, 2026 through June 30, 2027. Do I have a second? >> Second. >> Any discussion? Any nays or abstensions? Having heard none, the motion carries. Um, I will just mention that that was also a $5,000 reduction. We talked about that earlier, didn't we? Okay. So, 9.11. This is anformational item. The esteemed Dr. Robert Bryson will provide an update

188on the work of the joint operating committee concerning the York Learning Center building. I added that word esteemed. Are you Are you okay with that? Um, so I've kind of been updating the board on this one for a while, so I'll I'll keep it brief, but take your questions as you might have them. Um, big picture is the joint operating authority for the York Learning Center. For our public, York Learning Center is the old Central High School, which was taken on by the authority roughly 25 years ago. um very and is currently inhibited or uh enrolled by the Lincoln Intermediate Unit. Uh so we have approximately 145 special needs students that are from all over York County and not only the 13 membership schools, but you can also send school send kids if you're a

189non-member at a far greater cost of course. Um, in addition, there is two gymnasiums. They're rented out to youth groups. So, there's fees there that the JOA accepts. Um, the you've gotten good feedback on a couple of our students that have graduated through York Area Academy. York Area Academy is also housed in that building. So, you get the idea that it's kind of a community center, but the main focus and purpose of purchasing the building was to house uh the special need population. That's what we would reference as a tier three population um who can't be serviced here within district. And quite honestly, for Southern, there's students that we would be challenged to find another uh placement for. So the thought initially in the purchase of that building was if 13 districts came together, they

190could unify their resources and provide a centerbased uh center, if you will, or school for those students. That need still remains today. Um, however, the funding of that building 25 years ago was a straight flat fee of $67,000 per district per year um for whatever number of students that you may have sent there. Now, that's fee for the building, not uh actual student cost from the LIU. So, as you can imagine, uh the building is in now great need of services and updates. Um and the models that were looked at ranged anywhere from 35,000 to $80,000 to redo the building. Um what the JOA has landed on is a maximum bond issue of 50 million. Um, I shared this with the board already. The flat fee per district would go from 67,000 to 100,000. However,

191that doesn't cost or that does not cover the complete issuing of the bonds over that 25-year period. Um, so the hybrid fee model is that then each kid that would be uh attending the school, there's another fee of $7,200 per student. And I brought that up as a suggestion for a district like ours who has a small population versus some of the larger schools that might be four times the number of kids that are attending there. there would be more of an equitable amount paid towards that facility. Um so the gist of it at this point is uh we're looking for affirmation only from districts to say we understand the funding model. We understand that the maximum is a $50 million bond. um we are sharing that that is worst case scenario and it's a

192conservative approach similar to what Mrs. Green uses for trying to put a budget together that you're guessing at in that that model was created around 130 students attending. We know it's going to be more like 145 if not more. We know that with the updates to the building, there's the potential of new programming that could increase it to more something more along the lines of two or 250 students being serviced. And at that point, the cost per student goes significantly down. But to start, worst case scenario, what does it mean for Southern Today? As we speak, it's roughly I think what I presented to you. It might be exact actually. $124,000 would be our total as it were. Um if that $50 million bond was utilized and we were only um we only had 130

193students attending. But again, we we know that's worst case and not where we're currently at right now. So, um with that being said, I will take on any questions you might have. There's also in there if we don't meet the 130 student threshold, how does that work? If we go over 130 students, how does that what does that look like? Um, that's in the the materials that we had there. I know we got a lot of feedback from other districts as well. Well, if you'd considered lease, as it turns out, a lease is going to cost more because you have to build out the building, um, whatever building that may be. The second part of that is there we did not find a sufficient sized building to even do it. So they would have to

194build out or at least lease two different facilities uh to get the same level of services they're currently getting. So I think we're very limited in what our options are and I'm a fixed per I'm a fixed cost kind of person. I like the idea of the fixed cost long term um knowing it's higher now than what that cost is going to look like 15 years from now. Questions from board members. >> Do you have an anticipated um rate of increase in the per student? >> So if it's 70 >> over time, >> right? Over time. So right now, yeah, right now there's no rate of increase. So it went from 67,000 to the challenge that now exists. They're looking at it right now, Mr. Hall, more on the basis of we look knowing the

195special ed population continues to increase, they're going to get their gain out of increased participation versus increased per student. But the JOA would have the ability to change that potentially long term. So if they're 10 15 years in, then they could they could come back to districts and say instead of 7,200 it's going to be 8,000 or it's going to be 9,500. Um a second part of it is any amount um that they're over their 130 student cap, they're taking the 7,200 per kid. Beyond that 130, 50% goes into capital improvement fund to begin that process up until 4 million. The other 50% goes back to districts. They hit their 4 million cap. Now 100% goes back to the districts. So there is a a model in there to start to look at. Let's not

196put ourselves in this place again 25 years from now. But it also then returns the money back to the district in excess. >> That's right. There's not they're not do the structure is such they're not in it to make money. They're in it to provide you the best service for the minimum cost. So if they're making beyond that, you're going to see part of that coming back. >> And how many students do we have there currently? >> We have four >> four students. Thank you so much for heading that up for them. I'm sure you have all this extra time that you could volunteer and do. >> I um Yeah, I actually am going to another board me or more another board meeting or two at other districts to try to help them wrap >>

197Oh, good. in your >> their heads around this complex need and issue. So, >> so when does construction start and what does this look like for us in our budget? Yeah. So, the timeline would be we're already building it in with the assumption that that we're affirmative in at least the idea um without knowing the exact bond issue until the JOA approves it. Um JA is looking to approve it in moving forward in May with then boards would actually have to officially vote in August to September of next year. And then they go through the same process that we would go through here for our building projects. you you begin with a scope and then you more than likely cut off of that back to where >> uh people are more comfortable. Um I I

198think we're hoping more along the lines of 45 million or closer to 40 million, but we don't want to have to come back to districts after the fact and say it's oh it's actually 55 million. So, >> so that's option 3A, hybrid. >> Mhm. So, I guess all I need is we're okay moving forward as from a southern perspective. The JOA is all right moving forward with their timeline, their process, and then we'll have something more official >> in August to vote. >> Um, you negotiated a fairer model for a district with light usage like ours. So already that's an improvement over what it was. Um and you mentioned that if we were to try to get the same services any other way it would cost more. So that >> well done. >> Makes it

199easy. >> Yeah. >> Thank you. >> If you can get the services that's I I think in my our discussions within our special ed department. And I was like, "Okay, if this falls through and people are starting to push a lease option or something like that, how many of the four are we able to place?" One. >> Okay. So, one lawsuit could cost us more than for fate over one, you know, the other three. So, I I don't know that there's many choices. I know people aren't going to like the price tag, but I we're out of options. So better than the other price tags that we could have ended up with. >> Yeah. Thank you for keeping us up to date on this as well. I know >> appreciate it. >> And ultimately it's

200good for the county. >> It really is. And if we get to a place probably about this time next year in the discussions um and I I think I mentioned it to you, it would be nice to see uh that plan and design phase also address their common areas that exist in the building but aren't highly utilized by the LIU like two largecale gyms and an auditorium that probably could generate more revenue for the JOA and ultimately back to the district in those rental fees if it's done a little bit differently than it it's just the existing space now. Um but that is the core of the cost. So with a facelift, what could it potentially be? in an ideal spot for county usage like that. >> Yeah. >> Know when I was sitting in

201some of those meetings like some of it was like classrooms for adult learning and building out those classrooms now and then moving classrooms around. It was it was a lot of moving parts. >> Yeah, it's I think the initial when construction they would not break grounds until next spring the beginning of the summer. And the first part is they got to take locker rooms and turn them into classrooms because you can't move the kids out of the building. So they're moving them to different spaces while they refurbish the existing building. So it's it's three and a half years. >> Then it was figuring out something to do with those classrooms when you're done the whole renovation. >> Mhm. >> Can we use them for something else to generate revenue? It was yes. Yes, you can.

202All right. Thank you. Thank >> you, Dr. Bryson. >> We'll move to 9.12, master agreement for Treasury Management Services with Ortown Bank. Sue, would you mind just giving a few points of background on this? >> Um, so as you know, there was a merger, um, where Orstown took over People's Bank. Um we've had a longstanding since back to the beginning of the school district um relationship with People's Bank. We've gotten very good rates with them. Um we have so far had decent rates with Ortown. Um recently um our rates went down. We met with them. Um and one of the options they gave us to to try to get a little better rate was to open up a money market. So um this is the change to the agreement in order to open that money

203market up. But we also be will be using the PISLAV imple um more frequently than we had in the past because the rates aren't as good as what we had gotten previously. Do have a discussion the agreement shifts a lot of the responsible a lot of the responsibility for anything fraudulent that happens kind of towards the the district it seems. Is that typical of agreements this size? I'm just more used to consumer type accounts. Um yeah, there there's a lot in in banking right now with the fraud piece and I know even when we were speaking with them um there's a lot of concern in that area. Um I want to say this. They're highly regulated as we know. So I think it's really trying to cover things but I think we're protected. I guess

204they'll say it that way. So, I'll make a motion to approve a master agreement for Treasury Management Services with Ortown Bank to add a money market account. Do I have a second? >> Second. Any discussion? Any nays or abstensions? Having heard none, the motion carries. Um, other items of business 9.13. Just a quick question for you, Sue. uh if the district were to buy treasuries, which I know we typically haven't done because of CD rates, but if we were decide to go that direction, take advantage of the short end of the curve and and where it's at right now in the upper threes, um mid-3s, is that something we would have to do through an intermediary or could we do that with Treasury Direct? I'm just curious if you know the answer to that. We

205we I don't know whether we can or or we have to, but we we typically would do it with an intermediary um because they're more familiar with the process and everything. Um but I know when we talked about it before Trevor speak on it, he reached out to Pislab. Yeah. >> So his lab is one of the two we lab has access to the treasuries, notes, things like that. They have a very rate um estimating but it's about 3 and a half%. When I talked to them they said yeah you could get a few basis points by doing something like that but the liquid rate is very at around and again ballpark three and a half compared to locking up anything more long term even if it's a month um just the process of that.

206So it would be probably through his lab this work on that through but again just in talking to them they kind of guided us more liquid because as of right now a lot of their rate is through big like big purchases stuff like >> okay just something I guess we keep our eyes on. >> All right that's all I have Mr. President back to you. All right, brings us to item 10, personnel and policy. I will turn it over to our personnel and policy chair, Mrs. Samantha Hall. >> Thank you, President Hingle. Item 10.01, um the business manager. I make a motion to approve appointing Misty Danner as business manager at a salary of $127,000 prrated effective June 22nd, 2026, pending completion of all required paperwork. Do I have a second? >> Second. >> Any

207discussion? Hearing none. Any nays or abstensions? Motion carries. Item 10.02, uh, renewing the district's PSBA all access package. I make a motion to approve renewing the district's PSBA all access package including the administrative regulation option at a cost of $19,370.35 for the 2026 2027 school year which includes the new PSBA policy portal instead of board docs for policies. Do I have a second? >> Second. >> Any discussion? Just wanted to mention uh because I think sometimes with an expense like that people are people wonder okay what are we getting for that? >> Uh one of the things we get for that is legal review of tons of policies where we just receive the the revisions that are required for compliance with ADA or other other updates to laws. Um and there's no way we could

208get it for that price from our own solicitor. you know, if we asked them if we asked our solicitor to do these reviews, uh it would be more expensive. So, uh it's not a replacement for our judgment on a lot of policies, but it it does do just a lot of that compliance like work. >> Um I wanted to add that part of this decision is being prompted because in our board briefing on March 24th, the PSBA um PSBA announced that it's ending its partnership with board docses, which is what we use now. um and to m maintain our continuity and policy management and paperless meetings, we have to transition to a new platform. So, some of this is like we're not choosing it. We do have to make a change. Um and then I

209wanted to share since we're talking about cost savings, I have one in my area, too, although I didn't have anything to do with it. Um the district will realize an annual cost decrease of approximately $6,000 um when we migrate to the new PSBA policy portal and the new paperless board meeting which is keystone agenda. Uh any nays or abstensions? Hearing none. This motion carries. Item 10.03 follows with the termination of board docs and moving forward with keystone agenda. I make a motion to approve the following. Number one, terminating service with board docs as of June 30th, 2026. And two, authorizing the administration to move forward with Keystone agenda, which is the paperless board meeting solution supported by PSBA for an annual cost of $2,000. Do I have a second? >> Second. >> Any discussion? >>

210Um, quick question just clarify clarifying. So th this is 2,000 for this in addition to the 19,000 for PSBA. >> Correct. So our annual PSBA dues are $19,370.35. This adds in 2,000. That gives us $21,370.35. And in our prior model, we were paying $27,370. >> Okay. >> For the combination of PSBA and board dogs. >> Correct. >> Okay. Thank you. Mhm. Um, any other discussion? All right. Hearing none, any nays or abstensions? Motion carries. Item 10.04, the base increase for act 93 salaries. I make a motion to approve the base increase for act 93 salaries at 1.5% for 2026 2027. Do I have a second? >> Thank you. Um any discussion? >> Um yes, I would like to propose that we amend this motion to 1.25%. Um >> so you're you're moving to do that?

211>> I I'd like to to make a I I would like to make a motion to amend. Um, >> do we want to get >> I also would like to to establish that this 1.5% being reduced to 1.25% is in addition to um the other increases that are that are based upon the metrics of where they fall in in our salary ranges. >> Can I second it? >> Yeah. So, it's motion and a second for the uh to amend. Um shall we have discussion on the amendment? >> You second. >> Yep. Yeah. So, it's on the floor. Um my view on this is that if I compare this to something like an app that is used by you know some percentage of the staff you know 40 50 60% of the staff um when I

212look at that app I'm like I prefer a benefit that everyone benefits from that everyone re receives the benefit from. So with with this with salaries that is something that benefits every single staff member that's that's in that category. Um and so while we are looking for places to cut the the budget impact of going to 1.25% is quite small. Um and because this is the the I think the right kind of benefit where it's utilized by every single person in the in the class. Um, I I I would I would keep it at 1.5% and maybe look for other areas that are maybe not universally a benefit to the staff members. >> I agree. >> I I think it's a fair motion that that Mr. Hall, you know, makes as we, you know, make

213adjustments and cuts in other areas. It's, you know, it's demonstrating that um we're doing this everywhere. I I think it's also important to recognize that whether it's the 1.5 or the 1.25, that's not the percentage increase that this group of employees would receive. There's an arcane formula that is built around this and it's something uh more than this. Um so I think it's a I think it's a fair motion in the spirit of fiscal responsibility and and shared burden across the the district. That's my view on it. It's above and beyond the normal raise. It's an additional to that. And I think that if we're all looking at tightening the budget, it needs to be everywhere. So I think the 1.25 is a correct motion. >> 1.25. Yes. >> Yeah. >> I mean, just for

214clarification from what he was saying, so last year that that average was like 3.8 roughly. You know, this would take the increase to 3.5 essentially. there were based on last year's numbers. >> That's that's essentially and and that it's not across the board. That's just an average, >> but it would it would take it from 3.8 to a 3.5 roughly, which would be well above your average private sector increase at this point in time. I know we're we're different, but that's a I think an important benchmark. And then inflation last year, according to the CPI, was 2.7%. Another thing to consider when making these decisions So, I had a really hard time thinking about this because we are trying to get savings where we can and we're trying to get that shared burden. Um, and

215so I I really had to think about how how was I thinking about this? And I think that the other kind of lens that I put on to this was that, you know, whatever we do with the budget relative to a tax increase or no tax increase, we are going to be down 13 teachers, we have other impacts that will come and at the end of the day um our administrative team will be the team that will be leading this change. And so when I thought about it through that lens, I thought to your point, the difference between 1.5 to 1.25 really wasn't that much of a difference. And so I I would be against a 1.25 and in favor of a 1.5 for that change leadership that we will need to carry us through

216some of these times. >> Mr. President. Um, I don't know if discussion is over or not, but when it is, I I sense the the board's closely divided on this matter, and I would suggest a call vote. >> Yeah, I I guess my perspective is I I think the 1.5 is appropriate for many of the same reasons that Mrs. Hall was just sharing. Um, I know, you know, we don't know exactly everything that's going to be happening next year. Um, but I think it would be appropriate to to keep this at 1.5 >> going into next year. >> Absolutely. And this this percentage was already uh discussed with the officers and agreed to the 1.5%. So I think we need to be a board of our word and keep that where it belongs. >> All

217right. Any further discussion? So, as a reminder, what you're voting on is whether to amend the motion to 1.25%. Can we have a roll call vote on whether to amend the motion? >> Samantha Hall. >> Oh gosh, why would you start with me? Nay. Right. That's my Okay. The motion on the motion on the floor. Did >> say nay? No. >> Nay on the amendment. >> Okay. Sorry. >> Jeremy Hash. >> Yes. >> Jen Henle. >> Yes. Nathan Henle, >> nay. >> Lisa Stalin, okay. >> Joe Wilson, >> nay. >> Jason Decker, >> yes. >> Bill Hall, >> yes. >> Mary Leeh Hall, >> nay. >> So with a with a four forward, it it does not pass. Is that incorrect? Okay. All right. So, the amendment did not pass. So, we're back to the

218motion to approve the base increase of 1.5%. Um, >> do I have a second? >> You don't need that. It's already on the floor. >> Okay. >> I'm I'm sorry. >> Yeah. No, you're good. >> We're good. >> You're good. Yeah. Yeah. >> Would you like to share with the class, Mr. Hall? >> Would you like to share with the class? She was No, we're not We're not telling secrets over here. >> We're good. I'll I'll just say >> motion failed. >> I I'll I'll just say as discussion on the main motion that since the motion to amend failed, I intend to support the the 1.5. Same since the motion failed. >> Yep. Same. >> All right. Any further discussion? Um, I think we're pro based on those comments, I think we're probably good with

219just a regular any >> any or abstensions. >> I'd like to see a roll call vote. >> You want a roll call vote? All right. >> We have a request for a roll call vote. >> Jeremy Hash. >> Okay. Remind me. >> This is voting to approve of 1.5. >> Do you want something other than the other one failed. No. >> Well, I mean, yeah. >> Yeah. >> The original motion >> if Right. So, >> if you're against doing the increase of 1.5, I guess is what you're saying, >> right? Yeah. >> So, I'd be a no. Okay. >> Jennifer Hankle. >> Yes. >> Nathan Hankle. >> Yes. >> Joseph Wilson. >> Yes. >> Jason Decker. >> Yes. William Hall, >> yes. >> Mary Lee Hall, >> yes. >> Samantha Hall, >> yes. >> 7

220to one. That passes. >> Okay, moving on. Fine. No more failing. >> That's fine. You got to vote your conscience. >> Moving on to item 10.05, the voting delegates for the PSB delegate assembly. Um, I make a motion. So we are going to ask for volunteers for this. So I just want to preface that by before I answer it when I have no names in there. That's because during discussion we're going to ask for volunteers. Is that correct? >> Yes. Yeah. >> Okay. So, I make a motion to approve the following, not to be named yet, voting delegates for the PSBA delegate assembly meeting on Saturday, November 7th, 2026 at Cumberland Valley School District at 9:00 a.m. >> Do I have a second? >> Second. >> Any discussion? Would anybody like to volunteer to be

221our PSBA delegates? >> So, I've done it for the last few years and it's been a great experience. I would not mind going out again. Mr. Hall. I don't know if you want to join me in this endeavor. >> Yes, I'm I'm fine. >> I nominate Bill and Mary Lee Hall. >> Second. >> All right. >> Yeah, that's fine. >> I suppose uh since they're blank, I'll move to amend the motion to insert Mary Lee Hall and William Hall. >> Second. >> All right. Uh any discussion? Any nays or abstensions? Hearing none, the motion stands amended. Back to you. >> Thank you. Moving on to the Oh, wait. We have to do the main >> The motion amended. The motion is amended. >> What do I have to motion? >> It's already on. Okay. >>

222Okay. So, >> just have to resay it with the >> I say the whole thing again. >> Name's in the blanks. >> Okay. >> Oh, no. The motion's already on the floor. >> You sure? >> Yeah. But we don't >> That was the motion to amend. What happened? >> It was moved to the floor and then there was the motion to amend. Robert's. It's like a stack. So you have the motion on the floor and then the motion to amend goes on top of the stack and then that comes off the stack and it's back to the motions on the floor. >> So who second the original? >> Uh I think it was me. >> The motion Nathan. Okay. >> Yeah. >> Or Yeah. Yeah. And I moved to amend um and I don't know

223who seconded me. >> Okay. So we are back to the original motion on the table >> and it's amend rather it is amended or sorry the yes you're right. The amended motion is is on the floor. Yeah. >> So, where are we? >> Uh, we're just we're discussing if the if the motion now amended needs any discussion, we can discuss it or we can take a vote. >> I don't discuss readilar assuming that there is no discussion, we will um we don't have any. So, any nays or abstensions? All right. Hearing none, the motion carries. Okay. Moving on to item 10.06. Um, new and new or updated policies for a second reading and approval. I make a motion to approve the following new or updated policies. Policy 005, organization. Policy 112, school counseling. Policy 225,

224interviewing students in school. Policy 612, purchases not budgeted, and policy 614, payroll authorization. Do I have a second? >> Second. >> Thank you. Um, any discussion? I wanted to just quick give a summary. Um, because these this is the second reading, we kind of split up our last cycle. Um, so essentially these were presented at the January school board meeting. They were distributed and then we went through a policy discussion at the personal and policy meeting. We had a first reading conducted at the February 19th board meeting. There were significant revisions and these policies reverted back to a first reading at the March board meeting and there was no feedback from the board or the community. So the policies that are presented tonight for a board vote um are up to be passed. So did

225I ask for I did any discussion? I discuss any other discussion. All right. Any naysay or abstensions? Motion carries. Item 10.07. >> Caleb. >> Bye, Caleb. >> Um, item 10.07, first reading of board policy. Um, this is just for information. Um but we have the updated policy for 815.1 which is our generative AI policy and um I don't know if anybody had any questions of this policy. I have some but anybody that has any questions first can go. >> Um just a comment more than anything. >> Okay. >> In the uh no student shall be academically penalized or denied core instructional opportunities for opting out. That kind of goes back to what we were talking about with the handbook and the Chromebooks. It's a nice we're we're addressing it here >> consistent >> concerning at

226least as far as AI goes. >> Yes. >> But we are thinking about it in different areas as well. >> Anything else? >> Um I Oh, sorry. Go ahead. >> Okay. Um so Dr. Repert and I talked about this um just because he went over the changes with me that came back from Mr. Litz. And so I just wanted to call out the change to use um written parental consent versus informed parental consent. Um I wanted to ask about the switch with that and then I wanted to so I'll let you answer that first and then I'll ask the second question. >> Yes. When we're looking at uh the consent, we're looking at the written consent, which is where the parents are saying they want their child to participate or not participate in it. >>

227Um Mr. Litz indicated that having written consent in there as opposed to opt out would be more clear to have that within the policy. >> Okay. And then um the inclusion. So this is where it kind of I was trying to figure out what this meant. There was the inclusion after that sentence of upon enrollment. And so this led me to believe that a consent received if a child was in kindergarten would follow the student through all of however many years they were in our district >> as well as if they moved into the district at any point during their career. So, I just had some concerns about that because I would have no idea what I would have signed when I was in my kids were in kindergarten. So, I don't really know what

228to do about it, but it's I feel it's my responsibility just to share what I was looking at and so I don't know if the board has any other discussion about that. >> I have concerns about it as well. >> Uh I guess the the time frame I think is compressed because generative AI use of that is disallowed for students age 12 and under. >> Okay. So it would actually be either 13y old through 18y old. So >> not that the concern is invalid, but it's not it's not kindergarten and and you're thinking what did I do back in kindergarten 11 or 12th grade? It's about what I do five years. >> That's a good clarification. >> Um >> maybe a yearly agreement. >> Well, and the question >> like everything else you do at

229the beginning of the year, >> this is pretty simple. when you have a child that's enrolled in the district, you have to sign a lot of electronic paperwork every year, you know, regarding their enrollment. >> So, um, Mrs. Hall, if this is something that you might want to add to that, >> maybe that would be a suggestion to administration to see what if anything it could be added in there starting year 13 every year until they're graduated possibly. Yes, it would definitely resolve the issue that I have with uh upon enrollment. I don't know. What does everybody else think? >> I just want to clarify. Electronic uh counts as written. Um does it? >> Excuse me. >> Does electronic acceptance count as written? >> Electronic >> we would like do it in Sapphire like we

230would. So I think Jeff would tell you this. Okay. I thought we'd gotten to that point, but just want to make sure. >> Yeah. >> Anything else? All right. And then, um, I did just want to give back up as to why I was kind of hanging on that. Um, and this is not really to change anything. It's just to give a lens to I think the shifting legal landscape that we have with education technology. Um I I was curious about you know well what are the you know what are the lawsuits that have come up since you know we started using digital and so in my research it showed that um you know there were occasional privacy complaints pre2020 the post-pandemic years have triggered a surge in litigations driven by the you know adoption

231of digital tools during school closures and so just to put that into context um they were what I was reading suggested that prior to 2020 there were isolated major major data breaches but from 2020 to 2026 there was a 200% increase in privacy class action suits. So the reason why I would like the yearly piece of it is because I think this landscape is changing um and I think we should probably be reviewing our risk every year. Um so I just wanted to bring that to the forefront. And then the other piece that I wanted to seek clarification on is the other um change. It says staff shall not use generative AI tools and resources for social emotional learning, psychological profiling, mental health screenings, or any form of behavioral monitoring. I just wanted to to

232confirm that when we say behavioral monitoring, does that include anything that would include a sentiment analysis analysis? And I don't know. I don't even know if we have anything that has sentiment analysis, but to me that's sort of a subset of, you know, that's giving a a sentiment of whether or not somebody's happy or sad. That feels like it gets into that profiling. >> Yeah, I think I I would think that would be under psychological profiling, but >> I mean, would it I don't know. That's what I'm asking. We're assuming, right? But I don't know. That's what I'm looking for. >> No, it's absolutely a valid question. >> I don't know how to answer it. You're looking at me like, what? you know, the little happy face that said like the thing that we use

233in um cafeteria. >> So, we're not Yeah. So, >> I don't want to see that used for >> AI. >> Yeah. >> Um Well, so I mean honestly that that data is so simple. I don't know why you would put an AI on it, but Right. So, >> I just had to ask a question. >> No, no, no. I I Yeah, it's >> it the example you came up with might not ever get to that point, but but it raises the spectre of examples that do. >> Um, >> so we we feel pretty confident that that's not really anything that we're Okay, just want to ask >> feel confident today sitting here. >> I know. I'll ask you next year, >> but I think that's also why you're taking a look at it on a

234year-to-year basis. Yeah. >> Um and I think that was it. So is there any other discussion? >> Um do we want clarification on the upon enrollment or we >> Oh right. >> Do we need to change like >> do we need to change that to yearly annually? >> Well >> plan introduction of a construction >> that seems like the exact phrase that needs to change right annually. I mean, I I don't think, you know, I know we talked about it earlier on in the policies like, well, if the teacher is going to bring something in, you want them to get permission for that thing, but that's a little too haphazard, I think, and too much management for the teachers to do. You know, maybe it is yearly as part of the beginning of the school

235year, >> like it could just be in that folder. Well, I think we were talking about a we were already talking about a yearly approval like a collection of Chromebooks and when you get the so you come in in August, you're going to get you're not getting the Chromebook until you have your beginning of the year paperwork entered in. So, it goes back to our success rate at getting the beginning of the paper beginning of the year paperwork back is around 60%. So, it's a huge task. So, we're now taking one challenge, connecting it to another to say, okay, you need the beginning of the year paperwork sign or we're not issuing the Chromebook. Mhm. >> And so if they're not providing incentive to go home and get >> the affirmation of the paper, it's

236it's not just cuz it's not just AI approval. It's apps in general >> that hey, here's what we utilize. Are you signing off that it's okay? >> The others that would be included the handbook sign off, >> you know, which is reviewing the handbook specific to policies that are within the handbook. It's your emergency care card, COPA, >> you know, for those that it would apply to >> any of the summer mailings that would go home that the parents would have to complete prior to coming back to >> that's what we're speculating. >> What was I'm sorry I didn't hear that. >> Mr. Hall just said, "Do you anticipate you're going to increase the percent of people that turn their beginning of the year information in?" I said, "Yeah, that's >> that would be a

237good thing, right?" >> Yeah. >> Yep. >> so back to the verbiage here. So, is it >> um yearly or again, we have to take into account someone who comes into the school mid year. >> Well, then they're still doing it yearly because they did it >> still doing it yearly, I guess. >> Yeah. They still did it when they came in and then they'll do it again. >> You can do it more frequently. >> That's okay. >> Do it every week. Yeah. >> Yeah. Out there >> every week. >> You can you can send in your form. Yes, it's okay. Every >> I'm going to call it a question in a second. >> Okay. >> All right. So, we're we're saying that's going to change annually. >> So, instead of upon enrollment to annually

238>> or yearly or Yeah, >> annually. That seems maybe the beginning of the year, not the end of the year. >> But, >> yeah, yearly or annually, either one. >> Okay. So, that's just information. So we can finish with that and move on to item 10.08 which is the adjudication for student A. The board of education to consider approval of adjudication for student A. The board hereby permanently expels the student from the Southern New York County School District effective immediately provided however that the student may apply for readmission to the school district at the start of the school year of the 2027 2028 school year. provided that the student agrees to, complies with, and has met and meets the following conditions. Number one, a 10-day suspension from school beginning March 26, 2026 and ending April

23913, 2026. Number two, required attendance and successful goal completion as outlined by the team during the intake process at a southern New York County school district approved alternative education program such as River Rock Academy. Number three, successful completion of two clean drug tests for the student found possessing or using controlled substances. Number four, the student may seek an alternative education outside the district at the parents expense. Number five, while expelled, the student is prohibited from entering upon any school district property and attending any school activities, including extracurricular activities, athletic events, clubs, and school dances unless authorized by a school administrator. Number six, while expelled, the student will be referred to the student assistance program and must follow all recommendations as part of that process. I make a motion to approve adjudication for student A. Do

240I have a second? >> Second. >> I have a motion and a second. Any discussion or questions? Any nays or abstensions? Hearing none, that motion carries. And with that, 10.09. I have no other items of business. And I pass that back over to you, President Hinkle. >> All right. brings us to item 11, buildings and grounds. I'll turn it over to Mr. Haller. Buildings grounds chair. Okay. >> Thank you, President Henle. Moving on to 11.01, we have our water res water test report for March of 2026. That is there for our information. On to 11.02, we have the buildings and grounds report for March. Mr. Buffington. >> Yeah, I just uh noted some things in there, call your attention. Uh we did a um walk of the fields. So we have the athletic report. Um

241Mr. Man, Mr. Blandon, and myself uh walk the fields. Uh as you can see, the the ratings are um pretty good. Uh it is at the beginning of the season though, so as as we go through through the season, somewhere is is uh is expected. But uh we are pleased with with the results that uh we have of the fields. Thank you. Moving on to 11.03. We're going to have a discussion about our future summer projects. >> Yeah. So, this evening, uh, representatives from Site Logic are here with with me as well. So, I know Mr. Far is going to kind of uh be interacting here with the um PowerPoint as we walk through. We just uh we're going to be real brief, but just wanted to kind of keep the discussion in front of

242the in front of the board, you know, in particular when um you know, considering the budget and things and and the wos that are associated with that. Um didn't want to forget about, you know, potential needs or or the needs of uh of these projects. Certainly um what we're trying to do is reduce risk um and reduce long-term cost. You know, at some point, you know, these things are are hitting their um expected life and um replacement at least of some of the components, you know, uh will be will be needed, you know. So, that's what uh you know, our our plan um our recommendation includes. Um so the slide here um is the same slide that we looked at last month. Um so the the recommendation that we have um would be to go

243into the three buildings, Shrewsbury Elementary, Southern Middle, and Southern Elementary, one each year um and get those things done uh that they need the the greatest needs uh which are around the HVAC uh terminal units, the units in the classrooms, uh and then also some some electrical components as well. Couple other items that I'll note on there. Uh besides just the the three projects, um you'll see the district-wide scope um and some the 700 almost $30,000 there. Uh that's two security projects which we've talked to the board about uh previously. Um the 52,000 at Friendship is actually the cafeteria floor um which have shown some signs of wear as well as blemishes in color and things. Um and then the um there at the bottom of that first column um would be some ADA parking

244up at the high school track. If you can picture obviously the tracks up on the hill, you know, so if if we have uh individuals um coming to the track getting parking closer closer to that, but um Mr. Spar, good evening everyone. I'm Damian Spar with Site Logic. Nice to see you all again. With me is Donovan Ball. I think this is his uh first board meeting. He is an assistant project executive and he is learning a lot about Robert's rules of order and interesting things that happen like four four splits on uh board votes. So um what we want to do is continue this discussion about what work would look like in a subsequent summer. Next summer um I should say start with this summer. We're going to be doing guaranteed energy savings act

245work in the buildings as we've been talking about. All that is underway. Equipment is on being completed in manufacturer. Next summer in 2027, you have the same options that you had before. You can use guaranteed energy savings act. You can use competitive bid. The idea has been that we design that in the summertime while we're whatever we're doing in 2027, we design in 2026 so that we hit a market for pricing that work in the fall. That is where you're going to get the most for your money. So if we are able to do that and we decide to use a Giza, the majority of the work that we're talking about that's proposed in the three building scenario fits within guaranteed energy savings act. There's certain rules that allow non-utility impacting work to be covered

246and those are noted here. The advantages of Giza that we have are that we get to pre-qualify our contractors. We get pricing from local contractors and we've we've done work this year to keep that money locally. We are able to mitigate costs because we don't have change orders and and schedule risk. And again, we have a good speed to get to market and time to get to bid. If we look at the next slide, refining the scope for recommended work is a carryover of the continuation of our good planning principles that we've talked about. This we did this last year. We've really refined them in speaking with the board. We want to refine the scope. We want to refine the budget. We want to reduce expenses and we want to reduce risk. The way we

247do that is we look at uh where abatement may or may not need to be done to minimize the need for it within the project and therefore the cost. Same thing with water testing as Mr. Buffington was alluding to earlier to determine what the what the needs really are and how to to solidify that so that it can be uh cost reduced. closer review of the systems to get our systems another 20 years is really to look at that terminal unit. There's places where we may be able to reuse, rebuild, do things a little bit better to obtain that goal. A lot there'll be a lot of replacement needs, but we can look at all of that so that we get the most out of the system that we have in place. summer of 2026,

248we're going to take some piping out of out of uh the buildings to make sure that the piping can remain. We believe that it can. We'll confirm that. Fire alarm systems can be rebuilt and security systems can be rebuilt. So, we have opportunity to reduce costs there. We can look at all of the the finishes needs and really if you recall last time we had a good bit of money in for potential finishes that can be looked at to be reduced material and equipment selections between packaging. I think if you remember last year we saved $80,000 for the equipment that we needed. It was just a different brand. We were able to reduce cost that way and obviously finish his options to reduce as we mentioned before and getting subcontractor input and collaborating to figure

249out the best ways to get what you need. This is the greatest needs and it might be the greatest greatest needs but get what you need at the absolute best place and most fiduciarily responsible manner. Randy, >> so obviously the board will call that we did apply for grants. We're hopeful for that, but it's not enough to pay for what, you know, is proposed. Um, you know, so obviously a um payment option, whether it's fund balance or uh bond use, um would have to be to in order to move forward, we would we would need a a financing plan um to to do that. Certainly, so we don't lose a summer, you know, uh is a slide we've seen before, kind of staying on track. Um and as Mr. bar had had recommended that um

250you know we'll be coming back to the board in May to potentially you know move forward with a design then that would refine that scope throughout the summer and get to the best pricing in the fall to allow that um project of 27 to occur in the summertime and then uh continue on two more times um with the with the three buildings um in in total. So with that uh we'll open it up for questions. Okay. Thank you. So um our purpose here is to try and determine um what direction if any we may go uh towards design and construction for that summer. So that's the guidance that you're looking for essentially. Um, I have your paperwork from your last presentation here and essentially what is being recommended is 8.2 million roughly um of work

251to be done. Uh, with the bulk of that work being at the Shrewsbury Elementary School at about $7.3 million. Um, so then I I wanted to try to take some time and drill down into the Shrewsbury Elementary School and and what that represents. >> Mhm. >> Um, so a large portion of that has already um been uh accounted for in the in the roofs and other such work that's already been approved. Um, which you have that noted in here. Um, and before I get to other things, I had I did have one question in here that you may not have an answer for right now, but one that I would hope we could we could drill down into. Um, do you have this in front of you? >> I do. >> Okay, sure. >> Excellent.

252So, if you look at your your line 120, um, we have their replace five roof exhaust fans. Um, but if you go up to line item 100, which is in in the work that's already not 100, I'm Yeah, 100. It's already in in a per uh an approved portion there. We're we're replacing 57 roof exhaust fans. And when I was digging into this, it just made me take pause as to why they're not already in that scope. I will find out. It may be that it was a separate system and those fans didn't they didn't require replacement right away. There would be there's either it's one of two things. It's either somehow duplicated and I'm not sure why it would be or it's a separate system that did not rise to the to the level

253of greatest needs but ended up falling in with the other work that needed to be done. That I think Mr. Hall is one of those things when we look at those best planning practices that we may look at and say, you know what, we can get much more time out of that equipment and we're we're going to either repair it a little bit or not do a whole lot to it so that we can save money and avoid cost. So, I'll find out the answer to that. >> That might be the case, but it's really only a year's difference between the two. And I I mean it would have I I don't know exactly what the numbers are, but if you just take them out, it it is a significant savings if we were to

254do it at the same time. I don't know if that's because of the crane already being on site, you know, all of those things that that transpire as you're working on the roof. But we can leave that at that. But if you could look into that and and determine whether a >> we should have it in that scope of work and b can we still get it into that? I'll I'll certainly do that. >> Okay. >> Um so then I I know that you know we've had as a board a lot of discussions about you know where are we going as a district where are we going population where are we going with numbers of schools all of those things to they been you know a huge part of what we're we're working through in

255this budgetary process. So, I I would understand if the board didn't have the stomach for $7.3 million. I I I would get that. Um, but I also see that there is a real potential for some uh heating um and consequently cooling issues in our classrooms in that building. uh which in this particular case you know falls down under our unit ventilators in the classrooms and then ultimately the controls that control those systems. um you know doing those this is getting out of the scope of of having some economy in scale which I I totally understand that we're losing some economy and not going full scale. I I I get that. I think we all get that. However, um we also are confronting a lot of difficult questions about what does the future hold? Um, and

256there there is a world where I I don't know that it has to necessarily be the full 7.3 million because there's some things in there like um it's a 1.1 million for changing our light fixtures over to LED, which I I do get that that you know LED is going to be, you know, 40 50% savings over fluorescent. Um, but I also know from my own facilities that I manage that I'm not getting anywhere near the life out of the LEDs I thought I was going to. You know, I I'm I'm to the point where I'm having to do full fixture change outs at about 8 years. Uh, which when I did it, it was touted it was going to be 20, you know, and now here I am 8 years in and I'm like,

257these fixtures are all going to have to be changed because I can't put bulbs in them. You know, there is no bulb. You know, a bulb doesn't exist. So, the whole fixture has to go. So, I I maybe some of that will straighten out. But that that's all I'm trying to say is I don't know what the direction the board wants to go. I don't know if the if the board looks at that 7.3 million and says at this point in time with our uncertainty and direction is that really what we want to do. So I just want to float out the idea of taking care of the unit ventilators, taking care of the building control system, putting in the subsequent carpet or painting that's going to have to happen in those rooms to change

258those units. And I if using these numbers, which probably already have some economy of scale built into them, >> but using these numbers that that's looking like, you know, that's going to probably run somewhere around 2.5 2.7 million to do that >> rather than 7.3. >> Well, I mean, you you can look at all of these other pieces and components that build in to create the 7.3. I I'm just I I I look at those units. I know the trouble we've had, Randy, with them. I know we're we're we're robbing, you know, instrumentation to keep them going, you know, all of those things. Um that this might be something as an alternate that we could consider that in lie of of of doing 7.3 or doing nothing. This might be something in the middle where

259we can find some ground to say this is a looming problem that that we can that we can potentially wrangle in. Even though, you know, there it may not be quite the same economy of scale when we're talking about $7.3 million. It's that's still a hard pill for us to swallow. And it's just the the the ventilators are coming in at 1.2 million. the the control system is is about a million. Uh replacing all of the carpets in the building is is coming in at about 700,000. I just kind of shot that number down the middle and you know obviously this is all of it's going to take design work and these numbers are going to change as the design work unfolds but they need direction. So, I wanted us to have maybe a option

260three. You know, if option one is doing it all, option two is doing nothing, maybe this could be an option three. So, I don't know how the board feels about that, but I'm putting it out. >> Here's what here's what I think on it. It looking at a 7.3 number, I don't have the stomach for that. >> Uh, and especially when you have another number right behind it, 9.5, and then another one at 8.5. I don't see that happening. >> However, if you're in a budget crisis at home, you don't put an additional in the house, >> right? >> But you got to fix the car to go to work. >> Yes. >> So, that I can get behind. I can get behind necessary c necessary things that have to be done to survive and

261to keep moving, >> but we're not building a brand new addition, right? >> We're not building a master suite. >> We never were. Yeah. And then in this case, remember you're I want you all to understand you're going through the process in the right way. What we talked about it and I'm going to say it one more time. Best planning principles. Okay. If we were to do this building, what would and forget about doing the building like we had all the money in the world, but doing this building and we even being fiscally responsible with the numbers you see with limited scope because that's limited scope. It's not a complete renovation. You have that, but you do have the opportunity to look at that. And that's why we wanted to bring some of those ideas

262to whether you cut scope or we are able to say we don't need all this and we don't need all this and that crunches down to something that addresses those items. Maybe there's a couple economies that you go, "Yeah, it makes some sense to do that while you're there." >> Sure, there are some. >> And if there aren't, there aren't. >> But we're prepared to be able to look at that because >> you are not alone. Yeah. >> And you're not alone in the way you're handling it and this is the process. >> Yeah. I appreciate you bringing all the options to us. I mean I just think I think what what's needed is direction about what op so with the lighting um certainly if these are if these are fixtures that where the LED

263is built in I would definitely like to see do we have the option to replace because I they do make LED tubes that fit into the same socket as the C as the fluorescent tubes >> retrofit kits is that an option >> um where we don't have to replace is replacing bulbs is a lot easier than replacing fixtures and a lot less. I mean that we can in-house that. Um and and so I'd like to see options like that. You know, how much would that cost along with what is the savings? And I I do need to be convinced to do anything with the lights. I need to know what is the projected savings. And if I look at that and then I'm like, okay, projected savings that if if we go and replace all

264the bulbs, we'll we'll realize that savings in maybe two years. if we replace all the fixtures because that costs more, maybe it takes longer and maybe the savings with fixtures is greater over time, but with the uncertain future and I'm going to recall something that we've all talked about and we when we talked about doing shrews and working on the roof, we said, "What color is that going to be?" We want to make sure we have the color right. Mhm. >> In addition to the things you just said about lighting, what we need to do is if if there's going to be some retrofit like that or some option, >> I would want you to see it in the classroom. >> Mhm. >> Yeah. >> Because if the quality of light is a big deal

265and it's and it makes a big difference, maybe you think about it. If you see that the quality of light doesn't make the difference and you're okay, that's how you get to make decisions. So we have to be thoughtful like that and that's very responsible when for for the way you're thinking and for the way you're trying to attack these things. >> Yeah, certainly you know one of the things agree with totally with Mr. hall. Some of our biggest risks are uh the unit classroom, the union incentive classroom and the controls. Uh but let's not forget we also have plumbing risks of you know where the connections uh with the toilet piping you know is is a big risk that you know um can flood parts of that building if if if occurs. you know,

266we also need to look at um aging uh generator, aging fire alarm system and those types of things, you know, and and >> we're looking at not wholesale replace everything, but how do we minimize risk and extend the life of these systems for 20 years, you know, is is 20 20 plus years what we're trying to what we're trying to do. And point very well taken, Randy. And in that um that that risk or you know the the CPVC water connection issues that we have there um are at 400,000 um according to >> right and the and the question is are there other things that we can do to solve that problem for less? >> Well and I I mean I I definitely see that as a risk. Yeah. Uh it is a that's a

267real risk to to the to the building and would be $400,000, you know. So maybe maybe in that we're inc encroaching on on 3 million >> Mhm. and not not, you know, two and a half or, you know, two and three/4ers or um and you know, if you're in there painting in the classrooms or putting carpets in the classrooms and you got to go in and paint the areas where you have to cut the walls open for for the plumbing pipes, you know, obviously maybe there's a little bit of economy of scale in that because you're got trades there anyway, >> two different things for the same >> for the same uh issue. But I do question whether or not so these these unit ventilators probably are a little bit more efficient. I mean, you

268know, maybe maybe a little bit more efficient motors in them than >> I don't know, maybe they're variable speed or something to that nature >> versus where we are now, >> you know, but all of that efficiency really happens at the plant, you know, whether it's the chiller or whether it's the boiler. That's really where that >> That's correct. efficiency derives from. So in the Giza world, we're not going to be seeing the same types of efficiencies on the heating and cooling side because the unit ventilators really only use electricity. All of the all of the efficiency is happening at the plant. Does that make sense? So I don't want us to anticipate this >> that we're going to be able to have this savings in our cooling or savings in our heating bill because

269>> yeah, >> it doesn't work that There's a little bit, but it's not the thing. You're >> right. >> Maybe a little in the electric, but it's it's I I just I want us to understand that that's not going there's not >> Yeah, this is more about making making the system go out longer in terms of its life and replacing that equipment than it is about that >> barely incremental efficiency. >> But it would still qualify as Disa. >> Oh, yeah. Absolutely. >> Yeah. So, >> so yeah, I mean the direction for me would be if if directions was needed, I'd really want to focus in on those those projects that that truly have to be done in relatively short order and the adjacent projects that there's not an alternative that like doing different bulbs

270is an alternative to changing the So, I understand if you're tearing up the ceiling, do the light fixtures then. But if the bulbs if changing bulbs instead is is an option, then we don't even need to do bulbs can wait because you can do that anytime. Uh so I I I definitely want to see it paired down uh and and what what are the things that we've got to do uh in within the next year or two in order to keep the building good for the next five years. I understand what I'd say. And then if there are component adjacent components where we're hitting okay this one it's it's a little outside that window but it's really efficient to hit it right now then yeah >> Mr. Hall we'll get you an answer on those

271fans back through administration. >> Yeah. >> Absolutely. >> Thank you. Moving on to 11.04, I'd like to make a motion to award the HVAC air filters bid to Filter by Incorporated of Tallaladega, Alabama in the amount of $16,16522. >> Second. >> Any discussion? Jesus. >> Yes. >> Just for um anyone that might be watching, this is something that we do in house. This is basically just what it costs to keep our filters changed out throughout the throughout the year. >> Yeah. Big shout out to Mr. Man and and Mrs. Lutz. Um as you can see, we put a bid together and as you can see, you know, we're we're achieving, you know, good results and saving money through that bid. Okay. >> What was the savings? Just curious. Savings over last year. >> I don't

272remember. >> I don't have that in front of me, but it's Yeah, I believe I I can get you an answer. Uh >> just a ballpark. I'm not looking for >> 2,000. Yeah, I think it's a few thousand over over last year. >> It's a good 15%. >> Well, I'll qualify that by saying, you know, good inventory. you don't order the same amount every year. You know, you have on your shelf and when we put our bid together, we see what's still on the shelf and then our bid gets um changed to those amounts. So there there could be a difference in in our amounts, you know, so last year could have been a little higher in amounts of filters. Um, but just comparing the the three bids that we did get, the high bid

273being, you know, almost 20,000 and the low being 16, you know, and we're we're within our budget, you know, comfortably. >> Thank you. >> Any naser abstensions? Hearing none. Motion passes. Moving on to 11.05. I'd like to make a motion to award the landscaping services bid to Heritage Lawn and Landscape Care Incorporated of York, PA for a three-year period effective July 1st, 2026 through June 30th, 2029. Do I have a second? >> Second. >> Okay. So, I' I'd like to have a little bit of discussion about this. Um, so I'm assum I'm assuming because it's not really clear in in the um uh bid that the alternate being the um seeding and top dressing. Is that for basically the four fields that are fours or is that for all of the fields or >> it's

274it's all the fields and the board will recall when initially this came up a few years ago we set up a plan in motion to to alternate. We've seen good results with that. So within this bid we actually um extended that life, you know, move back. So, we're not in the bid. We're not um doing the fields as um often as as what we initially had had done. Um you know, because it does help with keeping um the turf in the natural turf in great shape, you know, but we did scale it back. Um >> so I I guess I'm seeing it as essentially $4,500, you know, then $5,000, $4,700. Is that because it's different fields? It doesn't really It is. >> Yes, it is. >> So, it's scheduled out as far as so many

275fields this year, so many fields this year, so many fields that year. >> Yes. And the um backup information that we gave you kind of um outlines which fields, you know, that that we're were hitting. Yes. >> I I I didn't I'm just I was just looking at the bid and it wasn't really clear as to how that was was shaking out. So, >> uh, >> but that's that's okay. I I understand what you're saying and I can >> the number the numbers run very close to one another because essentially we're doing so many fields year one, so many fields year two, so many fields year three, and in those three years, I'm assuming we're encompassing all of the fields. >> Most Yeah, I think I think it's all. >> So, we're essentially about on

276a three-year rotation. >> Yeah. And depending on what we're doing this year, the year that we're finishing up, you know, we're kind of considering in that same same cycle. And one of the things you'll notice, you know, on on all the categories, the numbers go up slightly except that category because it is different fields and it's different square footages, right? You know, so that's >> that's what it >> which is why they actually fluctuate up but then they fluctuate back down again. >> Correct. >> It depends on which fields we're doing. Okay. I that's that's clear to me now. Thank you. So, do we have any discussion? Any nays or abstensions? And moving on to 11.06. I'd like to make a motion to approve the contracts with Modern Fold Incorporated of Toppton, PA for the

277preventative maintenance on the manual operable walls for the 2026 2027 year for a fee of $12,000. Do I have a second? >> Second. >> Any discussion? Any needs or abstensions? None. Motion passes. Moving on to 11.07. I would like to make a motion to approve the sprinkler fire burglar inspection and monitoring contract with Johnson Controls Fire Protection LP of New Cumberland and PA for 3 years beginning July 1st, 2026 through June 30th, 2029 utilizing the state contract pricing for the cost of $26,370 annually. >> Second. Do we have any discussion? Any or abstensions? Moving forward to 11.08. I would like to make a motion to approve a service maintenance contract for security components with illuminated integration integration beginning July 1st, 2026 through June 30th, 2029 for the annual cost of $11,000 each year for three

278years. Second. >> Any discussion? >> Any names or abstensions? >> Okay, moving forward. Uh 11.09. I would like to make a motion to approve repairing the 2010 Ford F250 for $8,3862. Do I have a second? >> Second. Do we have discussion? So, I did have one question, Randy. Um, or Mr. Buffington. >> Oh, Ry's fine. >> Uh, maybe maybe in another setting. Uh, so this is um our second truck that we have had um basically bed rail, >> right, >> brought out problems with. >> Yep. Um, and I am wondering if we are doing anything like a a fluid film or an underbody treatment to try and prevent that. >> Yeah, we we've washed, you know, try to wash and flush them out. you know, certainly um those that own pickups or or no pickups

279um you know, particularly Ford, we're in that years, you know, as they get newer um that risk is getting lower, you know. Um but yeah, I mean, we're we're watching them. Certainly, we could look at at uh putting a coating on on underneath as well. I'm just thinking that with our other trucks in the fleet and this has no bearing on this repair. >> Um maybe it's something we should look into and see if we can, you know, save the >> or or prolong the life of some of those beds. I know spreading salt is really really hard on them, >> you know, it's it's really hard on them. >> Yeah. No, it is. and and our vehicles aren't the main drivers of that salt, but they are running around in in the salt and

280they do have spreaders on them. So, yeah, we'll continue to to uh look at trying to m maintain that. Um and as the briefing had noted, we did talk to the um the garage and you know they they do believe that um they didn't see other because it I don't like to spend you know the $8,000 you know um but they do believe that we can get you know several more years out of it without um other major issues. But relatively low, as we all know, as we all have vehicles, >> like 52,000, >> there's never real low mileage. >> What's that? >> It's real low mileage. You only put all >> But all unsalted uh >> uh parking lots. >> Did you discuss the value of the truck? >> Uh I did do a

281little digging around and I thought the truck was if we were to buy something similar, you're probably at about $14,000. >> Yeah. serious similar vehicle, same year, you know, >> 30% >> used >> in repairs, 5,000 of it's a truck bed just to get it to pass inspection where you could potentially not spend that, sell it, get something that is better used. It doesn't have to be the extreme of brand new. Get a used truck. That is another option. I don't think it has to be one extreme of buy a brand new 2026 or fix a 2010. I think there is a hybrid there option that you might spend some but you would get something that would last more than just a few more years because it is a 16-y old truck and if it

282already got rust going. >> Do we have any limits in terms of >> I mean I drove a 2010 Ford. >> Are we limited in terms of buying used? The challenge we're going to run into trying to buy used, we we've done it once or twice over the years. It's been difficult, but especially in this environment, the challenge is going to be this. We talked about the bid limit earlier. >> Um, so if you go over 13,000, what the exact number? Um, you need three quotes. It's going to be difficult to find three quotes on a used truck. Yeah. >> Um and then and really we've even looked at can we go on state contract but not for use. It would have to be brand new which is sometimes why we do brand new. Um

283so I I think we'd be really challenged. The other challenge we're going to face is once we find one, you'd have to authorize us to buy it because by the time we bring it to the board, it's going to be gone. Right. >> Yeah. So, I mean it it is a little challenging in our environment to be able to to do those types of things. Plus, there is a risk. I mean, I'm just going to throw we know what we have with our truck because we we've had it. When you buy used, I think your risk goes up because you don't know, >> especially in the price ranges we're talking about. >> Yeah. Yeah. I see. >> We have the issue. Sorry. We have, you know, last year same issue problem with the truck, rusted

284bed rails, rusted bed. Same thing this year. And now the fix is spend 8,000 on a 16-y old truck. That's that's a hard pill to swallow considering the environment that we are in. And we're trying to, you know, wash the pennies so the dollars make sense. Like that is >> Yeah, I appreciate your comments. Um, comparing the two trucks, last year's truck was a lot worse. You know, I don't have the I should have brought the numbers, but the the repair was almost double, I believe. You know, the cost. Uh, so so it was a lot more uh the cost was was was greater last year for for that truck. But as I as I look at it, you know, to buy something similar, you know, you're looking at $48,000, something like that. So, as

285I rationalize spending the $8,000, if we can get 15 years out of a truck, so if we buy a truck for 15 years, and I'm going to do simple math because it's getting late, uh 45,000, call it $45,000, 15 years, $3,000 a year. So, we can't guarantee anything, but if we can get three more years out of this truck by spending less than $9,000, that's $3,000 a year. Now certainly there's wearables that you know even a new truck has oil changes and things like that that this truck and you know any truck is going to have you know so understand your points. Um but as I've looked at it and things it's it's a risk, you know. Um but in this budget, yeah, that's what my recommendation, >> but I think the underlying issue is

286we're not fixing this this rust problem that we keep having with vehicles. This is like I said the second one where the underlying problem is we can't just keep throwing the money after the the problem. Are we get fixed? Is there a way to fix that rust problem? Maybe not whole, but we can chase after with the fluid film. >> Yeah. Yeah. And certainly uh efforts that we take um cleaning them, you know, the underbody underbody cleaning is is important, you know, and we do that and we'll continue doing that. Um, >> but we Yeah, I think I think you'd like us to look into can we do like a Rustoleum or Eastwood rust uh or two products you can put on something that's already rusted or lenoline uh under coatings for for things that

287are not >> that rusted. >> That's a possibility. Yeah. Too, >> right? >> And and you can essentially stop some of that in its tracks. So that with a with a lanerland based product, you can stop some of that in its tracks. But I I do want to get back to one of the things that you said, Randy, because um $3,000 a year um for the cost of the truck, but it's not really fair to put the whole $8,000 into that bucket because even in that $3,000 a year for the cost of the truck, there's other preventative maintenance you're going to have to do along the way. And there's other preventative maintenance that's happening inside of this $8,000. Um, so you know, the the bed is probably somewhere in the neighborhood of, you know, $5,500

288and then the other $2,500 is maintenance that you would have to do >> anyway. >> Whether, you know, maybe not on buy a brand new truck and and you drive it, you know, for three years in situations where you're not on a highway, you know, you're you're starting and stopping and starting and stopping. In three years, you're probably going to have to put brakes on it. I mean, that's just >> and and 2500 of it is. >> So, some of some of the 8,000 is things like new brakes or things of that sort. >> Brakes and calipers and and >> motors. >> Yeah, that's what I'm trying to it's really the the question then really comes down to the the 5500 is really >> the bed and the rails. >> 5500 is what we're putting

289into this vehicle to keep it on the road. The other stuff is maintenance that we would have to do. That's why I did say 30% of value of the truck instead of >> Yeah. Yeah. >> 50%. >> Right. About 30% of it value. >> I mean, and one thing that you know, you know, Sedors is going to be able to give us a good perspective on this truck because they've worked on it from the beginning. >> You know, you know, they've they've seen it in and out of the shop every year. And um you know that I I if they if they say we're going to get three years out of the vehicle, I I think you know >> Yeah, they certainly didn't quote three years, but uh they they they did it's worth putting

290the money in into this one unlike last year's. They they they did they weren't in support of putting the money into it last year. >> Okay. Any other discussion? So we can we can chase a plan for rust maintenance further than just washing out the bottom which >> sir >> sure we'll look at that. Okay. >> Okay. Any nays or abstensions hearing? None. Motion passes. Moving on to 11.10. This is there for our information. Our use of facilities. Moving on to 11.11 other items of business, which I do actually have one this time. I'm not just joking. Um so one of our fellow representatives on the new Freedom Bureau Council um she and I had a discussion at the community leaders dinner about development in in the community and um construction, you know, and the

291role that our local governing bodies have in in how that takes place and then ultimately what that impact is from those decisions on the district. Um and in that she um said to me that there was potential plans in the works for expanding the wastewater treatment plant in New Freedom. Um I guess technically it's in railroad but it's the new freedom plans. Um that um expansion could have major ramifications on a lot of our problems. It could have major ramifications on construction and the amount of construction that takes place in our community because it it gives these boards more latitude in being able to authorize construction projects because they have the sewer capacity to handle the projects. Um, where I think this really bears light on is something that we are in current process of

292working on, and that is the land that this district owns right outside of New Freedom Burough in Shrewsbury Township. Um, that plant could have um major ramifications on the value of that land. Mhm. >> The value of that land could go up significantly um if that wastewater treatment plant um expansion were to go through. Um I know it's a lot of conjecture. We sort of live in a world of conjecture lately, but there I I still think it is a very good exercise for us to have an understanding of its value. >> Um, and and how that could then ultimately benefit uh the district. But I just want to put that out there. That's something that that she brought up that she not only brought it up, she uh asked the surrounding municipalities to to

293sort of do a survey of what usage or capacity there is. Um, and I think that uh we just need to keep that in mind as we're moving forward. And I'd like to thank her for for from that one conversation doing a whole bunch of laid work and working on that. my concern. So, I would not want to be the board member that advocates for selling property that's going to be worth a whole lot more just a couple years down the road. But I also think um in our current budget situation, I don't want to hold property for 5 10 years, >> right, >> to wait for >> something very aspirational to happen. Um, am I able to engage somebody that's here in the room? >> Sure. >> So, we have another member of our

294um, New Freedom Burough Council here. So, Eric, I'm just curious from your perspective, is the the expansion of the treatment plant, is that a is that a very aspirational thing or is that something that you think is reality from your perspective? So within the next 5 years, would you be surprised if it happened within the next 5 years? >> What they would be willing to do? So it's really not something It's really fun. >> But from your perspective, there's not this eminent expansion of of that. >> Thank you. >> But it it sounds like we may get more information in the near future if if the the other, you know, uh b uh burough councils and and such are being asked to to come back with the information. I don't think we've I don't think

295that information has all come back yet. I think it it would be smart to have that information come back about what they are currently thinking because that could help to inform >> Yeah. >> where things might go in the near future. >> My concern is that burough council people have an electoral incentive to be anti-development and so I I just don't I just don't know that this happens. >> Yeah, I I that's very possible. Um, I'd like to hear like if if they're going to be anti-development, then they may come back very quickly with, "Yeah, no, we're not doing that." Then we have an answer. But if if it comes back where there are a lot of them considering it, uh, or, you know, considering some level of expansion, um, because maybe they want to

296do some level of development, then that that could change things. But I thought the land, and you may know, correct me if I'm wrong. I thought the land in discussion was in the township. >> It is, but it would still be it the capacity of that plant would still change the the potential uses of the land if if if the expansion were to happen. So I yeah I mean I think if if there's if there's currently kind of a poll being taken to get uh sentiment I mean honestly it's taken a little while to get the appraisal done anyway. Maybe we'll get some kind of direction in the near future. Even if the direction is nope no way no way no how with the people that are currently elected. Well uh that >> I think

297it is Sorry. Go ahead. >> Yeah. Go ahead. No, you're good. >> I think it is good to know what we have. However, I think um Dr. Bryson, you and I spoke I mean this is well over a year ago and I think you said the school district is not in the business of being in real estate and it's true we're not. However, we do have an asset that we do have to be and have due diligence about how we do dispose or keep that for future projects. And since the future project thing is probably not in my lifetime, um we do have to be, you know, due diligent about how we dispose of it or sell it off, however you want to say it. So I think we do need to move toward that

298goal, but with timing could be everything here. Yes. >> Well, I don't know. The communication from the council member, I I printed it out because uh this information is just so helpful. Um she says at a recent meeting a Shrewsbury Township super supervisor shared that two national developers have already expressed strong interest in several parcels within the township and inquired about expansion cost of the wastewater treatment plant when presented with the estimated cost of 5 to10 million. The response was that they did not bat an eye, which suggests that a developer willing to fund and significantly contribute to the expansion would likely seek to maximize their return by acquiring as much developmental land as possible in the area. So, I think it would definitely be within your lifetime, Mr. Hash, but at the same time,

299we don't know when, but I think it would be important to wait a couple years at least. >> No, I meant expansion as far as another school. Oh yeah. >> Well, you're talking about the school district building another building. >> Yeah. Yeah. >> Not as far as buildings houses there. I can definitely see. Okay. >> As far as another school building, I don't see that happening for quite a long time. >> Right. There's just so much hand inand with the municipal services here community and commerce and the school district where >> I think it's worth the wait. >> Well, and and that may be the case. Waiting may be the right answer. It also may be that ultimately these builders walk away from the projected project and if that's the case then there's probably no

300point in waiting. So I I do think that having some basis of information and that would probably be helpful. But having the baseline of appraisal, title, clearing, all that is very valuable to have in case we need to move instead of saying, "Oh, well, now we need to do something about it and now, well, we have to start way back there to even figure out what we can do with it." I think it was very good to have that done. >> Yeah, I definitely want to know what it's worth. >> Yeah, absolutely. >> Okay, that's all I have. President, >> thank you. All right, that brings us to item 12, transport transportation health and safety. I'll turn it over to Mr. Hash. >> Thank you, President Hinkle. Uh 12.01 is student transportation report for March

301of 2026. It is attached there for your information. Uh 1202. Uh, I'd like to make a motion to approve the revisions to the memorandum of an understanding between Southern Regional Police Department and Southern York County School District for the next 2-year period as required per the existing agreement. The only thing here was just couple legal things changed. Do have a second. >> Second. >> Any discussion, questions on that? Any nays or abstensions? The motion passes. 1203. I'd like to make a motion to award the AED service plan to CPR Baltimore of Handover, PA for the 2026 2027 school year at the cost of $5,985. Do I have a second? >> Second. >> Any comments or discussion on that? I did look into this to see if we could move it to two years instead of

302one year. It is not legal to do that. Tried to save money on that. Not possible. Um, any nays or abstensions on that? That motion passes. 12:04. Um, like to make a motion to approve purchasing 2-way radios at a cost of $9,990 using Co-Star pricing through Triangle Communications as part of the district safety and security plan. Do I have a second? >> Second. >> I'd like to open it up for comments and questions at this time. I have comments if nobody else does, but go ahead. >> So, >> I do have some questions. These What do we use the These are obviously not radios that are communicating with 911. What do we use these radios for? These will be communication between the buildings um be utilized in our buildings administrators could be with our maintenance

303as they're going not only within on on campus but between uh the campuses of uh friendship and Shrewsbury and >> what's the range >> and our buses as well. >> So they must have significant range. >> Yes. And are are we are we replacing broken units here? >> This is part of the replacement plan of the radios that uh we have. So by replacing the 10 that we have here, these are the older ones that we have. >> So we have it too. >> I don't remember. >> I don't >> A lot. Yeah, I don't that was part of the replacement plan. We've I think we've presented that a couple times. I'd have to go back and >> I think it was like 40 or 50, right? >> Oh, no. It's >> it's well over

304that. Okay. >> Much more than that. >> This is this is part of getting them onto a cycle where we kind of smooth out the cost and are buying. >> Yes. This is this was the smooth out. >> This is this is the big one though, but the next one's going to be smaller. >> Yeah. We're we're trying to build it into the budget so that it is part of the annual budget to do a portion of them and this is the the start of that. >> Yeah. But again, I'm going to come back to I'm going to sound like a broken record if it's not broken. Do we really And that's a pretty big price tag and I know that's not just for one radio. It's for multiples. I know it's multiple units. >>

305I I would like to comment on that. So I think the year was 2017 18. Um, we did not have radios that we can communicate with each other. We had a major snowstorm that came out of the blue and we could not communicate with each other. So, I do want to stress that these are essential for us to be able to communicate. >> Not not saying they aren't, but we're just Are we replacing just to replace or we're replacing because they're broken? Because that's a big difference. >> No, I we're replacing because they're end of life. And that's why it's only 10 when I I I seem to think we have a hundred. Like I mean I'd have to check on that but we have a lot of radios. So this is a small portion

306of them. And of course some people use them more frequently than others. So like mine for the most part sits on my desk and may take it out to buses or what have you. A building principal. It's going with them everywhere they go. So the wear and tear on it is a lot greater than someone that we can all we can communicate with Mr. Light. communicate with um Mr. Mendes. So, >> are we accounting for wear and tear in our replacement schedule? Does does yours Yeah. >> We keep yours longer than >> Right. Yeah. And that's what we're kind of working through because again, depending on, you know, if you're someone at a desk, it's going to be different than if you're someone that's out and about all the time. >> So, hopefully we'll keep

307yours a little longer. Maybe it'll maybe it goes to someone else at some point, but it Right. >> Yeah. But but it isn't end of life quite as quickly as uh as uh you know. >> And I These are digital, correct? >> So end of life means what to them? Are they just not turning on or the batteries not charging anymore? >> Yes. Yeah. You see both? You see both and you see them depending on the year and the make one goes you can you're going to start to see multiple go. >> The problem is when they go what do what's the person doing with like I don't have a spare to grab or I have a spare between multiple people and now I'm without a radio for couple weeks. I just and the reason

308I'm asking I just want to make sure when they when because when I saw that number that that wow okay and that's when I emailed you and said what the heck does this mean you know that we're talking basically two households of taxes to pay for radios right now when I think of radio I think of little you know thing you get at Walmart 50 bucks >> right >> this is a little different I do understand that but want to make sure we're just being as finding >> policebury from here >> to communicate with the state police. They have some of our radios. >> So again, I go back to what Dr. Bryson is saying like we can't wait till they fail to buy one because they're critical. >> I guess if we start to

309get if they start to last a little bit longer, we'll start to get a little bit of a bigger backlog of spares and we can and we'll reduce the we're not just going to like if we're we're not going to throw them away unless they're broken. Right. >> Right. And we're we're buying on a schedule to make sure that we have enough spares that we're not going to fail to the point that we don't have radios for everyone who needs them. So if that back if that uh stash of spares increases, then we're going to lower the number we buy each year. Is that reasonable to >> Yeah, I think that makes sense. I I think again this is one of those areas where during the the recession so I I bring up 171 18

310we weren't buying we weren't replacing and we got ourselves into a situation that was not where we ever want to be again like wasn't luckily everything was fine but let's say it wasn't and we couldn't communicate I mean we were standing with our cell phones like this trying to talk to each other because our radios weren't working and that's not how you want to be handling things. >> I'm I'm just pushing for as much due diligence or financial responsibility as humanly possible just to make sure we're doing right by our taxpayers. Uh so we I have a second and any more discussion on that? Any more questions? Any nays or abstensions? That motion passes. Down to 12:05. 12:05. Other items of business? I have none. I'm going to turn it back over to you, President

311Hinkle. Thank you. resist item 13, athletics and extracurricular. I will turn it over to Mrs. Mary Lee Hall. >> Okay, perfect. Thank you. Uh, so submitted by athletic director Mr. Matt Blandon. Uh, the Warrior spring sports student athletes and teams are just past the midpoint of their seasons. And here is his summary of the current highlights and information on the upcoming postseason tournaments for our qualifying varsity teams. And just one special note, starting with the 2026 2027 school year, the York Adams Interscolastic Athletics Association, better known as Yiaa, will be renamed the South Central Athletic Conference, SCAC. The rebrand follows the addition of two new member schools, expanding the league beyond York and Adams County to include Franklin and Cumberland counties. Also, two Scut Susky athletes are in Omaha, Nebraska as we speak, participating in

312the 2026 Powerlifting America High School National Championship Competition. Congratulations to Tyler Saab and Megan Boss. We certainly wish them well as they step up to the mat to represent. and boys tennis. The Warriors tennis team currently has a league record of three and three in York Adams and an overall record of 74, ranked 10th in the PIAA District 3 2A power rankings. They will begin the York Adams tournament next week with single playing on singles playing on April 22nd, 23rd, and 24th. And the doubles tournament will take place on April 25th and 27th. Both tournaments will be played at Red Lion and Southwestern. The PIAA District 3 2A team and individual tournaments start the week of the 27th. Girls lacrosse. The Warriors girls lacrosse team has a great start to their season with an overall

3138-1 record and in third place in the PIAA District 32A power rankings. Within York Adams, they are tied for first place with a 6-0 record. and the York Adams Championship tournament starts on May 7th with first round of PIAA District 32A tournament starting on May 15th. Boys lacrosse, the Warriors lacrosse team is having a competitive season as well. They have a league record of 4-3 and they are currently in seventh place. Their overall record is 54 while ranked in eighth place in the PIAA District 32A rankings. New York Adams Championship tournament begins May 7th with the PIAA District 2, excuse me, 32A tournament starting on May 15th. Special note there, Jacob Burns was nominated for York Adams athlete of the week, scoring five goals and one assist in a Redland competition. Welldeserved nod for him.

314Brady Parks made nine saves in an 8-7 win over Delhomme Catholic, which is also pretty amazing. track and field. The Warrior High School boys and girls track and field teams had a significant growth in participation numbers with an with over 150 student athletes participating. Both the boys and the girls teams share identical records of two and two in Yorks with the boys team in fourth place and the girls in third place. Patrick O'Brien, as Caleb was saying earlier, continues to rewrite the pole vault records at Sesuhan and most recently setting that new record mark of 15t 1 in at the Pan Ram Invitational on April 11th. The York Adams Herb Schmidt track and field championships will take place on Wednesday, May 6th at Dallas Town, and the PIAA District 3 3A track and field championships

315are scheduled for May 15th and 16th at Shippensburg University. Unified Track and Field. The Warriors Unified Track and Field team hosted their home meet last Wednesday, April 8th, versus Springrove and West York with the Warriors coming out on top. They finished third in their try meet with Central and New Oxford last night and have one more to go at Northeastern on April 30th. And for baseball, the Warriors baseball team is currently in fourth place in York Adams Division 2 standings with a league record of three and three overall. and three and seven. The York Adams tournament will start on May 7th with the PIAA District 3 5A tournament starting May 15th. Nick Nace was nominated for York Adams athlete of the week batting 385 with a home run, six runs scored, five RBI's, and a

316529 on base percentage. Pretty incredible. And for softball, it just gets even better. The Warrior softball team is currently in second place in York Adams Division 2 standings with league record of five and two, which I think is history. I think they're doing even better than that. Their overall record is 73 and has them ranked 13th in the PIAA District 3 5A rankings. The York Adams tournament will start on May 7th in the PIAA District 3 5A tournament starts May 18th. The York Deli Record released an released an article naming Ella Wetszel and Michelle Morris players to watch. Ella struck out 14 and walked four and gave up five hits against Red Lion and hit a double, driving in two Susky runs. She also pitched a complete game shutout last night over West York. So

317far, she's hitting 500 clip and 950 slugging percentage with extra base with five extra base hits and six RBI's in 20 at bats, amassing 74 strikeouts against 15 walks in 37 innings for an erra of 568. Wow. Job well done. >> That's good, >> isn't it? So, boys volleyball. The Warriors boys volleyball team has shown continued improvement this season with a two-4 record in York Adams league play and overall 3 and5. The York Adams tournament starts May 11th with the PIAA district 32A tournament starting the following week on May 19th when the team qualifies. And that is the financial report to 13.02. 02. So, this is about something that we don't have to pay for and super thankful for sponsors. I don't know if everyone had a chance to read the board briefing, but the

318Southern Middle School weight room has continued to be reorganized and improved over the past few years to allow physical education classes and student athletes more space and options for strength training. The district partnered with the All Starts All Sports Athletic Boosters earlier this year to install flooring in the space at no cost to the district. There's also space available to add new equipment to be utilized by physical education for curricular class offerings and new equipment will expand opportunities for extra extracurricular strength training by district sports teams and student athletes. >> So sponsorships received from the following companies totaling $11,500. It's a big deal. EMC, Country Comfort, Bub Insurance, Keller Brown Insurance, and additional sponsor is Bonire, who provides the use of their facility for the golf team. So, with that said, I'd like to make

319a motion to approve the purchase of additional Southern Middle School strength and conditioning equipment utilizing designated funds from sponsorships of $11,500. Do I have a second? >> Second. Any discussion? >> Uh just have one item. The total uh cost is 1199762. Is that right? >> Yes. And I thought we changed. >> Yeah. I think you did it. I think it just maybe something got left off. So I believe the the motion should include the cost of the district is >> all of uh 49 $497. >> So there is a gap in there. It's not just a mistype between the one the briefing and the motion. No, we were supposed to say that the total cost is 11,0007 which will be 11,500 will be paid by sponsorships. >> Okay. Do I need to revise my statement?

320>> We need to make amend the motion. >> We can amend the motion. I'll make a motion to amend uh to add the total cost uh will be >> $497 >> $11,997.62 >> and the cost of the district will be $497.62. >> Sure. >> Sound right? >> That that sounds good. >> Second. >> All right. >> Second. >> And any discussion? Further? >> Nays or absentions? >> Okay. Hearing none, that motion passes. >> Well, the motion stands amended. So now we'll vote on the motion. >> Oh my goodness. Okay. So, can we vote vote on the motion now? >> Sure. Yes. >> All right. So what I need to say or extensions? >> No. >> All right. >> Okay. That motion carries. Thank you very much. And then athletic ticket prices for 2026 2027 school

321year. You all know how close this is to my heart. I would really like to see that our students aren't paying anything to go to these games of their friends and classmates. But that's just not where we are in a budget year this year. So I'm going to have to swallow it. But I'm surely hoping that I have board support next year and getting a little bit more information on how we can improve actually bring concession stands up to date uh for safety, food safety. So maybe we can earn some more money uh for our athletes through boosters and at the same time ask the administration to help us find a way to do this for students and offset the cost um in other ways athletically. So I'd like to make a motion to approve

322the athletic event ticket prices for the 2026 2027 school year. There is no change to what it is now. Do I have a second? >> Second. >> All right. So, any discussion? >> When was the last time we raised prices? >> Last year. >> It brought us in line with it brought us in line with other districts in the area. >> Okay. >> It was a three-hour discussion. >> That's it. I don't need a three I don't think three more hours tonight. So, >> I I do have one question. slight exaggeration, but >> um so it talks here about the hometown ticketing search charge. Is that just for um district events or is or or are we going to start using hometown ticketing? That's really my question. >> Isn't that is that our credit card

323for tournaments? >> District or tournaments? >> Yeah. >> Can we approve that? >> So hometown ticketing is who we're using for our credit card service? >> No, no, no. That's the square. >> Yeah. hometown ticketing. So, if you come into a sporting event and you pay cash, you pay cash, but we log it in so that we can keep track of the tickets and you won't get a convenience fee. But if you come in and you have a credit card and and we run it through hometown ticketing, you as the consumer would pay the fee. The district's not paying the fee. >> Okay. So, that hometown ticketing is the credit card fee essentially. Yes. >> But that is that the same credit card fee that's happening at concessions or is this just this just different?

324I don't >> because that's this is the same app that they use >> for state games for like PIAA games and things of that nature. >> Yeah. A lot of people use the app. It wouldn't necessarily be from us. >> Yeah. So we don't use the app. We're just that's where the fee is being generated from. >> No, we do use the app. >> So people can go on this just clarification. People can go on before they even get to the facility and purchase the tickets through hometown ticketing. >> I believe so >> if we have it set up. Gotcha. >> So, so we did that for Battle of the Billings. We set it up ahead of time and you could go buy your ticket. Then when you came in, if you said, "I prebought

325it." Okay. If you have it on your phone, great. If you don't, give me your name. We'll we'll log in. >> Right. You can scan it in. >> Yeah. Okay. Thanks. That's That's all. >> All right. So, we have a motion in a second. Any further discussion? >> All right. Hearing none, that motion passes. >> What? We need a vote. >> What? >> We need a vote. I didn't ask. >> These are absentes. >> You said any further discussion? >> I said any exemptions. >> Oh, good. >> Yeah, good. Oh, I didn't hear it. Okay. >> Is it getting too late? >> Maybe probably. >> All right. Well, then that motion >> I just cuz I was waiting for it because that's like a first. >> What's that? >> A unanimous vote on ticket prices.

326>> Oh, no, no, no, no. I don't think you should peg me that way. >> Could wean all of the rest of the information items in a block? >> It'd be nice. >> Okay. Okay. So, >> consent agenda. I'll I'll >> 14.04. Any other items of business? I have none for the athletics report. >> All right. >> Moving on to 14. Other items of business. You better have done. All right. Uh 15.01. Legislative council. >> Okay. Um I have a small book here to read. Just kidding. >> No. Um I'm I'll keep this real brief. The short version is is that no bills advanced to Governor Shapiro's desk in the last month. Um, no education bills reached the floor in either chamber. Now, there were several bills that were voted successfully out of committee for

327uh further Senate action as well as in the House. Um, just I'm just going to touch on a couple quick ones here. SB128 from the Senate. That is curriculum transparency. Basically, what we're doing with SB128 >> 128. Okay. >> Um that's about curriculum transparency. Kind of what we're doing with our curriculum maps already. Once again, Southern's ahead of the game. Um >> thank you, Dr. Hughes. >> Yes. >> See in the House Education Committee. Um SB 1014 that is the bell-to-bell cell phone ban for schools that received unanimous support in the education committee. Um so it'll be maybe taken up on the floor. Uh a couple other things. Let's see. House Bill 1752. There's a bill to study alternatives to Keystone testing. Don't know where that's going to go. Um, that's kind of it. Let's

328keep it brief tonight. >> All right. 15.02 York Tech. Oh, me again. All right. Uh, York Tech will have our meeting next week. Uh, last month the York Tech budget was approved by the member schools. Um the other items of note there, York Techch as well uh purchased new their next year's um lot of laptops. There's cost a lot more than ours do. Um their costs went up about 15% year-over-year. So luckily ours went down this year. >> Um yeah. Oh, one quick thing. The other last meeting I did I could not recall the uh southern student who was named York Tech student of the month for February. The name was Austiner. >> So >> UF >> congratulations. Yeah. >> So congratulations to him for February and congratulations again. >> Did you bring the video

329back with you so we could see this time? >> Well, I didn't know I was going to bring it. Sorry, I will do that next time. >> Really? Assue >> the student well. >> Okay. >> Yes. >> Uh that is it for York School of Tech. >> All right. I believe our LIU rep has gone home to get well. Uh do you have any updates for us, Dr. Preston? >> No updates. Just the report there from their last board meeting for your information. >> Perfect. York Adams Tax Bureau. >> No report. >> Southern York County School District Foundation. >> All right. So, the SYCSD Foundation met on Tuesday this week. We have very a few very exciting events coming up. Uh, give Local York begins Thursday, April 30th, and finishes up Friday, May 1st. This

330is our online silent auction event, and we are delighted to be a small part of the biggest day of giving in York County. More communication will come out from the district to the community to welcome participation as the date draws near. And your bidding wins not only bring you joy, but they will also support both student scholarships and your local community. And we thank you for gearing up to participate. And you won't be disappointed in the bid opportunities this year. We'll also be hosting the distinguished leadership recognition dinner Thursday, May 7th, and of course the culmination of the school of the whole school year's worth of work for the foundation, the scholarship awards program on May 13th. Invitations letter invitation letters go out to recipients this week and the foundation looks forward to awarding over

331$182,000 in scholarships this year to postsecary educationbound seniors. So we couldn't be more excited to welcome the future into our doors and send them off with extra blessings and encouragement. And that concludes my report. >> All right. Thank you. 15.06. Other items of business? I have none. Uh 16.01 student activities report for March 2026 is therefore your information. 16.02 resignations and retirements. We do have three. Um other items of business 16.03 I have none. Six uh 17.01 home education outside cyber charter and LIU12 Lincoln Edge Cyber Program. Enrollment totals are there for your information. 17.02 Go to announcements by the board president and superintendent. So I will start with we had an executive session immediately before this board meeting covering uh special education and personnel. Did I forget anything that we covered? I think it

332was special education and personnel was everything. All right. And then um next regularly scheduled meeting of the board of education will be held on May 21st, 2026 right here at 7 p.m. >> Over to you. Drop the mic. >> Two uh two really quick things. Big congratulations to Mr. Buffington who received the gold award of excellence in school facilities uh from the Pennsylvania Association of School Business Officials. That's actually I think Mr. Green multiple time now that >> I think the fifth >> fifth time. Um so big congratulations to him and it's nice to see his picture up on stage getting a an award for just recognition on upkeep of the facilities and good best practices. Um, also want to give a big thank you to the Giant Company, uh, specifically the Shrewberry Giant. We

333were issued a check for $6,96048 representing the proceeds from uh the Roundup grocery purchases and the choice points program. So that goes back in the Nutritional Food programming for our students. And lastly, I don't know if you caught it. I think it was mentioned twice tonight, but I just want to say to Patrick O'Brien, 15 foot one pole vault is pretty darn impressive. So, congrats to Patrick. That's that's awesome. That's >> living your dream. All right. Item 18, new business. Hearing none, move on to item 19. I'll entertain a motion to adjourn. >> So moved. >> Second. Motion in a second. Any naysay or abstensions? Hearing none, we are adjourned.