Southmoreland School Board Meeting 6/24/2025

001All right, I call the meeting to order. Please stand for the pledge of allegiance. I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for which it stands, one nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. Legs here. Roll call. Mr. Here. Mr. Yudsy here. Dr. Fe here, Mr. Friend here, Mrs. Guyer here, Mr. Graiac here, Mrs. Oier here, Mr. Olsen here, and Mr. Shipley here. Uh, just for public knowledge, the following executive sessions were held um June 24th, 2025 at 5:30 p.m. Um, we have citizens comments on agenda items only. Uh, I have Mr. Sammy. Um, Mr. Samire, even though you have two separate agenda items, you were still limited to three minutes. Okay, perfect. Thank you. Um, hi Bud Xaner, U 608 South Broadway Street,

002Scottdale. I just happened to see on the agenda that uh a couple of things that had some questions about and so I would just hope that during the meeting you could clarify some issues for for me. Um the first one is to since you've got some revised policies for the school district that you could clarify that board members are also to be held to the standards on those new policies because right now it's uh for students and staff members and administration but doesn't say specifically board members. And the other one is to clarify the results in money to the district uh pertaining to the real estate tax assessment appeal that you have on the agenda. I believe that's in East Huntington Township. I think it's a business in there. Thank you. You guys want me

003to take that? All right. So, um Mr. Mr. Shmire, in response to your questions, so the policies I think you're talking about are 103, 103.1, and 104, which relate to uh the rights of uh students and district employees, p employed personnel with regard to uh harassment issues. Those specifically replace um excuse me, pertain to and apply to district witness or excuse me, employees and students and are not applicable to public officials just by virtue of the way in which um those are drafted and and the legal requirements apply to both employees and and legal protections apply to employees and students. I'm sorry. Am I It goes in. Move it up just a little bit. Ah, okay. Yeah, maybe that's just my voice. All right. So, ju just to reiterate, those policies are are written for

004and apply to specifically employees and students and are not applicable to to um to board members. There are district policies that do set forth uh codes of conduct for expected conduct for board members, but those are more in the nature of um aspirational. They're not legal requirements because candidly u the legal requirements don't apply the same to board members. In connection with your other question concerning the um the revenue impact of the tax assessment appeal, the district will see a reduction both in the fair market value of the affected property and in the uh annual taxes collected. Uh the the reduction is a net $18,700 per year. You are welcome. Yep. All right. Next section is reports superintendence information. Thank you, sir. I have a couple things. Um, first of which, I wanted to talk

005uh quickly about the start of school next year. At the um beginning of this school year, we held a staggered start for those learners uh who were entering the building for the first time. Um, so that would have been grades six and grades nine here at the middle school. So if you guys remember, grades six and grade nine came in on the first day of school and the rest of the building stayed home uh as a transition activity for those students so they could get a feel of the building here without everybody being in it and have a different kind of day and just get settled in. Um went well talking to teachers, talking to administrators, talking to kids who went through it, they loved it. um specifically those that were in the building for

006the first time. Um so that is uh something that we are are looking to replicate this coming school year. Uh and I just wanted to let the community know we'll be um sending out information about a staggered start coming up for this year. Um we wanted to extend that to grade two. Uh giving grade two that opportunity at SCES for the first time coming from SPC up to SCES. It's a pretty big building, pretty big change. uh we kind of wanted to run the same kind of transition activities for them as well. Uh will not affect grades K or what at all. They will start on day one. So um but I did want to let the community know that we will start uh advertising that shortly. Um next thing I did want to report

007that the district did have a wellness committee meeting on May 27th where we reviewed our current policy per the regulations. Uh one of the biggest things that came from that discussion was um actually a discussion with students about afterchool programming at the high school for um for tutoring. Right. So we we originally started talking about um having the options to having a healthy snack for our students who are staying after school uh for either weightlifting purposes or any sports practices or marching band practices. Uh but then it kind of evolved into a tutoring program we wanted to look at um that could be funded uh not by us which is outstanding. So um we are looking at possibly implementing something like that next year uh for our students at the high school uh just to

008see what we can do to have uh tutoring for different content areas throughout the week but also provide um a healthy snack for those students who stay for that tutoring as well as all of our sports activities and weightlifting after school. Um, so that was the biggest uh conversation in that meeting aside from the fact that meetings now need to occur twice a year instead of just once a year. Um, and that our next meetings are in November and in February. My list here, I also wanted to give one last shout out to the class of 2025. For those of you who are able to attend graduation, uh, it was the biggest graduating class that we've had since I've been here. Uh, which is nice to see. It was pretty packed. It was a packed

009house. Students did a great job up on the stage. Um, and I thought it was a great night. So, those of you who had anything to do with that night, I wanted to thank you. And then the last two things are basically for your information. I have a list of our current grants that we've updated with what we've applied for, what we've received, what we're still waiting to hear about. And then at the last committee meeting for finance and buildings and grounds, we talked about an updated asset list um which I have included with my notes for the board and for the public as well, which kind of outlines uh everything we have going on in the district in terms of how old it is uh and when it will need to be addressed in

010further planning. Okay. And that is all. Thank you. Solicitor's information. Thank you, uh Mr. Fund. Just to provide a quick update to the board. Last month, we talked about some of the right to know law uh requests that that we've been working on. We did have an open uh office of open records appeal that had been filed and we received a final determination in the district's favor and an emergency appeal was filed um to that uh final determination which the office denied. So, presently we don't have any pending um office of open record appeals or right to know uh matters that we're addressing. Thank you. Business manager, transportation director information. Yes. Thank you very much. Um one of the first things that I'm going to talk about before I go into my budget presentation is

011cyber charter. As you know, if you've been to these meetings or if you've listened online, um this is one of my passions. I'm trying very hard to get um some cyber charter relief for school districts. Um one of the things that I passed out to the board this evening was um as you can see um through April we have spent $1.6 million on cyber charter which is $445,000 higher than what was budgeted. Um, year to date we have spent 1,843,000 which is $473,000 higher than budget. One of the things that I did send out was the four-year cohort graduation rates. Um, as you can as the board members can see, um, everything the statewide average is under PA state average is 87.6%. 6% for graduation rate. We have one as low as 60%. In cyber

012charter that is um a graduation rates. Oh, I take that back. I see one that is actually down as far at low as 50%. And that is Achievement House Cyber Charter School to And I can tell you that's one of the ones that our kiddos go to. So that's why I'm so passionate. It's not only very expensive for a district, but I don't believe that our kiddos that are going to the cyber charters are getting the um education that they need to get to. I did contact our local senator um Senator Stfano today to see if there were any updates in regard to the state budget and he said no movement at this point. So, we're kind of just stuck in limbo waiting for the state to um get their budget um allocations together. What

013I can say is we will have our budget passed by barring if we have a vote for it this evening. We'll have ours passed before June 30th. Unfortunately, um the state is concerned because there there are some um items right now that with the federal funding that they're uncertain, they're uncertain. So therefore, they're even more concerned as well. And I said, well, think about us. We are we have the uncertainty of the state as well as the uncertainty of the feds. Okay. So with that, um, you, as you can see, I always provide the activity fund information with Mr. Bond. Yes. I'm just sorry, real quick. I just want to raise this because I had another client ask me, there's nothing on this particular piece of information, um, the compilation of of information concerning cyber

014charter schools that if the district felt inclined to release this or put it on your website, you you're have you're free to do that. I mean, I do think that that last column that talks about percentages of students who are not chronically absent, yes, I is really telling because we know that some students don't want to have to face the attendance expectations that you're obligated to carry out and so they go to cyber school to try to escape that. And as you can see, like the numbers are are pretty telling in terms of how many students truly aren't attending those cyber schools that you're paying for on a day-to-day basis. Correct. Thank you very much for pointing that out, Mr. Lucas. Okay, with that, if you want to pull up the um finance presentation, please.

015Okay. So, one of one of the things that I did was I highlighted any of the budget any of the budgetary adjustments that were made after the May board meeting. Um, we did reduce some subcontract amount for technology by $15,000. Um, I did reduce the repair and maintenance cost by $10,000 because in our last SEIU agreement, um, the maintenance individuals have the opportunity to take some classes at CWCTC and get some certifications which will help us uh bring pull back some of the maintenance work that we currently outsource back into the district. And then there were some employees that had retired during that time period. Um, and that was a savings to the diff district of $101,643.95. Now, we're going to go to some of the um adjustments that were additions. We had SEI SEIU

016increases, which includes the food service. It includes uh which actually is a side part of our of our um book of business so to speak. It's not in our general fund. Uh the maintenance workers and the custodial um individuals as well. Now that is part of the general fund budget. So with the additional wages and fringe benefits, uh there was an additional cost of $36,5.68 68 cents additional maintenance wages with the CWCTC certifications. Once they get those certifications, then they earn an additional amounts to their allery aller good lord hourly wages. I'll say that correctly. Those total increases was 54,66352. Act 93 increases. Um we have added 20 days for the school police supervisor, the school safety and security coordinator. That's one person. We had uh one year of adjustments for position responsibility changes. Those

017total increases. Uh we saw $69,869.88 and I added an additional $2,11055 to our contingency fund. Ask you a question, Pam. Yeah. So, where it says with Act 93 increases, where total increases, is that prior to a new Act 93 agreement? No, that's that's with the new Act 93 agreement that you all will be voting on this evening. Okay. And that $69,000 not only includes wages, it also includes FICA and Pasers, which is 34%. Okay. Okay. Thank you. You're quite welcome. So, as I talked earlier about the state being concerned about adjustments for federal funding, um, we received our federal fund notifications, and I can tell you that we did see some reductions this year, which is the first time that I believe that I've seen this in in my history. Um, title one was reduced

018by $6,57. Title 2 was reduced by 3,651 and title 4 was reduced by 1,378. That um with that that was a reduction of 11,536. I did increase the access revenues because um we have been actively working with our access program and um I can tell you the administrative assistant Georgia who works on that program has done a phenomenal job and we are seeing that in the access funding that we're getting. So therefore the net effect of the federal allocations adjustment is going to be zero because of the additional access revenues that I see that um we have been getting because of the added reporting that we have been doing recently in the past couple years since Georgia got here. Budgetary unknowns. So, the state budget, as I stated earlier, it's not promising for them to

019p to pass their budget by June 30th. As I talked to Senator Stfano today, he basically said there were no changes. Nothing had moved any anywhere near forward. So, unfortunately, I do not believe that we're going to see a state budget by June 30th in any way, shape, or form. Um, the cyber charter reform, House Bill 1500, did pass in the House. Will it pass in the Senate? And if so, what is that going to look like? They had talked about um House Bill 1500 as $8,000 for regular ed kids as well as a reduced rate as well for the special needs individuals. As I stated, we don't know what it's going to look like if it gets through the Senate. And if it does get through the Senate, what are those amounts going to

020be? It's anybody's guess. adequacy funding. We do have an additional amount that the state did um put in their allocations, but obviously until the actual budget passes from the state, we won't know for sure if we're going to get those funds. Um insurance renewal, I did meet with them last week. There was a 20 about $20,000 increase to the bill, but I can tell you that we have had a very trying year. Um, we have had two payouts of over $400,000 from our insurance companies this year just for two items. We did have a um chiller that went down at the high school that was over $39,000 and then over $100,000 um in the middle school. We had some uh water damage where if you went into the one STEM room, it truly looked like

021it was a waterfall. So, you know, with the I felt thankful that the increase that we are incurring this year was only $20,000 with all of the amounts and all of the claims that we've had this year. Uh maintenance cost, what hasn't been addressed in the Giza project? Dr. Boon talked about that in his presentation. He did list the capital um items uh what years they are, what what years of service we believe that they are and what the long what what may um what we may be facing in that situation, other items that aren't under that are being covered under the Giza project. And then we talked about a long range plan in building in um the budget meeting and the finance meeting about SPC because obviously that's the elephant in the room. Um

022there have been many discussions over the years and we've talked about what our next steps might be. Can I ask you some questions about that slide? Yes. Okay. The first one was adequacy funding. And when we had the budget meeting, I thought you used a figure of $500,000. That is what we received last year. That is correct. 5 We got a notice from you that we've only gotten 199,000. No, the 199,000 was actually for access. That was the amount that we had recouped from access funding. Dr. Fike, not not adequacy, access. Oh, okay. And we had a $11,000 increase in that. I was able with what is showing up on the state's PTE website, the FI FAI F AI account. Um, I with what I had currently had budgeted as as far as access revenues,

023I felt definitely safe in adding the additional $11,000 to access. Okay. And we go $599,000 adequacy funding this year. No, we received I believe it's $536,000 um in adequacy funding that we weren't counting on. That's part of the right to know adequacy funding or not right to know right ready to learn. same almost same um initials. And um with that being said, they talked about giving us an additional $536,000 for next year. And as I mentioned in my um finance committee meeting, we have some expenditures that are in the budget that are allocated to adequacy funding that matches the adequacy revenue. And as we talked in the um board meetings, I believe it was last was it last month or was it the month before Dr. Boon that we hired someone for adequacy? the past

024two. The past two. Okay. So, obviously if we don't receive that funding, then we have to revisit that. And what are you allowed to spend that money on? Adequacy funding. Classroom reduction. What? Uh classroom reduction. So, hiring more teachers. Um tutoring programs resources. Did you say computer programs? Computer programs. Um he he said technology tutoring programs. uh however whatever you want to use for tutoring programs be it print or technology. So there there are just certain things um specific positions that are hard to find. Um they're they're pretty precise in what you can spend that money on. Okay. And of course I think it's crystal clear there is no such thing as a long range plan in existence for the primary center. There is no plan at all for the primary center. If there is,

025I haven't seen it. Dr. Fe, weren't you just at that committee meeting where we discussed this? Yeah. And there was no plan. Well, there was a lot of talk, but there's no plan. We discussed because the plan is are we going to tear it down? Are we going to fix it? Are we going to replace it? Are we going to close it? Are we I mean, that's all the There was no plan. Is there Tell me the plan, Stephanie. What was the plan? Yeah, I I think we're in the process of coming up with what the plan is. Well, that's why I say there is no plan right now. We're talking about the plan, but that's one of the reasons why we place it on the budgetary unknowns because we want to start developing a

026plan of what we're going to do with that building in the future. That's why it was brought up. Okay. Okay. Well, if you look at the item above it, the maintenance cost, um, using that big screen, um, there were literally millions of of dollars of things that are not covered under the $33 million loans that we have right now. And there was um I think the superintendent said, "Well, you're going to have to find a way to pay for it." And a lot of those things that we assumed were covered under the Giza project are not. And that was a very significant item. Well, if you assumed they were covered, that that's probably your I think first of all, there's a little bit of misinformation in what you just said. The $33 million is our

027total debt service, not the cost of the Giza project. So those are two different things. I think that we've had so many presentations on the Giza project and what the scope of it was that if you assumed anything about it, then that was sort of like on you because they were very clear with what it covered from the beginning. There wasn't any I'm speaking. Go ahead. That's what you say to me. Go ahead. So, I don't think that there was any ever any misrepresentation about what was going to be covered. So, I think that maybe you assumed, but I feel like their presentations were very clear about what it entailed. You missed my point, Stephanie. I know about what was covered. What I didn't know was that long, long list of things that was not

028covered. That's the problem. Well, that was omitted. I did not know that until that last budget omitted as much as if this is what is covered. Then everything else isn't. I mean, if you'd come to some of our events, you would be familiar with our facilities and know what our facilities are and what types of repairs that they're in need of. But it was million. It was just list a long multi-screen list time boilers and for example, three boilers at a million dollars or something. I mean, it just went on and on and on. I had no idea that none of that was included. And I think that it's fabulous that we actually have a list now that we can look at our our assets and we saw the list. Yeah. And I think it's

029great. Thank you, Dr. Boon, for putting that together so that we now can look and say, "Oh my goodness, look how much of this stuff was let go for so many years because taxes were never raised and everything was just left go." So, how are we going to pay for those things? By raising tax. How are we going to pay for those things? That big long list of things. because everything was just let go to where it's not in good condition. How are we going to pay for those things with money? Dr. Fe, we gonna borrow more money. I don't know because I don't have a crystal ball. But right now, what you're saying is you assumed things that weren't necessarily true. So, I just wanted to clarify that it was very clear from the

030beginning what the Giza project entailed. Well, I was very puzzled because when I looked at the uh loan amount and I called Lori to verify it in the minutes of the meeting, you will see that the board voted to borrow up to $19 million. Somehow that that number became 16.5 million. And I was wondering how that number was calculated. I don't think that's what we're talking about right now in this this Well, it's 19 million. It's up to 19 million. It was also addressed at the last meeting. Why it ended up that way? How was that number calculated? Where did the 16.5 million come from? Where I saw 19 million in the minutes. Isn't this the discussion that you had with your B bond council about you got authorization to go to 19, but you

031knew that you were only going to go to 16 and he assured the board in this room that he wouldn't go a penny over what the bo the board actually authorized. That's my recollection. I know all that. Mr. Lucas, where did the 16 million decision come? Who made the decision to borrow$6 million? The board did. When? Last. I saw the minutes and it says up to 19. I never heard that number before. I heard 13 million. I heard the number 13 million which was the original Giza project and I heard the number 19 million that the board authorized up to 19 million. But I want to know where the 16ome million dollar figure came from. So I don't have the information directly in front of me, but here's what I can tell you. 13.3,350,000 was

032new money. That was the amount that was borrowed for the Giza project. The balance of the $16 million that we borrowed was to refinance the loan from 2022. It was a lower rate of interest and it was determined whenever the bond council came and spoke with with you all several times and the statement was made if we can save you money by refinancing the 2022 loan we will do so that is what they did. So that is how it ended up 16 I believe it's 16.4 4 million. And um with that being said, the two loans from 2021 were not were not being refinanced because their rates of interest was below 1%. You're never going to see any savings by refinancing those. So that's why those those two were left untouched. But that's why you

033have 13.3, 350,000 of new money. And the balance of the 16.4 for was to pay off the 2022 lane 2022 loan at a discounted amount. I believe we saved $117,000 by refinancing that loan. That was a great Who made the decision that it was a 16.5 million figure? Who made that decision? That was made when the board voted. The board, the bond council was here twice talking and explaining that that is typical how they do how they do that whenever they fund bonds that it gives them the leverage to move within the markets so that they can get us the best value for for our for our bond issuance. Okay. In can you show me anywhere in the minutes of this board that that number was 16.5 million in the minutes? Can you show me

034anywhere in writing? Anywhere in writing. Off the topic of what of what Pam actually needs to speak about? Um, I'd like to answer. So, on the March 18th minutes from the meeting, if you look under bond discussion, it says it was explained that the district isn't borrowing $19 million. This is just the parameters the resolution needs to be written in to fit within a box/range. It is worded not to exceed. There are protections in the bond document that limit the district to $13,350,000 as a project deposit after the bonds are sold. This help open up the bonds to be sold at a good time rather than on a set fixed date. Explained he's here to make sure the district follows the process according to this local government unit debt act. Explain the bonds before, during,

035and after approval by the state. Further explained how it is written up to fit within that box and the not to exceed clause. However, you can still not borrow more than you need. This just helps open them up to be sold at a good time. Every school in Pennsylvania does it this way. Shall I go on? This is in the minutes. No, thank you. Can you show me anywhere in the minutes where it says that loan is $16 million? Show me that figure. Anywhere in writing in the minutes anywhere. Just continue, Miss Monuk with your presentation. It went from 13 to 19 to 16. Let me just answer her. That way she can't accuse anybody of doing anything crazy because I just found it. Okay. The old higher interest debt would only be included in

036this if they can guarantee a savings for the district. Otherwise, they will not do anything with that. The debt with 1% interest will not change. Dr. Fle asked for further explanation on exhibits A and B, which are legally required documents by the state of Pennsylvania from the documents of the resolution of the bond motion. Exhibit B. Exhibit B is the district's current debt plus the maximum schedule exhibit A. However, this isn't what the district will borrow. It's just to create a box to fit in. Do you like my storytelling abilities? I just I thought you all would enjoy that. It only shows the maximum amounts, but it is not what we will actually borrow. And where is it in the minutes what we actually borrowed? Where is that written in the minutes that this board

037borrowed? 16 and some million. Not not to exceed 19, I think, is how it's stated. I think that I've just answered your question in several different manners. But who made that decision? I I just wonder who made that decision. The board did. board voted. Show me where that 16 million is in the minutes. In the minutes. I just read it. It said do not exceed 19 million. I didn't ask. Holy crap. I did not ask about that. I asked where I asked where the 16K uh Nicole, why why wasn't it $18 million? Why wasn't it 12 million? Why wasn't Because there's a certain percentage that the state requires. We have to borrow the minutes. We are moving on. That is not in the minutes. We are moving on. It is not in the minutes of

038this board that we borrowed that money. Miss Mon. Okay. You may Nobody voted on it. Nope. Okay. Miss Mond, you may continue. Thank you. You want to go to the next sheet, please? Thank you. So, with that being said, uh the total expenses for this year's uh 25 20 256 budget is 37,14,53052. Local revenues is 15,845513. State 20,49230652 and federal 766711 which gives us a balanced budget. Now with that with the local that includes a increase of.77 mills for FET county which that includes rebalancing of.13 mills and an increase of 6587 mills which is roughly a $368 per month in the median. Um the median um household income. Household Thank you. House value. Yeah, house value. Thank you. West Morland County tax rate is 9770 which is an increase of 1.99 mills which their increase

039is $1.91 per month. Their median is $11,500. and homestead farmstead exclusions this year have increased from $349.15 of last year to $399.50 which reflects a credit increase of $50.35. So for some people that have the homestead farmstead they won't even notice an increase which is always helpful. Pam do you has the state guaranteed us 20 million? I I had I was asking a question on where you have homestead farmstead occlusions um where where it changed in amount now is that per year? Um it depends that is all comes from slot revenue. Okay. So it depends upon how individuals actually go and gamble for the year. Okay. Um last year it was 1.4 million something. This year it's 1.6 million. So obviously we did see a rather healthy increase of $50.35 in the credit which is

040which is is wonderful. Yeah. Okay. Thank you. Him. Are we guaranteed 20,492,307 from the state? Well, as I've stated before, that is, you know, nothing is 100% with the state at this point in time. I typically budget revenues conservatively because I would much rather have a conservative um estimate of a revenue than basically going guns ablazing and um end up in a situation where we're having to pull from the fund balance. What happens if we don't get that? Then what we will have to do is what other school districts have to do when they get in that situation. they end up tapping the fund balance using our savings. Yes. Just just like home. Whenever you have a an ex something that you're not anticipating and you've been saving money and you I've just had this

041situation myself. I I had to replace an air conditioner. Not something I wanted to do, but I I had money in my savings and I pulled it out and paid for it. That's the same type situation. Is that 20,492,000? Is that the same thing we got last year or is it more? It is more. A lot more. Yes, I can understand that it's more. I mean, we've had such a an incredible increase in everything. Yes. From energy to food to everything. So, correct. And unfortunately, school districts are not isolated from that. Right. Right. We we suffer the um increases just like everybody else does. And what did we get last year from the state? Um I would have to look into that and get back get back to you off the top of your head

042that don't have to be I I don't want to give you an incorrect number, Mr. Reciptor. So let me look it up and I'll get back to the board on that. Okay. I would just like to say that for the public whenever Mrs. Mondock does get back to us about things, she actually does follow up with very clear and concise information. Um, I know that there was questions about the refinance. It appears that Dr. Fe had called Miss Mondock on June 10th asking questions about the refinance of that 2022 loan that would have taken that to uh $16 million. And so that day, Pam, Miss Mondock, provided the board with an email where it was clearly listed in the March March 18th general obligation bond summary notice. And on page five of the 2025 resolution

043and also at the board meeting in February, the bonds team explained that if it were to be refinanced to save us money that we would they would do that for us. And there was four attachments provided. So I do believe that Dr. Fle must have already talked to Miss Mondock about this on June 10th. And that's where that $16 million number came from is she made a phone call and so that was explained and then we were provided information. So I just want everybody to know in the public that when Miss Mondock says I will provide you with more information or I need to check into that. She actually does follow up on that and is very thorough. So we appreciate the work that she does. I still didn't get an answer to my question.

044Where did the 16 million some number come from? That's what I want to know. Okay. Who made that decision? Miss Mondock, anything else? That will do it. That summarizes my report. Thank you. Wu report. CWCTC report. Sorry. Uh, nothing to report. Thank you. WIU report. The last meeting of the intermediate unit was held on May 27th, 2025. There were nine people present and eight people absent and we are barely barely making a um required number to have a a quorum. Quorum. Yeah. Yeah. We've got one person on speaker. I guess maybe that's how they did it, but we're having a a serious issue with attendance at the meetings. Uh they gave out a number of awards. They gave out the Annie Sullivan award. she and that was named for the educator of Helen Keller. They

045gave out the outstanding pareducator award for who uh that is an individual who sport who supports both teachers and students. And then they gave out something called an IU I'm sorry, a WIU innovation award to Tim Hamill. Tim Hamill has been there for about as long as I can remember there was an IU and he is leaving and he has been the moving force for tremendous amounts of innovation at the IU. uh they gave the IU impact award to a new employee who was awarded for excellence and the they gave an inspiration award to Joe Rice and I believe at one point Joe Rice did safety for them didn't he Jason didn't I'm sorry can you ask that again Joe Rice didn't he also do safety before he was a principal before is he yeah

046I mean he he continued to do that while he was covering the principal ship right and um so they they gave a number of awards and then they talked about um some new people that they had hired, some student service supervisors and a new principal at Clear View Clear View and um it's a man he has 10 years experience. He's been in the Navy, moved around a lot, but he is a principal and uh he's doing a very nice job there. And then there were two other things of significance. Um Dr. F, how much are they paying their principal? I don't know. I don't have those that information. Could you get back to me on that? I'm just curious if they I think it's on the It's on the internet. Okay, I'll do my Anyhow,

047what they did do, they did not approve a quote with Reed Smith to provide a review of all employment contracts for the purpose of meeting ACA compliance. And that's been um a pretty heavy issue that's been discussed uh at the IU for several months now. Um the other thing is they postponed you have to every school district has a PSBA liaison and the IU has to have one but if you're already your district liaison you can't be the IU liaison and almost everybody up there was already district liaison so they don't have one right now so I don't know how they're going to do that but they'll postpone that for another meeting. It's my understanding that there's a meeting at the IU tonight. It's going on tonight, but since South Morland rescheduled theirs, August, no,

048it says on their website it was actually cancelled due to the lack of a quorum. What did you say? Says on their website that it was cancelled due to a lack of a quorum. What? That meeting was cancelled. The meeting. No, no, no, no, no, no, no. Yes. Yes. Yes. They have they they're using people on Zoom. It says right here. Tonight's meeting was canceled. Oh, tonight's what? Well, see, I wouldn't know about it, Stephanie, because that's why I was just letting you know that you didn't miss anything. Okay. Okay. Well, then maybe they'll Well, let's see. This is the end of June, so I don't know when they don't they don't meet in July, so they would meet again in August, but they were to meet tonight. Um, I did not know it was

049canceled. I would have no way of knowing that because I had called and told them that I wouldn't be there anyhow, so they didn't bother to call me back. So, okay. Well, thank you for telling me that. Yep. You're welcome. Thank you. Uh, next we have committee reports. Um, tonight we'll have buildings and grounds, uh, finance, district operations and transportation and school safety and security to discuss. The other ones we have not had meetings since our last meeting. Uh, buildings and grounds, Mrs. Oier. So, due to the fact I was not at last meeting due to work obligation, um, my understanding is that we do have the chillers in. I did over hear that. Okay. um was I mean we had other members attend. Okay. Is any can anybody else fill in? Anybody that was

050there? Chiller's in. It's installed. They're hooking up the electricity. The coil is due in for the up at this school building. We've got a new lawn mower that's in service. Good. Uh the wall is done. Um it has to be kept, right? It has to be capped. Um, what else do we do? Scoreboard. Or no, scoreboard's in. Not hooked up. It's not hooked up yet. What else, Calvin? Well, he knows. He knows. He knows. I don't mean to put you on the spot, but the sidewalk repairs are done. Oh, yeah. At the primary center. The dock has now been completed. We're just waiting for the handrail. The concrete's still green, so we have to wait for that to harden to drill it and bolt it. Uh scoreboards up, speakers up. They're in the process now

051of wiring the scoreboard. So, everything's moving along. Great. And that's what they were doing over at SPC, correct? I did see them over there a couple days. Yes. Okay. Lovely. Okay. Thank you for the, you know, collaboration. Appreciate it. And we're waiting for We're waiting for light bulbs. How many? No, the whole district. Just a couple. 9,000 light bulbs. Part part of the project. Oh, okay. Yep. Cool. All right. Thank you. Uh, finance, district operations, and transportation. Mrs. Guyire, uh, we did hold a meeting. I guess that was last week. When's when was that? The 16th. Last Monday. Um, and basically we went over everything that Miss Manduk already presented. That was the same presentation we had. We all were given the opportunity to ask any questions um, and review all of that. Additionally, as

052mentioned, we did discuss what we want to do as a long range plan for SPC. When do we want to start it? though there was discussion earlier that there is no long range plan but you know for the first time in forever not to quote Elsa you know we actually are having this conversation so it's in the beginning stages I don't think any conversation for a long range plan goes from hey let's start the conversation to we have the plan completed in one committee meeting um as with anything it's going to take time to work through it and decide what's going to be best for our students and our communities and our you know our budget and all of the things that go into that. It's not something we can just, you know, scratch out

053on paper over one committee meeting. So, I thought it was great that we actually started having that conversation and I thought Dr. Fe would actually appreciate that because she has been asking for that for several years to have that conversation. So, um I thought she would be pleased that that finally has hit the the to-do list of things to talk about. So, and we did get a good overview um as was mentioned of all of the the assets in the district. Um let me just actually pull it up. Is that under super is that connected? It is. So, it is a a capital assets list and it is extensive. Um what it entails is basically every item that we have in the district that is considered a capital asset. So the buildings themselves, maintenance buildings,

054the fieldhouse, tennis courts, track, um the gymnasium floors are, you know, things that, you know, basketball hoops, baseball field, bleachers in the buildings, wrestling mats, um vans, all of our vehicles are on here and also our lawn equipment, our playgrounds, the parking lots because those all cost a lot of money, our roofs on all of the buildings, generators, fire panels, boilers, chillers, etc. Um, and then it also lists out an extensive, you know, when was that last purchased or installed, when was it last renovated, what is the life expectancy of said item, you know, what is the approximate replacement cost of said item? because this sort of leads into not a long-term plan just for SPC, but a long-term plan for all of our facilities of, hey, we're going to end up with all of

055these things that are the life expectancy is going to be up at the same time. and and you know, maybe we need to how can we long-term budget plan for some of these things rather than oops, we forgot to save up and now we're on the hook for needing, you know, all of this, you know, replacements and repairs needing done at the same time. So, um, I thought that was really great to see a list rather than just, hey, this is, you know, things are in need of repair around here, but hey, this is the last time it was repaired. this is what it costs then, this is how long it's expected to last, and this is how many years it's been. So, I did appreciate that because it's a nice one page. Well, it

056might be more than one page, but um I condensed snapshot. I condensed it down. It might be a ledger size page um actually of information. So, I think it's great for the board to have this kind of information. This is not something we had ever really been provided before as an overall snapshot of of what the district's assets are and when they were last replaced. So, thank you for preparing. This was this was created in December and shared in December, January, and February uh and March as we went through the discussion and voting process of the Giza project. I just updated it recently right now um and kind of combined items and chunked them. buildings, vehicles, so forth. So, thank you. Well, I was at that meeting, too, and there's a couple things that I

057was very concerned about. And one is the length of that list and the cost of all of those things. And I made the statement. I said, you know, where are we going to get money to pay for that because it's not included. And I made the statement, we already owe $33,838,464,000. To which Mr. Grabak threw up his hands and says, "What's 33 million?" Well, I want to tell you what 33 million is. It's taxpayer money. That is food off their table, the shelter in their home. They had to pay for insurance, transportation, any future savings, medical expenses, and everything they need to survive. That's what 33 million is to our taxpayers. Mr. Greyak, not what's 33 million? This is 33 million. you'd have done your job over the past few years or maybe 15 or

05816 years, we wouldn't be in this. You were also on the board. Wouldn't be in this position that every time we come to maintenance, you cut. So, did you do within that 33 million by the way, since it's sitting here on the table, um that also provides a roof over our our heads here and our students and our employees. Correct. Okay. And one of on four buildings, a roof on four buildings, right? And so they're dry and they're able to learn, right? Oh, there's boilers and chillers so that they're not too hot and not too cold. And one thing that I will say is I have put back in what is called design designated fund balance for capital improvements and right now we have $1.6 million $1.6 million out there. So we are trying to

059begin saving for some of those items in the future so that um god forbid if something happens you know we do have some money specified specifically for capital improvements. So we have developed a list we are working as we have get money in our fund balance to designate it specifically for capital improvements so that we are preparing for some of those items in the future. So, as usual, you are doing good job. Another good job. Thank you. Thank you. We we started out just what maybe a couple years ago with 50,000. That was our first initial move. And that that stayed like that for a long time. Yep. So, and that's one of the things that you know Yeah. We didn't have that before. So, Correct. We didn't have it before. And that and that's

060why I'm on my Wonder where all that money went. Yeah. That's why I'm on my soap books box with the cyber charter. If we could save some money there, my gosh, we could put more money towards Yeah. towards the savings for capital improvements so that God forbid when they come, let's hope and pray they don't hit all at the same time, we have money set aside to do some of those items. Yes. And I think it's great too that for the first time in a really long time, you can actually drive around the district and see things are looking better. Yes. Yes. You know, when you when you drive through our our complex, it's looking nicer. And I know a lot of people make fun of the Scotty red paint and everything, but in comparison

061to a lot of other districts, things had really just kind of gotten let go for a while. So, it's nice to see some physical improvements along with all of the educational improvements that were making. All right. Um, school safety and security, Mr. Yutzy. Yes. So, we met on June 9th. Um, we discussed uh several changes and upcoming with the personnel. Um, Mr. Kefir went over tonight in executive session the annual school safety and security report. Um, we discussed how the drill went uh for the high school as well as the roll out for the new radios um that are districtwide. and uh similar to buildings and grounds uh discussed started planning and discussing kind of long-term what are our needs that we need to start budgeting and uh looking at. Uh next meeting will be

062September 22nd. Perfect. Thank you. I apologize real quick. Um I think I forgot to mention the next building and grounds meeting will be October 13th. Thank you. Uh there are no student reports. Okay. Next section is school board meeting minutes. The board has asked to approve the following meeting minutes. May 15, 2025 special discussion voting meeting. May 22nd, 2025 discussion voting meeting. So moved. Need need a second. Second. Sorry. Discussion. All those in favor? I opposed. Uh, board docs. The board has asked to approve the renewal of board docs LT as the third party at a cost of $2,300 for the 2025 2026 fiscal year. So moved. Second. Why does it say bill two and it has the address of Pennsylvania school boards association? I believe because PSBA um essentially now obtains a discount rate

063for you through board docs because board docs has developed a relationship with PSBA. Okay. So are is that who we would pay then is PSBA or we pay diligent I do not know that. Okay. Because it's it's a little bit confusing just seeing an invoice and then it doesn't have that it's being built to us but we're paying for it. We we probably get a group rate. Okay. I would imagine because we are members of PSBA also. I hope I I'm sure. I guess I I just I mean if we're paying for it, it should have our billing address and everything on it. Yeah. I mean, being that it's a binding document, we might not be the it's an invoice. I mean, yeah, it's it's actually it states that it's a quote. So, um Okay.

064And it's build, you're right, it is build to the Pennsylvania School Boards Association, but I do know there have been times specifically when not only uh the schoolboard association gets a discount. Same thing with PASBO on occasion. There have been things with the IU that the IU has gotten and then because they did it in a group rate type thing, they were able to pass on the the savings to all the school districts. Okay. All right. On to the vote. All those in favor? I opposed. No. Next section is policies. Uh policy updates, second and final read. The board has asked to approve the following policies that have been posted for over 30 days and you can see those online. Need a motion. So moved. Need a second. Second. Discussion. Restrictions on the service animals.

065Oh, well, so the restrictions would be those service animals that are permitted under the Americans with Disabilities Act and then secondly, they have to be ones that are um specifically prescribed by a doctor. Um and and there are I mean there are certainly some restrictions in the regs in terms of what what can what can be a proper service animal that includes horses. It does. And it's so strange because it's always called out in the policy, but but I've heard enough places say um yeah, I mean, you'd have to have that that kind of um circumstances in which it's prescribed to a student for that specific need. And then obviously you have to make certain accommodations within a classroom, make sure there aren't, but you're not allowed to ask what that that need is. Well,

066so so it's different though when you're talking about a a therapy or a um a service animal that's in in as part of a a student's IEP. That's a little bit that's different than the circumstances where you've got a u like a an inviteee. I mean there's it's not easy to navigate but that's unfortunately the current state of the regs to the vote. All those in favor I opposed. I want my vote recorded is yes on number 103 and yes under number 104 and no on all of the rest of them. Next section is personnel. Personnel log. The board has asked to approve the personnel log for June 24th, 2025 as attached. All salaries are included and all clearances are current and on file with the administration. So do second. Discussion. All those in favor?

067I opposed. [Music] Did Dr. Fe have a question? Dr. Fe, did you have a question that you didn't get to ask? Too late. It's already voted on. Okay. PA educator renewal. The board has asked to approve the renewal with PA educator for the 2526 school year at a cost of $1,750. I do. Second discussion. Describe this. Describe this PA educator. This is an online service we use to help identify um teachers for professional positions here. It's an online service and it costs $1,750. Yes. Who watches it? I mean, Mrs. McTavish has access to it. I have access to it. The principles have access to it to identify prospective employees. I use it to advertise every professional position. You advertise on it. Okay. I did not know that. That's why I was asking for a description.

068You advertise on it. Okay, I'm good with that. Okay. Um, sorry, real quick. I did want to like Is this It's a yearly thing. Yes. Okay. I see where it says like due date 8125, but I didn't see like when the contract would end, but it is a full year. Okay. It's a it's a yearly service. Okay. To the vote. All those in favor? I opposed. Next is Act 93 agreement. The board has asked to approve the district administrators act 93 agreement for the time period from July 1st, 2025 through June 30th, 2030. So do I. I ask we table this. Sure. It just needs to be seconded. Okay. All right. To be on the floor and then you can table it. Second. Okay. It was. So Mr. Graia moved it. Mr. Yudsy seconded it.

069And um I asked that we table this. Okay. I second that. You'll see seconded. Okay. So, all we have to vote on on the tableing. Correct. So, all those in favor of tableabling, we have a roll call on that then. F3. Roll call. Roll call vote for tableabling. F3. Discussion on the table. That is to go back and restart. That's the tableabling includes restarting those negotiations. Well, the motion was just to table it to table this motion. Okay. All right. Okay. And then Mr. Olsen. Oh, good. Mr. Zipper. Yes. To table it. Mr. Yutsy. Yes. Dr. Fake. Yes. Mr. Friend. No. Mrs. Guyer. No. Mr. Graiac. No. Mrs. Over. No, Mr. Olsen. Yes, Mr. Shipley. No. Four to five. Okay. Now that it's all out in the public, we can talk about it. Is that

070right, Mr. Lucas? Correct. The motion's still on the floor. We can give all the details, right? So, the motion stands now. We're not tableling it. It's on the floor. We can do that at the end of the meeting. We can do that at the end of the meeting. Did we We never got a second for the actual motion. So, no, you did. I thought Mr. Yi did. I have Mr. Grabiac and Mr. Yutsy for the motion and Mr. Olsen and Dr. Flake for the tableling. Okay. All right. Sorry. So, discussion. They want to pass it now. Yeah. No discussion on pass. Want to pass it? No discussion. No discussion. Roll call vote. At what point, Wayne? This is we discussion on the act 93 agreement itself. Correct. Yes. Yeah. That's what I'm calling for discussion

071for the the discussion. Okay. So, we can go down the list and we can tell everybody what's in it. Is that right, Mr. Lucas? Is that right? This is for the purpose of discussing the motion. So, if if you want to say I'm I'm going to vote no on the motion, and here's why. You're obviously free to do that, but I think you should consider this your opportunity to discuss your position on the agreement. Okay. So, you said that what I should say is that I am not going to vote on the motion and I would like to tell you why. I'd like to tell the public why. And I is that correct? That's typically how people would handle these these situations. Okay, ladies and gentlemen, I'm I'm talking about Act 93, which consists of

07211 people, but I only dealt with eight of them because there were some that I didn't have adequate information. First of all, let's give you the trifecta winner. We have one person on this list whose raise for the first year raise for the first year is $18,740. That's one year's That is the first year's raise only. $18,740. The other raises are $9,250. $9,131, $3,700 and some dollars, $7,960, $2,991, and 1,021 in addition to the $18,740. This averages, when you add these all up and divide by this, they average an 8% raise. an 8% raise. The information we were provided does not include their present salary. There was no listing whatsoever as to their present salary and then where it was going for the first year. And if you look at the chart for the first

073year, well, for the second, third, fourth, and fifth, it says 3% 3% 3% 3%. But for the first year, there's one word and it says adjusted. Adjusted. Adjusted. And that includes up to a 28% raise. South Morland is not a wealthy district. We are paying out multi multi-millions of dollars in Act 93. Now remember, this was only for eight people. Eight people. We have hundreds of employees. Eight people. And that's just the beginning of why I resent this very, very much. I think this was a terrible terrible thing to do our tax. There's only that many people though who are in the act 93 agreement, right? The other employees have tend to have their own agreements, you know, or contracts. Yes. So, exactly. What concerns me is recent contracts have been 3%. 3%. This one

074is eight. And why why wasn't the board as a whole bring up the date on this till we were spraying on us? Who who was involved in the negotiation? So I think we've now discussed this several times that there is a negotiating committee, right? Neither of you are on it because you can't be trusted with with confidential information. You do have a say so when we vote. We were provided this. We have no input into contracts at all. Is that because you can't you leaked confidential information. That is why we've discussed this several times. We didn't just get sprung this tonight. We were provided this on June 17th, which was a whole week ago. So, it wasn't just sprung on us tonight. We We had no input because you can't be trusted with confidential information.

075No, I hear you a reporter. I heard you're the big leak. I heard you're the one who's put stuff out. So, just to address um the concerns about these these particular raises, um the the negotiating committee did look at what county averages are. Um where our people landed, what the responsibilities are of our people, um you know, what was equitable and what was fair across the board. Um so there was a lot of time and consideration into um you know, the the whole plan. We met several times with that group. Um, you know, we we as a committee worked to do what was best, you know, for everybody involved, the district included. So, if there's no more discussion, can I ask? Oh, no. No, there's discussion. Where does this put us in the 17 districts

076from this from this county? You said that. Third from the bottom. Third from the bottom. The salaries. Yep. Yep. Or third from the bottom. Okay. Tell us, tell everybody how you calculated those salaries. What? I think he just did. Yeah, he's not on trial. Okay. Like, um, yeah, I I just went through that. So, if there's no other discussion, we can vote. I do have one quick question. And I wanted to possibly so there there is an increase when it comes to particular employees who are in the act 93 but there's also too where they have there's addition there's hold on let me reverse this. So they're taking on also another set of job titles that would give allow them to have this increase. It's not like they're just getting this for no reason. there's

077there's increases that should be made because they're taking on even more jobs. So, that needs to be put out there. Yeah. I think too it's important to note that um our administrators did in their last contract get very small increases. They had 1.6% 1.6%. So, um, I think that a lot of our people in this contract are doing really good work for our district and they work really hard to make this a better place for our kids and our facilities a better place for our kids. And so, I think that, you know, saying that they're undeserving of this is not fair to the hard work and dedication that they put in. So, I think that's the part where Mr. friend explained that, you know, it was taken into consideration a lot of different factors. Question.

078Can I continue with the reason I'm not voting for this? I'd like to read the president's salaries for these individuals. We haven't voted on it. This is discussion. That's confidential until it is voted on. Discussion. This is the reason. No, you cannot discuss it because you said I could. You said I did. I didn't say that you could. Like those salaries are those are not salaries until they're voted on by the by this board. But she could say the salary that getting now plus the increase how many is 8%, right? Yeah. 8%. She already read the the increases. She didn't read the base salaries from 24 25. No, she already said what the percentage increases. They were not included in the calculations. So we're we're going to read to the public what's posted. Okay, ladies

079and gentlemen of the public, you're not going to hear what these salaries are, but you will. You've already Yeah, I mean, you've already indicated what the increases are. You've already incre indicated what the percentage increases are. Well, then why can't I give the salaries? The existing salaries are already public record, a matter of public record, because they've been approved. They've been voted on by the board. But until they're voted on by the board, it's not a public record. Correct. You've already indicated that your position is that the salaries are too high. I think that's well understood. Yeah. I'm having trouble figuring out what which what which what you're saying, Mr. Lucas. You're talking out of one side of your mouth one time, another side of your mouth the other. I want to tell the people

080why I'm not going to vote on it. But you told us you're not going to vote on it. I'm going to tell you why. We don't care. If six of you want to call the question, you're always always free to call the question so that you can vote. The public cares. The public cares. Maybe they do, maybe they don't. But you can do that. You know, you tended to speech at the end of the meeting. Maybe they do, maybe. All right. If there's no other discussion, uh, let's do a roll call vote. Mr. Yutsy, yes. Dr. Fike, no. Mr. Friend, yes. Mrs. Guyire, yes. Mr. Yes. Mrs. Arer, no. Mr. Olsen? No. Mr. Shipley? Yes. Mr. No. Five to four. Was it five to four in favor? 54 in favor? Yes. Sorry, I just couldn't.

081ESY nurse rate. The board is asked to approve the following 20. Excuse me. Can you can you specify to me who the five were who voted for this? You were document. We're on to the next one. I couldn't hear. Can you tell me who they were? It's Mr. Shipley. Um, Ms. Guyer. The minutes. Okay. Shipley Guyire. Rabiac. Rabiac. Well, if the three of you voted no and I voted no, that's four. The rest voted yes. Those are the four. On to number four. Please call to order. And you'd see the the board has asked to approve the following 2025 extended school year es rate um assistant nurse $4067 an hour. So moved. Second. Second. All those in favor? I opposed. Jinx. Next section is education. Ban summer leadership camp. The board has asked to approve

082the request for eight South Morland band students escorted by Shawn Harris and Jamie Gore to participate in the Blueway Camp June 25th and 26, 2025 at the University of Mount Union. So moved. Second. At no cost to the district. Sorry. Sorry. Was there a second? We got a second. Yeah. Uh discussion. All those in favor? I just want to make it clear. I have a child in the marching band. Thank you. Yeah, that is not a conflict of interest. Okay. I just wanted to be sure unless you want to vote no, so you don't have to set. So, I'm just kidding. No, she's not going to that. So, all right. All those in favor? I I opposed. Uh banned Disney trip. The board will be asked to approve the request for a marching band trip

083to Walt Disney and other various locations in Florida from Sunday, March 22nd, 2026 to Wednesday, March 25th, 2026 at no cost to the district as attached. So moved. Second discussion again. Um I do I know in past times when we had when this has come up, we had talked about like an administrator going. So now is that something that we vote on still with an administrator going or there is an administrator going on. Okay. Now is is that administrator cost to the district or no cost to the district? Are they on their own to pay for that trip that gets picked up from everything that um organization pays for from the organization? Okay. I have a question. Was there an administrator on their recent trip? And why or why not? I could find out. I

084don't know off top of my head. I don't believe there was. I was just curious why we chose not. If that's our policy, I think we should enforce it. I do. Yeah, I recall that. Yeah, it was any time out of state. So, maybe it was because it was instate. That's probably it. Okay. That's I was just curious. Yeah. Out of state overnight. Those were the stipulations. Yeah. Okay. All right. Uh, all those in favor? I opposed. Educational student services agreements. The board has asked to approve the following educational student services. The Western PA School for the Deaf, Imagine Learning in Presley Ridge, Greensburg. Second discussion. All those in favor? I opposed. Next section is finance. The board is asked to approve the following monthly financial reports. All attached. Number one, treasures report. Number two,

085general fund board summary report. Number three, fund accounting, capital fund and food service check summary listing. So do second discussion. All those in favor? I opposed. Final budget resolution. The board has asked to approve the 2025 2026 final budget with revenues in the amount of $37,14,530 and expenditures of 37,14,530 which includes a tax increase of 1.99 mills for West Morland County and 6587 mills for Fyet County. So do second. Second discussion lots of discussion um in the year 2526 uh I questioned uh some payments and at the time I presented five documents that I had received the first one then the second one was was not right for the first and the next one wasn't right next one wasn't right next one was I was told I was told it's because the budget was evolving

086evolving. Well, from the very first time, the very first time that that budget me that budget number was offered, it was in excess of $37 million. It never changed the second time, the third time, the fourth time, the fifth time, or the sixth time. I want to know how that evolved. As I've explained several times, Dr. F whenever you work on a budget and I've been very transparent showing you um what transpires from one month to the next um the last two months I can tell you from May to now there haven't been any changes uh because I was able to basically put funds in one slot to the other. So if I had an expenditure here then I look to see where I could cut there and or where for example the savings that

087we were realizing from people retiring those type things. So with that being said, that's why we ended up at 37,104530. You know, it nothing nefarious is going on. I assure you it's just there were times there was one board meeting I remember um one finance committee meeting it was down to 36 million again. Uh a budget is more or less a living breathing document. It's, you know, as you learn, for example, if you, as you learn what your insuranceances are going to cost, it changes. As you as you learn um what your staffing is, you know, a harder, faster number with your staffing. Those all are things that impact your your budget. I'm going to ask the question again. Then why did the number 37 million never change from January, February, March, April, May to

088June? that number. I just want to hear about that number and how that number and why that number never changed. She just I mean she explained that, right? I mean, we can all agree that that was an adequate explanation. I have no idea what you said, but I wasn't asking you a question with all the but I'm telling you the question was already answered. Maybe you're not listening or you're just choosing not to understand. I'm not sure. Changes in the documents. I'm talking about one figure and one figure only. $37 million. never ever ever ever ever changed. Right. The answer to that question really has no bearing on anything that Well, I think it does. I think it was predetermined and all those other documents were just just a bunch of stuff that justified, well,

089we'll spend this, we'll spend this, we'll spend this. It was never cut. That number was never cut from the very first time it was put out there. That number was predetermined six months ago. Next item. All right. If there's no other discussion, Oh, I have questions. Go ahead, sir. If we don't get the 20 million from the state, we have to take out of our general our savings, right? Can you speak into your microphone, please? I don't think the public can hear you. We don't get the 20 million that you're banking on from the state. We have to take whatever we have to put out of our general fund, right? Out of the out of the fund balance. That is correct. But um it is my hope that they will rectify the situation and pass

090their budget by sometime in July. We would be fine. Um you know there are some districts that would have to do a tax anticipation note at that point in time. Unfortunately for us we do not have to do that just quite yet. Um you know I will continue to monitor the situation as I told you earlier today. I reach out to our local senator to find out what the what's transpiring in Harrisburg and I will continue to do so. But, you know, um I'm sure we're going to get the majority of the money that that is um that I have allocated because as I've stated earlier, whenever I budget revenues, I budget those conservatively because of the fact that I don't want us to get into a situation where I said that we're going to

091to get $20 million and we end up getting $18 million. So that's that's basically what I'm saying is I'm trying to be very conservative in my numbers with my as far as my revenues are concerned because I feel that's the best way that I can protect the district and the taxpayers. All right. If there's no other discussion, we can move to the vote. Um roll call. No, I I don't think she's done discussing. She's trying to discuss. Do you have more discussion? Called for a roll call vote, but he's giving you the opportunity. He didn't realize that you still had more to discuss. So, he's giving you that opportunity. Now, you talking to me for Is she a president? Because I'm a human that's allowed to. Is she the president of the board? I I'm

092just waiting for you to tell me whether you have more to say about this particular topic or not. So, if we don't if we exceed our expenditures, if we don't get the the amount of money you think you're going to get, we have about 2.7 million left in un assigned fund balance. That is correct. When that money is gone, what where where does it come? Where where do we go next? Well, what we would would have to do then is I would have to come to you and ask you to take some of the money that is in assigned fund balance and move it back to unassigned. That is something that is allowable. The assigned fund balance money has been promised to somebody. It has. But if we get in a situation that you're talking

093about, then I can come to you and say, "Okay, we have $1.6 $6 million in capital funds. We have over spent we have spent all of our fund balance monies. Can we Are you okay with me transferring this to here so that we can pay our our bills, our obligations? Ma'am, I've been on this board a number of times and the one criticism that the business managers always always always got was do not use your fund balance to pay your bills. And that was every one of them. every one of them. And trust me, Dr. Fe, the last thing on this earth that I want to do is to have that happen. That is why I budget the revenues conservatively. Pam, the the payment on our loan next year is $3,425,000. But you also have

094to subtract the $700,000 that we will be getting from the plan con funds. So basically what I have done whenever I did the whenever I did the bond refinance, I worked with my bond team and we did what is called a wraparound loan which that tells you that you wrap around your debt so that it does not negatively impact your district. Okay, we have three loans in 2526. the 25 bonds, the 2021 bonds, and the 2021A bonds. You put all three of those together, it's called a wrap. That is correct. And the amount of money due on each one from the documents that we received is 3,425,900. I'm not going to dispute that statement, but you also have to take into effect into account the money that we get that is allocated from the state,

095$700,000 roughly that we get for plan con monies that we still have available. Okay. And that applies to what? 2021. Yes. the 21 and 21A loan only, not to the 2025. Okay? Because it says here that then you pay off that loan in 2627. And the final payment just for that payoff is 2,6247. And again, you're paying 3.5 million. 2728 is 3.5 million. 2829 is 3.2 million. And then it bottoms out at 2,800,000 for the next 11 years. And I looked at these numbers and and you also have to take into account, if I may, um the amount of money that we are guaranteed to get with a Giza project, which I believe was $374,000. So these documents are not true. No, Dr. Fe, that's what we're paying, but there are other items that factor

096into that. One is the plan con money. Two is the Giza money that we are guaranteed. And if we don't receive if we don't receive $374,000 in savings, then Constellation guarantees they will make us whole. Ma'am, just the salary increases alone are over $700,000. Just the salary increases are over $700,000. That wipes that out. I'm looking at specifically the debt, which is what you were talking about. Now, so I was explaining that portion of it. I just wanted to add since we're talking about the debt that um I was reading a little further in those March 18th meeting minutes um in regard to Dr. Vik's question earlier about that $16 million she kept um shouting about. It does say that Miss Mand went on to explain the same thing in different terms. They're looking to

097refinance the 1335 million plus refinance the 2022 loans which have higher interest rates to save 117,000. It literally says total amount to be borrowed/refinanced is only going to be the new 13,350,000 plus old 2022 $4,50,000 plus closing costs. And on April 15th meeting, Dr. F, you did vote yes to approve those meeting minutes. So I think that you were made aware of that price. So, I just wanted to circle back to that conversation that that was clearly spelled out in those minutes that you did vote for. You know, as a school director, I have an obligation to say, where's his school district going to be 2, three, four years down the road? We all do. Yeah. When we're spending money like this, there's only one other place to go, and that's to the the taxpayers.

098Well, Dr. like I have an obligation to if you're presenting misinformation to the public to to make sure that it's clearly spelled out that this was clearly given to us as information. So where do you think we're going to be 3 four years down the road? It's not the conversation we're having. So bankrupt bankrupt. Okay. All right. If there's no other uh discussion, we can go ahead and vote. Roll call vote, please. Dr. Fe, no. Mr. Fund, yes. Mrs. Guyer, yes. Mr. Graiac, yes. Mrs. Ari, no. Mr. Olsen, no. Mr. Shipley, no. Mr. No. Mr. Yutsy? Yes. Four to five. All right. Homestead and farmstead exclusion. Can I just ask that? That failed, right? Yes. So now what does that mean in terms of it is June 24th and we have to have a budget

099passed by the end of June. Correct. Right. So what it means is that um you will be legally not permitted to pay bills on July 1st. So, um there are a couple of exceptions um in terms of uh salaries that can continue to be paid for certain employees, but by and large uh you won't be able to pay employees. Um you'll have to to you'll be permitted to make some expenditures to keep uh things from uh deterioration, but apart from from that sort of capital preservation, you won't be able to pay bills. Uh, in all likelihood, I would say before you adjourn tonight, you should have a discussion about when you're going to hold a special meeting for the purpose of either reconsideration of the the budget that was presented by Ms. Mandok. You could

100also if if someone wants to make a motion to approve the budget with some changes to either the expenditures or the um the uh the revenue side. Uh certainly you can do that. Um, but you know, you have, I think, the obligation to make a plan for how you're going to address this before you leave here tonight. I kind of feel that we have that obligation and we should just probably have that discussion now while we're on the topic rather than waiting because I mean, I just want to ensure first and foremost that this is not going to affect our summer food programs. Will that still be able to be run and paid for? And will those people be paid comes out of the cafeteria fund by I'm Oh, I'm sorry. I was just asking

101solicitor. Thank you though. Yeah, I mean I I think that's still part of I mean I don't I don't know if those summer food programs do they they stop on July 1 or or when you put the budget together for those do they actually straddle two years? I think they they typically straddle two years. Yeah. So, I mean, I'm not entirely sure what the answer is to that question, but but I would say anyway that that that you should as a board do everything that you can um within your power to have a budget before July one. No. Yeah. I don't want to see kids going hungry because I couldn't I mean we've had literally more budget meetings and finance meetings this year than we ever have. And you know the frustrating part is nobody

102comes. Not every member of this board is there. So you know the ins and outs of the budget that we painstakingly go through for everybody that attends these meetings. Um, you know, it it it's just frustrating that here we are now um 6 days away from not being able to pay bills. Can I ask? But that's not fair to put on the ones that said no. Well, it's not fair to put on the ones that say no. I understand. I just think that we need to have a plan. I would like to make a motion if I could if we can go back into that particular item. So, a motion for reconsideration. No, I'd like to make a motion that after this meeting we go into an executive session and possibly have a quick discussion,

103which highly doubt it's going to be quick, but there may be a possible change that we can happen so we can at least get on the same page about or at least the majority over. But I think that's a public discussion. Well, I was going to say, oh, okay. Yeah, it's it's public unless it implicates personnel or safety and security. Okay. So, I apologize for that. So, I'm going to make a motion that in that um I would reconsider my vote if we adjust the millillage. I got So, so what I would say then um you've got motion four, which is continuing taxes that has the millage rate, right? The final budget resolution is what I'm talking about. Yeah. Nicole. Nicole, can I ask you something? Do you want to raise the millage increase? No.

104Oh, okay. I just I can't hear her. No, I'm sorry. I don't have the um Mrs. Mondock. Yes. Item five, that's the real estate tax. Those are the tax rates, correct? That is correct. Yes. So, I think then, Mrs. O'Rer, what you want to do is make a motion to amend the tax rates that are set forth in motion five. And if five of you agree on on whatever amendment you're preparing then Mrs. Mondock because I think then what the gist of this change will be is that it will change your revenues will stay the same. It's just that some of them less will come from taxes and more will come from the fund balance. Right? So, I think that if you have agreement to make a change on item five, then you could have

105a motion to reconsider the budget in light of the change in in tax revenue. Okay. Tax rates that would allow for the budget to pass. Okay. So, should I then wait till we get to that Mr. My concern isn't taxes, it's spending. All right. Then then my this is my motion of amendment, not yours. Make her motion. You're entitled to make her motion. Who gets five votes? I mean, I I can't read your mind. I ask a question. But but what I would say is, you know, when you look at the the um the next one, the homestead farmstead, that's non-controversial. You're just applying gambling funds. Pass that one. pass the act 511 and then have your discussion about the real estate tax rates. If you think they should stay where they are, Dr. Fe,

106then then vote no to the amendment that Mrs. O'irer is going to propose and then come back to the budget item because then you'll at least understand where the the the revenues that would fund your budget are going to come from, the local revenues that is. Obviously, the state is, as Mrs. Mondock said a it's not a certainty until they pass the budget, but you know I I mean my advice would be go ahead and pass items three and four. Nicole, are you only worried about the tax part? What does it matter? That's that has nothing to do with my amended motion that I'm trying to make. Okay. I guess I just don't understand what's happening and I'll I'll explain it whenever we get there. I agree with Nicole. We knew what the expenditures. Now,

107I have a question. Since we didn't pass a budget, can we revisit Act 93 to to renegotiate that because we don't have a budget with that in there, those raises in there? Well, so you don't have a budget yet, but you're still in the midst of this that would get expenditures down. Uh, I mean, it's it's the board's call. You can reconsider any motion that passes or fails at the same legislative meeting, but someone who was in the winning side has to make the motion to reconsider. So, for example, if Mrs. Oier gets something that satisfies her on the real estate tax levels, she can then make a motion to reconsider the budget vote because she was in the winning side on the budget vote. Yeah. a a motion to reconsider the Act 93 agreement

108would similarly under Robert's rules of order come from somebody who was on the winning side, the winning five of the um the board majority that passed the Act 93 agreement. Are we looking to change her vote? Is that what we're after? No. Oh my. This is That's what I'm hearing. That's what I'm hearing. We can reote. Well, then you're not hearing anybody knows what we're talking about. Okay. All right. So, so what I would just say is if you if you want to end before midnight, does somebody want to make a motion to approve the homestead farmstead? I'll make that motion. We move homestead of farmstead. All right. Let me read it. The board has asked to adopt a resolution to accept and distribute gaming tax funds in the amount of $1,634,369 to qualified Homestead

109Farmstead properties for the 2526 school year. So moved. Okay, we have a motion and and a second. Second. Yeah. Discussion. All those in favor? I I opposed. Repeat that again. So that's uh motion number three, homestead and farmstead exclusion. The homestead farmstead. That's what we voted on this time. Yes. Yes. Okay. So this is number four. Okay. Continuing taxes 2526 fiscal year. The board has asked to approve the continuation of all taxes levied by the school district of South Morland in full force and effect, including those under act 511, the local tax enabling act 53 PS statute 6901. So second discussion. Now we can vote no on this and it would just be money for the budget act 511 local tax enabling act right. So these are the tax statute 6901 earned income tax 511

110half of 1% emergency and municipal services taxes at $5 per person and real estate transfer tax according to act 511. Those are the taxes you want to keep. Right. So, you pass a motion every year to continue those taxes. You're not allowed to raise them. Act 511 taxes are frozen at the level that they were at previously, but you pass a motion every year to continue them. Without passing this motion, you can't collect earned income taxes, emergency and municipal services tax, or real estate transfer tax. So, you would literally be leaving money on the table. I don't think we'll have to earn income tax anyways, but that's just me. Uh, all those in favor? I I opposed. All right. So, now I'm sorry, it's not my meeting. I threw a rant. Real estate taxation. The

111board has asked to approve the adoption of the real estate taxes in accordance with section 687 of the school code of 1949 as amended. So, do second. discussion. I think this is where I'm asking for an amendment. Now, I I just want you to realize um if we change the millage rates, what actually we're going to do is change how much we're spending out of our fund balance. Mhm. Okay. Yeah. I'm not going to cut any expenditures. We're just specific. I'm just specifically addressing what she is proposing to amend. And the other piece is you're going to need to make sure that if you adjust that millillage that you do it for both Fyad and West Mormon, right? An extra wrinkle here. Yep. That it's important to get the math right. Yeah. So, what I

112would what I would have to do is question. Sorry, I have a question. Huh? I think we haven't even given Mrs. Der an opportunity. Not at all. I haven't even said what I wanted to say. a question yet. Let let's let her say what she needs to say first. Um Mr. Reer, go ahead. Question. So I I don't think we should be raising it, you know, almost 2 mills. Um we've raised it again for a long time, last what four or five years now. And you know, our taxpayers, including ourselves, we need a break. and and unfortunately times have become tough and we've had to spend more money than usual than the prior year but I don't think we should just go up you know to 2 mill so I am asking to amend the

113millillage I don't know I'm just saying a millillage to 0 0 or 1.5 5 if I'm asking that correctly. You have to choose. You would need to pick one. Oh, I have to pick one. I don't know. Which one do I thought I thought how we did it last year was better where we all we could vote on which millillage would be the best. Yeah. Sure. I mean, I just think like it's easier to get Well, I mean, what I would propose is choose the number you want and make that the amendment and see where it goes. Okay. So, I'm going to go in the middle, then 1.25 mills. So, Stephanie's proposing 1.25 mills. Yeah, I'm making the amendment. A mill in the district's 128,000. 138. Okay. 138. It changes. Yeah. If we They're back.

114I'm sorry. We just That's okay. We went right into a discussion. She needs a a second for the motion to amend to to make that 1.25. She also needs FET. Mhm. And she needs FET as part of your motion. Well, and what I'll have to do is I'll have to go into CFRS um tomorrow and get to the 1.25 25 in the um West Morland County and then see what that shakes out at in Fyad County. I I just got to say I don't think that you should you should change your millillage unless you're sure about what the impact's going to be in both counties. Like you should know that in my view just because I don't I don't you know. All right then. I don't amend anything and we leave it where it stands.

115We don't pay our bills. So there it is. I take my amendment back. We still doing discussion on this? No. Nicole, does that amendment I didn't make an amendment. I took it back. You took it back. Okay. So, it's off the table. Yep. Don't we have to vote to take it back off the table or something? No, it wasn't. I I made the amendment and I took it right back. There was never a second. Got me. Are we still on discussion on this or No, no, because there's no motion. There's no Well, I had I had an important question. I mean you're on discussion on the underlying motion to pass to adopt uh number five. Yeah, cuz my question my my question that was on if we do go to one a quarter, how much

116we have to take out of our thing if we if we go back and renegotiate act 93 to 3%. How much of a mill does that save us? Well, but again that's that motion is not on the floor, right? And I wasn't it in the budget presentation that the act 93 increases were $69,000. Yes. So that would be a half a mill. Correct. Yes. Roughly. Yes. You got to realize you got teasers on that too. I think that that number was included that. So I just want to say um in regard to the numbers, I know that when we talk I think these numbers sometimes get sensationalized into millions and mills and all of that. So, I did get um from the tax assessment office this week a list of all of the tax assessed

117values in our school district. Um so, residential and commercial farms, all of the above. Um just sorting the residential ones, I they gave me a median, which is the middle of the list, and then they also gave me a mean, which is I was able to calculate the mean, which is an average. Um so, we do know that the median was what 11,000 115 500 um when I did the average it came out to be 80 or 13,123 would be the average. So a little bit higher. Um there are three really highly assessed residential properties and then obviously we can go by median and mean. Um so then when you fill those numbers in with our 1.99 increase. So, even if we went with $50,000 as an average assessed value, which is, let me see

118what my house is assessed at. It's double what my house is assessed at. So, that would be an increase of $99.50 for the year. Um, if you go with what the the average, so the mean, we'll say 13,500 because I don't have it. That's $26.87 a year. So, 224 a month essentially. Um, one of the higher assessed houses that I found on the list was assessed at 725, which if you multiply West Morland Countyy's common level factor against that, it means that this is an $800,000 house. Theirs goes up $144 a year. So, I think that sometimes these numbers get blown out of proportion that it's going to to put people into homelessness when the average impact is $2 a month. So I if I may interrupt if they are an applicant that receives Homestead

119Farmstead with the increase this year that'll be negated by the Homestead Farmstead being increased. So I think that you know there's always a lot of talk throwing these numbers around and it sounds like oh my goodness 2 mills is so much and then when you actually you know do the calculation and what the difference is you know it's it's really not that substantial. How many straight years have our taxpayers had a tax increase? To whom are you addressing your question? I'm not on your witness stand. How many straight years has our our tax base had a tax increase in the South Morland school district? How many years straight in a row? I'm not on the witness stand here. I don't know off the top of my head. I'll have to look at that. I don't

120know who you're addressing. All right. Um I don't like it. Does anybody else have an amended suggestion then that we could discuss or what what do we need to do? Uh I'd like to reconsider H2 but Mr. Lucas. So right now you have on the mo on the floor the motion to approve your real estate taxes as proposed by Mrs. Mandic. So that's that's what if your discussion is is completed. That's the item to be voted. All right. I I had a question yet. I mean, we're still on the the one if we agree to go one and a quarter mills. Well, there's there's no motion to amend on the floor, right? We say we we amend that to one and a quarter. Can we also put in that motion or amendment that she lowers

121the budget that appropriate amount, whatever? But then that's a whole conversation about what we're cutting in. I would say that that that frankly just for the sake of keeping it I mean if you want to to reduce expenditures you could make a motion whenever somebody's someone's going to rec ask to reconsider the budget motion that failed and you could make a mo motion to amend to reduce the expenditures. I think that's and that would take us back to act 93 again. Right. Well, it would take you I mean it depends. You could just say reduce the expenditures from anything, right? And I mean like you could hold up vans. You could Why can't Why can't I just make a motion that we turn around, go back to where we were, pass the budget, and quit

122acting like a bunch of real estate? Yes, sir. Yes, sir. All right. So, I just asked if I could make a motion there, Queen. Because right now you have a motion on the floor to approve the real estate taxes. So, why don't you vote on that first? Would you salute see what you have? I can make the amendment to do to one and a quarter. We're we're on the tax we're on real estate real estate taxation right now calculation. Yeah. I I mean somebody could can amend that motion if they choose to. Yes. But like I said, part of the problem is you want to make sure that you understand that if you're changing that millillage increase to West Morland County to 1.25 to five mills. You need to know what the number is for

123how it will change in fiat as well. I think that making this I mean you could you don't have the information to just vote on changing the millage rate right off the off the cuff like this. There's too many things that it affects. The frustrating part is the people that are now in the 11th hour wanting to change did not attend the meetings where we went through all this and we made these decisions. So my suggestion would be going forward, come to those meetings with all your grand ideas and we can take them up at the appropriate times included. June 24th, no, I'm not talking about negotiations. I'm talking about, you know, the finance committee meeting that you've never been to. Um, are you telling us we have no right to vote the way we

124want to vote? Are you telling us we have no right to vote the way we want to vote? Never said that. Um, what I'm saying is now the 11th hour we just want to come in here and swoop in and try to change everything when you know the the math has to math. It it it's not going to work out. We're not going to get it done tonight. Uh, and we have basically six days to figure out what we're going to do because nobody attends the meetings. I have the answer. I have the solution right now. Can I make Can I make a What percent What percent of 1.9 is 1.2? What percent a cut is that? If you go from 1.99 to 1.25 as an example, what percent cut is that? So, we cut

125the taxes that much and we have the same cut in the budget. You cut the taxes, you cut the expenses. You do the same thing. You cut Hold the question. Give me the Give me the percent. I think it's like what? 20% or whatever. What 1.2 two compared to one 1.9. Somebody do it on a calculator there. So, whatever that I don't do your bidding. I'm sorry. So, whatever that percentage of cut is for the taxes, you cut expenses to go with it. And I think that sounds grand, but again, we can't have a whole conversation tonight about what whatever percentage we're going to make cuts to tonight. Like, this is Stephanie, did anybody come to a meeting and suggest two pages of cuts that never got to be spoken? Um, anybody I think that

126when I asked a clarifying question, you slammed your things down and slammed. I said if you shut your mouth, I'd give it to them and you immediately ran your mouth. I came with two pages. Call to question. All right. Um, so can we just vote on this and see if it passes? There we go. Absolutely. H5. All right. Roll call vote. H5. Taxation. Wait a minute. The board has asked to call a question. The board is asked to approve the adoption of the real estate taxes in accordance with section 687 of the school code of 1949 as amended. Roll call vote. At what rate? Has nothing to do with that. No rates. This is just we're passing taxes. Yeah. No amendments. This gives us the ability to pass. The rates are in the levia. This

127is just from a code of 1949. No. No. I mean it has the and I it's an attachment but the the rates that Mrs. Bondok is proposing to fund the budget. So in there oh it does. So we have 97.70 mills in west 17.84 mills. We need to hurry up and vote. We have to yeah but she the rate is included. Lucas just said the rates included in this. It's not written down here there. It's an attachment and there's an attach. So it's it's on that screen. Be it resolved that. Do you have a paper that starts with be it resolved that doesn't say that on this agenda? It would be attached to item number five under finding H5. Wayne, you better do a roll call. I already said it six times. Okay. Wait. Wait

128until we can figure out what we're doing here. Where we are. So are we ready for a roll call? Yes. Yes. I have no idea what they're voting. No. Yeah, that's 97 million. Ready? Yep. Okay. Mr. Front, yes. Mrs. Guyire, yes. Mr. Graiac, yes. Mrs. Oier, no. Mr. Olsen? No. Mr. Shipley? Yes. Mr. No. Mr. Yutsy? Yes. Dr. Flake? No. Because it does not state what the taxation rate will be. It's a no. Okay. Motion carries. Thank you. Again, now what does this mean? Because I really have to be so it means that you have established what your revenue which what your real estate tax levels are going to be for 2526. You've not established you haven't passed a budget. So your expenditures and you know obviously you've you've made a decision with regard to

129local revenue. So your revenue side is covered. Your expenditure side is not. So the millages can no longer be changed. Well, you've adopted them. I mean again that's what I'm saying. We said with everything it could always be changed if someone does a motion to reconsider if they were in the winning side. Um, do you want to just take the rest of the stuff in finance and then come back to the budget? Yes. All right. I'm going to run to the restroom really quick. Real estate tax assessment appeal. The board has asked to approve the tax appeal settlement on parcel 47050056. So moved. Second discussion. That attachment won't come up. Is it coming up there? So, we had no involvement in this decision. I got it. We're moving it. We had no involvement in this

130decision. Decision was to reduce these taxes. What we're doing now? Well, no. The the the motion that was passed the motion that was on the the the agenda was passed five to four by the board. This is the tax appeal. Yes. This is the tax appeal. Is this the one where we lose 18,000 a year? Yes. What did we have to do with that decision? Well, you asked our office to act on the board's behalf. I didn't. Okay. All right. I sure didn't. All right. You Okay. Okay. Um I need a motion. I got a motion and a second. I need a second. You have them both. Discussion. I'm asking to stall until There it goes. There it loads. Okay. cuz like it's not loading. Nothing's loading. But it's the same one. It's the same

131attachment as prior. It's real slow right now. Yeah. All right. To the vote. All those in favor. I roll cover. Roll call. Roll calls. Roll call. Roll call. Vote, please. [Music] It should be this one, right? Yep. We wait for her. There it goes. Any chance it's not going to pass? Then let's wait for her. I think she's coming. She's coming in. bring her up to speed because she's the first up. All right. You are the first person on a roll call vote for what? For H6 real estate tax assessment appeal that we talked about um in executive session. Executive session. Oh. Uh yes. Okay. All right. Roll call. Mrs. Guyer. Yes. Mr. Gravia. Yes. Mrs. Oier. Um I I apologize. It pops in my head real quick. I am going to say yes. But

132did I recall someone saying something about one of the numbers was wrong and it was actually 19. It's 18 18 something something because it it just doesn't reflect 741. It doesn't reflect in this paper in in the memo that's attached as an attachment is does not have the corrected number in it. Okay. So I think it's less so I'm going to ask that we stall the vote until it's corrected. Well, so it doesn't actually impact the assessment. It just impacts the memo that I gave you. The number is $18,741 in reduced taxes each year instead of the $24,273. Right. Okay. So then I'm going to vote no. Okay. Okay. Mr. Olsen? Yes. Mr. Shipley? Yes. Mr. No. Mr. Yutsy. Yes. Dr. Flake, we had nothing to do with this whole process. So, the vote is

133no. We We had nothing to say. This was done to us, not by us, to us. The votes are no. Yes. 6 to three. Budget transfer. Stadium Rock Wall. The board has asked to approve a budgetary transfer from various accounts in the contingency fund in the amount of $78,331.71 cents to capital projects to fund the stadium rock wall. So moved second discussion. I thought you said that we had 1.6 million in our capital and now we're asking to transfer 78,000 more. No, 1.6 million is in our capital fund assigned fund balance. Okay. This is the capital fund, the monies that we borrowed initially to do the uh roof at the high school. Okay. As well as um the turf. Mhm. And then whenever we had some um a change order for that and then we

134took it back out to bid, there were some additional expenditures. So that is actually me taking it from the general fund budget and putting it into the capital fund budget which is separate and distinct from the from the fund balance capital fund. Okay. Okay. Okay. Real since the cap is not done. Does this include the cap? Does that include the cap? The wall was the cap on the wall. Yes. Yes. Re real quick. At the bottom it says record date of official approval and it's June 6th already. Well, that's in the system. I have to go into the system and work on the accounts and get it send it through this. This actually is through Adobe and I did this actually on June 6th. Okay. So, that it just timestamped it then. Yeah, it just

135timestamps it the day that you sign off on it. I have a question. I'm going to read this very carefully. Approve a budgetary transfer from various accounts. What does that mean? Various accounts. Well, if you look at the attachment, Dr. Fe, I don't have them. Does Doesn't she get the attachments when she gets She can answer my question. What are the various accounts? Okay, so they were up there on the screen. Yes. Yeah, they're they're attached. They are for books. They are for general supplies, general supplies, bid items, admin software, books and periodicals, tech fees, principal supplies, nursing supplies. So, you're just taking it from anything at all, just anything you want. These are accounts that still that had money left in them at the end of the fiscal year. We needed those funds to

136pay for the rock wall since the additional um there was an additional RFP that went out. The it was there was a change order that was un unnecessarily and delotteriously voted down by a couple of board members who are to my left and that is caused the district to spend additional funds and that's why Mrs. Mondock had to basically look in the couch cushions to cover the loss that was caused by the absolutely unnecessary voting down of the change order. Why would you? I don't. But that's okay because I voted no as well. Why wouldn't that money be put in the same account for next year that would cut our budget? Are you giving people permission to just take money from anywhere for anything is what I'm saying from various accounts? just various accounts. Well,

137we have to find the money somewhere because it now costs more money than if we would have just accepted the change order. See, we got to find it. That's not how you run a business. That's not how you run a business. Okay, then school us. Tell us how you run a business. What What's What's the alternative? Tell Oh, I had two pages of cuts that would have covered it. Not the rock wall. And it's been four years. You have never given them to us. They covered the money. Okay. I do just want to follow up. Does she receive the attachments when she gets her printed agenda? Yes. So she Okay. Yep. I just wanted to be sure that we were providing all on to the vote. They could just take them from anywhere they want.

138She has that. All those in favor? I opposed. No. Milk and beverage RFQ. The board has asked to award the RFQ for milk and beverages to Turner's Dairy for the 2526 school year with an option for a one-year extension. Have a good night. So moved. Second. Discussion. All those in favor? I opposed. Oh boy. I think we need a cookie break. Hold on. We're going slow. All right. Insurance renewal proposal. The board has asked to approve the insurance renewal proposal from the DeFi gel insurance brokers. So moved. Second. Second. Discussion. All those in favor? I opposed. Do we move on to the next section or do we rec? Well, uh, so, um, if you want to reconsider the budget vote, now would be the opportunity for someone to make a motion to do that. I'd

139like to make a motion. You have to be on the winning side. I mean, under Robert's rules, you're supposed to be under the the the side that prevailed to make a motion to reconsider. Someone could make a motion because it was on the agenda. You could make a motion if you want to modify the existing motion that didn't pass. Someone could make a motion to that effect. But you'd have to figure out how you're going to adjust the budget. Can we just move on? Well, you have to pass a budget. Can't just not have six more days. We're not this date. Pardon me. We're not this date, unfortunately. So, so we don't have another meeting in six days. In the next six days though, uh, more meetings will be more costly. Um, and who attends?

140Probably the same people that attended the original 27 meetings faciciously that we've had. Yeah. The only way you you would be required to advertise it in the newspaper unless you chose a date and time tonight and recessed this meeting until that day and time. So, if five of you say, "All right, we'll do this Friday night at six o'clock," just in by way of example, you could do that and essentially the public who was here tonight would have notice when that meeting was going to be held. I'd advise you to put it on your website, but that would allow you to not have to readvertise because at this point, even if you tried to put an ad in, um, it's not necessarily going to have going to going to run. So, what are the advertising

141requirements? How many days? Well, again, you know, I I I believe that if you recess this meeting to a a definite time and place that you wouldn't have to to run another ad. So we essentially have four business days in which to do this, right? Four weeks, two weekend days. Yes. I don't think we should expect our administrators to have to come in on the weekend. [Music] Somebody here, we we got to do something here. So yeah, I I Anybody have any suggestions? What is the millage rate right now? I just voted in this fiscal year. Right now as we sit here, what is the millage rate for 2425 or 2526? What is the millage rate for 2425? 2425 um FET is 1707 and um West Morland is 95.71. Okay. So, when we pass that

142motion or when it that motion failed, the taxes stay the same. Now, if it doesn't No, you you did pass a motion to address taxes for the taxes are going up. See, Sam said no. He said we we are voted down the budget, but we voted yes for the millage increase. Can I make a Can I make the motion to reconsider that item or does it have to be somebody that was on the the favorable side? Unless you you as a board vote to suspend I mean like it's Robert's rules so it's not law but that's basically the way in which you operate so that you proceed in an orderly fashion. So under Robert's rules you can someone can make a motion to reconsider but it's supposed to be someone who was on the prevailing

143side. So we need Mr. Shipley, Mr. Olsen, Dr. Fle or Mr. Oiper to make a motion to reconsider so that we can have this conversation technically. Yeah. Okay. Would either of the any of the four of you like to make that? I'll make a motion to move on. I'll make the We cannot just move on. Reconsider. Okay. Okay. Thank you. Thank you, Mr. The second could be from anybody. I will second it. Okay. And so if five of you vote yes to reconsider it, it doesn't mean that you're passing the motion. It just means that you're putting it back on the floor to talk about it. Right. So, right now, are we voting to to reconsider Right. Okay. Roll call. Wait, let's be really clear. Yeah. This is just to reconsider. So they just reconsider.

144This is not yes budget, no budget. This is reconsider budget. Okay. Open discussion. Reopen and discussion. And a reopen discussion. Correct. Open discussion. Yep. This is Yes. Putting it back on the discussion. Roll call. Mr. Grabiac. Yes. Mrs. Aar left. Mr. Olsen. Yes. Mr. Shipley. Yes, Mr. No, Mr. Yity. Yes, Dr. Fe. Yes. We're going to open discussion. We're going to open discussion on the budget. Mr. Friend, yes. Mrs. Guyer, yes. Thank you. Okay. Now, where are we in this process? So, we put the motion on the floor. So, the motion's on the floor. Right now, you are back in discussion. The board, we turn back the clock 30 minutes. I'm going to read it again for the public. The board has asked to approve the 2526 final budget with revenues in the amount of

145$ 37,14,530 and expenditures of $37,14,530 which includes a tax increase of 1.99 mills for West Morland County and 6587 mills for Fyet County. So do second discussion. So make this clear what everybody's voting on. We're voting on the passing the budget. Yes. But I also think that we should make it clear that we already passed these mill, right? So taxes are going up. So the millage has already been passed, but we can still vote the budget to be lowered. But the taxes are still going. So then what do we do with the extra money? Because then I just feel like we're just throwing money into savings for which also put it in a fund balance. Well, so I you know I mean if someone wants to make a motion to amend the budget, you you

146obviously can do that from the floor just like any motion can be amended and then five of you would have to agree to amend that motion and if if not then basically the the budget as presented is is back on the floor for a vote. Okay. Didn't we just vote to discuss that? Right now you're in discussion on on the underlying budget. We're back there. And and what did you recommend we do? I I didn't recommend anything. I just said what your options are is you can discuss and then revote on the budget that Mrs. Monot presented or somebody can make a motion to amend. I know you know in in conformity with what Mr. Reciptor is saying that if you want to cut expenditures, you could you can say we only want to and

147I don't know what the the number was for the expenditures. You can say 374. Yeah. 37 106 or or whatever. I mean, you can you can make a motion to amend the the budget as it relates to particular expenditures if that's what someone wants to do. C how do we bring Can I make a motion to bring back the real estate taxation? Not yet because right now you have a motion on the floor to to with regard to the budget and you were not on the prevailing side of that one the table this until we address that. No one. All right. I want to amend I'd like to amend the budget. Can I amend the budget? Anybody can make a motion to amend the budget. Okay. The budget was what? 37 million 104,000. Was it

148$530? 37,14,530. 37 what? 104. That's expenditures. 37104 530. Questions. I'd like to make a motion to adopt the budget to 36.5 billion. Well, I mean, part of the problem is what is your administration going to do with that in terms of where's the where's the spending coming from? Where's the expenditure cuts coming from? So, he has a motion. He needs a second. Correct. And then we can move on. Make the budget 36 36 36 million. 36 and a2. No, 36. Well, I made the motion 36 and a2. So, you you made that motion, right? We need a second. Yeah, we need a second for that. Any second? How many times does he have to call for a second so we can move on? I'm trying to get us out of here before my bedtime. When

149does it fail? Yeah, I guess at this point, if there's no second, then the motion the motion to amend fails for lack of a second. All right. Motion to amend fails. Can we now call this question to order? Yes. Yes. Thank you. Roll call vote, please. What are we voting on? The original budget. the original motion H2 the original budget. Yes, we already did that once. Then there was a motion to reconsider and it failed and we reconsider. It's reconsider. So it's on the floor now. She made a Let's vote. But what about already? Let's go. Yeah. Roll call, please. Mrs. Arer is absent. Mr. Olsen, yes. Mr. Shipley, Mr. No. Mr. Yutsy, yes. Dr. Fe, Dr. Fe, what's your vote? On the budget, Dr. F, you're voting on the same budget that failed. Yes,

150because it was reconsidered. Reconsidered it. No, I don't want to. Let's go. Mr. Friend, yes. Mrs. Guyire, yes. Mr. Graiac, yes. Six to two. Thank you. Okay. Next section is building grounds and security new van adequacy funds. The board has asked to approve the purchase of a used 2022 Chrysler Voyager van through Ranker Motors at a cost of $26,100 paid for using adequacy funds. So do second discussion. I'd like to see an addition to that for an extended warranty on that. I will check into that over. something that definitely needs looked at. Okay. So, do we take this until that's discussed? Uh, is there a way that you can amend to say provided the district is able to obtain an extended warranty? That would be fine. Okay. What What is an acceptable extended warranty in

151your Well, it should at least be 100,000. Most of them are like 200. Okay. And and obviously if you get an extended warranty, there's going to be an additional cost. Do you have it? probably going to be a few thousand dollar but in the long run it's definitely cheaper than save you a lot on that. Oh yeah it's cheaper than a transmission for sure. So why don't why don't you say this Mr. Sipper amend to say um it hinges on the extended warranty well right that um with the the condition that the district obtain an extended warranty that goes to 100,000 miles at a cost not to exceed an additional $3,500. Yeah. 3,800. Be realistic. 3,800. That's like half of what it would cost to fix it. Okay. Why don't we And it covers other

152things, too. Under $30,000. That would be $3,900 on top of that, right? Because there there is problems there with a couple other things with those. No, that's right. 3,900 78. Okay. We clear. All right. All right. So, uh, so the I would say you'd vote on Mr. Unless the amendment that Mr. precipiter made is friendly and you guys all accept it. Then we don't have to separately vote on that. I accept it. You on the friendly amendment? Yep. Friendly amendment. A that's my favorite kind of amendment to make. I know it's nice to end on a friendly amendment, isn't it? That's my favorite amendment. It's all my Anybody oppose the friendly amendment? All right. Um, so now, uh, voting on the amended motion, the board has asked to approve the purchase of a used 2022

153Chrysler Voyager van through Ranker Motors, um, with at least a 100,000 mile warranty and not to exceed 3,800, right? $3,800 additional cost for the extended warranty. For the extended warranty. Yeah, because it has 16,000 miles on it now. So, yes. Um, all those in favor? I I opposed. Next section is athletics and activities. Uh, wrestling mat. The board has asked to approve the purchase of a new wrestling mat for the wrestling room at a net cost to the district of 11,35243 which is onethird of the total cost $34,57.30 being split between South Morland Wrestling Parent Association and South Morland Junior Wrestling Association. So do second discussion. Have both associations voted on this already? Okay, thank you. All those in favor? Opposed? I just want to say that you all had to sit through a lot

154of stuff for that. I feel like we should have put that at the beginning of the agenda for them. We made four people. My apologies. Hey. All right. Agreed. We we we have citizen comments coming up or you can address us after the meeting. There's like one more thing. It won't be hours more. We promise. Okay. Last section is closing exercises. Citizens comments. If you want to do it publicly, ask your question, you may now. Or if you want to wait till after the meeting, that's also fine. Can you come up to the microphone though so that the people at the people at the ladies and gentlemen at home can hear you and please state your name? Where's she at? I'm Jessica Shannon, president of the middle school high school um organization. So, with this

155being said, with the purchase of the mat, I need a PO from the school and also your tax ID number. When is that going to get submitted? Because this mat takes 8 months to per or to make. Holy cow. My understanding is that um this is going to be the purchase order is going to be cut the beginning of July for the next fiscal year. So in a few days because we have a budget. We can do that. And and yes, by all means, we're we're going because I've already talked with Mr. Pritz and and Miss Spear about it. Um we're going to also send in our sales tax exemption because we're going to buy it and then what will happen is once we get it, we'll invoice both of you folks. Okay? And I

156do I'm 90% sure we do not need to buy it until it is actually in our hands. But I will double check with Resolite. Okay. Okay. Thank you. Hi. Um Banana 608 South Broadway Street, Scottdale. I uh made an assumption earlier uh when I asked about asked for a clarification on the tax assessment appeal. I made an assumption that that would be that the effective date would be January 1st of 2026. However, I do know there are some appeals that are retroactive. Is this effective in 2026 or is it retroactive? And what is that effective date? 2025. So it's okay. Thank you. Of course. All right. Thank you. Any other citizens comments? Mr. Solicitor. Is it necessary that I sit and listen to this? I I'm not keeping you prisoner. Thank you. I've been here

157last 11 months. 12 months. It gets old after a while. hostages. Same stuff. Um, citizens comments. See, Rich is where we are. Since the taxpayers are paying the bill, I think they need to know what they're paying for. The figures that I'm going to give you do not include the individual contracts for the superintendent and the business manager. They are extra. This year, the assistant superintendent got a $9,250 raise and will earn $130,000. The high school principal got a $9,131 raise and will earn $17,000. The assistant high school principal got somewhere like 3,700 and will earn 90 $90,580. The middle school principal got a $7,960 raise and will make $106,000. The elementary principal got $2,991 and will make $122,644. The elementary the primary center principal got a raise of $1,021 and will make $102,163. The

158maintenance individual got a raise of $18,740 and will earn $85,000. And as close as I can come, the school psychologist got a $5,000 raise. We couldn't figure out those things making $80,000. These figures apply to eight people. Eight people. And they they will cost with benefits somewhere around 1.2 2 to 1.3 million somewhere in that category when you if the raises were like $54,000 remember we have to pay is it 34% Mrs. Mondoc just for re uh retirement just for retirement so when the salary goes up we pay more so I want the taxpayers to know that that tonight um Mr. Shipley Mrs. Skyer Mr. Greyak Mrs. Friend Mr. Friend and Mrs. Mr. Yuthi voted for approximately a $1.2 million cost for eight people for one year. I think there's 11 people. I just counted

159them. Didn't I said I did not count the federal funds. I did not count. We do not have a director of technology. He's gone. And we and I do not know what the salary was for the um security. I've said that. Thank you. This is just technique. Thank you. All right. I need a motion to adjurnn. Me. Amen. A second. Maybe. All those in favor? I opposed. Meeting adjourned. Thank you. I refuse to come to any further meetings without cookies. I bought a whole Big Daddy and I