Southmoreland School Board Meeting 4/15/2025

001I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for which it stands. One nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. Roll call. Mr. Reciptor here, Mr. Yutsy here, Dr. F here, Mr. Friend here, Mrs. Guyer here, Mr. Graia here, Mrs. Aer here, Mr. Olsen here, and Mr. Shipley is absent. Uh, Mr. Shipley did let us know that he would not be able to make it tonight. Um, I just want the public to know we entered into executive session uh prior to this meeting for personnel citizens comments. Uh, agenda items only. We have uh Melissa Moore. Hello. Um Melissa Moore, 147 Bradock Road Avenue, Mount Pleasant, Pennsylvania, East Huntington Township. Um my question today is on the building and grounds, the stadium stonewall repair job. Um

002originally back in January you approved um a 778,000 um bid on that and that's what's being completed now. I couldn't see how many bids we actually got. But my concern about this change order is did the um contractor ever question the integrity of the stone? I mean was it ever brought to your attention that this might actually be a possibility? Um, if you don't approve this change order for $44,000, what happens? Um, did you ever get the price of a brand new wall? Because now you're looking at $120,000 on a refurbished used wall. So, sorry, getting over cold. Um, so what happens in 5 10 years when this needs replaced? Cuz originally it looks like you were just repointing it. Um the change order was dated for 48. So has anybody went out and asked

003anybody for a second opinion because you've had ample time to get it. Um and if you haven't, then maybe you should table it and get another opinion. Look at other options. I mean, you're already into it. You can't just keep going into projects agreeing on a number and then it changing down the road because now we went from 80 to 120. That's a lot of money. Where's that coming from? It's not fair to everybody that's paying the taxpayers. You just agreed on a $13 million renovation. There's also other things that you talked about. Um the drainage from the hill was free to dig it, but you failed to tell everybody how much it's going to cost you to actually do the drainage around the around the school. So, I mean, we need all of our

004ducks in a row before we bid or agree to bids. This is why I say you need to question. You need to discuss because you can't just say yes and then oh wait we got to add $40,000. Where's it coming from? It's not fair. It's not fair to you. You're not educated. You're not being educated enough on what you're voting for. So seriously think about it and maybe go find somebody that knows. If you don't know, that's okay. But don't be afraid to ask for help. Thank you. Next section is reports, superintendence information. Yeah. The only um information I have for this meeting, I would like to share the end of the year activities that we've shared with the board the past couple years I've been here. uh you're looking right now midappril through the

005end of May between all four all four buildings there's probably something happening each and every day. Um so I invite anybody in the community to to come out at any one of these events. Um anybody from the board if you like to see what our kids are doing please I invite you out please come and see the good things that are happening in our schools. Um, one thing I wanted to highlight, for the first time ever, uh, during our senior week towards the end of the school year, our seniors will be participating in what we're calling the senior day of caring, uh, which is just our way of giving back to the community. Um, I know Miss Cobbank sent out letters this past week to businesses and organizations around uh anywhere around the South War

006community that needed um some extra hands, some extra help to get things done, um clean up, washing, stuff like that, landscaping. Uh we've already had a couple businesses reach out and say that they will be more than happy to take some groups of our kids. Uh, and to me it's uh it's a fun day to see um what our kids can do and it kind of shows how we serve our community and gets that uh feeling of volunteer um into the hearts of our kids. So once again excited for that one and hope to see you at some of these activities. Thank you. What's fifth grade cleanup day? Are they doing it's Earth Day activ? Yeah, typically fifth grade cleanup day is always Earth Day related either around the school or down towards the park.

007Nice. Solicitor's information. I have no information tonight, Mr. President. Thank you. Uh business manager, transportation director information. Thank you, Mr. Friend. Um obviously, we have the normal reports that we have that I supply each month. The um cyber charter, as you can see, we are at in February 92.8% of our spend for this fiscal year. Um, we'll get into talking about um advocating for change for cyber charter um when we get into the budget presentation, but I wanted to make that bring that to your attention. Uh, the building statements for the activity funds. That's something typically that you see. Um, and I do have and I'm going to turn over the floor right now to Mr. from Mark Turnley who is from our auditing um from our auditor auditors and um he'll be giving a

008high high level report of the audit and then whenever we're done with that I'll go on to the April um 2025 budget presentation. It is a culmination of both March and April's finance committee meetings. Uh we wanted to add put them both together in the essence of time. Okay, Mr. Turnley, I had a question for transportation. She just turned it over to the guy that did the audit. We're going to let him speak, then we'll have time for that. Thank you. Certainly. Thank you. Thank you, board members, for having me here this evening. Um, as I do annually, um, I'd like to go over the results of the most recent audit in this particular case, the 2324 fiscal year. Uh, I've put in front of you this evening a actual thick copy of the the

009audit report itself, but inside it there's a a doc right inside is a document dated for this evening. You know, you have the right document about halfway down it says general fund balance analysis and and that's the document that I'm going to ask you to follow along with me uh during my presentation. A couple quick comments about the thick audit report before I get into the synopsis. Um, two things. uh most important is our independent auditor's opinion. What we've issued this year is what we've issued in the past is what's known as an unmodified opinion. In the old days, they used to call it a clean opinion and basically what that means is that the information in the body of the audit report is presented in conformity with the rules and regulations of our industry

010and there are no departures from that. So, as I tell the board annually, that's a good thing. That's the type of report you want to send to PTE or any third party requesting a copy of your audit report. In addition to a financial audit annually, because of the amount of federal funds that the district receives and expends on an annual basis, we have to do a compliance audit. So each year we'll partic uh pick a particular federal program and to determine its compliance with those regulations. And this year we chose the National School Lunch Program and the summer food service program. in the back of the audit report is dedicated to the results of that. But in a nutshell, uh when you look at that section of the audit report, you will see that there

011are no findings of non-compliance or other material irregularities that are reported in the audit report. And again, that's what you want PTE to see when a copy of the audit report is distributed to them. So the two important facts about the thick audit report itself. Now moving to the synopsis. Uh the bulk of my presentation will be dealing with the general fund and we'll talk briefly about a couple other um financial issues. On the first page uh of the synopsis is a 5-year history of the district's general fund total fund balance. And I say total because in a in a few seconds here we're going to be talking about the breakdown of the fund balance. But as you can see and when you look at the bottom line for the 2324 year the district ended

012with a fund balance of 5,464,000 up about 893 894,000 from the prior fiscal year almost 20%. Now taking a look at the breakdown what that fund balance is comprised of. If you turn to the top of page two there's an important part of it known as the unassigned. And just by that very name, what that means is this portion of the overall total fund balance on page one is not earmarked for any particular purpose, but can be used to fund school district operations going into the future uh fiscal periods. So here's a five-year look at what that unassigned fund balance is. The reason this is important, it's important to PTE because PTE looks at this unassigned portion of fund balance. what is it as a percentage of the current year budget you're in? So, I

013do the math for the board members on the first paragraph underneath. And as of June 30th, 2024, your unassigned fund balance is approximately 10.4% of your budget for the current fiscal year. And it falls a little bit above the district's fund balance pal uh policy, which is not a bad thing. Um, there's a section in the in the PA school code that says that in order for a district, if it ever had to raise its millillage above and beyond the annual index that PTE gives all school districts, you have to pass a budget whereby this unassigned portion is at or below 8% of your budget. So, currently you're a little bit over. If you ever needed to do that, what you would do is anything above 8% you'd push into an assigned or a committed

014category uh to get you under that 8% threshold. But right now, just a little over their threshold. When you turn to the top of page three, the other major component of that total fund balance is you are assigned what the board members and the business office has assigned for particular uh projects. And if you look at the last five fiscal years, most importantly the last fiscal year, the 23 24 year, you can see that that assigned amount is a,768,000. And then as you read left to right, you can see what it is assigned for capital improvements, cyber school tuition increases, and tax appeal refunds and in what amount. And most of the increase in the fund balance this year was uh moved into the assigned category for capital improvements. Now, this is just monies assigned

015for capital improvements that are in your general fund. You also have a little over $800,000 at least at 63024 you did in a separate capital project fund for capital improvements as well. Staying with the general fund, the the table at the bottom of page three is a five-year history of the general fund revenues. You can see this year the increase uh a,335,000 almost 4% and I just note for the board underneath this for the most current year what the two main areas were that increased from last fiscal year. Basically real estate taxes and interest earnings uh increased about 610,000 and your basic subsidy increased about 500,000. Those were the two main areas of revenue increases last fiscal year to this fiscal year. On the top of page four, staying with the general fund expenditures, again,

016a five-year history. And if you look at this year at the bottom, 35,525,000. That's about a $980,000 increase from last year, about 2.8%. The main area that increased were your overall instructional cost, which increased about $941,000. That was the bulk of that $280,000 increase. Also to take a look at how the board with management's assistance did budget versus actual at the bottom of page four. Uh first bullet point deals with revenues. Actual revenues exceeded budgeted revenues by about 561,000. That's the side of the equation you want to be on where your actual revenues exceed your budget. So there are four main functional areas of revenues. Local source which are mainly your taxes and interest earnings, state and federal or your subsidies and grants and then some other uh financing sources. And I just show you

017on those bullet points where you were over and under in each of those categories. The second bullet point expenditures. How did we do? General fund budgeted budgeted expenditures exceeded actual by 332,000. So again, that's the side of the equation you want to be on. You were under budget and you were within 1% of your budget. So in my opinion, for South Morland, that was a prudent management uh of handling your finances, budget versus actual for the 23 24 fiscal year to be that close on $35 million uh budget. Uh again, as I like to say, that's a good thing. And below that, four main functional areas of expenditures. How did we do? Regular program, student transportation, central services, and budgetary reserve over or under budget for the 2324 year. Now, when you did your budget,

018you did a balanced budget. You planned not to use any of your June 30th, 2023 reserves to balance your 2324 budget. So, you plan to basically break even. But in actuality, your actual results were better than projected as your revenues exceeded expenditures as we talked about on page one by 893,000 which of course increased your fund balance moving forward. So uh the the district again to be commended in that area. I was talking budget verse actual but in in the thick audit report when you get a chance I'm I'm talking more on a summary level but there are schedules about twothirds of the way through the audit report schedule one dedicated for revenues and schedule two for expenditures where you can see a more detailed line item by line item breakdown actual versus budgets in

019both areas revenues and expenditures. So I just wanted to point that out to the board. there is such uh such a section in the audit report for your review uh if you want to see what the detail was in those categories. Uh page five u two other areas just to discuss uh in addition to having the general fund and the capital project fund that I talked about. Um, you're required to, every school district is required to present within its audit report what I call almost a corporate balance sheet, a consolidated balance sheet, where you add in not only the short-term assets that we've been talking about, your general fund. How did we do this year in a 5-year look back, but you also have to add in your long-term assets, your buildings, equipment, things of

020that nature, and you have to add in your long-term liabilities. And when you do that corporate balance sheet, which you're required to do that first line, you see net position governmental, you see a deficit balance of almost 14 million. Well, Mark, when you began the presentation, you told us we had over 5 million in fund balance. And now when we do the corporate look, we have this deficit balance. Well, those of you that have been on the board for a while, you remember me saying, and I'll tell the new board members as well, the reason this occurs is because one of the liabilities that you have to show on this corporate balance sheet is the district's proportionate share of the pension liability held with pasers. And when you look at the first bullet point under

021this table, you can see item number one, the net pension liability of the district is approximately 40 million as of June 30th, 2024. Now again, that's a paper entry. That's an actuarily calculated uh dollar amount. But when I began my presentation and said you had a clean opinion, an unmodified opinion, you have to show in this corporate balance sheet this type of liability. And you can see how quickly that would show you take you from a plus fund balance that we talked about to this negative. But fortunately that's a paper entry. You don't have to pay peasers tomorrow morning $40 million. It's an actuarial calculation that must be included in the report. But I just wanted you to know that in case you came across a page and saw that negative and was wondering what

022caused that. A much smaller fund at the district that we talk about in the table on the top of page five, but important is the food service operations. And the second line under that you see a line that says change in net position. Just a fancy way of saying did we have a profit or loss for the year. And if you look at the 23 24 year you see that we are at 202,000 as compared to 235 last year. Fairly consistent. You can see the three lines underneath that tell you the story how your operating revenues were expenses and the amount of federal and state subsidies. And those really drive whether you have that profit or loss annually. So again, something that the district uh uh funds and operates the food service fund. Important, but

023obviously not the size of the general fund that we've been talking about. And then lastly on page uh six uh standard comments that I give almost all of my school districts, segregation of duties. you know, your your business office and your tax collectors, they don't have the luxury sometimes of having the size of the office staff that a that a regular corporation may have in accounts payable and payroll. So, um it it's always prudent to on an annual basis take a look at who's doing what duties in both of those positions and if there's if there's any way that they be segregated to protect the assets of the district as best as possible, uh it should be done. But again, it it's more of a professional courtesy comment to the board and to all my

024boards. Same type comment annually. I think everyone those are the highlights of the report. We talked about the opinion and how you did on the compliance and then give you some history on the general fund this year with a look back for five years not only for the general fund, the food service fund and some other matters. But if anyone has any particular detailed comments at this point, I'll be more than happy to answer them if I can. I have a quick question on page two for the unassigned. So per school code, it basically says don't go above 8% or you can't raise taxes above the index. Right? So we're at 10% but then the government finance officers association says two times or two months general fund expenditures which is 16%. Do you find schools

025lean more towards the 16% in that two two times or No. And and I and that's a good question. And I tell my school districts all the time, the one big thing that even though the GFOA is kind of one of those uh uh um a standard setting uh organizations that say this is what you should look toward toward an unassigned fund balance. They don't factor in the PTE threshold, that mandate of 8%. So they're looking at it from a different perspective. So, uh, I look at it is let's take a look at this toward your total fund balance. And when you look at this calculation I did, 5.9, your total fund balance on page one is about 5.5. That's probably more what they'd be comparing it to. So, you're slightly under their target goal.

026It doesn't mean you have to be at, but I can tell you for sure most of my school districts what they do uh and and South Morland has done this in the past as well. They'll take it to the 8% to be in compliance with section 688 just in case they needed to raise taxes and everything above that they'll throw into an assigned category and they really don't worry about what the GFOA is saying. They say, "Thank you. That's it's good. That's something nice to know what the target goal is, but we have that mandate that we have to stay within. Okay. Thank you. You're welcome. I do have a question. Um on the fourth page under general fund budgeted expenditures um were student transportation services were overbudgeted by 350,000. Is that maybe due to

027fuel cost or is that just we're running too many buses? ammo. Basically, um, what has been happening is we have to continually add vans during the year for whether it be homeless individuals. You know, obviously that's something that um you know, there are a lot of kids. There are some kids in Mount Pleasant. There are some kids in Connisville. There are some kids in Greensburg that we have to service and all and obviously um kiddos that go to um special placements that um you know cuz I as I was telling you guys in the um budget presentation both in I believe in March and April, we had to add seven seven additional vans this year. So when you're looking at about $50,000 per van, that makes a difference. that we're buying the van or No,

028no, no, no, no, no. We're The cost for um a van typically for the year is around $50,000. You mean through question to operate through? Not not to purchase. Not to purchase. And that includes driver. I mean, pardon me. That that amount includes a driver then. Correct. Yes. It sounds like we can afford our a couple of our own vans instead of, you know, I mean, 50,000 a pop. Well, and we did have them in the past. We used to have a van that took care of kiddos whenever they were sick or they missed their buses or what have you. Um, a few years ago, the board opted to get rid of that position in that van. Um, you know, obviously if directed by the board to look at at another option, we certainly will

029do so. Okay. Thank you for the explanation. Thanks, Pam. I have some questions. I ask them. Yeah, of course. Mr. Turney, I have in front of me six documents. Three of them have your name on and three don't. What about this supplementary ed? And is that from you? Yes, that would be the page that goes in front of those schedules one and two that I was referring to. Budget first actual. The second one is titled financial statements. Is that from you? That's the first page of the audit report, thick audit report. This is required supplementary information. Is that from you? Yes. Okay. So, all these six documents are from you. Is hers not bound together like into the booklet? um she loose she gets um because she doesn't look at the the uh board docs

030online and because I had posted the audit reports on board docs she also got paper copies before the rest of you got your actual bound copies of your audit report. Okay. So on the one called supplementary information and I try to go through these things as best I can. It it looks to me like we have surplus revenues at the end of certainly 2024. Is that true? Uh are do you mean over budget? It says it says surplus $332,592. You have to you have to go through here and you have to take all the deficits and all the positives, all the positives and all the negatives and and you end up with that. But well, the actual the actual revenues that exceeded expenditures for the current year was on page one of the of the

031presentation that I just did for this evening. And that was 893,000. That's what's left over. That yes, that pushes into the 2425 fiscal year. What page is that on of the synopsis that we went over this evening? It's on the first page at the bottom. The bottom line in the column is how the district did. Okay, that's the fund balance. But what about revenues? Revenues on that in that same document on page three that we talked about. U bottom line in that table for the 2324 year. You can see that the revenues, not talking about expenditures now, just the revenues increased a,35,759 from past fiscal year. Okay. And that was more than we needed to spend, right? What? See, I have trouble. The expenditures are on one place and the revenues are another. And I

032have trouble because I can't put them side by side. Uh they're two separate charts. And so it's real hard to look from one page to the next to see how was this revenue, how was this expense. Um they're not on the same page. Or are they? Am I missing it? are no on page four of that and once again this is simply a synopsis. This is taken from that's the expenditures right this is taken from the audit reports over the last five fiscal years um once again for the sake of the board and and brevity um we we do we present it this way for for this evening's presentation but you can see for the in expenditures on page four 23 24 year now they increased approximately 980,000 over last year's so once again a

033fiveyear history with how you did this most recent year at the bottom But the increase was 1,335,759. Is that right? That is revenues. That was revenues. So the revenue exceeded the expenses. No. No. The revenues exceeded last year's revenues total by a,35. That table on page three just gives you five years and how much it increased each fiscal year. And if if you look at the prior fiscal year in that table, you could see that it increased a,649 over the prior fiscal year and so forth and so on all the way down that table. And it works the same way on page four for the expenditures. Okay. Okay. So it says that the revenue increased at the end of 2324 by 3.8%. Right. Yes. But the expenditures only increased by 2.8%. Right. That's correct. So

034we had an excess of revenue over expenses. That's correct. Okay. Okay. So if you we keep doing that and we keep raising taxes and Mr. Turner, I've been on his board forever and I know that this is not the first time you've talked about the percent that was in the fund balance. Yes. Over the years, this has come up repeatedly. Am I right? Yes. And the answer's been, well, let's hide it. let's take it out of that that fund balance and let's put it on in a signed fund assigned fund balance and then we look better. And to me that's just a way of hiding money taking it from an actual over amount and hiding that over amount and putting it somewhere else. That's the right word. I think it's reassigning. Well, yeah, it's been

035reassigned many times, Stephanie. Many times it's been reassigned. We keep doing this. We keep doing this. We keep doing this. And and I was interested in Mr. Y's question too because there seems to be a contradiction between what they're telling us we're supposed to have and what then they tell us what we can't have. And if you look at at the amount of money in our fund balance, it wouldn't cover our expenses for more than what a month, 6 weeks, 3 million. If we have a $37 million budget and you have a $3 million fund balance that's unassigned, isn't that a 10? Is that a few percent? I mean, it doesn't add up to what they're saying you're supposed to have cuz I even read somewhere, John, where I think it said have four months

036or something like that or five months. And the reason was, Pam, they said if the the state doesn't pass the budget, right, you don't have that money coming in. So, you got to have that cash on hand. Well, then they're telling us no, you can't have that cash on hand, right? You know, and and it makes me crazy. But what I'm seeing is a pattern of excess more revenue than than our expenses, but yet we're raising taxes. We've had eight straight years of tax increases and there will be another one this year. And that that bothers me that that's how that's what I'm seeing in these six documents that I have here. Are you a fortune teller that we're going to be raising taxes this year? I don't know what you said. Are you a

037fortune teller that we're going to be raising taxes this year? No, I went to the last budget meeting when it was told when we were told that. Well, we have to vote on that. I was told that at the last public budget meeting. I'm not making it up. I'm not a fortune. I'm not saying that you're making it up. I'm just explaining to you that we come up with a vote on that better than that. Stephan Okay. Yeah. She'll come up with something better than that. I'm not She call She call me Michelle. I'm quoting the information from the budget meeting. No. Dang it. Call me. I know. Shucks. Anyways, uh any other questions? Katherine, do you have any other questions? Katherine, do you have any other questions? No, I do not. I I wouldn't

038dare. I'm not a fortune teller. I'm not a fortune teller, so I better not dare. Any other questions for Mr. Turnley? No. Thank you. Thank you, Mr. Turnley. Thank you, everyone. Good job, Pam. He threw in a little kudos to you there with that within 1% budgeting. So, that's pretty good. Yes. Good job, Pam. Okay, pull up the All right, now we're going to do um we had two budget finance committee meetings um one in March, one in April since the last board meeting. Uh what we did here this evening was we combined both of those together um for the essence of time. So, um, this evening we're going to look at trend reports, changes from the last board presentation, expenditures, revenues, what's in the budget, some of the governor's proposed budget, multi-county rebalancing effect,

039possible millage scenarios, discussion on cyber charter reform, the um efforts and need for advocacy. I'm going to please once again stress to our folks that are here and that are listening this evening, please advocate. We def des desperately need not only in South Morland but all schools in the state of Pennsylvania desperately need cyber charter reform. Um unknowns and next steps. Okay. So we're looking at a 5-year expenditure analysis. Um, as you can see, um, the from the March to the April board meeting, there was a little bit of a bump up in the expenses, projected expenses. From last year's expenditures to this year's, there's an increase of 1.4, well, almost 1.499 million. the expenditure analysis. Um if you look at that first of all the consumer price index yearly increases um when Dr. Boon

040and myself got here around the 2122 fiscal year as you can see the the um black line started to go below the red line which was the adjusted CPI. If you look at the 2526 um on the CPI chart, we are lower than what the CPI would be by 1,387,000 items currently in the budget right now. Um before you guys vote this evening on the emotional supports, we have the same staffing as the 2425 school year. We have, excuse me, $150,000 for curriculum resources, $109,000 for technology refresh one:1 devices, 10% increase for medical benefits. I should be getting the the final voted on um rates on the 17th. um approximately $500,000 increase in salaries due to and then I put some additional amounts in because we're negotiating with three employee groups. 5% increase initially at

041the CWCTC expenses. I can tell you since the beginning of the budget once we met with CWCTC I also added an additional $42,000 to CDC um budget expenses. Um, we need an additional maintenance truck from our 2010 fleet. We were able to replace one this fiscal year, but obviously we still have two 2010 trucks that are on their last leg. So, uh, we have one in in the budget. Pasers increased from 33.9% this fiscal year to 34% for the 2526 fiscal year, which is an additional 237,000. The additional debt service um that we have projected is 635,000. I did re reduce some expenditures in electricity and natural gas by 131,000 due to the Giza project that we have u starting at the end of this fiscal year and all but two department building department level

042budgets were heard were held flat for the fourth year in a row and with um with inflation and tariffs I'm not so sure I'm going to be able to do that next year. Okay, Commonwealth budget proposal highlights. I wanted to provide some of those in for information for you. Um, right now what is proposed is $526 million through bipartisan adequacy formula which goes into our ready tolearn funds, $75 million increase of basic education funding, $40 million increase in special education funding, 111 million for student mental health and school and safety grants. And the state is is um going to continue universal free free breakfast regardless of incomes which I think is a very valuable um thing to keep our kiddos fed. Preliminary expenditures from previous presentations as we can see 66.2% of expenditures are for

043salaries and wage of employees. Um as you can see um the majority of the other items the only thing that um is a little bit higher is other purchase services which is 15% other than that everything else except for expenditures the salaries and wages is less than more than 10 5-year state revenue analysis um for the PDF BEF sub BEF subsidy which is basically Ed, there's an additional $68,376 in um 2526 from 2425 for um special ed, there is an additional $75,922. Um, one thing that I may say to you as well, whenever we're um, lobbying our legislators for cyber charter, we also want to start le uh lobbying them for some special ed relief as well. I looked at some information from the CDC today. Um, in in 2022 in 8-year-olds, one of 31

044kiddos was diagnosed um with autism spectrum disorder. That's up from 1 in 35 in 2020. So, obviously, this is something that is continuing to increase. Um and ready tolearn block grant. We have an additional $536,71 in that from one year from 2425 to 2526 in the budget. And as you can see, this basically tells us what we just discussed. Um, basic ed was was up less than 1%. Special education funding was increased by 4.53 and the ready tolearn was 150.41%. So, as you can see, um, our proposed revenues, we are heavily funded by the state, which as Dr. Fe mentioned earlier, if the if they don't if the state does not pass their budget timely, that can very negatively influence the district, not only us, but a lot of other districts in the state of

045Pennsylvania. Our local effort, which is our local revenues, is 42.9% and federal revenues took a dip to 2.1%. And the rate reason that has decreased over since the prior year was because we are we are now no longer receiving esser funding for co. So let's take a deeper look between 24 and 25. Um the expenditure difference from 25 26 to from 24 25 is 1.4 million well almost $1.5 million. Um the majority of that is the 635 for the additional debt service that we have as well as the additional $500,000 that we're looking at for um additional salaries. Uh the revenues uh we have an additional 964,000. Um what's the change in revenues? uh the majority of the states comes from adequacy funding and the increase for federal resources become comes from access. Um I

046can tell you that we since we have brought on board a few years ago an access secretary. She has really done an amazing job for our district going out there and fighting for every dollar that that we that we can get through access. We continue to increase that. Um, as you can see, change in expenditures, $121 million, $1,ion21,000, if I could spit that out right, we have the factory upgrades and maintenance, the CWCTC cost, the IU cost, and the credit for the other costs is mostly uh reflective of the utilities for the gas and electric with the Giza project. multi-county rebalancing. That's uh where we get um with that's where we look for the state equalization board. Whenever I plug in the um newly assessed values from from um from Faget County as well as

047West Morland County, that automatically creates our rebalancing effect. Um we just wanted to remind you of what multicounty rebalancing is. It calculates different tax rates based on the share of debt market value in each economy or in each county, sorry. Um, the state equalization board was established by the general assembly in 1947 to compensate for the lack of assessment uniformity in statewide distributing school subsidies. And the reason for that is when you look at a multi-county district, especially when you have one district that was assessed way back in the 70s and one that was I think they were um assessed either in the 1990s or the 2000s, there is obviously a large disparity whenever you looked at your your assessments for your uh property valuations. So whenever I plugged in the amounts into the state

048website into the PTE's website this year and look to see where we were what happened with the rebalancing this year um West Morland County was not affected. They remain they remained constant at 95.71 which was our starting value for them. The starting valuation for Fyet County however went up to 17.181813 which is 65.65%. So obviously before we touched anything or did anything at all as far as millage rates goes the state due to rebalancing increased FE counties taxes. Okay ma'am I have a question. Um, okay. Go ahead. Finish and then I'll ask. Okay. You want me to I can go ahead and continue on. And if you're almost done with this. Yes. Yes, I am. So, um, what we wanted to do was we wanted to look to see if we increased meals if um

049or if we increased it to the index, which is 3.4%. According to the state, the highest that we can increase West Morland County's taxes is 3.4%. to remain with the index stipulated in acts one act one. Um if you looked at the average um the median valuation given to me from this from the county of West Morland we would have with zero mills we would have a deficit of $527,000. If we raise taxes by 1.5 mills, we would have a deficit of $323,49052 and it would cost the median taxpayer $147 per month. If we move to 2.5 mills, it would increase the median the median tax assessed taxpayer $2.45 per month. it would give us a projected deficit of 188,000. And if we move and if we increase taxes to 3.4% it would be an

050additional $3.39 per month with a deficit of 58,470 $74252. So let's look at our unknowns. We have contract agreements that are being negotiated. Cyber charter funding reform. If we get this, and this is why we've been, this is our second year asking you to please advocate. Please advocate. This could save the district $557,000. And if you look back to our um amount of increase in meals, the zero amount that's less the 557,000 is less than our project is more than our projected deficit that we could save. Um we are we are looking at an emotional support classroom. Um basically at SES and SMS for next year for the ages um grades 2 through 8. We um have projected that we could save $17,000 for that um continued adequacy funding related to the commission's work. This

051could add up to $536,000 for our district. medical insurance rates won't be in won't be formally uh released until the 17th of this month. Giza's savings update uh we're going to be looking at that as well. And then our homestead farmstead aotments which don't come out to sometime in May, shortly after May 1st they come out. So we'll be looking for that. So these are our next steps. Obviously, we want you to advocate for cyber charter funding advoc adequacy investment amounts and I'm going to add I'm going to add in my special wish wish list of because I was looking at some data today of special education as well. Um, we're going to determine the med medical benefits rates and the contributions of our employees. will determine increases due to ongoing collective bargaining. Um that's

052going to begin actually tomorrow with one of the groups. Um determine the home homestead farmstead exemption that's going to be um from the 1st of May to the middle of May. Federal funding uh allotments title one through four. additional capital improvements and some possible cuts. Um, we're going to have committee meetings and monthly board presentations. The final pro proposed budget will be May 22nd and the budget adoption will be June 24th. Okay. Dr. Fe, you said you had some questions. In the past, we had revenue excess, but this year it's different, right? Because you have a budget of $37,50,9219, but the revenue is 36,523. So our our expenses are significantly higher than the amount of money we have coming in. Correct. So the deficit is about a half a million dollars, 534,000. If correct, if

053not if there are no increases to taxes, that is indeed correct. Yeah. Okay. Did you say that the 3.46 46 mill increase was the maximum increase that South Morland could put on its taxpayers under if you if you remember at the um finance committee meeting I showed you guys all the um paperwork from the CFRS um website on the PTE website and it basically showed where we were at 3.46 46. We were within the index. Anything above that for West Morland count, West Morland County, we went above. Pam, it says here, uh, you talked about possible cuts. Can you tell me what cuts or what possible cuts have been considered? Well, there are all of it. We're always looking for opportunities. That's one of the things that we did with the emotional support classrooms. Well,

054that didn't exist yet. we've cut something that didn't exist. But I'm talking about what is existing in our present budget that is called a possible cut. Well, if we if we are allowed to bring the emotional support classroom into our district, we will be able to cut two vans. So, that'll be 100 thou two vans that we're paying currently our our transportation department for. Mhm. So, that would be a savings of roughly right there $100,000. And one of the questions I had about that is there a guarantee then that every student who will be enrolled in that program will be riding public buses the school buses the regular school buses. I I don't know that you can I mean you can't guarantee that. You don't that's correct. Yeah. You don't know. No you can't say

055that those vans will be cut. Not all of them. No. Because for many of those children special transportation is included in their IEP. In their IEPs. That is indeed correct. Yes. What what other cuts can we look at? However, if if we do bring that program inhouse, we are transporting kids to our own buildings and not out of the district, which cuts the costs and the mileage of those um transportation routes. Well, that cuts the cost on a on a program that we don't have already. I'm talking about the existing program, the one we have today in the South Morning School District. What are the potential cuts? I think we it's never been discussed in my see exactly what our revenues are and we have a clear picture of that first. We're still not there

056yet. Are you going to raise taxes before you know what the revenue is? I'm sorry. There's still a lot there's still a lot of things that need to be determined between now and the third week of May. Well, the the next public budget next public meeting we have like this is a pre preliminary budget. Correct. And we have to have a pretty good idea what that is. And there's still a lot of things that need to happen between now and then. And in the past, you've dealt with that before where you didn't have a budget until September from the state. Okay. Correct. But what I'm saying is I I have a question. Are we going to raise taxes before we even know what our revenue is because this will be the eighth straight year in

057a row? Well, that will be um up to the board whether or not the board wants to do that. Um, I can tell you this. Um, I am going to a meeting on the 22nd of this month that will hopefully give me some additional in insight into what the state is looking to do. And um, unfortunately, the state typically drags their feet and does not pass their budget before we are forced to pass ours. Ben, we had a million dollar excess revenue last year. Well, no, we didn't have a million dollars. We had 983 514. Well, we had 500 We had 560,922 additional revenues that weren't budgeted. And we had um excess expenditures of 332,592. So that's where the $89393,000,000. Okay. So it both it was both revenues that you know obviously we weren't counting

058on and um basically by watching our our expenditures. It's kind of a broken system that we have to approve our budget before we get the budget from the state that that we don't know a definite number before it seems backwards that it's very backwards. I don't they should have to do theirs first. Agreed. I couldn't agree more. Why it's called the Commonwealth. I know. I think the state's wealthy. We are not. I think if you would ask any one of our administrators that are sitting here tonight how many emails they've received from us saying you need to stop spending right now and by now I mean like yesterday um you would understand that like we are cutting as much spending as humanly possible just so that we do have um some access. My concern is

059there are two different things over which we have control and things over which we don't have control. Correct. nothing you can do about the state budget, but we do have control over what we're spending. Do you have suggestions for cuts that we could discuss now? I had several pages and I couldn't give them. You remember the incident? What? I was just I said if I wasn't allowed to speak, I would go home. And that's what I did after you interrupted me. I was just asking a clarifying question. I don't care what you were doing. You were not to interrupt me. All right. I just wanted to write down the list. Correct. Uh Pam, anything else for the business manager, transportation director information. That is it. But I do believe Mr. Sipper had a transportation question

060for me question. Did we use outside buses for something here a month or two? We did. We did. Or did we? Well, we did because um unfortunately when we contacted Quest, they were unable to bring the elementary kiddos back. Um the elementary kiddos didn't want to board the buses until um 1:50. We have school buses that end up starting to arrive at the high school at 1:45. So with that being said, when we contacted them, they did not have four buses that they could provide us. So we actually contacted two separate bus compacted a lot of them. Contacted a lot. We until we finally got two um bus companies that could spare two and two and that's how we ended up giving the kids a longer day at the museum. In the past, what time

061did they normally leave there? In the past, they normally left. It's been cut before because we they they wouldn't budge on that time. So, we were cutting opportunities for our kids because we wouldn't look outside the box. I just want I just wonder I wonder what it Yeah, we were trying to find the best opportunity for our kids. Was that something over which we would have had control had it been scheduled differently? No. Un unfort Unfortunately, um our provider only has so many buses, so many bus drivers, and when you try to schedule something that butts right up against the high school's dismissal time, um it and especially when you're in Pittsburgh, because obviously none of us have that crystal ball as to whether or not um you're going to encounter traffic or an accident

062or anything of that nature. So, they weren't comfortable trying to um But neither one of those things happened. It was just a matter of somebody changed the schedule of time. Isn't it true? Corre correct. Neither one of those That is true. Neither one of those things happened. Thank the good Lord. But um you know, it is a potential when you're going outside of the district that far like that. And you know they were unable to then they were unable with four short buses to have transportation go smoothly for the high school and then for the preceding tiers that go under that for middle school and then for elementary and primary center. So that's why we had to look outside of the district. Did you know that ahead of time? Um we knew it. It was

063the field trip was scheduled uh well in advance. I want to say no. Did you know the busing issue ahead of time? As soon as as soon as the building puts their field trip request in, we start working on their busing um availability. And typically that answer has been no, we can't do it, right? Um so we wanted to try to find a way to make it happen for our kids. I think that's great that they still got that opportunity that we were able to find something. I know it's also difficult during sports season. Yes. Whenever the buses are committed to transporting our teams different places, too. that ties up some of the extra buses and extra drivers. And that was in that instance that was specifically an issue because we had away games that

064we were competing in. Yep. Approximately how many buses do we run daily? Um we have 16 big buses. Um I would have to look in the on the sheet to be honest with you. How many That's okay. How many in an email? Yep. I'll send it to you in an email. How many buses? how many minibuses and how many vans we have. Okay. And the the reason I asked that, I'm just wondering come say next year if we would alternate times if we could run less buses alternate times of like when school start school ends on at the different buildings to reduce buses. Well, there I don't think and I'll tell you why. Because um right now they are what is called tiered. Mhm. So, if a bus comes to the high school, they pick

065up the high school kiddos, they take them, they they drop them off, then that the next thing they do is go right then to um the middle school and pick those kids up. We already do that. Yes. Yes. Yeah. And that's something that most school districts um came into effect a few years ago because it's much more um economical to do it that way. I think Hempfield right now, isn't it Hempfield that's looking to start their middle school their high school in order to save on busing. But you still have to guarantee a seat on all of those buses for each of those kids. right now or not. They see half full buses driving around like why are we driving routes with half full buses? But it's because half of those kids are driven to

066school, half of them drive themselves to school, but there still has to legally be a seat on that bus for them. So, you know, combining two schools doesn't necessarily mean all of those same routes are going to fit all of the kids on that route from two schools because you have to still be able to fit them all legally. I I asked that just because like you know like during my own my own personal route that I do on a daily basis I am passed by four buses. Two of them are large buses, one is a small bus and then a van. Doesn't make any sense. All within the same amount of time. So I mean I I understand that there there could be you know different scenarios as far as like what kids are

067on particular transportation but in the same sense like I mean I think we should really dive into that. I think too you have to remember like that one bus that you see could be the bus that's going to Gel and it's picking up kids going to the van could be going to Khloe Heights in Greensburg. So well this is in the afternoon. Well, you know, the opposite taking them all back. You know, the GBel bus because my daughter's bus goes through and then there's the Gel bus that picks up the Gel kids basically on the same route, but they're ending up in two different places. And then there's like a mini bus that comes through and I don't even know where it's going, but all about the same time that I'm taking, you know, that

068I take. I have a question to tie into Mrs. Guyire's question. If in fact there's parents who consistently drop their children off, is there some kind of waiver we can get that they say, "Okay, we're not going to use the bus, so that's a seat that we have available for somebody else." I don't I don't No, because if they change their mind, well, I mean, I sus suspect you could go and say, you know, you've got to let us know, but I I think if we're providing transportation, we have to make sure that it's available to all students. Mhm. at all times. Probably also in the event of an emergency if we would have to dismiss kids early and that, you know, the parent wouldn't be available to drive them home. Maybe that would also

069be a consideration that we would have to ensure we have spots for all of these kids to get home in the event of some kind of emergency. I would think. Yeah. Not to change the subject from busing, but this is a question about the $19 million bond we're going to get. If we get tied into this bond, and I've been watching the municipal bond market, interest rates are dropping because people are taking their money out of the stock market and putting into bonds. So, there's more money available. If it goes down, do we take a lower rate or are we tied in? Absolutely. I've been in touch with our bond um team ever since um it was voted to go ahead and approve that and I can tell you um right now they are looking

070at the markets. They refer to the markets as very volatile right now. Um we have 30 to 45 days to actually get our bonds funded because in the last So they're looking they're looking to get us the best possible deal they can get. Last few days it's went down a couple tents already and they project a lot more because everybody's buying municipal bonds and so that I just want to make sure we weren't tied into something. Yep. That we got to pay 4% when it goes to two then we're Yep. That's why that's why we haven't sold them as yet. There's still, like I said, we've been in in communication um all the time. But you said we have what, 30 days? 30 to 45 days. What happens 6 months down the road if it

071drops 2%? Does it go down? Well, no. No. It's not like a mortgage that if you're in the middle of looking to get your house and you say, "Okay, I'm it's going to be just to use very generic round numbers. It's 5% now. And in 20 days before you close it goes down to 4 and a2 where you can take advantage of that. That's not how the bonds work. How long can we hold off before we buy this bond? Pardon me? How long can we hold off before we buy this bond? I mean, can we wait 6 months to see where the market goes? No. Cuz to be honest with you, I already have a $1.2 $2 million mobilization invoice from Constellation which I have spoken to them about and they are willing to wait

072obviously month and a half until we get money but they're not going to wait 6 months especially whenever you have um other companies that are coming in and and starting work market the market's very volatile right now I mean it's but like I said we're we're definitely you know my my I am very confident that the team that I'm working with are trying to do their best for us that they that is humanly possible. But once that bond is signed, that that percent never changes. Correct. Pardon me. Once that percentage rate never changes once the bond is finalized, right? Right. Ju just like Right. Just like a a loan or something when when you finalize it and sign on those dotted dotted lines, it is what it is. Now, obviously, much like um we've done

073in the past, when it comes to a certain point down the road, which is specified in the bond documents, and I haven't seen them finalized yet, so I can't give you that that time frame. Um, you know, if we're able to save money and refinance at a later date, we certainly will do that. Yeah, but sometime the cost for that. You're not free. It's not free to refinance. It's usually a few hundred,000 to refinance. But I mean, cuz I can tell you whenever I first came here and I refinanced the debt that we had with First National Bank at very attractive rates at um little 1% and a little under 1%, I was able to save the district $350,000. So, like I said, it's something that I'm used to doing. It's something that I certainly

074will do whenever the the the timing allows us to do so. Yeah. on news documents that I was given, they were using a figure of 6%. I mean, I saw that that was just that was just a um a call a a basic number that's plugged in there. That's not what they're looking to finance us at. So, we have six weeks to come up with a better rate, right? And that's what they're looking to do. But if not, that's at the end of six weeks. No, that that no 30 days. Like I said, they're they're looking that that is not the rate that they're looking to get us in at. I thought you said they'd wait a month and a half for us to finalize it. They Right. Right. R right now. Right now they're

075looking to have us at, like I said, the the market is extremely volatile right now. they they call it the tariff tantrums that the market is exhibiting at this point. Um and so what they're doing is they're being very cautious and they're looking to see they're hoping that after obviously today's tax day and after Easter that they believe that the market will calm down and they will be able to get us more advantageous rates. But what they are going to be at this point I don't have a crystal I do not believe it will be 6%. It can calm down low and it can calm down high. Correct. Okay. And that there's a big difference. Correct. I but our question was once you sign that bond that's it. It doesn't change. That is correct. Once

076once the bond once they have sold the bonds and that is correct. Yes. That is it for a period of of a few years. That is correct. Pam, a couple years ago, you could buy a house for 2% mortgage. Now it's 8 n 10. I I I'm unfortunately aware. I have a son that says that in his age bracket, they will never be able to buy homes. But if we go in high, that high is for a long time to come. Really? I only I I'd just say really, my daughter just bought a house, so Did she? Yeah. Yeah. That's awesome. Okay. Anything else? I'll add, Pam. Um, I'll just throw it out again. I'll jump on your message here. Anything we can do or anything, and I'll I'll plead to the board in front

077of me. Um, I'll plead to anybody who wants to argue and complain on Facebook and any social media. If if you take those energies and please lobby for cyber charter reform, um it could bring us $557,000 if we all come together and really lobby um and work on our legislators. And I'm I'm I'm meeting with one y uh next week. Yep. Yeah. Next week in Somerset. So, uh anything you can do to take your your energies and put it into advocacy for our kids, I I really really wish you would do so. So, thank you. Thank you. Thanks, Pam. You're welcome. Thank you. CWCTC report. Uh nothing to report this month. Thank you. Wu report. Yes, the March meeting, the regular March meeting was he was held. Um we are still dealing with a number

078of contracts. The IU has a very large specialized personalized staff and uh the contracts are there are many different contracts. The next budget was reviewed in detail. Um the big issue that we discussed was the the significant changes in the early intervention program and the superintendent talked about that at the budget meeting and what it amounts to is the IU services thousands of children from the ages of three up and the early intervention are the threeyear-olds four year olds the kids who are not yet in kindergarten. So they had a they had a lot of classes all over the place and if I'm right that affects us, isn't that right? Don't they have a pro class here? They have one classroom here currently. Yes. They will no longer be using that because they are going

079from correct me if I'm strong, but from like 21 classes to four or something. I thought the number I was given was 10 to four. I'm sorry. Thank you. from 10 classes to four classes. now they're going to serve these other kids through localized preschools, church schools, things like that. It's it's not a real happy thing. Um, a lot of a lot of grief about that because it is a major major major program. Um, they also talked a lot about staff changes, staff reassignments and so forth. The IU makes every effort to function in a very efficient organizational manner and they will combine jobs. They'll they'll do a lot of things like that and that those are a lot of the personnel changes that you see there. Um sadly there there are some conflicts on

080the board. They were openly aired. Um they're public and I hope that they will be resolved and the next meeting is next week. Can I ask you a question, Dr. Fe? You said 10 10 classes at all over West Morland County. Yeah. Yeah. Down to four. They were classrooms. Uh Steph, I'm sorry, Nicole. They're actual classrooms. These kids came and they're not going to do that anymore. They're going to have four classrooms for kids who have more intensive services cuz not all of them have the same problem. But they're going to try to work through these um like your downtown, you have a center down here, don't you? Preschool. They're going to work through the preschools and things like that. Wherever the child goes, wherever the child is, they're going to go where the child

081is as opposed to the child coming to where they are. And you know, that's not going to make some people happy. And yeah, but it's I guess it's what they have to do now to provide the services. You do know the IU doesn't raise taxes. They have no ability to levy taxes, right? Yeah, they all their funding comes from the federal government through the ID the uh disabilities with um with the act the act with inability individual with disabilities act and so forth like that and there are several of those and that's it that's their total budget and that's what they're the that's what they're forcing them to do. There's a lot of changes in the IU and they're they're really working hard to make themselves um a money generating organization so that they have

082more money to provide services because they can't raise taxes. They're trying to, you know, support themselves and do the best they can. They they work very hard at that and I admire them. So, um but anyhow, the next meeting is is next week and we'll I'm sure we'll be hearing more about that early intervention. Thank you. Uh we have committee reports. Um the only committee I think that has met since our last meeting is finance, district operations, and transportation. Miss Guyire. Well, I think that basically we went over the the presentations that Pam had given us and I think she covered them in thorough detail. Thank you, Pam. You did my job. Uh, next buildings and grounds meeting is June 16th. Uh, the next finance, district operations and transportation meeting is May 12th. The next

083personnel policy and academics meeting is April 29th. Non-academic athletics and extracurriculars April 22nd. School safety and security also April 22nd. I'm going to say it again. If I am not consulted for the um policy, personnel policy and academics, I won't be at those meetings. They're not they're not comm that's not a committee meeting. It's a superintendent meeting. And he's welcome to it. Don't get me wrong, but don't call it a committee meeting. I've never been consulted. I'm the chairman. I've never been consulted about a single thing that goes on the agenda. It's presented to you. Here it is. Take it. Well, if you have things that you'd like to add to those agendas, I'm sure we can accommodate that. Just, you know, discuss it before those meeting dates. Typically, you know, the committees that I've

084been chair of and was previously on personnel policy and academics, you know, Dr. Boon would check in and say, "This is what I'm thinking. Is there anything that you want to add, you know, take away?" So, I I think that he does that. Stephanie, we have never had a committee meeting where the committee determined the agenda. Isn't that correct? No. No. It's been my experience. It's been handed to us. It's on a screen. There it is. But he does speak. We never did committee meetings. Right. He does speak with the chairperson and ask if there's anything they would like to see added or taken away from it. That's never been asked of me. That's not entirely correct. I'm sure that has never been asked of me. Okay. Student reports. Mr. for Bell. Congratulations to the

085April Spirit Award winner, Mia Jordan. And congratulations to the April Scholar Award winner, Faith Arteeki. Student Council hosted the American Red Cross blood drive today and collected over 30 blood donations from various students, faculty, and staff. Special thank you to the many people who took time out of their schedules to help save lives. We were able to save a total of 84 lives today. Also, thank you to the junior and senior student council members who helped host the event today and worked hard to ensure the safety of all the participants. Uh students competed in the Boss IQ finals competition on Friday and Saturday at Penn West California. They achieved the win against South Bay at High School. They also placed third in a rumble match against six other schools. Congrats to Boss IQ. Be sure

086to check South Morland's journalism Instagram for the latest uh journalism class posting so you can stay updated with events around the high school. Friday was National Pet Day, so be sure to check their Instagram page for the real life teachers pets. And student council would like to wish all members of the board and administrators a safe and happy holiday break. That's everything I have. Thank you, Mr. Bill. Thank you. Let him go home. And as always, if you would like to exit, now would be a great time. Appreciate it. Thank you. Get that homework done, Shelby. Yeah. Yeah. I'll go. Yeah, we have. We have homework. All right. Next section is school board. We have meeting minutes. The board has asked to approve the following meeting minutes. March 18th, 2025 discussion voting meeting. So moved.

087Second discussion. All those in favor? I opposed. Uh appoint board secretary. The board has asked to approve the appointment of Lori McTavish as the board secretary for a 4-year term 2025 to 2029. So moved. Second. Discussion. Laura, don't you have an ongoing contract? Yeah, the terms um for secretaries are typically four-year terms and there was a handout showing each year, every four years that it has to be done. And whenever I started here, I was just here completing Peggy's term. So now this is going to be the new term. And I can remember appointing board treasure uh board treasurers and secret, you know, things like that. But I I just thought yours was ongoing and it's not. No, it's every four years. I guess you have to keep Well, you're welcome to stay. Well, thank

088you. I'll second it. I will stay as long as I'm um all those in favor. I opposed. Our next section is policies. There are no items for this month. All right. Uh the following section is personnel. Personnel log. The board has asked to approve the personnel log for April 15, 2025 as attached. All salaries are included and all clearances are current and on file with the administration. So moved. Second. Discussion. All those in favor? I opposed. Grant tenure. The board is asked to grant tenure to the following professional staff members. Michelle Perger, Abby Mohan, and Alli Grim. So do second. Discussion. All those in favor? I opposed. Creation of new professional positions. The board is asked to create the following two professional positions. One, special education teacher emotional support program. And two, behavior therapist. So

089do second discussion. I have a question for the superintendent. Is it incumbent on the board to create a new program to go with these physicians? I'm I'm not sure how that goes. Good question. And um I actually originally had that as part of the agenda, but then whenever I reviewed the agenda with Mr. Lucas prior to the meeting, Well, could we amend this motion to include the creation of the program and hiring these people to staff it? Sure. I I think that certainly is compliant with act 65 because it's clear that um the emotional support position essentially the public's been provided notice of that. So I think actually Mr. Lucas would be hiring these people for a program that we haven't approved of yet. So we should do this. I would think it would be

090the appropriate thing is to create the program because we're talking again if we have to extend this next year. Sure. you know. Well, would you want to um propose an amendment to the motion? Yeah. Does anybody I'll second that. Is there any reason not to create it as a program if he had it on there and you recommended taking it off? Well, because I was thinking about it and and obviously you'll have a budgetary item that would represent that program moving forward. I I I kind of saw both sides of it, but but candidly I I don't see a downside to it. I just it struck me as not necessarily being necessary strictly necessary because I think that if you have this teacher obviously they're going to have an assignment that is um that's appropriate

091to to the purpose for which you're hiring that person. But do we have created programs for other type of things like this in the learning support? I would say the last time the last time it would have happened would have been the creation of life skills programming or autistic support programming. So I would have to take I'd have to take a look back to see exactly how that was done. Stephanie, I think we've added classes, but I don't remember us adding whole programs. That's why I don't know if it's necessary. Yeah, there was there was skills programming that was added in 2021, I think it was, but I can't remember if it was a separate item or not. I know when we were discussing the agenda um one of the issues that came up was

092we were going to have um the item for the creation of an emotional support program under education which is after personnel. So you would be hiring personnel before the creation of a program. So it just felt off. There's nothing wrong in doing it this way though is there? Not at all. We have a second on that. Uh I I think I mean I like it Dr. F. I think it creates transparency of what we're asking. Makes it clear. Doesn't it make it clear, Nicole? Yeah. All right. So, the amendment um which has been made and seconded would call for amending the motion to clarify that it's also the creation of the emotional support program. Okay. Is that an accurate statement? Accurate stating. Okay. So, we have discussion on that and then you vote on the

093amendment. Okay. We are voting on the amendment. All those in favor of amending this I opposed. Okay. So now the motion on the floor would be the board has asked to create uh the following two positions and the emotional support program. So so moved. It's already been moved. Oh. So it's just discussion vote. Okay. Discussion. And I I'll just add the last time it happened, this was a um a transfer of energy a transfer of entity issue because we had a life skills classroom that was operated by the Wu um and the district ended up taking it over. Jason, for public information, shouldn't we tell them this will be grades 2 through eight? Yeah, grades two through eight. This is grades two through eight. It's And and where were where will the um classrooms be?

094SCES. At SCES. Okay. Right at the end of the SC. Yes. Okay. to where it like attaches or comes it butts up with the middle school. Okay. Okay. All those in favor? I I opposed. Next section is education. Student discipline agreement. The board is asked to approve the following student discipline agreement. Uh number 2024 20250. So do second. Discussion. All those in favor? I opposed. Student service agreements. The board has asked to approve the following 2025 2026 annual student service agreements. Uh number one is New Directions Chestnut Ridge Counseling Services, Inc. and number two is West Morland Case Management and Supports, Inc. So do second. Discussion. All those in favor? I opposed. Science curriculum resources. The board has asked to approve PA Steel's science curriculum resources at a cost of $127,5245 to be paid out

095of budgeted curricular resources funds. um $95,645.37 and ready to learn block grant adequacy funds $31,8578. Need a motion. So move second. Second. Discussion. Yes. The expiration date on this has already passed. This is the top proposal for South Elementary School. Date of proposal 227 2025. Expiration date 413 20225. It's already passed, Nicole. So, are they I'm guessing they're still honoring this amount. I suspect they're going to hold it. Um if you want to make it contingent on the proposal being extended to 415, you could do that. But I I my guess is that they put an end date on there just because they don't want to leave it out there forever. Sure. Sure. Yeah. Yeah. Absolutely. But I Yeah, that just concerns me. We're, you know, voting on it after expiration date's already passed. Um,

096so yeah, I would like to amend that to put in, you know, contingent contingent to an updated expiration date. Is this money already budgeted though? that I don't but I mean we we had um we had curricular resource money in our budget that we have not spent yet that we would like to spend on this. That's what this Okay. So that's what this is. That's the big one. Yeah. So I'll second the amendment. Second the amendment. Uh discussion on the amendment. All those in favor of the amendment I opposed. Okay. Now the motion on the floor. Discussion. All those in favor of the motion amended. I opposed. Great. Good job, guys. Uh WCCC articulation agreement. The board has asked to approve the articulation agreement with WCCCC for a possible associates and arts degree pathway. So

097do. Oh man. Need a second. Second. discussion. What is an associates in arts? Uh it's a two-year degree through WCCCC that um other high schools actually have in place already. Uh this will provide uh some of our students if they go through the correct pathway, an opportunity to walk across our stage at South Morland with a South Morland diploma plus a two-year degree. Now, what's an associate in arts degree? I have a bunch of degrees. I've never heard of an associate art. It's um Is it art? It's a liberal arts degree. Yeah. associate in liberal arts. So instead of like a bachelor's of arts, it's a it's an AA instead of a BA. You know, there's a lot of or as disagreement on the value of that. Um it's not it's not a practical degree,

098but all education is practical. Let's put it that way. No matter what you study, that's a good thing. It's just that this looks to me like what am I going to do with this on my resume? I will add that the the courses included on this um the agreement once they take a look at our program of studies um and identify courses that are aligned with one another uh of that rigor. Uh you're talking about a monumental savings tuition for our students who would take advantage of this. Can you share just some of the classes that they would take? I mean what uh it's your basic general ed courses. So, you're talking about any of our um AP courses, AP Bio, AP Chem, AP Physics, AP Bio. Oh, yeah. Um your your math courses, your

099calculus courses would count for this. Uh there's going to be certain courses that they're going to have to take at WCCCC if they choose to do so. Um basically in the summer or or at night or something like that. um your literature courses are our our higherend literature courses and then they'll take a look at our um elective courses in computer science or or arts to see what what fit in as well. You've seen this? Yeah. The proposal for this curriculum. Yeah. Okay. Yeah. I'm just asking. Yeah. We've been working on like so we brought this up at the personnel policy academics committee meeting. I want to say as long ago as a year ago that we were exploring this. Um met with WCCCC a couple times already to take a look if it would

100be something that we think we could do. We had to take a look at the qualifications of our teachers at the high school who teach these courses. Jason, is this online or in person? the these courses would be taken at the high school by taught by our teachers here. Yeah. Okay. That's in person. Yeah. Okay. I'm good with that. All right. Uh, all those in favor? I I opposed. I do have one quick question. Yeah. And I I didn't see it in here, but I might have passed over it. Do they do if our students decide to take this course, do they have access to WCCC? Yeah, they're a WCCC student. Yeah. Okay. So, they're able to at least go they can go there as well onto that program. Like I said, there will be

101a I want to say at least one it may be two courses that they have to take on campus. Okay. Um as as part of the program as part of the program. Okay. Okay. Thank you. Uh next section is finance monthly financial reports. The board has asked to approve the following monthly financial reports all attached. Uh number one, treasurer's report. Number two, general 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 I opposed. Uh Wu 2025 2026 budget. The board has asked to approve the West Morland intermediate unit budget for the 2526 school year. I'd like to make that motion. Second. Oh, there's uh discussion question on this one and the next it's so this is a actual the

102final budget or preliminary. You're talking about the IU. The IU. We got the final budget. That's the final. So CWCTC says preliminary or tenative. I mean is that correct? Oh, okay. I don't have that. I have the board has asked to approve the IU budget for 2526 school year on here. Yeah, he's saying it's a tenative though. Somebody just it's not an actual budget. Yeah, because of that. So, are these both like the actual budgets in the committee? Or don't we know? He doesn't believe we know. I mean, I think this is the IU final budget. This is the final Wu budget. It's a resolution. So, that would be Yeah, I would say that they've had a preliminary. I thought we were voting on the budget. We are the CWCTC is still Oh, I'm sorry.

103I mean candidly you guys only ahead he's ahead of he's ahead of himself really want to vote on that but it's okay if it's not a final CTC budget because it's different from your budget but there is an adoption record also along you don't have to adopt a preliminary CTC budget just a preliminary district budget I mean I am not telling you not to it's just that it feels like an extra vote so back to the Wu then how are We voting cuz health hasn't been set yet. And if I'm doing the math right, CTC has budgeted 9%, I think Pam budgeted 10% for us and theirs is 12%. But we don't know. Correct. We don't know. But they want us to adopt a final budget. Right. Right. Yeah. Right. And I believe I believe

104she put her numbers in at 15%. And to my knowledge she didn't from the meeting that I had web meeting that I attended she was we it was brought up to her would she suggest we suggested that she would change the dollar value for the healthcare. She was not willing in which to do so. Okay. Because she felt it wasn't material because of uh the number of employees that they have. Okay. Um, so I I would be in favor of tableabling both of these and waiting until we have a clearer picture of what the actual funding is going to be. But if this is their final budget, are they going to give us a clearer picture? Yeah. I thought I understood a WU is a final budget, right? I don't think a for a clearer

105picture from them is forthcoming. Yeah. This is they're saying this is what it is. Okay. and with other districts probably if they've had this already, they may have voted on it already. So, they're not going to change. I agree with tableabling the CTC budget. If it's just tenative, it does seem All right. So, uh on it, let's do voice vote for the WIU budget. I think we should do a roll call. All right. Roll call. That's what I'm Thank you. Uh roll call vote, please. Mr. Yes. Mr. Yotssy. No. Dr. Fe, yes. Mr. Friend, no. Mrs. Guyer, no. Mr. Graiac, no. Mrs. Oier, no. Mr. Olsen? Yes. Five. Thank you. Okay. Jason, will you notify uh Dr. Conway then that this did not pass? Yeah. Uh, next item is the CWCTC budget. Um, do we

106just want to table that? Yes. Someone could make a motion and then after it's second, I'll make a motion we table this. Second. All those in favor? I opposed. Good. Thank you. Uh, dental and vision. The board has asked to approve the following monthly vision and dental rates for the 2025 2026 school year. Uh, National Vision Administrators single $259 employee plus one $4.17 employee plus two or more $7.28 United Concordia employee only 28.77 employee and spouse or children and family $85.65. So moved. Second discussion. Question is, is this what they pay or what we are going to be paying? This is what we would be paying. That's what we'll be paying. Okay. Yes. All those in favor? Women pay a percentage of this though, don't they? No. Um the employees do not pay the provision

107or dental. We do pay for health care. But they pay on major medical. Correct. On medical. They pay on their life insurance. No. Unless they get an additional 100% dental vision in life. And what about the um what do you call that where they don't work? Workman's comp. You mean workman's comp? That that's that's a coverage that all that all employees employers have workers comp. It's not split. No. So it's not it's not like an insurance type coverage. You mean short like short? But I can tell you that um Brookman's comp the majority of them of our employees are entitled to vision and dental. There are some um support folks that are not entitled to those coverages and they do pay for the coverage if they so choose because they don't get anything else because

108the other people you mean? Yeah. Yeah. Well, the other people get um like for example the pair of professionals. Yeah. They get um single healthc care coverage. They're entitled to that with their deductible. Do they get this free? No, I do not believe so. I'd have to double check, but I do not believe. This only applies to the teachers union. It No, it applies to the administrators administrators. I believe it also applies I'd have to double check but I believe it also applies custodians in maintenance and act 93 act well act 93 yeah okay so do we do we pay for so say if say an employee wants them along with family do we pay the family or do we just pay for the single employee and then they have to cover what's left cost

109for the people that are only entitled to single coverage yeah if they want bump something up, they can pay the additional amount and we will bill them and they will pay it. But not everybody's entitled to correct to it. But some some employees are entitled to it. The majority of people are entitled to it. I can look it up if you want to give Well, let me know information. Most likely going to find it in their agreement, their contract or whatever. If I can remember correctly, I know paras only get single coverage. Yep. Okay. Yep. Okay. And no life insurance. Correct. Oh, that's right. Secretary, this is a mixed bag then this coverage by each contract. By contract. Okay. Yeah. It depends upon what is written in either their contract or their agreement. Got it.

110Okay. So, under this motion, we are It doesn't say who gets it. It just says we're going to approve these rates. Right. This is the same um board motion that we have used for this to pass this each year. The only thing that is different are the rates. It shouldn't say for for who's eligible or not. That doesn't matter. We haven't done that in the past. No, I've never done that. Okay. No, like I said, I just basically copied over the motion from one year to the next. And whenever I started here, I did the very same thing. So, some of it is just practice, correct? Past practice. Yes. Dear God, past practice. Yes. All right. Uh, on to the vote. Uh, all those in favor? I opposed. Good. Uh, life insurance. The board has

111asked to approve the following monthly life insurance rates for the 2526 school year. Uh, and I'm actually going to recommend we table this. Um, gentleman reached out and said that he could potentially beat these rates. Um, I think we're not really on a timet here. We're not. We're not. So, um, you know, we're going to shop this against um, you know, one more time. Um, so I make the motion to table this uh, until at least next month. I have a question on that, Dwayne. Or does that mean we're going to change carriers? Depending on what the quotes are. Um, but if the quote is different, we would it could in it could involve changing carriers. It could. Correct. Yes. So moved. Second. Is that okay, Dr. Fe? Or is there like a reason that

112you wouldn't want to change care? No, no, no. It's just that we have traditionally gone through an agency that does the research for us. A broker. We don't we buy from whoever they tell us. We use a broker. Yeah. Is that what happened with this? I think there's just question of how we arrived with this company at these rates. Yeah, this this um typically we've been using CM regent which is um something through the consortium broker and um getting hairy you know obviously we can certainly give this person that contacted me yesterday as well um the opportunity to to bid to see I I believe he works for New York Life if memory serves me correctly. Yeah. I mean, if you want to open it to anybody that wants to, you know. Can I ask

113a question? This is term insurance and it's for certain people to get. This is group insurance. Certain employees get this one and others don't. Right. This is like dental and vision. This is life insurance contract. We move down to the next ones. This is just life insurance Dr. Fe that we're referring to now that they want to table. Would this involve a different broker? I'm just curious and and Nicole, I'm just curious because we've always gone through this broker process. I've asked about that. They they're the ones that go out and find us the best rate and they arrange for us to get it. Right. Is that what a broker does? Mhm. But now this would be another broker, a different broker. I think they're just wanting to shop cuz ours would have found this.

114Ours would have found cheaper rate, you know. I don't think it's a different broker. Is that true, Mr. Friend? Well, I mean, the guy said he would be able to save us a considerable amount of money. Um maybe maybe and and somebody that he wants to take a crack at saving money and and we're not under a timet so we can afford to put this off another month. Um you know I think if if opening this up to shop it will save us money then I'm all for it. and he's a South Morland alumni who retin alumni so we should probably He bleeds black and red so I'm sure he'll save us money but according to the contract it has to be an identical amount right yes it's what we're already offering yes we're fighting

115that part will not change that part because we still fighting about ampic oh I mean it's kind of the same thing I'm saying you can't change the numbers It's cheaper with regard to the life insurance policies. All the contracts will say term life. They may say the amount, but they're not going to say anything with regard to the that broker can't change anything. No, that that cannot be changed. Um, so again, all those in favor of tableabling, I opposed. Thank you. Do you have a timeline on that? Are you going to talk to this person at the next meeting or something like that? Yeah, it'll be before the next meeting. I'll actually reach out to him this week. Uh the next item is uh awarding of bids gasoline and diesel. The board has asked to

116consider the approval to award bids for gasoline and diesel for the 2526 school year per the school district's quantity request to Gutman Energy who the West Morland Intermediate Unit joint purchasing consortium for fuel has identified as the lowest responsible bidder meeting or equaling specifications for gasoline 87 octane at a fixed rate of two 2.0620 0620 per gallon in diesel fuel at a fixed rate of 2.3295 per gallon. So moved second discussion. This is a wholesale price without taxes. Correct. There are pre provision in there where if it does go below that do we get a break or do we fix we fixed at this? We're fixed at this. This is for six months. Yeah. They won't they won't for how long? This is actually I believe 25 26 fiscal year. Yeah. For a full year.

117You can't ask for that provision to if it would drop because this is the wholesale. So you don't know what it might go down. We buy it as a consortium. So all the school districts agree on it. So I don't know if we would get the wholesale pricing without the consortium wholesale. You never know. It could be a substantial amount. It might not. But I'm just asking. Yeah. unfort unfort Well, unfortunately we've never had that happen, Mr. Separator, to um have that be a problem. Um we all believed that this was a fairly competitive price and um so that's you know we as a consortium voted and opted to take this to bring this to the boards to our respective boards. Okay. And we used to do this every six months, but we I think

118we voted through it a year. Through co we switched to six months. It used to be yearly and then because prices were skyrocketing they went six month periods. Yes. Can I ask a question? Do we have buses that run on natural gas? No. No, they could. They couldn't. He had some of those. He has some LP buses, doesn't he? Does he gas? Don't they? I think has LP buses. I haven't seen any. I was seen that on like a UPS truck that I'm aware of. I don't know of um I don't know. I thought he I thought I heard new station. Uh any other discussion uh to the vote? All those in favor? I opposed. Uh establish Giza Capital Bank accounts. The board has asked to authorize permission for the business office to establish depository

119and money market accounts for the Giza capital fund. So do second discussion. Is there a particular bank? Yes. Um I have been in contact with First National Bank that we typically deal with. M um I have talked to them about plegate and pizzloff rates because those are typically the highest rates that are offered for collateralized funds. They have agreed to match those funds. So um you know obviously and those are the folks also that whenever I first came here that um refinanced our loans for 1% and less than 1%. Oh yeah, they've always been very they've always been very very fair with the district. And like I said, I hold their feet to the fire and and I watch Pizzlo and and Plegate uh funds each week and send that information right over to the

120bank so that we can keep our rates competitive. Okay. I'm sorry I missed that, but the name of the bank First National Bank. Urs National. That's our That's our depository bank that we use for the district. That's the bank that whenever I first came here, I was able to refinance the loans and got one and shortly lower than one% rate of interest and save the district over $300,000. Um I send them each week the Plegate and Pi and Pisloff um rates which are for collateralized funding which the school districts have to um take advantage of. and they have agreed to and they're typically the highest rates that you will see for collateralized funding and they have agreed to match those funds. Pam, shouldn't that be in the motion? Pardon me? It's not in the motion.

121It is not. Um, the board has asked to authorize permission for the business office to establish the fund. That's it. Doesn't say. Amen. The motion to make clear. Yeah, we can amend the motion. Oh, I don't care. I just was surprised that the bank wasn't named. Yeah, we can certainly amend the motion if you would like. Two amended motions. If you guys agree, I like it. What? I two amended motions get one free. [Music] Uh would somebody like to amend the motion then? So, real quick though, so in the guidelines though, it says the board shall periodically obtain quotations for specified banking services prior to designated as depositories. So, if I'm thinking about that correctly, like it doesn't have to go out to like any bank, any couple banks, like it can just be designated

122to one, right? Because first, if I'm if I'm understanding this correctly, um well, we already use FNB as our depository. We do. We use this. So, that's just Yeah, FNB is our depository bank. They were um made the depository bank I believe in 2021. Mhm. Okay. And um this is just merely adding an additional account. And like I said, I work with them on a weekly basis. I send them the pisloff and the plegate rates so that I cuz I make sure they sharpen that pencil and give us the best rate which is part of the reason why we got so much in interest last fiscal year. Pam, I'm not questioning what you're doing. I'm just saying according to this motion, you can put it anywhere you want and we'd never know it. Oh, I

123mean we'd know it through her the things she submits through every meeting. I mean, we can amend the motion. I'll make a Yeah, you can certainly What do I need to do? Oh, I'm move to amend the motion to add or to that it will be first national bank. Is that a friendly amendment? It would be very friendly. That's my favorite kind. I'd like to make that amendment. Second. All those in favor of the amendment? I I um so now we'll vote on the uh amended motion. Amended motion. All those in favor? Can I have a roll call, please? Sure. Roll call the of the amendment state and can we state state the full motion now even with the amendment motion to establish the Giza Capital bank accounts through First National Bank. Okay. Thank you.

124Roll call. Mr. Yotsi. Yes. Dr. F. No. Mr. Friend. Yes. Mrs. Guyer. Yes. Mr. Graiac. Yes. Mrs. Oier. Yes. Mr. Olsen? Yes. Mr. Shiplant. And Mr. No. Okay. Um 6 to two. Next section is building grounds and security. Uh stadium stonewall repair change order. The board has asked to approve a change order in the amount not to exceed $44,800 for the SHS stadium stonewall repair due to deteriorating stone that was not a part of the original scope of the project. So moved. Second. Roll call vote, please. I want to I have a question on the motion first. Discussion discussion question on this. Um we I'm assuming we went out for bids on the original work. That is correct. Is there a possibility we should go out for bids on this change order? Cuz that's pretty

125substantial. The original bid was what? 70,000? 70 something. 77,000. Yeah. This is like a 60% increase. Mr. Trader, um would you like to come explain to the board kind of what what we got into here? Can't do that. 60%. And the the original money that we had to actually even do the um stonewall repair came from um when we did the roof we had a uh the capital funds. Yes. Okay. So upon beginning work on the rock wall the contractor had bid the job for repointing the wall. He then discovered there were some broken stone and also some shale. The l the wall was limestone and shale. Mr. Mr. Mr. Trader, can I stop you for one quick second? Can you explain um how we had engineers come out and take a look before any

126of this even started? Oh, yeah. Before anything happened, we decided about the wall. We had an engineering firm come in and look at the the first thing, of course, is always safety. Is a wall safe to even begin with? And they determined that it was it was worth proceeding for. So, the engineering firm looked at it. They gave us, you know, their ideas on it, and then we put it out for bid. So, you're saying they I'm sorry, I'm going to interrupt. So, they were saying that it was okay to repair it as opposed to completely replace. Exactly. Okay. So, after the contractor began work, as I stated, they found some rock that were deteriorating. At that point, the contractor called it to our attention and he said, "This is what's going on." And he

127offered three ways, three options, none of which were, you know, to do the wall over again. He wanted either report, put up concrete block, or split face. So at that point we called the engineers back in. The engineers said the wall is absolutely fine. It is safe. They proceeded going on just replace any broken stone. So they come out. They have a technique called sounding. They actually tap the stone with the machine. They determine if the rock is bad or not. They figure that there's no more than 400 square ft that is bad. At that point, the contractor gave a square foot price on repairing the wall. So that's why the price is not to exceed the 448. It may not be that much, but that's the most it's going to be. And that's how

128we erupt at that price. I think the wall probably has some historical value as well, I would imagine. I know it's certainly going to look better from what they've done right now. It's going to look way better than having a concrete block wall at the edge of a football field. And it is safe. It is functional. So how many times did we have engineer come out times as part of this? I believe three three times. Three times. And they missed it. They miss it. Well, so they didn't miss it. The engineers, they didn't miss it. How did that go through then at 70ome,000? They're adding 60% to their bid. So, we had asked the engineers up front, what are the options in terms of repairing what was there? Um, until he started taking the mortar

129out between the rock. Nobody sampled it. You would have to ask the engineers that. Well, that's that's what I'm trying to get at. I know. And that's why we wanted to make sure that we had the engineers come out again and again because we're not the experts. The engineers are Did we pay those engineers? Yes. Yes. And we got this bid that's now 60% higher. Now I'm with Scott Olsen. I mean, there might have been other companies that maybe knew the whole thing and maybe gave a different bid and didn't get it because this one was so low. Am I right? We we reviewed those bids again, did we not, Mr. Lucas? Yes, you did. and um and we looked at it and and talked about all the various options including putting the project back

130out to bid. You have some timing issues that that make that difficult. Plus, I don't I don't know that we believe that you'll be assured of getting a lower price if you have to start over with a new contractor. How much have we spent on them so far just based on the work they've done? The um you mean the gentleman, the Santa company? Yes. Yes, ma'am. Um they gave us a progress billing for a little over $17,000. The full amount then basically. No, no, no. 17. Oh, 17. I thought you said I thought you said 70. 17. No, no. 17. You know, I'm not big on setting precedents. You know, let's go bid at South Morton and we'll jack it up 60% later. We setting a precedent here. I This doesn't I'm Listen, look, I'm

131dumb as a rock about this stuff. I'm dumb as a stone brick. Dumb as a wall. I'm dumb as a wall. But no, I I I'm thinking that that is an excessive when I see change orders, I haven't seen them to that extent. I just feel now that it's open and exposed and we can see it, we got to have people look at it again. You know, go out for bid again. What are the timing restrictions? Well, you're working on a stadium project this this summer and you want to make sure that you can keep your place in line to to not have your project delayed. And so the the best way to make sure that that can happen in an orderly fashion is to have the repairs to the stone wall completed uh when

132the the field installation is uh set to occur. So, I was referring back to the the bid sheet when we initially did this and their price was very very low in comparison to the other bids. So, even with the change order, that only makes them the second least expensive. Did I say that right? So, the lowest bid right now is the 77,814. Then the second one was 98,000 all the way up to 294,000. So even with the change order at 122,000, there's only one bid that came in less than that. So we don't know what that change order would be for change order would be for somebody else. Stephanie, we don't know that. You can't assume that because they said they're going to do it. So one of the challenges was was we had to

133write the specs. That's what I'm saying. Yeah. The people at 98,000 may have known about this, right? It wasn't part of their bid. Are we guaranteed it's not going to exceed 44,000? Yes. Guaranteed. That's what it's written on the slip. Yep. It's not to exceed. They'll finish it no matter what if Yeah. Not to exceed. Yep. It's not. And then I guess that's the question. Did the 294,000 people know that that this was going to be a consideration as opposed to like cuz that's a pretty big variance of $216,000 in bids. Huge variance, right? But maybe like did one know something the other one didn't. I don't think Mr. trader can tell you more more so than me, but I don't think they discovered this until they actually took the cap off. Memory serves me

134correctly, right? The cap and the mortar. And you know, just a a very very simple analogy would be if you go to the dentist to have your teeth cleaned, you know, it's typically a $100 project. And once they start into it and they're going and going, they said, "You know what? We found three or four teeth that are going to have to have root canals. Do you want us to proceed? Do you want us to pull the teeth? Do you want us to get dentures? And that's kind of what this is. You wouldn't know what this was until you structurally got underneath and started taking out mortar. And that's kind of where we're at. And these were our engineers, not hired by not recommended by them. Correct. That is correct. This agenda item reads due

135to deteriorating stone. Wasn't that the reason we got this wall done? Deteriorating stone. No, it was a mortar. Actually the shell. Yeah. So there's there's limestone and there's shell. So the shell is what's deteriorating. But it says I mean when we talked about this wall, people kept saying it's deteriorating. You kept saying that was the cap pointing. That was Yeah, that that what people were saying was deteriorating was the cap, the cement cap that was falling apart. Well, I heard the word deteriorating and that's why Yeah, that was the that was the top cap. Oh, I don't think this is Now they got into the building Legos and the building Legos themselves are deteriorating. Very good. That's a good way. Well, nobody knew that they actually fill it with mortar. They filled it with crap.

136So, and now it's all falling apart. Like it I mean, how long has it been there? For like ever. Oh, it's probably dates. Probably since the junior high was there. Wow. Probably getting close to 100 years old. I would like to know though how they came up with the round amount of 400 square foot if I mean and what you can explain it again. I think you you talked about the engineer testing it correct? Yeah the engineer tested they actually marked the areas that they thought were could be bad up to 400 ft. That's how they arrived at that price of a not to exceed price. Okay. And and with all of this, they're going to be putting in new drain new drains if it needs to drain. Yes, with the original project and now

137this ch this change order. Yeah, we've not really had a problem with the drainage on the wall. You know, I mean, there's pipes in the wall, right? They seem to be functioning. This is all due to the mortar and the fact that some of that shell is deteriorating, which is expected over time. Pardon me. Which is expected over time, I guess. for that many years. You expect that it's normal wear and tear. Oh, absolutely. That I'm sure that rock walls play in 30s or 40s, you know, and most walls would be sandstone. This would be limestone because limestone's indigenous to here. How the shell got mixed in that that's basically fill. But that's what we're dealing with. And they are going to, you know, the air bad areas. I'll dig this bad stone out and

138put new stone in place of it. So, we're being asked to vote on something that the engineers missed. This company made a bid without looking, and now they're looking. This is the Keystone Cops. Let's just get it done. Keystone cops. I don't even know what that analogy means. She said Keystone Cops. That's awesome. All right. Uh, on to the vote. All those in favor? Roll call. Roll call, please. Roll call vote, please. Call my name first because I don't know what to do. Dr. Fe. Oh, did you say my name? No. First. No. Mr. Friend? Yes. Mrs. Guyer? Yes. Mr. Graia? Yes. Mrs. Oier? No. Mr. Olsen? No. Mr. Shipley is absent. Mr. No. Mr. Yutsy? No. Okay. Three to five. So now, how do we proceed? Uh, will can I regroup with your solicitor

139or with your Excuse me. I was like, isn't that you? He has a suggestion. He'd like to I make a motion we put it out for a bit again so the next company knows what's happening there. So, what I what I'd recommend is is we make sure I mean I I want to repent. I feel this. I think you could you could make that motion and we'll see what you know whether or not there are five people. I had one question for you. They say they're they're going to bill us 17,000. They went into this job. Apparently they didn't look at it good enough. So is there any way we can refuse them payment? Well, so I I wouldn't do that. They Yeah. I mean, one thing I'm going to say is if there's potential

140litigation, we should be discussing this. The work they've done actually already started. I mean, I I think that they're entitled to the work to payment for the work that they have done. I I think that that there is a very good argument that this was not discoverable. Believe me, we went through this whole analysis of was this something that should have been part of any of the bids. We don't think it was part of any of the bids because it wasn't discoverable. So um we have already kind of had this discussion with the contractor before in terms of whether they continued their work which is how we came to the change order. So um I actually think that it would be good for you to have for for administration to have direction from the board

141as to whether or not they want to go back out because the board's going to have to advertise this really quick to try to make that that time frame. Yeah. really quick so that we can get the schedule for put it out for bid now, but we have to ask for citizen comments before we do. Exactly. Does anyone have a public comment on the motion that we anticipate? Well, I guess Mr. already did. Yeah. Yeah. Uh did we get a second on that motion? I'll second. Yeah. Any public comment specifically? I'm not I mean I guess it can be public right now too, but specifically like in in this particular change order from Sander Brothers like there's nothing in there that says what they're actually doing and that's why I voted no personally. Like it

142just says that replacement of failing wall stones. Well, that was already in the $70,000 work that was going to be done. So, the only thing I would want to say, and obviously the board's already voted on the change order, is the the putting it back out to bid, the specs are going to have to require that the work be done ASAP. And so, it's worth saying to the board, I don't know that you're going to get a better number. And as long as everybody understands that, we'll put it out. Okay. Might get a better number. We might. I'm just saying, you know, and what's it going to read when we put it out? Well, it's going to read that the work has to be done before June 1st. No, but I'm saying, but what has

143to be done? Because that's what I I'm I'm saying going back. I would love for it to be June 1st, but our next board meeting is May 22nd. Um, so you're not hold time out, please. You're not understanding what I'm saying though in my public comment. You don't have to make a public comment. Whatever comment, board comment, public comment, either way, Stephanie, you're correct. It has to be put out, what they has to be done. Regardless, it does they have to know what come what they have to the end result has to be. Yes. You're going to ask basically know what this but we got to do three weeks. He's going to eat it. So, I mean, we put the What's the second thing that you're going to get involved in is these guys are

144all so busy. You're not going to get anybody to come in and bid. They can't do it. Probably not. So, and and we don't know what they've already done, unfortunately. One that takes us to Why wouldn't we get this guy in, sit down and talk to him? Like, there's nothing specific on this 7:30. Well, if you look back at their original bid, too, it does say what they initially, you know, their bid initially. Right. Right. Yes. I know that part, but yeah. In order for work to progress, how we need it to progress, we would have to do a a special meeting. That was already the the week of May 5th. just for this one item. No, the doesn't say wall stones. It says labor and materials to repair stone wall. I guess go for

145it. Now we need to vote on the motion. That's uh CWC. So, can I finish my comment? Sorry. Yes. Thanks. So, for on this previous change order that we voted it down, it only states about failing wallstones. Nothing about shell, nothing about anything, putting having to throw mortar in, nothing like that. So, it needs to be more specific cuz I don't understand like 400 ft² not to exceed 400 ft. Well, that's great, but why does 400 ft actually why does that is what's needs to be fixed like that? That's what I'm not understanding. Yeah, the 400. Where did you come up with that number? 400 ft uh square foot number came from the engineer that brought the specialized equipment out to test the stone. Then we should have that in front of us. Have what

146in front of you? Have that report in front of us so we know that we're not we're not getting jacked over with this $44,000. This is by the engineer that missed it, right? I mean, Mr. Trader has that. Well, I think it's like, you know, and Dr. Like you had said earlier, you don't I'm not knowledgeable in construction, but I watch enough HGTV to know that when you get into the interior of the house, they always find something that they weren't expecting. And I kind of feel like this is what happened is they couldn't see this until they got in there and dug around. So, I don't think it was deceptive on anybody's part. We'll work with either. We need to have that information in front of us. We'll work with the engineer to make

147sure that the specifications are very detailed concerning what needs to to happen. I mean, at this point, the contractors who want to bid on this should come on site and be able to look at it themselves now because that's been exposed. So, presumably, it should be, I would think, and tell me if you think differently, Mr. This is $100,000 for a wall for stone that's holding up basically the grass and the dirt and the water at the stadium and the bleachers and the bleachers. That's I said the stands but so it's a lot of money still when you're just specifying as wall stones failing wall stones got to get better with this and we need to make sure that whatever method this company was going to do that's what we ask of the three. So

148we're looking at apples to apples. We don't want all three doing a different process, right? We got to decide now what do we want? Do we want we want smemed board? We want block. What do we want? And then all three companies bid that same thing. I mean, if somebody comes and tells me they're going to put a fence up around my property for 44,000, not going to exceed 400 ft. I got a lot of questions. So yeah, we need something better than this. Okay. So you need a vote on the motion to put it out to bid. Okay. We put the motion stating that waiting for your specifications from whoever what engineer did you include that in the bid company give you that responsibility? I mean yeah but it doesn't have to be in

149the order or in the um so just to clarify how is this new timeline going responsibility on you all of our sports. Right. Well, if if I'm if I'm thinking about the timeline, if I'm thinking about the timeline, hold on. They're not I I would rather they I know less about rock balls than you do. I promise. Oh, you're in trouble. If I think about the timeline of what's going h what's going to have to happen. Last time we had to try to get uh the engineer to come out, it took about a week. So, by the time the engineer comes out, let's say it is April, what is today? The 15th. Let's say it's April 22nd, we get something back. Um that's very specific in terms of what we need to post. Um we

150will post it on the 22nd. We have to have it posted for 3 weeks. Uh so that takes us 22nd to the 29th is one week. 29th to the 6th is another week. 6 to the 13th is the third week. Um so we would need to have a board meeting for a special voting meeting. um which we already have uh finance transportation district operations meeting Thursday that week anyways. Okay. You could just add a voting item item onto that agenda. Is that true, Mr. Lucas? Yes. That's a public meeting anyhow. It's public meeting anyhow. Right. Yep. We just have to advertise it as a voting meeting. We just need to make sure that we have a solicit. What date is that? What's the date on that? Thursday the 15th of May. Yes. So So then,

151so then we we you hopefully approve a contractor on the 15th. They probably start work. I doubt they would start work the next day. They would probably start work that following week, right? Weather dependent because it's spring. Then we're getting into the week of I mean, you're only gaining a week, right? Yeah. if you award on the 15th versus the 22nd in a week. That's it. I mean, I don't know that there's necessarily if that's a deal breaker. I mean, we can do it. I'm just saying. So, regardless, let's say that they don't get done with the wall until mid June instead of June 1st. MidJune would be fortunate, I think. Um, that pushes everything back. Uh, our teams will still be able to practice probably through the first two weeks of June. And then

152once the turf company starts their work, they need 16 days to do that work. And I also will not have any of any of the teams or the marching band down there practicing when they're redoing the um the lights or the scoreboard as well, just because it's not safe, right? So, they're probably going to be off of that um turf uh the second half of June and pretty much all of July and hopefully have everything done, wrapped up, and ready to go for the first week of August. if if everything goes okay. Okay. So, I just I just want to recap here. So, we're already paying $17,000. Now, we're paying there's going to be more because they've they've done more work since we've paid them that 17. Then, we're going to pay the engineer to

153come back out. Then, we're going to pay to advertise for new bids. Then, we're going to pay the solicitor to come to a special meeting. And then we're maybe going to get a bid that's lesser or not less because the bids we already have this we know that this is still well below the amount of bids that we got for this. But we got a better chance of getting a quality job now. How do you know that this guy doesn't do quality work? Huh? How do you know that he does not do quality work? He doesn't have X-ray vision. Before he before he knew what was there. Taran, what you you're getting involved in an old thing and you're trying to redo it and and you're going to have change orders. You're going to fool

154around. I'll bet you this project, he won't be done and you'll be lucky to get a contractor to bid on it. These guys are all busy. The second thing is you won't have this project done with this wall until probably the 1st of August, which then affects all of our sports teams. We're going to waste all this money chasing. So, let's just go back and give it to this guy. let our people that work with these people work with them and get the job done. So, you're voting for us to keep this mess on our hands and just go. I think you can't fault the contractor. It's a mess, Stephanie. It's a mess. This is our mess. I I think you can't fault the contractor for not seeing something that you couldn't physically see until

155you took it apart. Yeah. Dig. You do core samples. But none of them thought that thought that that's not None of them had this building. Does this wall have a back? Isn't there a back? No, it straight to the ground. Have you been to the You can't dig down behind the back of this wall. No, I don't think you should. I don't. You shouldn't. You shouldn't. All right. I just think that this is going to end up costing us way more money. Yes, we are on the vote on it. Should have came through the first time correctly. What's that? And it should have came through the first time correctly. Vote is a vote to vote on to put it out for bid. This is to put it out for bid. Is this voice vote or

156roll call? Roll call, please. Mr. Friend, yes. Mrs. Guyer. Yeah. I mean, what else can we do? Mr. Graia? No. Mrs. Oier? Yes. Mr. Olsen? Yes. Mr. Shiplant. Mr. Zipper? Yes. Mr. Yutsy? Yes. Dr. Fike? Yes. All right. Thank you. I think we also need to be cognizant that when we recognize these bids that we can't just say, "Oh, this bid came in at $120,000 because some of the work's already been completed by this company." So, it's really going to be hard to compare apples to oranges when this these bids are walking in with the knowledge of seeing behind the scenes that the first biders didn't have. Yeah. Well, I I mean, I think the original company will be able to bid Sure. again. Yeah. So, it's it's kind of you're right. I mean, I

157personally think they should just be more specific on what you're doing. What work are you doing? Like replacement of failing wall stones. Well, duh. I mean, but what what failing wall stones? All right. Next section. Uh, next section is athletics and activities. Hosting of bids for athletic equipment. So do the board has asked to approve the posting for bids for athletic equipment for the 2025 2026 school year. So moved. Need a second. Second discussion. Okay. I I need to get a life. I actually read this thing. There are 11 pages of items listed. This is what they are. Athletic trainer, 30 items. Football, three items. Soccer, six items. Golf, five, girls soccer, seven, volleyball, two track, six, wrestling, four, tennis, three, girls basketball two. That's what the sports are. The athletic trainer list is 30

158items and the other ones are 2, three, four, five. It just struck me as very unusual. Like I said, I have to get a life. Why do we supply our athletic trainer with items? Three items for football. That struck me. Yeah, they have they buy things like boofreeze and Yeah, probably probably things that are consumables, bandages, ice packs, things like that that are consumables as opposed to like a football that you don't consume. No, I'm just I'm just saying cuz they're contracted out. We have a contract with who do we have with Excel? Excel. No, Independent South. It's Independent South. It's Independent South for the person, not Right. Right. Gotcha. Yeah. Um, so this is stuff that say anybody can go to the nurse to get, correct? These are supplies that our student athletes go

159to the trainer to get, right? Like they have um this equipment, ace bandages, they have um tape, they have chest cover kits, and sorry, I'm not trying to be rude. I know all that. Like I I I see the list and stuff. I'm just trying to understand or allow our public to understand why our athletic trainer needs 30 supplies. Well, they service every sport. So, lots of kids, uh, lots of different usages, um, lots of different injuries. This is Okay. So, this is stuff, these 30 items are what this athletic trainer should have on hand at all times. That's what I just wanted to get to. Yeah. Yeah. Like as a coach, I always have my first aid kit filled. Yeah. So, um, and I think our contract with Independence is probably for the person,

160not the supplies. Yeah. Really, it's not equipment. It's like accessories. Well, I think it's necessary. They would call it equipment. That's what they would call it. A lot of it's necessary. Yeah. Right. It should have read that. It should necessary athletic equipment. Equipment. Yeah. I think an ace bandage is more necessary than All right. Uh on to the vote. All those in favor? Opposed? No. No. Uh next section is closing exercises. Uh citizens comments. Captain Pike. Is that the only one? Okay. Yes. That's signed up for the end. We can open it up after you're done. just go. [Music] Mr. Lucas, you don't want to ask me that question again. Not tonight. Ret tired. Okay. Um, for a long time I've been deeply concerned that there is no long range plan for this school district.

161And if you pay attention to the meetings, you'll see a lot of discussion, presentations, proposals, and so forth. But in the end, the only thing that really matters are what are the facts, what are the truth. I have grave concerns about what is happening here. The 2025, sorry, the 202526 district budget as reported at the public budget meeting will be over $37 million. A huge increase from the one we have this year. At the same time, the board the majority of board members voted to put South Morland in total debt of $32.3 million. I looked at that ratio. The budget's 37 million. The debt is 32.3 million. I don't like that ratio. Of the most recent addition of adding the $19 million to the existing $16.5 million present level of debt, not one cent of

162that $19 million is for education. Not one cent. The superintendent recently gave us a report and my information is from this report. South Morning School District's ratio to teachers to students overall is we have one teacher to every 18 students. According to the research that he presented, our achievement level should be absolutely wonderful because this this kind of recommended class size really produces great results. At the middle school, that ratio is significantly lower. As announced at the last public budget meeting, the South Morning School District projected tax increase will be the maximum, the highest level allowed according to law or act one. That's what we were told. If more money is needed, it will have to be taken from our savings account, which is called a fund balance. The South Morland school board president stated

163at a public u uh budget meeting, South Morland's uh financial state is wonderful. We're in great financial state condition. Uh but all I want to point this out now all incumbents up for reelection have voted for our increased debt, the newest increase of $19 million. There's an upcoming election in May. Now is the opportunity that exists for the people to speak for themselves as to what they think about how our school district is being handled and what the future may hold for them. I didn't know this was a political tell me you're a bully without telling me you're a bully. Um before we adjourn, I do want to ask a question. Um, it goes back to the um, athletic supplies. Have we always bought 24 cheerleading uniforms? I think it's their I think it's their

164year for new uniforms. It's their cycle. Correct. It's their year in the cycle. Then they don't fund raise for that. We buy uniforms for our other sports. Right. Maybe every every sport has a cycle, correct? To where like football gets a new uniform, but then I think if they want additional uniforms, the boosters could supply additional uniforms. But we do provide a uniform for our sports on a rotating cycle. So that every so many years, soccer gets one. It's not like everybody gets new uniforms all the time. It's every this many years. And then typically then the middle school kids seem to get the high school ones. And I'm just saying I know cheerleing uniforms can be very expensive. Nothing against cheerleaders, nothing against the cheer team, whatever, but they can be extremely expensive. Also,

165if they fund raise for their own uniform, they can keep them. So, so the other thing too, the cheer I just I only know from experience the cheerleaders do buy their own shoes which are usually like um $80 and then they have to buy the hair bows and warm-ups and jackets like so the parents are paying for and fundraising for all of those things specifically for cheerleading. So, okay, maybe that's something that we could also look into. I mean, maybe we need to do that across all sports. Yeah, but I'm just giving out throwing out an option of possibly having to cut something. Uh, any other citizens comments? So, I just want to go back to the budget presentation. Um, you had stated that if you went to the 3.46 mills, the average person home

166would be $3.39 a month. I quickly went through and did an assessment on the properties that I own, which are four, and none of them were below that number. my farm um is at $7.98. So then I took um what the school taxes were in 2017 as to what they would be proposed if you went with a 3 um 46 and there's a difference of almost $700 from 2017 to 2025. That that's a pretty significant number. and um some people might not be able to do that. So then I went to another farm in the area and their assessed value is way over mine. Um their monthly would be 17.25. They're already paying over 5,000 572442 in school taxes. So increasing that by 206 would almost take them to 6,000. So from 2017 to 2025,

167that's an increase of a little over 1450. So I mean, you can't when you're looking at these numbers, you need to look at a lot of people aren't at that 3.39. Like I said, three of my properties don't even come close to that. So you need to take into consideration everybody. And it seems like from just two farms that I looked at, they're taking a big hit. So then also understand who lives on those farms and um what this impact is to them. So why do I bring it up? Yes, I understand raising taxes has to happen. However, you have to be responsible with it with it and if you want to make improvements, you need to be able to budget for it and figure out how you're going to do it because raising taxes

168isn't fundraising. So, this is where our grants need to come in and this is where we need to look ahead because now you should be discussing, okay, we're replacing the turf now. When's it going to need replaced again? And then start planning how you're going to come up with that money and don't hit us all at one time because it's just not fair and some people can't afford it. Thank you. I need a motion to adjurnn. So moved. Second. All those in favor? I I