001Good evening. I'd like to call the Tuesday, May 26, Springford Area School District Board meeting to order. Please stand for the pledge of allegiance. >> Please rise for the pledge of allegiance. I pledge alce 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. The Springford Board of School Directors believes the community has the right to bring before the board issues and concerns they may have about items on the agenda or about items in general which affect the district or their children. Because of this belief and philosophy, the board will schedule a time at the beginning and conclusion of every meeting to have an opportunity for community members to share their concerns with the board. At the
002start of the meeting, members from the public may comment on agenda items only. The school board will move through the meeting agenda. Then at the end, when prompted, there will be a time for public comment. This meeting is being filmed to be broadcast on community cable channels and online. Individuals intending to make public comments should be aware that they are being filmed. Speakers will be asked to state their name in the area in which you reside before your comment. >> Good evening everyone. Thank you for attending our meeting tonight. Uh Mrs. Schmidt, could I please have a roll call? Tonight in person we have Dr. Wright, Mrs. Westwood, Ms. Wearden, Mrs. Deardorf, Mr. Lackey, Mrs. Herman's, and Dr. Sharma. Sorry. And then online, we have Mrs. Goldsmith, and Mrs. Yut. >> Thank you very much.
003Um, I do have one announcement this evening. The board met in executive session tonight at 6:30 to discover to discuss a personnel and a student matter. Dr. Birkhart, do you have any announcements? >> Not at the moment. >> Uh that brings us to section two, public to be heard on agenda items only. Uh is anybody a member of the public that would like to speak to the board tonight about anything on our agenda? Seeing no one approaching the podium, we will move to section three, our presentations. The first one on our list is a a farewell to our student representative, Anukica. Anukica, it has been such a pleasure watching you grow throughout your the two years that I've known you here at Springford. Um, something that I have always said is that I I take
004a lot of pride in being part of the student representative selection process. Um, I really love getting to meet the students in that time and learning about um what impacts you guys the most and what you would like to see from the district and um it's just very special. Uh, you know, I feel like a mama bear over all of you and your accomplishments. Um, so you know, on behalf of myself and I'm sure there's other board members um that would like to say a few words, we are so proud of you. So excited for your journey. Um, and I know you will continue to make us proud at Case Western. So, thank you very much. >> Thank you. I really appreciate it. Uh, are there any other board members that would like to make
005a comment? >> Sure. as your as your previous board president, I would be remiss if I did not make a comment because it has been um amazing to work with you. I would say good luck in whatever endeavors are in store for you. But you don't need luck because you were a force to be reckoned with. um you know not just academically but socially, emotionally and I will tell you when you get in the real world it's that kind of um competency and the soft skills the relationship building that is really going to differentiate people who are academically strong from being true leaders and I know that that's exactly what you will be. So best of luck Anukica for now. >> Oh yeah, you can give it to her now. >> So Anukica, we have
006something here to thank you for your time and to remind you that when you're at Case Western where your roots are and that when you come home, you'll come visit us at the meetings and you'll tell us about all the wonderful things that you're accomplishing. So I'd like to bring that to you now and congratulate you and thank you. And I will just add we are nothing without our village and so thank you to your family for sharing you with us um and and all of that support too. So you supporting her in turn supports us and and we appreciate that. Yeah. Okay, we're gonna move Oh. >> Oh, yeah. I just wanted to say a few words. Um, thank you so much. I mean, I really couldn't have I couldn't have grown this much
007without everybody's love and support and guidance throughout these past two years. Um, I think serving as a school board representative has been definitely such an eyeopening experience. Seeing everything that our board um administration does for the school district is just so incredible. you guys are so dedicated to everything and I'm just um so grateful to have been an eyewitness to that. Um and I know Jason and Gavin are going to do such incredible things as our new school student board representatives and I'm really just grateful for this experience to have been able to be part of the administration. Thank you. >> Thank you. More class. >> Okay, so we will move on to our second presentation. I will welcome Mr. Kelly uh from Keswitz Music to uh present. No, you guys look confused. Yes. Okay.
008Okay. Hi. Welcome back. >> It's an honor to be Sorry about that. It's an honor to be here. Thank you for having me. Um, I'm here this evening not as a education representative from Zeswitz Music, but as an ambassador from the NAM Foundation to present uh the Springford Area School District for the 10th year in a row, the best communities for music education. Um, just a little bit of history um about the NM Foundation and why it exists and and what their their their plight is. 27 years ago, they they put together a program where school districts, charter schools, and private institutions uh could actually apply for this particular accolade, the best communities for music education. Uh it started out as a 20page application. Uh it is now up to 35 pages with indepth questions
009about what the community the the school district the community uh is being offered in terms of music education. The applications are reviewed by an independent outside entity. It's University of Kansas that reviews the applications. It is not just apply and you get it. There's 14,000 school districts across this the the country. 7,000 of them, just a little over 7,000 this year applied for it. Just over a thousand actually won the award. So it kind of puts you in a very elite class. um questions on the application, our uh performance opportunities, uh budgetary items, uh is our performance opportunities, uh rehearsal spaces and and what uh what the school district offers uh the community here. Band chorus and orchestra are all evaluated on their own entity. Um, it also goes into the elementary world because as
010we know that if students don't have a good time in that general music class in the elementary level, uh they're never going to progress to a musical instrument uh or or sing in in the chorus. Um I work with the staff here uh tirelessly. I can tell you that they are amazing people. Um you broadcast a lot of their concerts uh over the cable network. Uh again I see it at the very very beginning of the year when it's not so pleasant but they do work their magic um at the elementary level and then once they get into that middle level uh their their acumen for music starts to really thrive and then once they get here to the high school um they they put on some wonderful performances. I get to see that progression.
011Uh actually the progression starts Thursday night. We have our meet the instrument night for both band and and orchestra students. It's a very exciting night. Um hundreds of parents and students get the opportunity to touch, feel, and and honk on on that instrument. So, uh sorry that was a shameless plug for Thursday night, but still um it's a it it's it's an amazing process. So, having the opportunity to present uh spring forward this this award once again, some of the staff is here. Uh I'd like to commend them on a job. Well done. And I know that Miss Crew does a wonderful job of broadcasting this out, but I brought a little plaque along. It says, "We congratulate you, Springford Area School District, for outstanding support of music education, enriching the lives of children, and
012advancing student achievement." I will leave you with one more thing. If you would dig deep into PSSA scores, SAT scores, Keystone State scores, those students that are involved in music in some way, shape, or form perform on those tests very very well. It's a little known factoid there that I will share with you. Um, but if you dug really deep, uh, it's an amazing, uh, it's amazing statistic that those kids do. So, uh, I thank you on behalf of the NAM Foundation. Uh, congratulations, Springford. A job well done. Thank you. Do you want to go? Okay. I was going to say may you guys may not all want to walk all the way because the next is our 2025 2026 music department achievement presentation. This is always such a great evening because we get to
013celebrate all of the music that happens. Uh, thank you so much. And we get to highlight some of our students who go above and beyond. Uh, one of the things that we're very fortunate to have at the high school is an honors program within our curriculum. And several of our honors students apply and audition for district uh honors ensembles which are through PME and that's the first level of these honors festivals. There are three tiers and it starts with districts and moves to regions and then potentially to all states. And we had one student uh from the band this year make the district band. District 11 band is Bucks and Montgomery County. And there are gosh, I'd say over a thousand students that audition for that ensemble. It's a really elite group. And at the
014end of that process, they select the students to form this honor band. They get to play under the conducting um of some really fantastic individuals and they come back with great skills. Uh and that individual this year was Connor Knap playing clarinet. Conor's a senior. Yeah. Come on up, Conor. Congratulations. We need a picture of this. We got >> Does that work from that camera or? Yes. Okay, great. Congratulations. >> All right. And not in the board minutes because I truthfully forgot about this one. There was a completely new entity of uh district band this year. It's the first ever district 11 again Bucks and Montgomery County was the district jazz band. And we were really fortunate this year we had again multiple students audition and we had five make the district jazz band for
015the first ever year from Springford. And a couple of them are here this evening as well. Uh the students come on over guys. Students that are here this evening are Benjamin Lewis and Braden Roach, but we also had Bella Jones make it as well as Jose Vil Gomez Aguilera and Chase Hansen. So, congratulations to those folks. Stand. Thank you so much. >> Good evening. Uh I'm Joe Perry, the middle school choir director, one of the middle school choir directors, and I'm here on behalf of Mrs. OD, who's feeling under the weather, uh just to recognize our core students who reach the district level in the PMA adjudication process. Uh district 11 choir is one of the most competitive districts in the entire state because we have other districts where they can't even fill the number
016of spots in the roster. It's a very very competitive round here. Uh these students could not be here tonight, but I wanted to publicly recognize Yoshita Kunarupu and Grayson Dryberg for their successful auditioning into the District 11 choir. Hi, I'm Emily McGran. I'm the orchestra director here at the high school. And this past year we had three students successfully audition into district orchestra and then also into region orchestra. So at region orchestra there are four regions in the state and they take the top 10 from each region to make the all state. And from region orchestra we had our first orchestra student ever make all state Andrew Stein. So, I'd like to invite my three students, Andrew Yu, Khloe Chen, who are both seniors, and Andrew S up, and I have your certificates. These three
017have been truly instrumental into helping propel the select strings into being able to do some really great activities in the past two years. They're fantastic workers. And if you didn't know, we performed at the Phillies game this past Friday night, and it is thanks to these three helping everybody else and just building up the group. So, thank you so much, So before everybody leaves, um kind of the board has been wanting to stay consistent. If we could just have a fist bump from everybody so that we could um just line up and so that we can congratulate you all. Um it' be great to see your your faces up close and personal. >> I'm the president. Bring my go for that. Thank you so much to all of our students and staff and family members
018for supporting our amazing musicians. It's just another um point of pride that I know that we all have constantly uh for you guys. So, thank you guys so much. Okay, sorry. Okay, we have no action items because this is our voting meeting. So, we will go to uh section five board and committee reports. Our first one is our student representative report. >> Thank you and good evening everyone. This is our May student rep report. Also my last one, so let's hope it's really good. Going into our past events, um on April 24th, we had the middle school play for Rogu's Gallery. Um unfortunately, I wasn't able to attend, but I heard it was an amazing show and everybody did such an incredible job. And then we had senior prom on April 25th, which I was
019able to attend and it was really, really fun. So, I hope everyone had a great time and was able to show off their best dresses. Um, and then we also had the class of 2026 impact awards on April 29th. Senior decision day was on May 1st. The Festival of Arts was on May 1st and May 2nd. And then we had AP exams running from May 4th to May 15th. So, congratulations to all students that were able to get their AP exams. Um, the high school and middle school orchestra concert was on May 5th. The spring coral concert was on May 8th. And the high school middle school um band concert was on May 13th. And then senior academic recognition was on May 14th. And then finally, we had our 12th annual Spring Forward 5K run
020um on May 15th. So now I'm going to pass it over to Jason for our future events. >> Thank you. >> For our future events, uh there's not much left. The school year is almost over, but uh tomorrow, May 27th, there's no school for students um for Eid. Uh the senior final exams begin today and end on Friday the 29th. Underclassman final exams start next week on Monday, June 1st until Thursday, June 4th. The class of 2026 commencement ceremony is on June 3rd at 7 p.m. And the last day of school for all students is on June 4th. Thank you. >> Thank you, Jason. And just a few reminders, continue to read the weekly update for districtwide news. Um, for all students, come on, finish your assignments and finish off the school year strong. And
021then I hope everybody has a wonderful summer break. Um, and I just want to tell the board again, thank you for all the kind words. This has truly been such an incredible experience, and I'm really sad to be leaving, but grateful for the experience. Thank you. >> Thank you both. Uh, our next committee report is the Western Montgomery Career and Technology Center joint operating committee with Mrs. Herman's. >> Thank you. Uh, so first I want to thank all the board members that attended the most recent JOC meeting on May 4th. Um, as the committee knows, I've been making announcements about this over the past few months that this was a committee of the whole, which means all 27 board members from Upper Perkymen, Potts Grove, as well as Springford were invited to hear some very
022critical presentations. There was great representation from Upper Perk and Potts Grove. It was really um and of course the deliciousness of the uh food that was of course made by our very talented culinary students at the Western Center. Um, so thank you for that. the uh presentations that we discussed at this meeting. Number one was a review of the feasibility study. So uh just as springboard has gone through our capital planning uh process, the Western Center is also in the process of doing the same with the same partners uh GKO architects that we leverage here at Springford. So there was conversations around goals, enrollment analysis. We reviewed two possible site additions. There was discussion around uh the purpose of a gymnasium which the western center does not have in spite of having PE be a
023requirement for students. Uh they do very well there. Mr. English does very well there to make do with what they have. But um there was discussion around the gymnasium and not just for purposes of potential um you know programming but also for purposes of potential revenue creation. Um so it was a really interesting conversation. Um we also discussed what additional programs because this is one of the goals of the feasibility study is to discuss how can we increase enrollment reduce the weight list and possibly bring on new programs. One of the programs that we discussed was the addition of heavy equipment. So there's going to be more analysis and surveys that is being done with this but that seems to be the direction that the administration at the Western Center would like to go. Of
024course more discussion needs to be had. The second presentation we had was a review of the articles of agreement and how um distribution of funds and funding for CTC's differ from what we know here at springboard and other public education institutions. Um, so we reviewed that and discussed the need to likely have more conversations um, as a committee of the whole come the fall and maybe even the first quarter of next year because obviously this is going to impact right the the way that the funding is going to impact the ability to move forward with the capital planning process. So more to come but it was definitely an introduction. I would consider it finance 101 for CTC's. Um, so get caught up because we'll be talking about it a lot more in the coming year.
025Uh, the next thing is as it relates to acceptance letters and applications. All acceptance letters have been sent out. There were 361 total applications. 221 were uh accepted. So, um, you can see here the importance of the the fact that we want to reduce that weight list. There's about 140 students that were put on weight list. And again, weight list just means that if someone is unable or decides not to take it, will bring somebody else on. Um, and I know Mr. Living Good, who is actually in our building tonight because we have the Western Center ceremony that is happening in the auditorium, would say that he would take every student if he could, if we had capacity to do that from a personnel, from a facility standpoint. So, um, there's no lack of demand
026for what is going on over there at Western. The last thing is that we have a hiring update. So, I believe I mentioned this in the last meeting that our principal and assistant principal at the Western Center are both moving on to uh, promotions outside of the uh, Western CTC. So, Mr. Robinson is the head principal and he is moving I think it's the um North Monco don't hold me to that north but anyway moving to another CTC as the executive director so it's a wonderful opportunity for him and we are in the process of hiring principles and assistant principles so I know second round interviews are happening this week for a new principal at Western so we'll see some new faces coming very soon any questions >> I think it's central >> central yes
027>> thank you I have no questions Anybody else? No. Okay. Uh, next we have our legislative report. I know Mrs. Yut is on uh teams. Mrs. Y, do you have a report? I do. I was unable to attend the meeting on May 6th, but I do have some notes from that meeting. Um I can say that uh Representative Tim Briggs was um in session for that meeting and some of the key highlights from that discussion included um advancement for the cell phone in schools bill. Um it's expected that when legislature returns after the primary that the third and final version will be approved. Um, Representative Briggs also said that there was, excuse me, strong advocacy to advance that bill. Um, there was also movement um that the House had sent the Senate sent to the
028Senate the Childline bill and that has um something to do with artificial intelligence and deep fakes. And this would require schools to immediately send information to law enforcement and do a childline report if it affects any of our students in school. Um the house does return back to session on Monday, June 1st. The budget is expected to pass much sooner than last year. However, they do they are experiencing significant changes surrounding that. Um they need to deal with the mass mass transit challenge. Um there's need to address challenges due to federal funding changes including food insecurity, Medicare and Medicaid and rural hospital funding. Um the inability to deal with the new revenues has um has brought about some frustrations. Um the concept of the new the tax the billionaires was noted during the meeting. Um,
029America 250 celebrations will affect budget decisions because of the congestion that will be happening in Harrisburg. Um, and um, some other tidbits was that they were discussing a question about recess and um, it was confirmed that that will not be brought up to legislation as of now. Um and they discussed things about how artificial intelligence can be have pros and cons for teachers and teaching and privacy issues. Um and increased conversations were expanded on or were talked about expanding cameras for safe street crossings. So there's a pilot program underway in Philadelphia and there is a community group in King of Prussia that is studying this concept for its effect on speeding. um of course making our children safer during um boarding and on boarding the school buses and getting home and to school. Um that's
030all I have for that report. Our next meeting is June 2nd at 6 PM and that will be held virtually. Do I have any questions? >> No questions. Okay. Thank you so much, Mrs. Yut. Next, we have the Pennsylvania Schoolboard Association update with uh Mrs. Goldmith. >> Hi. Just a quick update. Uh PSBA did put out in one of their bulletins an update that Governor Shapiro uh did sign Senate Bill 375 into law, which is referred to as Greg Moyer's law. And this is going to establishes the expanded AED, CPR, and cardiac emergency preparedness requirements for Pennsylvania schools and their athletic programs. So, if we need that um to look at that, I'm assuming we can look at that in policy if there needs to be some amendments. >> Thank you so much. Are there
031any questions for Mrs. Goldmith? Okay. Uh next we'll move on to E Spring City American Legion with Mr. Lackey. >> Thank you. Uh Spring City American Legion met on April 30th. I've got no updates to bring back to the board at this time. We meet again this Thursday at the Burough Hall. That concludes my update. >> Thank you. Uh, next we have our superintendence report. >> Thank you. Um, over the past few weeks I've been able to attend a variety of events across the district that have allowed me to meet students, staff, and families. And for the most part, all of the events were very exciting. And I will agree with Mr. Kelly that the concerts have been spectacular to say the least. Probably some of the best I've ever seen from the very beginning
032of the elementary process all the way up to and concluding with the high school performance. Simply, simply amazing. Some of the other events, uh, I've attended some of the several Olympic days and field day events, the excitement of the competitions and extreme weather here in PA. Oaks had a wonderful 95 degree oven for their Olympic day, and then that ranged to sunny and then somewhat cold and rainy days for the other buildings. Nonetheless, each day was full of energy and a special thank you to the parents who came out to support the students and volunteered. I do think my favorite event was when the students were passing the water over their head to fill the jug, not realizing they could just turn around and pass it, but they were having fun. I also attended the
033annual Spring Forge senior athletic celebration. The families of our student athletes had the opportunity to celebrate their achievements along with the school district personnel and to thank them for their dedication to our district and our teams. It goes without saying the senior class accomplished a great deal during their time here at Springford and they made sure that Mr. Muscavage made the announcements during the CLA or during the uh ceremony. We also celebrated our 2026 senior commencement awards. This night had over 200 scholarships awarded to our students. It was an amazing event to hear the presenters share the history of the awards and announcing the students name for who was receiving the scholarship. Often many times it was a surprise. I don't have an official total for the money awarded that night. However, if I had
034to give you a guess, it would be in the seven figure range. Last week, I was invited to the annual cupcake wars held was a joint venture between our family consumer science and our technology education class. Mrs. Lesner and Mr. Fickert work together to make cupcakes and build structures honoring landmarks from across the district to display their cupcakes. Once judged, the students were permitted to indulge in their work and very creative and very tasty. I for one indulge in the funfetti cupcake and if you're invited next year, I recommend you attend. I was also able to attend our high school transition breakfast where we celebrate our students who go into the community to work at various businesses. I enjoyed talking with our students and learning about the jobs that there were favorites. And a very
035big thank you to our partners who work with our students. And finally, another highlight of the past few weeks was sitting down and talking with our students. At this point, I've been able to meet with students from grades 10 through 12 building and the eighth grade center. I learned a lot about meeting with our administrative team and talking with our teachers over the past few weeks. But talking with the students has provided me with more with some additionalformational insight like how much they don't like their gym shirts. I believe they referred to themselves as looking like minions. Honestly, it was a great time to talk with them and I look forward to meeting with more of the students as we grow closer to the end of the year. And that would conclude my report. >>
036Thank you so much, Dr. Burkheart. I have um heard a complaint or two myself about the gold gym shirts. Uh, thank you. Um, next up we have our solicitor's report with Ms. Pierce. >> Thank you. Good evening. And no report tonight. >> Okay, moving right along. So, this will bring us to our voting portion of our meeting. So, get your mics ready. Mrs. Goldsmith and Mrs. Yut, I will call on you individually for your votes. And I will do Goldsmith and then Yut um just because that's what I'm used to. Uh, so section six minutes um items A through B. Do I have a motion? >> So moved. >> Do I have a second? >> A second. >> Questions and discussion? All those in favor say I. >> I. >> Any opposed? >> Mrs. Goldmith,
037what is your vote? >> I. >> Mrs. Yut, what is your vote? I, >> Mrs. Yut, what is your vote? >> I That motion passes 90. Uh, section seven, finance items A through Y. Do I have a motion? >> So moved. >> Do I have a second? >> Second. >> Questions and discussion? Okay. All those in favor say I. I. >> I. >> Any opposed? Did I say I? Sorry. I. Any opposed? Mrs. Goldmith, what is your vote? >> I. >> Mrs. Yut, what is your vote? >> I. >> That motion passes. 90. Hold on while I get to that page. Okay, that brings us to section 8, personnel items A through L. Do I have a motion? >> So move. >> Do I have a second? >> Second. >> Questions and discussion. All those
038in favor say I. >> I. Any opposed? Mrs. Goldsmith. What is your vote? >> I, >> Mrs. Yut, what is your vote? >> I. >> That motion passes 90.2. Thanks for that. >> Yes. >> So, first we'd like to recognize Karen Henry. She's retiring as our transportation coordinator. She is three years of service at Spring Forward and over 21 years in public education. So, we want to congratulate her on her time. And then we'd like to welcome Molly Smith Wood who's in our audience tonight. She was just appointed through your vote as our special um education supervisor fifth, sixth, and seventh grade center. So Molly, welcome to Molly and to your beautiful family in the audience. Congratulations to all of you. Thank you so much. Okay, moving to section nine, programming and curriculum items A
039through J. Do I have a motion? >> So moved. >> Do I have a second? >> Second. >> Questions and discussion. All those in favor say I. >> I. >> Any opposed? >> Mrs. Goldsmith, what is your vote? I Mrs. Yut, what is your vote? >> I. >> That motion passes 90. >> Section 10, conferences and workshops. We have none, which brings us to section 11, property items A through D. Do I have a motion? >> So moved. >> Do I have a second? >> Second. >> All those in favor say I. I >> I Any opposed? >> Mrs. Goldsmith, what is your vote? >> I >> Mrs. Yut, what is your vote? >> I. >> That motion passes 90. That brings us to section 12. Other business. Item A is for first read. Uh
040which brings us to items B through G. Do I have a motion? >> So moved. Do I have a second? >> Second. >> All those in favor? >> I I >> I. Any opposed? >> Mrs. Goldsmith, what is your vote? >> I. >> Mrs. Yut, what is your vote? >> I. >> That motion passes. 90. Section 13,formational items. We don't have any. Which brings us to section 14, board comment. Is there any board comment tonight? >> I just have one quick one. Um, the last time that we met, I think we talked about doing the resolution for the budget. So, my question was I think we had enough interest, but I didn't see it on here yet. Did we want to move forward with that? And if so, do we what's needed to to do
041so? If not, that's fine, too. Mr. Carrie, >> I think it was the will of the board to adopt that resolution. So, I guess we can put it um on the agenda for the work session next month and then um vote on it and adopt it at the work session. Thank you for the reminder. Is there I saw you had I just wanted to to make sure we took the opportunity to acknowledge the fact that we did pass the budget officially today in in May be well ahead of the uh the deadline um that we and it was at the act one index. Um so um and just acknowledge the fact that we had many discussions about it and that it it was able to pass so tonight. So thank you. Uh, and I echo
042uh those sentiments and my sentiments I made uh last week as well, thanking um our administration and staff for their diligence um on that and then also with the board uh for your input and participation in our committee meetings leading up to it so that um we were prepared and had a great meeting tonight. Thank you. Is there any other board comment? >> Yes, I'd like to make a comment about that. So I have to say that um although I think a lot of the board members here have expressed their gratitude to Mr. Frink and really the entire administration because we know when it is budget season it is not although the finance department is spearheading everything we know that budget books go out to all the departments all the principles discussions are happening and
043everyone is sharpening the pencil to figure out how we can get to where we need to be. So, um, I have to say, and I said this last week, that this has been the smoothest budget process I have ever been a part of in the last five years, and I attribute that a lot to Mr. Frink and his team's um, leadership in in this district. Um, to the point where no one even separated the item when we voted on it. And Mr. Frink, is that a first? I think that might be a first. So, um, and I have to I just want to acknowledge a couple things which I know that many of us understand here in the board because we are close to it, but this district and districts across Montgomery County have faced
044significant challenges coming out of COVID. everything from as we knew was going to happen the reduction of federal funding and NSER funding to um the macroeconomic pressures that we still have but you know you think about like inflation 78% just a few years ago rising health care costs decreases in revenue from commercial real estate reassessments budget stalemate questions about federal funding this I mean it just never stops with regards to how do we do what we need to do when you have all of these impediments in front of you um and I just want to say despite the challenges um again the finance department has been very uh steadfast in figuring out ways that we can uh internally um increase efficiencies, operationalize the way we work with while minimizing impact on students. And so I
045just want to express my gr gratitude really to the entire administration but also everybody around this table because I know that there are school districts that are facing challenges right now and I will speak only for myself when I say that I think a lot of the reason for that is because there were some short-sighted decisions made at the table and in some cases I even think maybe politically motivated decisions. I am so glad that I work with nine people that understand the importance of balancing fiscal responsibility with ensuring that our students have the quality of education that they are entitled to and they deserve. And um it is a privilege to work with all of you. So thank you. >> If I may add, I don't think Mr. sermon. I can top that. But
046I will also include our fellow board member and finance chair who did an extraordinary job because she is a good leader who can spearhead a lot of things while on the go in the plane or you know being everywhere as a mom and uh and a fellow board member. I think uh big kudos to her. Uh I'm looking forward to seeing her doing this again next year. Uh, I believe we have some comments online too as well. Uh, Mrs. Yep. >> Yeah, I was just going to say well said, Mrs. Herman's. >> Okay, so next we'll move uh to section 15, item A, public comment. Um, anybody wants to speak to us about anything regarding to school district business? Yeah, you have your three minutes. They're all running over each other to get to the
047podium. Um, so seeing none, I will move to item 16, adjournment. Uh, do I have a motion to adjurnn? So moved. Do I have a second? Second.