001Mhm. >> Good evening. I'd like to call the Monday, April 20th, 2026 Spring-Ford School District work session to order. Please rise for the Pledge of Allegiance. I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for which it stands, one nation under God, indivisible with liberty and justice for all. The Spring-Ford 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 start of the meeting, members from
002the 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 comment should be aware that they are being filmed. Speakers will be asked to state their name and the area in which you reside before your comment. Good evening, everyone. One, thank you for being with us today. Mrs. Schmidt, could I please have a roll call? In person tonight, we have Mr. Lackey, Mrs. Deardorff, Mrs. Yut, Dr. Wright, Mrs. Winegarden. On online on Zoom, we have Mrs. Hermans, Mrs. Westwood, and Mrs. Goldsmith. And not in attendance is Dr. Sharma. Thank you. I have one announcement tonight. I
003just wanted to officially welcome Dr. Burkhardt to his first uh work session or first official school board meeting. So, welcome. You want to give a round of applause? And I'm sure you've had an exciting 20 days so far. Very. Thank you. Do you have any announcements? I do not. Thanks. Next up is public to be heard. Uh this is on agenda items only. If you wish to speak, please approach the podium. Seeing none, we will move on to presentations. Tonight, we have a presentation uh for our proposed final budget, which we also plan to adopt tonight. And I will give it over to Mr. Fink. Good evening. Let me open up my folder here. My notes. All right. So, we're here to talk about the proposed final budget. Um going to flip forward here. We're
004going to a little bit of an agenda. So, um like prior years, we're going to look at um some obstacles. We're going to We're going to take a look at this budget and from two different lenses. One from uh what's changed since the preliminary budget back in November that we presented. Uh and then also a year-over-year look from this year's budget to what's proposed for for next year's budget. Uh we'll looked at uh so far where we are uh for a tax impact. And of course, uh at the end, we'll go through we'll go through next uh steps. So, the obstacles that we have are normal, right? Every year, we seem to have the same ones. Um and the state is always at the top of the list um cuz their budget likely will not
005be done prior to our budget, so there's question marks there. Um there wasn't a big increase on the state side this year from the governor's uh preliminary budget that he presented back in February-March time frame. Um I think the increase year over year was only about $300,000 for Spring-Ford. So, a very very uh uh small a small growth revenue growth there. Um and my sources at the state say it's probably not going to get any bigger. So, we're going to we're going to watch that anyway. And of course, um you know, another obstacle we have is on the federal side with the with the spending and the grants. And title doesn't usually get awarded until the June-July time frame. So, we take our best guess to miss is what those those might be. They have
006been declining a little bit uh year over year for the past number of years. Um but we'll be keeping an eye on some of that as well. So, let's take a look at uh where we've come from the preliminary budget back in in November. And these are essentially the big bucket changes um that we've made. Um some of them are pretty big, some of them are not so big, but let's uh you know, quickly point out the larger ones. Um health insurance was a big one. We've been We've been chasing this one uphill for a couple of years now. Um we've had uh double-digit growths year over year for the past few years. Um and likely, so what we did was, you know, of course, we threw uh a similar number at it uh in
007the preliminary budget, but our uh consultants at Riskeyni have come back to us and say, "No, probably more like a 3%. We're kind of getting back into the into the good zone." Not not perfect, but still a a much better place than the double-digit growth. Uh we did have a PEERS rate change um from 34.8% of payroll uh down to 33.59. It doesn't sound like a big a big difference, but when you have a payroll the size of Spring-Ford's, um you know, that's about a half a million dollars in in savings, just that little drop. Um it's a little bit of growth in facilities. Um you know, uh the that department has been working on a new contract for custodial, so that that has come back in. So, we had to factor in that growth
008there. Special education is is uh is the big winner um from the preliminary budget. Uh almost a $1.4 million um it's almost a Well, it is a $1.4 million decrease um mainly because that group under, you know, Tina D Tina Battista's guidance has really done a great job of streamlining that department, um hedging off a lot of the growth that's been going on, bringing programs, better programs here to Spring-Ford rather than farming out, you know, to some of the outside providers. RFPs and bids on services and those types of things, it's really starting to uh to come together. Um some other areas uh uh that were kind of large on the you know, going to kind of in the other direction are beaten discussed plans. Of course, we we discussed those uh prior um about
009uh $850,000 increase there. Transportation, we have a new contract coming on board, a new provider coming on board with that. But what we learned through that RFP process is that the contract we have currently ending at the end of this year is far under market. Um and the uh the RFP responses that we got back proved that to be true. So, hence that that larger number. And of course, I want to point out the last one was that uh designated fund balance for the for the capital plan that we'll be implementing um you know, in the 2029. The purpose for that, of course, is to build up space in the budget. So, um when we do kick off in 2029, we have the uh room in the budget to you know, to uh do all
010the operational costs that are in along with the pay you know, payroll, additional help, and and that type of thing. So, all in all, you know, from the preliminary budget to now, uh we've decreased our expenditures by almost $180,000. On the revenue side, um we have some pluses and minuses as well. Um we know earned interest in earned interest is going to is going to go down from where we had originally planned it to to go down through with some of the rate changes that we've had. It looked like some of those were going to stay at a higher and elevated uh uh point for a little while there, but um things started to loosen up. So, and we're going to keep watching that over the next uh month or or two to see if
011uh we get better direction from the Fed on any of that. Um the other ones where we found some uh uh some really good uh data on our earned income tax and our transfer taxes. So, they're showing a lot of strength to continue to show show strength. Last year in the transfer tax uh you know, budget versus actual, we didn't quite make the number. This year we're seeing a big jump. We're seeing a big jump and we feel confident that last year was probably the anomaly. So, when you look at all that on you know, top to bottom, what you're looking at is at the proposed preliminary budget, our gap was almost $5.9 million, which the tax impact is a little bit over 4% there. Uh but when you factor in the revenue changes and
012expense changes we just talked about, the gap is now at about almost $5.3 million, which would be a tax impact of 3.67%. The index, of course, is 3.5%. So, there's still a little bit of work to go there. Now, I want to take it a little bit uh looking at it from budget to budget. So, these are the changes from the current year's budget the final budget versus the proposed uh final budget for next year. And this is what we're looking at. On the revenues, uh we're looking at a decline of about $900,000, a little bit more than that. Uh most of that is because of real estate taxes. We've talked about this a lot in finance. We've talked about it a year ago at this time where we really uh work talked through it
013uh to find out what was going on between the the balance or the lack of balance between the residential growth and the commercial growth. What we've seen is we've seen residential growth in assessments, but we've seen a big decline in commercial assessments. And that's basically what's uh what's driving that number down. Um we are seeing strength, like I said earlier, both in the transfer taxes and in the earned income taxes, uh some weakness in the earned interest. I wouldn't necessarily call it weakness, it's just cyclical how that's going to work. Interest rates are going to fall. They've been very high for a long time, so we know that they're going to fall. Um, delinquent tax collections, it's a drop in revenue, but it's actually a good thing. It means that people are paying their taxes
014on time, right? When they pay their taxes on time, that's great for the taxpayer, it's great for the school district, but it means that our inventory is going down. And when the inventory goes down, there's just not as much to collect on the liens. So, that's where we are there. So, not not a not a bad story on that one, but overall local revenues, which is a big chunk of our budget here, almost 80% of our budget, about a million dollars of drop on the local side. On the state side, the opposite is happening. We're seeing Now, but I'll tell you why though, too, because we didn't see a big increase at the state revenue subsidy side of it. We see a big bigger part of the increase is actually on the PEASER subsidy, which
015basically means you spend more, you get more. So, if we're spending more in payroll, that means that we're going to get more back as as our subsidy in the in the So, that all all in all flushes out to about $1.2 million in increase. The federal, there's really nothing to talk about there. Really doesn't change change much. >> [snorts] >> When you put those side by side, what you see is um you know, what I look at from my perspective is I always look at the column all the way to the right. And what it shows me on a percentage level is how revenues are growing or how our expenses are growing. We'll take a look at that in a minute. Um, but you can see revenues are relatively flat. That's organic organic revenues, right?
016Which basically from our world basically means it's because our assessments are relatively flat right now. Will that come around in the next few years? Most likely, yes. Um, but for right now we're in a short-term kind of a stagnant spot in our assessments. On the expenditure side, again, wages and benefits is our biggest spend, about 70% or so of our budget is in wages and benefits. And overall, we're we're looking at from salaries and wages, it's about a $4.9 million increase from all you know, with the different labor agreements that we have in place. There's there's the next year on the on the docket. About 3 and 1/2 million of that is for our professionals for our teachers, um and about $1.4 million of that is for our administrators and support staff. So, that's kind
017of where that lays out. And then our taxes and benefits and increase, obviously one increases, the other increases, so about $1.7 million increase there. Um, the again, the PEASER is the biggest uh the biggest contributor to that. While the percentage went down a little bit, when you apply that percentage over the growth, that's where you get your your big jump in those numbers. Looking at non-payroll related uh expenditures, you're seeing about a million dollar drop here. And and I'm going to talk about the bigger numbers that are out here. The big the big reductions come through special education. Just talked about that. Um, you know, about what a great job those guys are doing to bring to bring those costs down. Another big drop there is in the debt service cuz we just had a
018debt service cliff. We knew that was coming down. We knew we were going to have to bring our budget down to match our assessment decline as well. Um, and then of course, as we talked about, the longer plan is to build those numbers back over back up over the next number of years uh little by little. Um, so we can meet you know, our facilities needs and borrowing. Um, some of the other bigger big bigger numbers that are out there, again, we talk about transportation contract. Uh we were you know, well under market on that. Plus, we know we need to add a few extra routes cuz some of our routes are running a little long. It's taking a little bit longer for some of the kids to get to and from school. So, we
019know we want to add some capacity there as well. Um, and then of course, we had planned that the you know, facilities contract for the custodial would would take place and that's of course going to be a little bit more expensive as well. Again, the market showing us where we really are. When you stack all those numbers together, again, I always look down that right-hand column and you can see basically what what it tells me is that expenses are growing at a much quicker rate than organic revenues are growing, right? >> [snorts] >> So, you're looking at a comparison of at least where we are right now, $214.6 million budget going to a $220 almost $2 million budget year over year, or just a little under 3% growth on that. Now, when you stack those
020numbers up, what you see, you know, your revenues plus your expenses and other funding sources, those were some reserves that we have for PEASER growth. Um, and there's a small piece in there that we allotted for the for the technology reserve. But again, you're at your gap of $5.3 million, 3.67% is the uh tax impact if that were to stand. Um, the Act 1 index is 3 and 1/2% so you could see your gap to index exact gap to index is actually about $200,000, just a little bit over. So, uh kind of within that margin of error, which is which is a great thing, a great place to be. Um and there are more things to be done. So, this what we're talking about here is the proposed final budget, um which of course is
021a mile marker in the Act 1 law. Uh that says that we have to have a presentation and uh adoption of the proposed final budget at least 30 days prior to adoption adopting the excuse me, the final final budget. Um, so we still have some work to do. Um, and we're going to you know, we're going to get that done. Some of the things that we're going to be looking at, obviously, we're always monitoring changes in in assessments, not just commercial, at residential as well. Um, backfills of retirees and resignations, that's going to probably there's probably some more of that going on as we you know, folks who who earn a higher income are replaced by folks who who bring out at a lower value or lower dollar value at least. Um, that'll have some
022impact. And of course, we're going to watch the state budget as well. The interesting thing there is we we've had a I'm going to go all the way back to the state that we talked about at the beginning. We typically hear budget because we've gotten burned on it before when we have gone all the way to what the state preliminary budget has recommended, we've got burned before where they've actually reduced our number. Um, and then we kind of got left holding the bag. We don't really want to do that. Um, so what we had been doing in the past is we have been budgeting um the prior year, whatever the prior year's actual allotment was. And if it was a seemed like a big disparity between that and what the proposed uh budget at the
023state level was, we might take a percentage in between, 50% or something like that. If we're talking about like a million dollar difference or something like that cuz we we don't think they're going to take it all away, but maybe they'll take some of it. In this case, our delta is only about two to $300,000. It's a very thin thin delta there. Um, so I don't know that I'm terribly comfortable budgeting up to that number. Um but I wanted you guys to know that it's potential. It's potentially there that we'll have that that budget gap we were just talking about could be settled right then and there through what the what the state what the state decides. Um, what what does all that mean? So, if we were to go to a 3 and 1/2%
024increase in taxes, which is the index, um you know, that's $119 just under $120 per year per $100,000 assessed. Our average residential assessment in Spring-Ford is about $160,000. So, when you do that math, it comes to about $191. That would be your average of an increase at the 3 and 1/2% if that's where the board if that's where the board wanted to go. >> [snorts] >> What's next? Um, as I said before, we are kind of in checkbox mode, so we're going to get this checkbox done tonight. On the agenda uh is the adoption for the proposed final budget. Again, it doesn't mean it's done, it just means we're we're checking the box um so that we can target an approval of or an adoption of a final budget at the end of May at
025the voting meeting on the 26th. Um, but it still gives us a little more time if we have to go a little bit further. Uh Traditionally, we like to get this done at the end of May, so it gives the business office enough time to to tie out all of the duplicate information that we get from the county as far as the assessments go. And then of course also to get that off to the taxpayers, so they have tax collectors, so they have enough time to print and send out the bills, which are they're supposed to go out by law by July the 1st. So, it's always a tight window, but that's why we target that to be a month early. But had if we had to go a little bit longer, we could. I
026would prefer not to, but if we had to, we could. And then of course in between are all the little other check marks that we have to comply with to uh uh to stay within the law. Um, and that is your proposed final budget. Any questions? Thank you so much, Mr. Fink. Um, one thing one question that I did have was this is the last like official presentation on the budget though in this setting. The next time that we revisit the work that's still left to do would be at the May 12th Finance Committee meeting, is that correct? >> Yeah, that's correct. We'll we'll look through any changes that we have up and until that point, but we still have a window to even go farther, you know, to go farther into it. We'll probably
027doing some math right up until the the day of or maybe the day before cuz we have to get it posted within 24 hours before the meeting, so. Great, thank you. I know we do have questions online, but in the room does anybody have any Maggie got it? Thank you. Thank you very much, Mr. Fink. And I do want I just want a couple things. I want to make sure that the community is aware that even though we listen to this here at the table and we seem, you know, very willing to, you know, to not question so much or look at this that there has been a lot of discussion at those finance meetings behind the scenes or not not right in in sunshine, but I mean in over the the months that this
028has been going on. And if you follow the school board at all, you know that frequently I have not voted along the lines with the budget. But I you know, you will see reflected tonight that that I will be with this proposed budget. I am very comfortable with the discussions that have taken place. But I just want to make sure that everyone knows in the community that just because we sit here perhaps in a you know, a a very approving manner doesn't mean that there weren't lengthy discussions and a lot of questioning about this. So, so thank you for that, Mr. Fink, and for your team. Um, there was a significant decrease in the special ed expenses. And at some point I would love to have Dr. G. Bautista, who is not here tonight, maybe
029talk just even briefly about for the community to hear about what that looks like because I never want the community to think that we are looking for ways to shortcut our students that receive special ed services because that is not the case. So, that may be something that we can talk about another time cuz I know we all as a board and as an administration make all of our students a priority. Um, but so a separate kind of thing from the budget, but in finance here, has there been any discussion about the tax impact of the data centers? That has I have read on through social media that that was one of the things was that the with the data centers coming in that the districts will get more tax revenue. Has there been any
030discussion? I know it doesn't impact this year's budget at all, but while we have you here. Yeah, there has been no real official discussion about that. Some certainly some numbers have been thrown around and some of them are quite large. Um, but whether those actually come to fruition or not or I really couldn't tell you until we actually saw what the plan was and and how that would be assessed. Mr. Fitzgerald and I had a discussion briefly on the phone last week regarding regarding how to deal with that and and perhaps, you know, similar to what we do with the power plant a a settlement in lieu of of tax if that was the way we wanted to go. But we we'd really need to know what those development numbers are going to look like
031before we could before we could really uh get there. But you know, of course the numbers being thrown around have been have been rather large, but we'll see at the end of the day, right? Thank you for that. Thank you. Anyone else at the table? No. Mrs. Westwood? Thank you. Can you hear me? Yep. Okay, terrific. I do not have any questions, but Mr. Fink, I just wanted to say thank you to you, your team, and I know that many other folks that put this budget together. I think the presentation was very clear. I recognize the work that you and many others did to get us to this point. I think to be in April and only have, you know, 207 thousand dollar gap is is pretty good. So, thank you for everything you've done.
032I'm excited to continue to see how we work to get closer to that 3.5, which I'm sure we will by next month. But I just wanted to thank you for you, your team, and others that helped with this for your great work. Thank you, Mrs. Westwood Mrs. Westwood. Next is Mrs. Hermans. Me and DJ Rich are having a hard time. Thank you very much. Well said, Mrs. Westwood. I just want to echo her words. You know, I think about where we were this time last year or even this time two Novembers ago and it's just night and day. So, I just want to say kudos to the administration, Mr. Fink, you and your team in terms of just the intentionality that you bring to your role in making sure that, you know, we are balancing
033the needs of those, you know, in our district, our students, our staff, and also balancing the needs of the community. You know, and you know, if it's I think you know, I'll just speak for myself that I can be very critical. I would not necessarily call myself approving. I'm just going to speak for me, but if it is perceived that way, I think it's very much a result of the conversations and the confidence that you've instilled in us in those finance committee meetings. So, thank you. No one? Okay. Um, so there's no more questions online. Anything else anybody has for Mr. Fink? Awesome. Yeah, thank you so much. So, next we will jump right into section four. We have one action item tonight, which is to accept the proposed final budget. Do I have a
034motion? So moved. Do I have a second? Second. Any questions or discussion? Just a reminder that this is we are not voting to approve the budget today. This is just the one step for the towards the proposal. Thank you. Thank you. All those in favor say I. I. Mrs. Goldsmith, what is your vote? I. Mrs. Hermans, what is your vote? I. Mrs. Westwood, what is your vote? I. That motion passes 8-0. All right, moving on to section five, board and committee reports. First, we will have the student rep report. Who is going first? Or Annika. I can start. Take it away. Okay, thank you. All right, thank you and good evening, everyone. This is our April student rep report. So, starting off with our past events, there was no school for students on March 20th
035for Eid. And then the quarter three ended on March 26th and report cards have been out for 10 days now. They opened on April 10th at 4:00 p.m. And then our district had their string jamboree on March 26th as well. Junior prom had their class of 2027 prom on March 28th. So, it was really amazing getting to see the students dress up, have a really great event, and have so much fun at their prom. It was really great seeing all the pictures as well. And then grades 9 through 12 had their band concert on March 31st. And then spring break was from April 2nd to April 6th. So, I hope everyone was able to relax and spend time with their family and friends during that time period. And then our district had a jazz concert
036on April 8th. And then the NHS induction ceremony was on April 9th. So, congratulations to all our new NHS inductees. And now I'll pass it over to Jason for our future events. Thank you. For our future events this week, the PSSA testing window opens. Um, next week April 24th for the middle school play "Roads Gallery". That's actually this Friday, sorry. Um, the senior prom is this weekend on April 25th and "Live from the Red Carpet" show. Uh, the class of 2026 Impact Awards is on April 29th. Senior Decision Day is May 1st. Uh, Festival of the Arts on May 1st and May 2nd. AP exams are being held from May 4th to May 15th. The high school, middle school, and or sorry, the high school and middle school orchestra concert is on May 5th. And
037the spring choral concert is on May 8th. The Springs Keystone exam window is from May 11th to May 22nd. The high school and middle school band concert is on May 13th. And the senior academic recognition is on May 14th. Great, thank you Jason. And we're wrapping up the school year very rapidly. Our last day for all students is on June 3rd. So, as a reminder, please for everybody in the district continue to read the weekly update for district-wide news. And for all students, please continue up with your weekly assignments. We're on the final stretch, so thank you so much and we'd love to take any questions. Thank you both so much. I getting a little anxious [laughter] with all those end of the year activities coming up, but it's always such a wonderful time in
038the district celebrating all of the accomplishments of our students that are leaving and then also the the students that we're currently have here. It's a busy time with but it's a good busy and a good anxiety. So, thank you both so much for your update. Does anybody have any questions or anything to add for our students? I just used their list to like double-check my calendar because my last kid graduates in June. Awesome, thank you. Um next on the agenda we have extracurricular listed. Mr. Sharma is absent tonight and he has requested to give his report next week. Um next we have curriculum and technology with Dr. Wright. All right, are you are you um Just a moment. Policy would be first. Sure, I just have it flip-flopped on my paper. Whoever wants to go.
039>> All right. So, what are we doing policy? I can jump in, yeah. Okay, so policy with [clears throat] Mrs. Weingart. Thank you. I am uh stepping in. Um our policy meeting was Monday, April 13th. Uh it was well attended by our board members, Mrs. Goldsmith, Mrs. Hermans, and Mr. Lackey. Lackey, sorry. >> [laughter] >> Our minutes were accepted. Uh we pulled up the policy list to reference uh policy 201.1 was discussed and recommended for final legal review then first read. Policy 705.1 was discussed and is recommended for legal review then first read. 707.1 was discussed, no changes were recommended. It will be sent for legal review and uh updated the review data if there are no additional changes. Policy 707.2 was discussed, no changes are recommended. It will be sent for legal review and
040we will update the data in our chart. Policy 709 was discussed and recommended for legal review then first read. Discu- excuse [clears throat] me. Policy 805 was discussed and recommended for legal review then first read. Policy 819 was discussed and also recommended for legal review then first read. And policy 819 was discussed and recommended for legal review and then and first read. And it was a fairly quick turn meeting. And that is everything. Any questions? Thank you very much. Now we will do curriculum and technology. All right, thank you very much. Um the curriculum technology meeting was um April 13th. I was not in attendance, but Mr. Lackey was very nice and graciously uh held the chair position. Um there were no uh nothing on the curriculum part of the agenda, but for technology Dr.
041Hill provided information regarding e-rate category two projects. This work will be focused on uninterruptible power supply units. You will see um it on the agenda. Um the our next meeting that was the only thing for technology. The next meeting is scheduled for Monday, May 11th at 7:00 p.m. in the district office. That's it. Thank you. Uh next we'll have finance with Mrs. Westwood. Good evening. Just confirming you can still hear me. Yeah. Yeah, yes. Okay, thank you. All right, the finance committee met on on Tuesday, April 14th at 6:00 p.m. Um >> [clears throat] >> For items that were discussed, we started with ongoing business. Executive monthly reports, all these numbers are as of March 31st, 2026. For cash, we have 110.8 million cash on hand. For revenue, generally the revenues are in good shape.
042Uh real estate tax revenues are slightly lower than expected due to slower than expected assessment growth. Earned income taxes, transfer taxes, and earned interest are ahead of expectations and more than cover that shortfall. State revenues are greater than the approved plan and are in accordance with the state budgeted amounts. For expenditures, overall expenses are currently under plan so far this year. Medical claims, as Mr. Fink had had highlighted earlier, continue to be under budget as do special education costs. Charter schools are over budget by approximately $179,000 year to date. For assessments, growth growth continues to be slower than expected as residential gains are offset by commercial reductions. We did gain 1.8 million in assessments since the prior month. Um that was a breakdown of 3.3 million in residential and 1.5 million commercial. For transfer taxes,
043we are actually at 100.2% of our goal. That's achieved within with 3 months remaining of um the budget year. We're pacing at 3.2 million for the year versus 2.5 million that was budgeted. For 2026-2027, as you saw as Mr. Fink presented, the budget estimate was increased to 3 million and accordingly. For earned income tax, we're $600,000 ahead of the prior year to date, which is a 6% year-over-year growth. We are pacing at approximately 15.4 to 15.7 million for the year. Budget adjustments for um 2026-2027 have been made accordingly to 15.5 million. Self-funded health insurance Q3 claims were better than Q2. This is really good news because if you've been following um some of this last couple years, we've seen double-digit growth in growth and this is starting to level off. We have adjusted the budget
044for um for this coming year by 1 million and the 26-27 estimated growth rate is 3%. For food services, we've served over 630,000 meals year to date. We are continuing to operate in the black as our collective team, meaning Spring-Ford and Owen J. Roberts are doing a great job, but labor material costs do continue to rise at a faster rate than revenues, so that's something that we will continue to keep an eye on. We talked about our budget progress, so I'm not going to go through that cuz I think the same information we talked about in committee was exactly what Mr. Fink and then some presented. Um there are a couple things I will mention that are on the agenda that we're going to get to uh later today. First is property tax rebate program
045renewal. So, this is a program that we have done for a number of years. Uh we have to approve or or or not approve this each year. Year to date, just for context for 2025-2026, the program has assisted 421 seniors and disabled persons, totally approximately 421,000. Uh you will also see the MCIU 26-27 budget on for for this evening to discuss and to vote on next week. Last year, the budget was 1.625 million. This year, it's 1.696 million. Uh Spring-Ford's allocation is 130k. That's a 5,497 increase year-over-year. And then last Lastly, you'll see a number of assessment appeals. There are seven total appeals on the agenda that come to $30,000 in tax reductions. One of those is commercial. Six of those are residential. Um our next meeting will be May 12th at 6:00 p.m. in
046the district office. Any questions? I I have one note correction. This is Mr. Fink. Uh typo in the notes, Mrs. Westwood. I for the tax rebate program, uh I wrote 421 as the amount that has helped our seniors in our community. It's actually 121,000, not 421,000. Oh, thank you, Mr. Fink. Any questions for Mrs. Westwood? No? Okay, moving next to property with Mr. Lackey. Good evening. Property committee met on Tuesday, April 14th. Facility crews have been busy across the district. Spring grounds prep, multiple maintenance repairs, and several HVAC replacements have been completed at buildings throughout the district over the past few weeks. The committee reviewed and discussed the following items which you will find on the agenda tonight. The Trans Send custodial services contract, Daktronics scoreboard service agreement, Johnson Controls HVAC agreement, fire sprinkler inspection
047contract, concrete replacement at Royersford Elementary, floor cleaning machine purchases, and cafeteria table and chair replacement at the high school. A big thank you goes out to Mr. Callaghan and the facilities team for all their hard work and dedication to keep our facilities running and in great condition. For school safety, the school police have investigated 526 incidents reports since August 25th. Uh there have been four Safe to Say tips since April 10th. Uh uh Lightspeed has flagged 767 tips uh that have been investigated and closed in the past 90 days. The team will be securing uh several extracurricular events this month including the senior prom on April 25th. And officer training continues including taser instructor and defensive tactics certifications in June and Act 55 minutes where we staff training being prepped for August. You will see
048the PCCD grant on the agenda tonight which was awarded for 250,000. Uh a big thank you goes out to Chief Boyer and his team for everything they do to keep our schools safe and secure. The next property committee will be May 12th at 7:00 p.m. That concludes my update. Thank you. Thank you, Mr. Lack. Are there any questions from the board in the room? Or online? No? Okay, next up back to Dr. Wright for the MCIU update. Uh thank you very much. Our MCIU meeting is uh this Wednesday. So, I would um be happy to give an update at the the meeting on um next week at our voting meeting. Thank you. Okay, great. Thank you. So, we'll add her to next week as well. And then next up we have our assistant superintendent's report
049with Dr. Murray. Good evening. April is recognized as autism awareness month, a time to promote understanding, acceptance, and inclusion of individuals with autism spectrum disorder. Throughout the month, our our schools join communities across the nation in celebrating the unique strengths, talents, and contributions of students with autism while contributing or while continuing to foster supportive and inclusive learning environments for all learners. We remain committed to providing high-quality educational programs, individualized supports, and opportunities that help every student thrive academically, socially, and emotionally. Now, let's take a minute to talk about prom. Um sorry, I just lost my notes here for a second. Just like the Oscars, Emmys, or People's Choice Award, Ram County TV will be live from the red carpet at the senior prom on April 25th. Hosts Kelly German and John Brennan will ask the
050important questions like how did you get here? Where did you get your your fits? Apparently that's the term their fits and what are you most looking forward to and many more questions. Back again is also Bill Culp Culp who will catch the prom goers on their way into the big event. Mrs. German shopped for the spring um shopped the Spring-Ford snap prom dress boutique for her show attire and Mr. Brennan and Mr. Culp were decked out in a tux will be decked out in a tux from the red carpet show sponsors Saget's Formalwear. So, we're very excited for this event. It's always a fun event. Um it it will be live from the red carpet on air on RCTV's YouTube channel starting at 5:45 this Saturday. April 19th through 25th is National Library Week. Libraries
051are more than just books. They're places for creativity where creativity sparks, curiosity grows, and lifelong learning begins. From story times and STEM programs that inspire young minds to resources that support high high school students and lifelong learners. Libraries play a vital role in helping everyone thrive. And behind it all are our dedicated librarians and staff who create welcoming spaces where discovering collaboration happens every day. This week we celebrate all the ways libraries bring people together and help us find their joy. Please stop by a library, explore something new, and discover all it has to offer. And finally, we're proud to share that Mr. DiOrazio, our seventh grade teacher and coach, has been named a Citadel Heart of Learning Award winner. Presented by Citadel Credit Union, the Heart of Learning Award is one of the organization's
052longest-running initiatives established 24 years ago to recognize exceptional teachers across greater Philadelphia who go above and beyond for their students. Each year thousands of students or thousands of nominations are submitted by students, parents, colleagues, and community members. Mr. DiOrazio was surprised at lunch by Mr. Crackhour, the SFA um SD leadership team, and family and celebrated by hundreds of enthusiastic students. Congratulations on this well-deserved honor. And that is my report. Thank you so much, Dr. Murray. Uh next we'll have our solicitor's report with Mr. Fitzgerald. Uh good evening, everybody. Uh I I I I gather hearing all the reports tonight it is that time of year um and it is that time of year uh with our office with the number of end of the year issues that are being addressed. Um we are on the
053verge hopefully of finalizing the first student transportation contract. We're we're um uh pretty excited at the possibility of some language in there that will help in the efficiency of delivery of services over the next several years with them. Uh we're working through some Act 47 charter school residency issues which um is not just a Spring-Ford thing. It is a universal school district issue right now with a a poorly drafted law and the implementation of that law from this this past fall. And then our office was at the two uh relatively high-profile meetings over the last couple weeks. It was the uh planning commission meeting and the uh conditional use hearing involving the data center and more to come on on that over the next several weeks. Thank you so much. Any questions for Mr. Fitzgerald?
054Okay. So, next we'll move on to review items for our voting meeting next week. Uh so, first section six minutes A through B. Um anything on section seven personnel A through Q? I do have something. I'm not sure if you can hear me or not. Mrs. Harvan? Yes, thank you. Um I just want to draw the board's attention to letter M uh through Q. So, as I've made um updates over the last couple months, the personnel committee um myself, Dr. Wright, Mrs. Deardorff along with Beth Lease and her team have been doing our typical meet and discuss uh meetings. So, you'll see on the agenda for vote next week the benefit summaries for custodians, food service, Act 93, as well as secretarial and technology support. Um I I just want to say thank you to
055Mrs. Lease and her team um for, you know, always but uh in particular this year took a lot of direction from the personnel committee in terms of what we wanted to see, how we wanted these meet and discusses to run moving forward, and as a result these benefit summaries, unlike all the previous years, are actually for four years. Um so, they are not the typical two-year agreement and, you know, as I can just generally say I think that this is going to be a huge um tailwind for our staff. I think it's very hard to plan um anything with how fast two years comes and goes. And so, um again, thank you to Mrs. Lease for really bringing more transparency to compensation, to benefits for our support staff cuz as we know, our support staff
056are essential to the success of our schools and they allow our teachers to focus on instruction which is while making sure that our students' physical, emotional, academic needs are being met. So, um thank you very much and I look forward to the vote next week. Uh Mrs. Westwood? I was just going to ask if it's the appropriate time to separate uh J if possible. As far as discussion for tonight or for next week when we vote? As far as discussion for tonight because I had a question. Yeah, you can just ask your question. Okay, terrific. Um my question is related to the extracurricular um contract information letter letter um J. I wasn't I can't see who's in the room there outside of the four of you. If if Mr. Miscavige is there or anyone can
057answer this, but I was just curious about why or maybe it's more of a question of how do we come up with some of these different figures cuz I noticed some of the figures for the coaches, for example, for head coaches seem to vary quite a bit. For example, wrestling is very different um than uh track, for example, or football. So, I was just curious if anyone could speak to that. Hi, Mrs. Westwood. I'd be happy to answer that for you. This is Mrs. Lease. Um all those contract amounts are within the collective bargaining agreement and had been bargained in several years ago. They are based on experience. So, as a coach uh grows with the district, their rate of pay also increases with their stipend. So, that might account for the differences that you
058see. Okay, that's helpful, Mrs. Lease. And just a very quick follow-up if you don't mind. So, for something that's new cuz girls wrestling, if I'm not mistaken, is rather new. The assumption would be that that coach probably has coached with us before and grown in the district. Is that a fair assessment or no? It may not be. As far as um the girls wrestling is concerned, at this point in time, um I believe it's a memo memorandum of understanding for approximately $5,000. That's a new program. Um so, that would have to be um figured out as far as the CBA is concerned and growth going across, but we can't guarantee that that coach may or may not have um prior experience coming in. Okay, thank you. Any other questions on any personnel items A through
059Q? Okay. Uh finance items A through O. I have a question about H. Um H is a confidential settlement agreement and I do not see a a money amount there and I believe that normally there is an amount that is listed there. I did uh in in our past. It was added in the in the board memo and I know Dr. Giambatista will be adding it in the into the agenda on Friday as well. Perfect. Thank you very much. Okay, moving to programming and curriculum A and B. Uh I would like to add if you look I mentioned A that was discussed at our curriculum the last curriculum committee meeting but B the second step resources that had been discussed at the April curriculum and technology meeting and we held putting it on the agenda
060looking for more information. But if you have questions about that Dr. G and Dr. Guardi provided information regarding recommended adoption of the second step as an SEL curriculum to be implemented as tier one and tier two supports. The resource will be available to students grades 1 through 12. The program will be funded through the PCCD school safety and mental health grants. So this is on that's why it was not mentioned at the curriculum meeting or at the when I did the information gathering. Yes, I'm sorry it was from the March meeting that it was discussed and postponed until this agenda. Thank you for that. Thank you Dr. Wright. Uh next section 10 there's no conferences and workshops which brings us to section 11 property sections A through G. Any questions or discussion? On to section
06112 other business. Uh looks like A is for a first read B through C are for approval. Section 13 informational items you'll see there the PSBA delegate assembly so we can send up to three directors. This is in person this year there's not a virtual option and I forget exactly where it is. Cumberland Valley. Are there anyone is there anyone interested in going? Can we have the date and also maybe some time? I don't think we need to make a decision on this for another month or two is that accurate? It's November. Yeah, that is accurate. Mrs. Hermans the beginning of your statement I didn't hear. I just heard you say >> Oh my apologies. >> Did you say that you were interested? No, I said can I have the date and also I said
062I think we have some time. I don't think we need to make a decision for another month or two. November November 7th at 9:00 a.m. is the date so we can revisit this think about it. Thank you. Uh moving on to section 14 board comment do we have any board comment tonight I'll defer to anyone online first. Okay, anybody at the table? Do you want to bring up the committee timing thing? No. So they're asking me >> [laughter] >> if we want to talk about it's been been proposed to talk about um modifying the times for our committee meeting so a lot of times we'll have property that starts at 6:00 um or 6:00 is finance and then property is at 7:00 and then there's some downtime waiting for that time to start the next
063meeting so adjusting our policy to read as such that we can just move right into the next meetings. So um I apologize I thought that was going to be discussed at policy but we can absolutely discuss it here if that's the desire. Um are there five board members that would like to discuss a change to this? I think it's very sensible. I'm open to discussing it as long as we follow you know the policies that we have and Yeah, as am I. Okay, so it is the will of the board to to discuss Could I Okay. Hi, can I jump in my two cents >> we proposed administratively I know it's been talked about for a while and Dr. Scanlon was part of that discussion as well. Right now one begins at 6:00 the second
064begins at 7:00. We would propose that the language we propose I would be property is at 6:00 and then what would follow property? Immediately following finance is first. Finance to follow our finance at 6:00 with property to immediately begin at the conclusion of the finance meeting. So we would close one out and we would go right into the next one as opposed to sometimes they end at 6:15 and then you're waiting till 7:00 until the next meeting would start. So the proposal would be to modify the language so that when we advertise it would read as such. What would happen if we were to cancel the first meeting because sometimes that has happened at the in the past? Well, it's my my past experience has been as long as you advertise the cancellation in at
065at the door even or just put it out on social media you can also then accompany say that that next meeting would start at 6:00 because the other one isn't being held. Mr. Fitzgerald is that would that be accurate? Yeah, I mean I think what we'll do is we'll just advertise these committee meetings as almost like you know policy and you know property committee meetings almost like if they that's as an example as merged meetings. So if one is cancelled for whatever reason you just you're just going to pick up with the the second one. And just for clarity I know we mentioned property and finance but we also were referencing policy and curriculum as well doing the same thing. All of all of our committee meetings are back to back. I mean I I'm
066I'm in favor of of this because you know and I'm actually in favor of doing that we do it as as a whole you know committee of the whole and maybe this is almost a way of transitioning to that. Did you have something? No, I Uh Mrs. Hermans Hi, so I think this so I am I'm not sure if you said it was the will of the board to discuss this. I'm not sure who the five was cuz I think there's only how many of you there four? Um is it four? I'll have to apologize I can't see the entire room. There's five of us. There's five here. >> In in person. Okay, my apologies. So that's the five. I I would say that I am in favor of discussing it but I'm not necessarily
067are are we saying that we would discuss this like as an informational item at the next meeting or we would take it to policy in May because I think that there's probably more to discuss than just like are we in favor of you know having these run back to back and I will just say personally for myself like if I mean for me it's six in one hand half dozen in the other cuz I'm on both committees that start at 6:00. But there might be times where I think it could be potentially inconvenient with me to get there at an determined time you know if policy ends at 6:15 then I need to be there at 6:15 without any forewarnings. So then you're essentially to Mrs. Dr. Wright's point you're we're acting as a committee
068the whole and you know part of me just wonders if it's better to start exploring what that committee of the whole structure could look like and make the change when we have board reorgan December. I don't know that it makes sense personally to make a change like that in the middle of the a year but again I'm not sure where we're going to be talking about this but I would welcome having a more full discussion. I do know that one of the benefits of it is that our administrative team and respectful to what Mrs. Hermans has said and it it potentially allows our administrative team to get home earlier in the evening. I know that would be a pro. I guess my question is for Dr. Burkharter Mr. Fitzgerald do do we need to bring
069this back or if there is the will to change it now can we change that or does it does it need to I I would suggest I don't think it has to go back to a policy committee necessarily. I do think though for purposes of of the Sunshine Act we should put this on as a discussion and potential action item at a subsequent board meeting that if the desire of the board is to go down this process which is fine. I think it should be done at at at a board meeting with an action item. That's what I would suggest. Great, so we can do that for next week. Is there time? Yeah, yeah we can add it. Um and and I guess to to piggyback on Dr. Wright's conversation and and Mrs. Hermans too
070about revisiting that committee of the whole I do think it's important that we find time to schedule our professional development that we had to reschedule due one of the snow storms because discussing that committee of the whole and things like was was one of the big topics that we were going to work on for that. So, we'll work to get that get dates from you guys to get that scheduled. Is there any other board comment? Okay. Is there any public comment? Do I have a motion to adjourn? So moved. Second.