001Good evening and welcome to the January 28th, 2026 regular board meeting of the Tradition Easttown School Board. Tonight's meeting, which was originally set for January 26th, 2026, was postponed due to the inclement weather that we've all been experiencing. We'll begin as always with a salute to the flag. [clears throat] >> [clears throat] >> Regular school board meetings are business meetings that are open to the public during which we provide several opportunities for public comment on items before the board. The first comment period is reserved for announced additional items and items on the consent agenda only. Additional public comment will be heard for the actions listed under priority discussion and other actions under consideration. The final comment period near the end of the meeting is reserved for any matters of concern, official action or deliberation which
002are or even may be before the tees board of directors and which are not covered by other comment periods. Each public comment period is reserved for residents and taxpayers. Additionally, the board will accept comments from sitting public officials for non- campaigning purposes and by agreement with the TEA and Tennig. The board will accept comments from the union presidents. All comments should be directed to the board as a whole or to the presiding officer. No comments or questions should be directed to individual board members. All public comments and responses should be in the spirit of civil public discourse. Also, please be aware that intentionally disrupting a lawful meeting of the administration of a government function is a criminal offense in Pennsylvania. The school board values the opportunity to hear from the community in person and appreciates
003your cooperation in advance. Tonight, I would before we start, I'd also like to mention that on January 15th at a special board meeting, Mr. Henry Zinc was appointed to the board, filling the vacancy created by a resignation. Judge Lauren Holt administered the oath of office to Mr. Zinc on January 20th, and he attended his first committee meeting the very next day. uh his very his first committee meeting as a board member the very next day. Uh due to the rescheduling of today's meeting, he is not able to be here this evening because of a work commitment. We look forward to having him with us on February 23rd for our next regularly scheduled board meeting. And I see um all our members are here uh except for Mr. Zinc. So I think we're ready to begin.
004Um this evening we have a basketball game going on at the same time uh as our meeting. And I understand that our school one of our uh student representatives to the board Magerie is on that team. So, she's busy shooting three-point shots, I hear, uh, in the game at the gym in Kanesoga, but no worries for us. Lucy Salada is here, and she's going to, uh, share the student report. >> Thank you. Good evening, everyone. I hope you all are all staying warm. Um, as she said, I'm missing Maggie tonight, but she's winning the basketball game, so we'll let it slide. Um, students just ended the first semester and now 8th to 11th graders are starting to look at course selection. There will be a course selection night tomorrow at 7 p.m. for parents. Um,
005seniors are starting to hear back from colleges and have been announcing where they will be going, which is very exciting. And heading over to sports, sports are wrapping up for the winter season and are heading into the playoff into the playoffs next week. Um, all of the winter teams made the playoffs which is really exciting. Uh tickets for those games will be sold on hometown ticketing. And also be sure to check CHS website for any weather updates because those are ever changing. And aside from sports, student council plays third in the Minthon donor drive for PA. Um the sophomore class will be having a rose sale for Valentine's Day and the junior class will be having a donut sale this Friday to get a jump start on prom fundraising. Um, last but certainly not least,
006it is school board recognition month and I wanted to say a thank you to all of you for all that you do and a special thank you to Mr. Cantozik because he's the KNOSA rep. So, I had to say something. Um, and that's all for me. Thank you. >> Thank you, Lucy. And, uh, we appreciate the appreciation. Uh actually uh every meeting we generally have recognition for our students and staff but this evening because this was a postponeed meeting and um we weren't we didn't we wanted to get make sure everyone was going to be here in anticipation of the storm. all the staff and students who were originally scheduled to be recognized this evening received uh a notification last week that those recognitions would take place at our next meeting which is February 23rd.
007So we have a whole group of people coming from Valley Forge Elementary. Be sure to tune in next week next month and see them uh be recognized for all the good things they're doing. Uh at this time we usually also take a look at student artwork but the Valley Forge artwork will be coming along next month with the students from Valley Forge. Uh behind us though we have uh some notes of appreciation some very large notes of appreciation uh to recognize the board that has come from our schools and we uh just would like to say thank you for for that uh nice contribution to our meeting. Uh this is the time when we would announce additional agenda items. We have none. Uh so now it it's the next thing on the uh agenda is
008public participation from district residents and district taxpayers regarding any item on the consent agenda only. If you would like to make a comment on the consent agenda, please line up. And when you come to the microphone, state your name and township of residence. We will end comment with the last person in line. All public comments this this evening will be limited to three minutes. Again, this comment period is limited to consent agenda only. To help with the timing, please make sure that your entire comment is made and then the board will determine an appropriate response. I don't see any public comment. So, I think we'll go on uh to the next uh part of our agenda, which is the consent agenda. Our next item is the consent agenda. And although board action is required, it
009is generally unnecessary to hold discussion on these items. With the consent of all members, they are therefore grouped and approval is given in one motion. In the event a board member wants to discuss any item, the board president will move it to an appropriate place on the agenda. A board member may vote nay or abstain with respect to a consent agenda item without the need for removing that item from the consent agenda. The action under consideration is that the board of school directors approves the following recommendations on the consent agenda as printed on page five of the agenda. Do I have a motion? >> So moved. >> Do I have a second? >> Second. Was there a second? Great. Second. Thank you. >> Uh, all those in favor, please indicate by saying I. >> I.
010>> Those opposed by saying nay. The motion passes 8 to zero. Uh, the next part of our agenda is our priority discussion. And tonight, uh, business manager Mr. Art McDonald is going to provide an overview of the preliminary budget proposal. Following Mr. McDonald's presentation, there'll be a board discussion and we will also provide time for comments from the public regarding the presentation before additional board deliberation and vote on the re recommended action on the preliminary budget. I will now entertain a motion from the board to consider the resolution printed on page 110 of the agenda materials. The resolution adopts a preliminary budget for the 202627 school year and authorizes the district to seek exceptions to act one from the Pennsylvania Department of Education. >> So moved. >> Do I have a second? Second, >> Mr.
011McDonald. [clears throat] >> Thank you, President Titi. So, um, we're on track, uh, with the state timeline to approve our preliminary budget, doing it this evening. We have until, uh, in the middle of February to meet that deadline. So, this is our second meeting of the month in January, uh, to look at the numbers that are in your packet this evening and what's in the presentation. The um full timeline for the state obviously is preliminary budget now unless we pass a resolution to stay at or below the act one index uh which is an option if you would want to do that this evening. Um if you don't do that we would approve a preliminary budget that would allow you to file for exceptions and then we would have a proposed final budget in April
012and then a final budget in June. This slide shows the options that are available, option one and two uh for preliminary budget. We're in the option one category this evening by looking at a preliminary budget and considering it for approval. You would authorize us then to file for exceptions to the act one index and that would allow us to meet the state deadline of February 18th. summary budget on the next slide and we've seen this prior but just to orient uh you the columns A, B, and C. Uh B is untreated revenue and treated with new revenue as a tax increase. So if you're looking at um no new tax revenue in column B, the difference between the revenue and expense is close to 15 million. So that's our deficit without any new revenue. And
013if you look at the next column over, column C, the act one index of 3.5%. That gives you the option of an additional approximately 5.2 million, which takes the deficit down to 9.8. And right now, although we haven't filed for exceptions, we have the ability to at least look at the worksheets and do a calculation based on that. uh it's populated mostly by what we submit in our annual financial report to the state. So we can usually get fairly close with that projection and that projection uh adds another 2 million to that number. So it brings a little over 2 million up to 7 almost 7.3 million additional revenue which brings the deficit down to about 7.7 million. So we have um some distance to go with this preliminary budget. I mentioned earlier that the
014timeline has us looking at a proposed final in April and then a final budget in June. So we'll march in that direction and we'll continue to uh skinny down that deficit number going forward. Development of the 2627 budget uh to date and these are some of the um hallmarks of increases in the budget um and decreases unfortunately. Um, so we've been looking at uh property tax revenue that's been decreasing due to um assessment appeals and we've seen that over uh the last couple years significantly in this district and across Chester County, but um in Tradiffan we're seeing it a little bit more. So we're looking at a $2 million decrease if you look over a three-year period uh to the revenue number. So that's obviously impacting our deficit uh of that 7.7 million that we
015talked about. Capital funds transfer we still have in the budget at $6 million the same as it is in the current year. The special ed department we're seeing um a $4.1 million increase and we talked about this in finance. Uh again looking at adjustments over multiple years. uh there's a bigger impact in the 26 27 year than there would be normally uh in a budget and again it's it's actually three budget cycles but it's a two-year period debt service for a bond issue that we're estimating we're going to need in 2627 the impact of that is about a million increase to our debt service number and that is based on a 20 $20 million uh borrow or bond issue in that fiscal year. Professional staffing at this point has us about a $323,000 increase. And
016our first look for healthc care projection has unfortunately a double digit in medical, but uh script is flat and dental is flat. So that's that's good. the tax impact of the index on this particular side just breaks down the revenue figure along with the millage rate um and shows you uh the different calculations there. So in column C uh the current millage rate is at 29.6567 and the act one index adds 1.38 to that number and then the referendum exceptions that we're estimating uh being eligible for special ed that adds another uh4196 of mills to that number and it brings the new rate at to 31.1143. Now of course we're not approving a tax rate tonight. We won't be doing that till June. These are estimates and we haven't even been approved by the state
017for the referendum exception yet. So until tonight passes and uh we move forward, we won't have any application to put in until we get to the passage of the preliminary budget and then we can come back and give you an estimate and let you know whether we're eligible and then we have to if we have to change any of these numbers for the exception, we'll do that at that time. typically put in a explanation of act one and the exceptions just so uh folks that aren't following along uh can read this. This is the verbiage uh right out of the PTE report so I won't go through that. Also typically put in a history slide of where we've been uh with our tax rates and you can see the average rate for the last 5
018years on the left hand side is about 3.9%. I added a slide to show you fund balance numbers. Um although we haven't seen the audit yet for 2425, we'll be looking at that uh next month. This fund balance is the 2526. So it's the ending number of 2425 which is the beginning number of 2526. So um we've committed in the current year budget in 2526 6.2 2 million of fund balance to balance the budget and that's made up of the contingency amount of 3 million and then the budgeted deficit that we passed for 2526 which is that 3.116 number 3.116 million. In addition, we u considered what would happen if we didn't have the funds at the end of the fiscal year. In other words, we didn't end up, let's say, in the black by
019a significant number to be able to make the capital funds transfer. So, what we've done in the fund balance is ded designated 6 million to allow the board the option of moving that money at the end of the year. Um, so it's part of that number as a commitment. Uh, so you can move that and it would just be a reduction in fund balance of that number if you still wanted to commit to the six million. The vested employee services number is a calculation from the audit and basically it is uh any liability for paid time off or anything that's an employee liability that the district has to carry on their books. That's the value of that. So that's committed. Uh the healthc care contingency is a recommendation from uh the consultant to have um
020six to nine months on the books of reserve fund balance in case there's catastrophic losses or you can't afford to you know make your claims because we're self-funded. So our claims are claims we have to pay them as they come in. So that gives us the ability to do that by committing some money and then the difference is what's in the piece or is contingency amount. So that's the that's really I guess a calculation based on what all the other numbers are. Next slide. We added a number of years ago uh to look at really what is an entitywide look rather than just the general fund. So when we talk about the budget, it's just the general fund budget that we're discussing. We're not talking about food service. We're not talking about the capital fund.
021Those are separate funds. So this this um spreadsheet really shows you the general fund and the capital fund and it shows even though we may have a surplus in the general fund, we still may have a deficit in the capital fund. So just to orient you the difference in the variance column on the far right is what the deficit would be entitywide and that's what's represented in our financial statements. So how can we have those deficits? Well, we fill those deficits with bond issues and that's how we afford to pay a majority of what happens in the capital fund. All right. So, just to refocus where we are, we're looking at option one tonight to pass a resolution for the preliminary budget and that's going to authorize the administration to file for exceptions to the
022act one index and that's going to allow us to meet the state deadline of February 18th. This is the first time we've looked at this slide this year and this really gives you a summary of how the budget is built and why we talk about authorized spending as opposed to anticipated spending. So the first slide of the summary of the budget that I talked about uh at the beginning of the presentation was the anticipated spending, not the authorized spending. There's a little note on that slide that says doesn't include the contingency, but on this particular slide it does. And that contingency is funded with fund balance and that's represented at the bottom of the slide on lines 9, 10, and 11. And that totals that 4.5 million. Uh the reason it's higher this year than
023our typical 3 million, couple reasons. Uh we've been putting in 1% of the operating budget. So as the operating budget grows, obviously that 1% is going to grow. Uh and then we're also um projecting more assessment appeals. So, we're putting something in contingency just in case we don't meet the revenue numbers on that side. And the same for special ed. Um, it's been uh over budget the last couple years. So, we're putting some money. We always put money in for special ed, but we bump those numbers up a little bit to allow us to have some authorization to be able to spend that extra money. So on the expense side, if it turns out we spend more than we budget, we still have an authorization to be able to do that without reopening the budget,
024going back through this whole process again, refiling everything with the state. So it's just a little bit of protection to have that contingency there. But if you look at the top of the slide where I talked about anticipated spending, the difference between the budgeted revenue, and again, we're not approving a tax rate, but we do have to put in the preliminary budget, what the act one index revenue would produce, and then we have to put in an estimation of what that act one exceptions would be. So that's why you see it on this slide. So that 195 million on line four is the budgeted revenue figure and then the anticipated spending on line five. The difference is that 7.7 million uh that I mentioned earlier in the presentation that 7.7 million has to be funded
025with fund balance. The reason is you can't submit a budget to the state unless you balance it. So if you don't have enough revenue to cover your expense, you must balance it with fund balance. So that 7.6 6 million along with the 4.5 million is what will be basically subse like the slide I showed you earlier from fund balance that'll be committed to the budget in 2627. So that 6.116 million on that previous slide will become the addition of that 7.7 and the 4.5 if the final budget looks that way. Hopefully it will. So the authorized spending that will be sent to the state will be that 27.2 million that you see on line 8. Key dates. Uh we did put the budget on display on January 16th post our January our earlier January meeting
026so we can uh follow the guideline for the state. We're adopting uh you're considering to adopt tonight on the 28th. Deadline to publish notice of intent to file for exceptions is the 27th of February. March 9th is our first budget workshop. April 13th is the second. And I mentioned earlier the proposed final budget that'll be at the end of April at our April board meeting. and then the adoption of the final budget on June 8th at our June board meeting. That concludes my formal presentation. Certainly welcome your questions. >> Thank you, Mr. McDonald. Uh if I could just uh say a couple things. First of all, could could you go back to the special ed uh exceptions? We've talked about this before, but just in case someone is watching tonight for the first time, uh
027in order for us to uh raise taxes another 1.4%, there are there's a look back on our spending. This isn't about the increased special ed in the future that's mentioned on one of the other slides. It's about the past, I believe. And could you just talk about that process since we really can't officially even start it yet until those forms are released. >> Right. So for the referendum exceptions to the act one index, there's typically two um that we apply for. One is the special ed exception. The other one is the Pennsylvania state employees retirement uh system exception. Both of those are look back uh calculations. And what I mean by that is they look back to previous fiscal years. So they look at an actual expense. So in special ed they look at the
028previous two actual years of special ed expenses. So that would be 2324 fiscal year and then the 2425 fiscal year. Those numbers are pulled uh directly from the annual financial report that gets filed at the state. So once we file that they populate that and they look at the differences in those two expense numbers. So for example, if you spent 10 million in 2324 and 12 million the following year, the difference would be 2 million. And then they take that 2 million and they apply the act one index to that number using the assumption that you're going to use that act one index revenue to be able to pay for the difference. So if anything is left over after you apply that act one index, that number is what you're eligible for for an exception.
029And that's part of that calculation on that form. actually has two columns and you and it's calculated as two separate years. So for us um we've seen increases in special ed which I mentioned before. So that's allowed us to be eligible for those exceptions over the last couple years. Some cases we've taken them, some we haven't, but that gives us the ability to do that. So once we file that with the state, that form, uh they'll come back to us and say you're eligible for X, whatever that is. >> Thank you. Mhm. >> And before I turn to the rest of the board, I also just wanted to point out that this is a very early look at our budget and we have a lot of work to do between now and June 8th, I
030guess it is, that uh we will be voting on the budget. Um we're going to have two budget workshops. will have also time to uh look at all the spending carefully and um also there are some things that are encumbered that at the end of the year are not used and then that changes the look of the budget. So there are many opportunities yet to come between January 28th and June 8th uh for us to work on the process and and hopefully um reduce that that deficit that we see on on these pages. >> Great. >> Uh do we have other comments from board members? >> Dr. Hutinsky. >> Yeah. I'd just like to say for members of the public who who might not be t tuning who might be turning in for the first
031time that um you know we do have a lot of capital expenditures that we're going to need to be taking care of of in the next you know we're working our way through now the fields project and of course Bear Hill and elementary school is going to open in 2027 and so we need to um make sure that we have the funds to to take care of that. So, um I appreciate that, you know, that the rate we're looking at is higher than some of the ones we've considered in the past and the board always does try to keep things as low as possible, but um given the act one constraints, um I personally would be supportive of of um making sure we have sufficient revenue this year, um to put us in a good
032place going forward. >> Thank you. Any other comments? Dr. Meros. Uh yes. Uh thank you Mr. McDonald for the budget presentation. Um similar to what uh President TDI asked. I had actually similar questions but just to clarify so on um page 115 where it shows the 4.1 million increase. Are you is that what you're referring to from those prior increase from between those prior two years that then what is that referring to? Um are you this slide you're referring to? >> Yeah, number three. >> Right. So this slide um shows what our budgeted increase is between uh the current year 2526 and the 2627 year. What the what we were discussing earlier was the was this slide. >> Okay, >> which shows that that 2.1 million of potential revenue. So the 4 million is a
033difference between a budgeted two budgeted numbers and the 2.1 is a difference between >> two actual fiscal years that have been completed and audited. >> Okay. So my question is um for the projected 1.415% of the special education exception, what is what was that increase between those two school years budgets? Uh well it would be that that number from applying the act one index. So okay when you do the calculation it would take a number and remove 3.5% as a as an index number of that increase and whatever remains is what you're eligible for for exception. >> Okay. So then the increase was pretty close to 5%. um it was actually a little more than that um between the two years, but yeah, it was a little it was a little closer to 10% actually
034between those two years because it's not an exact percentage between the 3.5 and what you're seeing on the slide because it's it's it's put into an increase um based on assessed value. So when we talk about an act one index, it's that percentage more of a millage rate which then applies to the assessed value. So it's not 3.5% of an expense. It's 3.5% applied to the millage rate, if that makes sense. It just produces that much revenue. >> Okay. Thank you. And it's it's it's a little bit confusing because when when folks say you should increase your expenses by the act one index, those two things aren't really connected. The index is about revenue and it it's just applying a number to the expense. So it's sometimes a little bit confusing. >> Okay. Yeah. My
035question was what goes into that number? But that's a bit too far into the weeds for today. Well, we can um we we some often times in finance we I throw up the um sheet that is the calculation for the special ed exception just to show you, you know, what it is. It's actually a pretty pretty long form uh that's mostly populated by the state because of what we file with the annual financial report. So, we can certainly do that finance. >> Thank you. >> Do we have any other comments in the board? Okay. Uh then I'll ask the public. Is there anyone that would like to make a comment about uh our priority discussion? If so, would they please come to the microphone and state their name and township of residents? So, seeing none,
036uh I think I'll go back to the board. Any more comments from the board? All right. Uh, well, seeing no further comments, there has been a motion made and it's been seconded. I'll now ask Mr. McDonald to conduct a roll call vote. Mr. McDonald. >> Sure. I'm going to start with U. Miss Pichion. >> Yes. Option one. >> Miss While. >> Yes. Option one. >> Dr. Meros. >> Yes. >> Dr. Ratinsky. >> Yes. >> Mr. Can Torsk? >> Yes. >> Miss Sheer, >> yes. >> Mr. Hong, >> yes. >> President Titi, >> yes. >> Motion passes 8 to zero. Thank you. >> Thank you. The next item on our agenda are committee and ambassador reports. And we're going to start with uh policy and Miss Wall. >> Thank you, President TD. The policy committee had
037its first meeting of the year on January 6th, 2026. The follow the following policies are on tonight's agenda on a second reading basis. Policy and regulation 3160, transfer of funds within the budget. Regulation 3170, expenditures within the budget. Policy and regulation 3180, capital funds, capital projects fund nonbond funds. Uh policy 3181 capital projects fund bond funds policy and regulation 3185 fund balances management policies regulations numbers 3160 3170 3180 and 3181 are recommended to be repealed or rescended as they are being consolidated into policy and regulation 3185. Policy 3231, Federal Fiscal Compliance. Regulation 3231, Federal Fiscal Compliance, allowability of costs. Regulation 3232, Federal Fiscal Compliance Cash Management. Regulation 3233, Federal Fiscal Compliance Procurement. Regulation 3234, Federal Fiscal Compliance Subreient Monitor Monitoring. Regulation 3235, federal fiscal compliance, types of costs, obligations, and property management. Re revisions to
038the property and regulate to the policy and regulations clarify terminology, update certain requirements to comply with new federal requirements, and add new sections to comply with related federal fiscal requirements. Policy and regulation 3292, investments. The section titled investments permitted by the public school code was moved from the policy to a newly created regulation. The regulation also contains sections titled investments permitted by act 10 of 2016, management of investments and protection of savings accounts, time deposits, share accounts or other depository balances in excess of FDIC insurance limits. Policy 6130, curriculum, curricular ma materials, and resource materials. A revision was made to address the purchase of textbooks during the summer break for timeliness. In addition, regulation 5311, eligibility for participation in school related activities was revised to comply with the PIAA changed to now include all district
039residents, resident students attending private schools having eligibility if their school does not offer the PIAA sport. Further details will be provided later in the meeting regarding the policies listed on tonight's agenda for approval on a first reading basis. The next policy committee meeting is scheduled for February 3rd, 2026 at 7 p.m. at the district office and all are welcome. That's the end of my report. Thank you. >> Thank you. Our next report is on the diversity committee. Uh Mr. Half. [clears throat] >> Pardon? >> I'll come back to you. >> Thank you. Uh, actually we'll skip on to finance with uh, Mr. Contoorsk. Thank you, President Titi. The finance committee met last on Monday, January 12th, 2026. We started off the meeting with Mr. Livergood reviewing the December financials. The December revenues included an increase
040in receipt of local revenues when comparing this year to last year. And overall, local revenues are higher by about 4 million compared to last year, but they are down as a percentage of the budget as compared to last year. The main difference in local revenue is the revenue received from real estate collection and probably associated with some of the appeals that Mr. McDonald referred to earlier. State and federal revenues are lower, although we believe that we will meet our budget for this fiscal year. Total revenue as of December 2025 is over 158.7 million. Expenditures and incumbrances show that instruction expenses are higher this year and are at 89.5% of budget. Although total expenses and incumbrances are at 82.3% overall this year to date and they were 82.6% at the same time last year. Excuse me.
041The total general fund expenses and incumbrances as of the end of November 2025 are 161,737,11560 approximately. [gasps] The finance committee recommended that the report be placed on tonight's board meeting at the consent agenda which was approved. Miss Roy then commented on the January student services report and stated that contracted services are still trending a little bit higher than expected. We then had a Mr. McDonald reviewing the 202627 budget presentation, but we just discussed and passed the preliminary budget during our priority discussions, so I'm not going to rehash that here. Mr. McDonald then talked about capital funding and presented a capital sources and uses analysis summary that included possible bond issues and a condensed breakdown of capital projects. He also mentioned that the capital sources and uses report was updated and details of significant uh some
042significant projects were included in the most recent report. We then had an update on the 2024 2525 audit. Uh and Mr. Livergood stated that we are finishing off some of the details of that audit and our auditors will be ready to make a presentation at the February finance committee meeting. Uh it's Mr. Liver Good's giving me the two thumbs up. So we're going to hold him to that. Speaking of that next meeting, our next meeting it will be on Monday, February 9th, 2026 at the TAO room 200 at 7 p.m. and all are welcome to attend. Thank you, Mr. Contoorsk. Uh, now I'll turn to Mr. Hong for facilities. >> Okay. And, uh, before I go to facilities, I'll just go back to, uh, the diversity committee. Uh, we had our last, uh, diversity committee
043meeting on January 8th. I'll have a full report on that at our next board meeting, and the next uh, diversity committee meeting will be April 9th at 7 PM at the TEAO. Um, all are welcome and encouraged to attend. Our last uh facilities committee meeting was January 13th at the TEAO. Um it was a fairly streamlined meeting as we had no change o orders to discuss during that meeting. Uh we uh had the privilege of reviewing all of the different projects that are currently underway including our uh summer construction report uh for our infrastructure uh projects this summer. All of those are undergoing their pre-construction meetings and are on schedule. We also received updates on the athletic fields project um and reviewed additional photographs and progress on that project which are available on the district
044website. Uh as for Bear Hill Elementary School, we also received updates there with uh updated contract dates, substantial completion dates um which are all on schedule. Uh we had a summary of the project status and key dates uh and that the uh substantial completion date is still projected to be April 9th, 2027. Updated photographs video were also presented and are available on the TESD website. Finally, we uh reviewed an updated capital sources and uses report uh and we're looking forward to reviewing the uh projected uh maintenance uh projects going forward uh at future meetings. Our next meeting will be Tuesday, February 10th at uh 7 p.m. at the TAO. And again, uh all are welcome and encouraged to attend. Thank you. >> Thank you, Mr. Hung, it really is exciting to see these projects as
045they develop and I understand even in this very cold weather. Uh things are still going on inside Bear Hill and uh as you say on on target in terms of progress right now. So that's great news. Uh next we go to education and Dr. Hotinsky. >> Thank you President Titi. Uh we met on January 21st at the TEAO um and we received a technology update from Dr. Michael Simandera, our director of educational program. It was uh very long but very interesting. Um we first talked about uh artificial intelligence and got an update on what the district is doing. Um so Dr. Dr. Simander shared a general artificial or AI update providing background information about generative AI use and and performance and its rapid ad rapid adoption in organizations and recognizing the growth growing role of
046AI in our society. How our district is working to familiarize students with the technology and engage with it in a age appropriate ways. So emphases of the district include teaching about AI, how it works and how to use it responsibly and ethically, teaching for AI, providing students with skills they will need in an AI influence world, and teaching with AI, guiding students to use AI as a partner in thinking, learning, and creating. So goals include teaching students to make sense of information through information literacy and data literacy. How to provide user input through prompt engineering, dialogue, and questioning. um how to evaluate AI input or output rather for through verification and critical interpretation and to engage in critical thinking um to uh for curiosity including curiosity, metacognition, cognitive flexibility, ethical reasoning and self-regulation. So um
047we he then Dr. Dr. Simandera explained the dig district's current digital citizenship curriculum for students in kindergarten through 8th grade which includes new and future lessons on a AI along with many other areas of appropriate technology use for students. So um we went through the different kinds of applications of AI by by grade level and uh and talked about um use through um some of the benefits poss um co- Microsoft co-pilot chat provides to TE students at Konosoga High School in particular to become engaged in using AI safely. Um, Microsoft Copilot Chat includes the following safety features. Agebased access controls. Um, Microsoft Enterprise Grade Security. Student data is not shared uh outside of the TE environment providing a walled garden environment managed by the district. Um, and then Dr. Smidara talked about the guidelines for
048student and staff use of AI in the district, including the following guidelines for students. Students at all levels are allowed to use Generative AI if they choose and if the teacher approves. Um, but uh, high school teachers can actually direct students to use Microsoft Copilot while they're while they're logged in with their district account. Importantly, we're keeping them in that uh, walled garden environment. Um, uh, but and teachers cannot direct students to use generative AI other than Microsoft Copilot. So, we're teaching them how teaching students how to use generative AI but in a safe safe and responsible way. Uh then Dr. Simandera shared the draft levels of acceptable use of AI for district students um and detailed the expectations stu teachers can establish prior to activities and assignments. Uh finally for AI um Dr. Dr.
049Simandere explained staff development opportunities that have and continue to be provided to our teachers and uh described the work of the district's AI workg group um that includes work subwork groups focused on um AI implementation pillars including uh unlocking AI's potential professional learning guard rails for responsible use of AI um and leadership in the age of AI. um and then he answered uh questions from committee members and then there were a bunch of them. So, it's very exciting to hear how the district is um adapting and uh evolving our teaching to be able to incorporate um generative AI in a in a safe and responsible way. Next, we had a cell phone or personal device update. Um Dr. Simandera explained the district's current rules and procedures for cell phone use by students. At the elementary
050school, students are discouraged from bringing personal electrici electronic devices to school and they must be uh kept stored away in backpacks. In the middle schools, uh students must keep um phones in their lockers. At the high school, cell phones should be put away during class with use um allowed with uh classroom use allowed with permission of the teacher. Um and muted phones can be used in common spaces. Um Dr. Mandera reported that this uh the current protocols seem to be working pretty well in terms of um of managing uh student phone use in the schools. Uh but he also provided information about um Pennsylvania Senate Bill um 1014 which has been approved by the PA Senate Education Committee but not yet approved by the General Assembly. So um we're monitoring it. Uh if passed, this
051legislation would require the school board to adopt a policy to prohibit student use of mobile devices and establish the manner in which a student's possession of a mobile device would be restricted during the day. So um as I said, it hasn't been passed. We'll continue to monitor the progress of the legislation and um we'll discuss it in the committee if necessary uh or in the legislative committee. Um then finally, we got a one-toone tech update. Uh Dr. Dr. Sandera reviewed the district's 1:1 technology initiative. Implementation of Chromebooks uh in grade 5 has gone smoothly with fewer technical rep problems um reported than with pre previous middle school laptops. Uh Chromebooks will be provided to um gradually with uh new classes each year. So that eventually um all um all middle school devices will be Chromebooks.
052Uh the district uh also uh we also heard about um at the high school. The district had ended the bring your own device option at the high school which has also reduced um technical issues and um it will result in upgraded devices for grades 9 through 12 as we um as those are rolled out um incrementally by grade as well. Finally, uh Dr. Smana reviewed the district's implementation of securely a web filtering program with three components. Uh it has securely filter for grades K through 5, securely aware for grades K through 12, and securely home for grades K through 5. Dr. Simander explained that the district will continue to expand securely home um along with the implementation of middle middle school Chromebooks. So it will be eventually available for grades through K through 8. Um
053and we know that uh parents have been asking for more controls on uh ways to control the their kids use and and to monitor what the use of um of the district devices. So we um conveyed our appreciation for for that development. Uh that was the sub the substance of the meeting. So uh we adjourned and the next meeting will be February 12th, 2026 at the TE administrative offices and all are encouraged to attend. Thank you. Thank you. I turn now to um Miss Pition for a report from about ad hoc ed legislative committee. Thank you. Uh the Chester County School Board Legislative Council is meeting tonight. Uh the discussion includes a new state requirement for personal finance and cell phone bans among other items. for your information. First, uh, state representatives Chris Pelli and
054Johnless are introducing legislation that would lower the minimum voting age for schoolboard elections to 16. You might remember that at a previous TE school board meeting, a student advocated for this legislation, including naming the states that allow 16 as the minimum voting age to elect school directors. Item two, uh, PA Act 44 requires schools to notify parents of weapon incidents on school property during events held on school grounds. And item three, Governor Shapiro will deliver his annual budget address on Tuesday, February the 3. That concludes my report. Thank you. Thank you. Uh, next is our ad hoc public information committee. Uh, Mr. Contosk, >> the ad hoc public information committee has not met. Uh, if we do schedule a meeting, we will let the community know in enough time so everybody can attend. >> Thank
055you. Thank you. >> Back to um Miss Pitchiona for the intermediate unit report. first. Thank you. Uh, Miss While at uh I was saying that prior to the Chester County Intermediate Unit meeting, the school authority of Chester County Intermediate Unit met on Wednesday, January 21st at 5:00 p.m. at the Technical College High School Brandy Wine campus in Downing Town. The school authority is a legal entity that is the owner of all the school buildings operated by the CCIU. Uh, an update for the Angle Child and Career Development Center in Westgrove included a Bankraftoft Construction Company report. Item two, the reorganization of the school authority resulted in the election of new officers, the chair, vice chair, treasurer, secretary, and assistant secretary treasurer. Item three, a time-lapse video of the Great Valley Child and Career Development Center
056was used in the progress report. Item four, the facilities reports were presented for uh the Angle Education Center, the Child and Career Development Center, Great Valley, the sublease agreement with uh Delaware County Community College, Gordon Early Literacy Center, the redevelopment assistant capital program, RAACP grant applications, public school improvement grants, master facilities plan, the 202526 enrollment in all CCIU programs, and the school safety and security report. Uh the um Miss Megan Thompson of Herbine and Company, Inc. presented an overview of the 2024 25 audit reports. The school authority received unqualified audit opinions. Miss Thompson also noted that in October 2025, Herbine and Company, Inc. was acquired by Cherry Baker. Aside from the name change, there will be no other changes and the same staff will continue to provide services. The next meetings of the school authority
057will be May 20th at the Brandy Wine campus in Downing Town, September 16th, location to be determined, and January 20th of next year, location to be determined. The Chester County Intermediate Unit Board of Directors held its monthly meeting again on Wednesday, January 21st at 7:30 at the Education Service Center Technical College High School, Brandy Ron Campus in Downing Town. Uh item one, in celebration of School Board appreciation month, uh Chester County Intermediate Unit Executive Director Dr. George Fiori welcomed the CCIU's new board members and expressed appreciation to all board members for their consistent support of the CCIU as well as to our home districts. Um included uh board members received a small token of appreciation along with a short video featuring students from various districts. Again, Miss Megan Thompson uh presented of now Cherry Burkart,
058formerly Herbine and Company, Inc., presented an overview of the 2024 25 audit reports, including the technical college high school audit. Both the CCIU and TCHS received unqualified audit opinions, the highest level attainable. She was very complimentary staff and the high quality work completed in preparation for the audit review. Miss Thompson, as I mentioned before, also noted the acquisition of Herbine and Company, Inc. by Cherry Bankard. Item three, an overview of the proposed 2027 uh 20, forgive me, 2026 27 budget for the CCIU core occupational education, categorical and marketplace services was presented. These will be presented in their entirety to the board and superintendent for consideration in February and March of this year. In addition to requiring approval by the CCIU board of directors, the core and core and occupational education budgets must be approved by
059each member school district. Item four, current progress across across the CCIU's four organizational goal areas were presented. The datadriven goal highlighted two key areas. K through 12 multi-tered system of supports MTSS framework implementation and accountability based observation systems. Uh the futurdriven goal highlighted two key areas innovation grants and strengthening the TCHS story. The relationshipdriven goal highlighted two key areas, customer centered service model and increasing family participation. And the peopledriven goal highlighted two key areas, leadership development and iigrow initiative. The next CCIU board of directors meeting will be held on Wednesday, February the 18th at 7:30 p.m. at the ESC TCHS Brandy Wine campus in Downing Town. That concludes my reports. Thank you. >> Thank you, Miss Pione. Our final committee report is our ad hoc redistricting committee and that's led by Dr. Roberto Hinsky. >>
060Thank you. Uh we met on uh January 20th uh at the TEAO. This was the third meeting of the ad hoc elementary redistricting committee which is charged with developing a plan for balancing enrollment across our elementary schools upon completion of the new Bear Hill Elementary School in 2027. At previous meetings uh in May and this and in the fall, we'd established the process and timeline for redistricting. We reviewed legal considerations and discussed potential redistricting parameters. For this meeting, our administrative liaison, Dr. Wendy Tol provided a brief review of material presented at previous meetings and we then focused on finalizing the parameters for to guide redistricting. The goal of the process remains to create six enrollment areas for the new building configuration where all students and families can have similar experiences and feel connected to their
061school communities. Dr. Dr. Gusk then provided a review of two approaches for redistricting redistricting that were first presented for consideration at the October uh meeting. The the parody approach is the first option uh which would distribute students evenly among the six schools but would require changes to middle school attendance areas which um middle school attendance areas sorry. The second uh option proposed or discussed was a proportional approach to redistricting that would establish enrollment targets for each school that are proportional to each school's classroom inventory and would vary slightly. Updated projections showed that the proportional approach more accur accurately reflects individual school capacities, allows schools to manage future population shifts, and has the advantage of allowing existing middle school attendance areas to remain the same. After reviewing the approaches to redistricting with updated enrollment projections and
062listening to public comment of which there was quite a bit, uh we had a a fairly good turnout with several members of the community there actively participating. Um the board members uh the committee discussed and adopted the f following parameters to guide the redistricting process. Um these include uh meeting population target ranges for each school, abiding by all legal requirements, creating reasonably drawn boundaries, avoid avoiding dividing neighborhoods, and aligning with best practices for bus transportation uh which is consistent with previous redistricting efforts um that we've that we've been through. And in addition, we the committee supported adjusting the middle school feeder pattern so that TE Elementary School will receive students from the new attendance regions for Bowmont, Devon, and Hillside. And Valley Forge Middle School will receive students from the new attendance regions for Bear
063Hill, New Eagle, and Valley Forge Elementary School. Note that this will end the Hillside split um so that all fourth graders will move on uh from all fourth graders from each elementary school will move on to the same middle school. Further, the committee directed that a proportional approach be used to establish enrollment targets for each school when redistricting um and that existing boundaries for middle school attendance should remain unchanged. This means that students in households currently assigned to TE Middle School or Valley Forge Middle School will continue uh will still be attending those same middle schools after the redistricting. The meeting concluded with a review of next steps. Uh now that the parameters are finalized, we have a meeting on February 4th, next Wednesday at the TEAO. And uh during that meeting, we'll establish the
064process for selecting members for the redistricting steering committee, which will actually carry out the work of um making the new catch or defining the new catchment areas. uh those steering committee sorry steering committee members will be selected during spring 2026 and I'll report out on the process at the March uh 2026 regular board meeting. Um the meeting was adjourned at 8:42. Our next meeting is February 4th uh next Wednesday as I said and all are encouraged and welcome to attend. Thank you Dr. Hutinsky. Uh the next part of our agenda is other actions under consideration and those are policies that are recommended for first reading. The action under consideration is that the board of school directors approves the following policy on first reading basis as ready for adoption at the next regular meeting. Policy 1340
065weapons possession and use general public and policy 5410 weapons possession and use students. Do I have a motion? So moved. Is there a second? >> Second. >> Thank you. Uh, Miss Wild, do you have some background on those for us? >> I do. Thank you, President TD. As President TDI said, the two uh policies recommended for first reading, excuse [clears throat] me, are policy and regulation 1340, weapons possession and use general public, and policy and regulation 5410, weapons possession and use students. The policies were revised to comply with required notification for a weapons violation. New regulations were drafted that provide additional details about incidents involving a weapon and subsequent notification. The regulations went into effect immediately. That's the conclusion of my report. >> Thank you. Is I know many of you uh attended the policy
066meeting, but is there any further board discussion on these before we uh have a vote? All right. Is the board now invites members of the audience to comment on this item? Seeing none, uh are there any further comments from the board? I think we're ready to vote then. Uh all those in favor, please indicate that by saying I. >> I. and those opposed indicate by saying nay. The motion passes 8 to zero. Uh this is the time in our meeting for public participation from residents and district taxpayers regarding any matters of concern, official action or deliberation which are or may be before the board. Is there any public comment this evening? Any further public comment? Uh seeing none, I think we're ready for our general information. Uh the public comment periods for this evening are
067now closed and this is the point in our meeting when we turn to our solicitor, Mr. Roose, to make any announcements required by the Pennsylvania Sunshine L. >> Mr. Roose, >> there is no executive session. No announcement to make. >> Thank you. We do have future meetings planned. Uh Monday, February 23rd is the next regular schoolboard meeting. We'll be right here at Konesoga High School at 7:30 p.m. And then two important uh meetings that will be coming up are our budget workshops. Uh there will be one in March and then another in April. The March meeting is March 9th. It will be here at Konesoga. 7:00 is the finance meeting and then 7:30 at the same location is the budget workshop. And then on Monday, March 23rd, we have a regular board meeting scheduled at
0687:30 p.m. again here in the atrium at Konesoga. Are there any general announcements from board members? Dr. Miseros. Uh yes, thank you. Um, I'd like to comment on what we see behind us here, especially the the thank you banner, which is from uh Bumont Elementary School. And I'm the ambassador for Bumont this year. And I was uh delighted by the tour I was given by Dr. Stephanie Deming, the principal of Bowmont, last week. Um, I got a very enthusiastic welcome. Um they displayed a banner with my name in rainbow kind of similar to that and the other ones you see here. And um she showed me the various uh grades and classrooms, some examples of the steels curriculum and um as all the elementary schools are doing the various ways they encourage um what the
069adults call pro-social behavior, but what kids would call being kind and friendly to each other. Um so I really appreciated that. And I'd like to read I also received uh numerous cards. Uh I haven't gotten to read them all, but I wanted to just share one. Uh I won't say who it's from. Um one of the Bowont students and the student wrote, "Dear Dr. Miseros, thank you for deciding all of the stuff for Bowmont and you made good decisions. Thank you for the playground. You are good at your job." So since I've only been in this position for about two months, I take that to mean there are high expectations for what we as board members do. I will try to live up to that. Um certainly take this very seriously and as much as
070they made me feel like a VIP at the school, the very important people are really the students. Thank you. >> Thank you. I don't think there's anything better than getting to spend a little bit of time in any one of our schools and I know we all enjoy being ambassadors to to the various uh buildings and seeing all that's going on there. So, thanks for that report. Any other announcements? All right, I think that brings everything to a close except for um correspondence. Those uh letters that we received uh the names of the corresponds correspondents are on page 127 of your agenda. I think we're ready for a motion to adjourn. Uh is there a first? So moved. And is there a second? >> Second. All those in favor please indicate by saying I. >>
071I. >> And those opposed as Mr. Contosc would say can stay here. Motion passes. That's uh meeting is adjourned.