001All right, it's 6:30. We'll call the meeting to uh to order. Um all is present except for Mr. Lustik and Miss Hollow have been excused for this evening. Um we have no public comment, no athletics or student services. So moving on to curriculum. Uh, we have a presentation from Kelly Services. Uh, it's Ashley Frerieded. >> Hello. >> Hi. >> Um, I'm Ashley Frerieded. I am the account manager with Kelly Education in partnership with Upper Adams. Um, I've been in this position since January 2023. Um, I was with Kelly longer than that, but that's when I obtained this district. Um, public speaking is not in my wheelhouse, so um, I'm not going to take up too much of your time tonight. Um, but I can talk data sets all day long. Um, so this is just
002our partnership team. Um, my supervisor is Vincent Sidoni. Um, and then his supervisor, the director of client services is Jen Lyall. Um, our recruiting and onboarding team is Laura Clinger Clingler, Lisa Alvarez, Kim Brown, and Tory Goss. Um, talent services is Melanie Chupac. And then, um, our order fulfillment specialist has actually changed since this presentation was made. Um, they did some, um, reallocating and our new one is, um, Anitra Paris and she's been great so far. Um, just a reminder, um, Kelly Education does administer benefits, unemployment and workers compensation, um, disability and FMLA medical leaves, incident management, um, payroll and timekeeping and tax reporting. Um, so just trying to take care of some things so you guys don't have to. Um, we're going to be reviewing last school year. Um, so last school year we
003hired 42 new talent, filled over 2,000 teacher positions. We had a 93% nursing fill rate. Um, filled over 5,600 um, pera positions. had 101 unique subs out to work and the overall fill rate for the year ended up just under 87%. Um the MPP program is growing each year. Um our building sub positions are 100% filled and the overall fill rate um for teachers was just under 85% last year. >> Can I can I ask a quick question? The 42 on the talent hired that's positions like people that are positions that Kelly services controls. >> Yes. So some of those might be perz that work here every day and some of them might just be subs. But we have 42 unique new people hired last year. And what I was really excited about when um
004Ashley and I reviewed this was the 93% nurse bill rate because that is something that we always struggled with where we send nurses out on field trips as well and also to make sure that we still have the buildings covered. So that is an area over the last year that we have really concentrated in. >> Yeah. And one of the future slides I think you'll be able to see exactly how much that has increased. >> Yes. So I mean this is why we have we have like weekly and bi-weekly meetings with Ashley like where we are with staffing um regarding substitutes where we are with the hiring process and Miss Tina Fair also is very active in this process. Ashley works very closely with her as well that slide. So um the key highlights for
005this is our year-over-year key measurements. Um, so for last school year, we've filled again over 2,000 positions and that's up 400 from two years prior. Um, so each year we're filling more and more teacher absences. Um, so we've gone from 78% to just under 85. Um, the pair professionals are kind of holding steady. Um, and then this is mostly the nursing fill rate. Um so it has gone from 79% to 96 and it's actually much higher than that because I believe that clerical subs are also included in this number. So it has been a massive increase for nursing. Um again this is our year-over-year. um we had 101 subs work last year. Um a 6 and a half% teacher fill rate increase. And then you can see line by line um by month um how
006the rates compared to years prior. So we um we ended up a little bit like one and a half% one or two and a half% down last year. That was because we had a couple open positions at the elementary school that we just had trouble filling. Um but those have been filled now going into this school year. We have fil position at the high school. So these are um already we're looking much better this school year and then this slide breaks it down by school. So again you can see um the um elementary school had an overall fill rate of 82% um which is lower than the other buildings was closer to 90. Um I think we'll see that really increase this year with having those extra positions held. Um, and we can kind of
007just go on past these ones. This is just showing um the demand by the day of the week. Um, clearly Friday is our like our highest. I don't think that surprises anybody. Um, so that's just something to keep in mind when um administrators are like approving professional development days like maybe not do an inservice day on a Friday would be helpful. >> And Mr. Albin coordinates that and they do a lot of their professional development. Usually Tuesdays or Wednesdays. Wednesdays is usually the key. Midweek is where we want it. Um and then this just shows the average requests we had per month. Um which is the number of positions that were requesting a sub. Um and then the max like per month, which I feel like the wording is kind of strange here, but like
008this means like in on one single day in May, 24 subs were requested. um which is a lot higher than the average of 14. But so there are like surge days that we are trying to keep an eye out for to try to get sub coverage on those days. >> It's a lot of lot of subs for one day. >> What do you do if you don't have coverage? What happens then? >> Then the building typically has to utilize their building sub um and cover internally. Most of the time it's par vacancies. So, um I don't want to say it's definitely that it's less important because it is, but like at least like a teacher, you have to have the teacher of record for the classroom like with paras you can like some if they're
009small groups the kids just don't go to small group that day. Um if there's no one to cover and the administrators end up covering if there aren't building >> it's a dayto-day sub. Yeah. Principal or assistant principal will actually be the substitute there. Okay. >> And we've seen a lot less of that. >> Um coming out of CO was really rough, but it's that things have really improved. >> And a PAR is an individual that will go into the classroom as like an instructional aid, a PCA, personal care assistant. So when we talk about PARS, that's referred to an instructional aid. >> I just think that I know very little >> and as a that they're considered like a support individual in the classroom. Um so last school year again we hired 42 new people.
01031 of those were teacher subs. Um and at as of June 30th um we had 83 active employees for Kelly. We our recruiting and retention updates. Um we do still have our $100 bonus referral program. Uh we do virtual hiring events. We have recruiting signs at all of the buildings. Uh we I share all of the posts from the district for um open positions and we use Indeed. That's where we get most of our applicants from. Um and then we also attend job fairs. We were just at Shittensburg last week for theirs and got like a dozen applicants from there. And then for attention, um there is a monthly substitute newsletter that goes out from Kelly Education. It offers professional development, um like seminars that they can attend virtually. Um and the most important thing
011is people want to work for upper. Um the culture in the school is really positive. Um our retention rates here are higher than they are in other districts. It's probably like that small town feel. people are just loyal to the places that they live in. So, we have we don't lose people as often as some of the other districts do. Um, I am local, so I am on site every Tuesday. I rotate between all of the buildings and I can meet with administrators um and the employees themselves if they have any questions or concerns. And then we um do talent appreciation as well. Every so often we'll hand out a certificate and like a gift card, but we'll run contests, but um that seems to keep them happy as well. It's a hard job for
012not a lot of day. >> M if I could echo what you just shared. Um, our building administrators have commented that too about the the substitutes and our our guest teachers commenting to them that they I talked to somebody over here in the cafeteria the other day and they said she just really enjoys being here and coming to Upper Adams. So, I think that's a true testament to, you know, the culture and climate of our buildings and our our faculty, staff, and our administrators. Yes, especially like the since this area is more rural, like the the pay is a little bit lower here than some of the other district surrounding districts, but people still will come here instead. So, I think that says a lot about the culture here. >> Are most of your substitutes
013like retired teachers or >> Um, some are. Um, I find that most retirees don't want to come back. Um, that so when they do, they're like once or twice a week. um to sub in Pennsylvania, you just have to have a bachelor's degree and a clean criminal record. So, um most of our subs are either like just out of college and don't have decided what they want to do yet or um like stay at home moms that have a degree that are coming back. Um and then we also see a lot of um certified teachers that just never never got into like an educational career. So they like they graduated, had their certification, but then just went another direction, but then they decided they want to come back and that's who we see for like
014our building subs and our long-term substitutes for the most part. >> And just to capitalize on the building subs, so the building sub will fill in where needed. So he or she may show up that day. They could be in art today. They could be in a math class the next day. Like they it's just whatever vacancy is open. So they do get moved quite frequently and different subject areas each day. And I think a lot of times they like that. >> They like that. Yeah. They like not having to come do the same thing every day >> and the building subs get placed first, right? >> There's an opening. >> If if if there's something unfilled when they come in for the day, yes, they they get it first. um anyone up until like
015two hours before the start time. Um any sub can pick up that role, but then when we're building sub reports for the day, um they go to whatever is is open. >> And that's where the administrators behind the scenes early in the morning, 6:30 in the morning, they're texting amongst themselves, making sure looking at the coverage. Oh, the building stuff today is going to go here. So the administrators, the building administrators are on that between 6:00 and 6:30 in the morning as well, planning their day and how they're going to use their building. So >> So ideally, if if there's a a building sub at the elementary and those spots are all full, that building sub could be assigned somewhere else. >> Absolutely. >> And they know that taking that position or vice versa going
016down to the elementary. Are those positions daily listed like on the website or something and then subs would say, "Yeah, I take that." Or is that how that works? >> Yeah, there's an absence manage management website called Frontline. Um, and that's where they they can use an app where they can log in um on the web browser and they can see what assignments are available and they can accept them or deny them and then whatever is where the building stuff gets placed. Any other questions? >> Okay, thank you so much. >> Thank you, >> guys. Have a good night. >> Thank you. >> Take care. Thanks again. >> All right. Uh, next, uh, Mr. Alba. >> Yes. Good evening, everyone. It's nice to see everyone. I can't believe it's October already and marking period's going
017to be first marking period will be over in a month in about 3 weeks. So, uh it's school year's going fast. Um if you want to pull up the Imagine Learning quote, I can uh walk you through it. This is our annual renewal. This, if you've been on the board for a while, this should not be of surprise to anyone. Um just a little history once again. Uh we have been with this company since 2008. Uh it used to be Odyssey Wear Academy. uh it got bought out and acquired uh throughout the years, changed some names and so forth is now called Imagined Learning, same company. Um and the product that we use, you've heard of it, is called Egenuity. So, this is our online option for our students uh who wish to go to
018an online environment but don't want to go but still want to be connected to our district. Uh this is a cost savings to the district. Uh if you have a full case load depending on credits you're looking at between 1500 and 1700 per student versus Mrs. Hobs what 13,000 for >> 14 now uh if you go to an outside cyber so significant savings if they choose our uh cyber school uh what we have done in the past is we purchase the uh enrollments now for the following year. So, this will start, you can see on the quote, July 1st. Uh, we prepay for these. We've done it for at least the past 10 years. We started doing it to take advantage of incentives and promotions to save the district money. Uh, now we have such
019a great relationship in uh longevity with this company that uh they they have not raised the price on us in like four or five years. So, and once again, there's a no price increase by us committing uh early. So, uh we budget for this every year. It's not an unexpected cost. It's the same cost as in previous years. We get 180 enrollments. That's not 180 students. So, it's confusing not only for you folks, but also for our staff as well. So, 180, think of it as a courses, 180 courses if you want to think of it that way. So, every a student doing a full load would have seven courses. So, right there would be seven of those. Not every student is full-time. So, some I have uh three students that have one course right
020now and then all the way up to a full-time seven courses. It depends if they're making up courses, they're doing courses for enrichment, if they're in full-blown full-time cyber, if they're doing some half uh half and half. It just depends on each individual students unique situation, which is another benefit of our program. We can customize it to what they need. uh if they're they just had a um terrible 10th grade year for whatever reason. Uh and if but we they're going to 11th grade. We want to keep them on track for graduation. This is an opportunity. This is an an avenue we could explore if they wanted to keep their course load here at school and we could uh make up some we call it credit recovery uh for a student that may have not
021done so well a previous year for one reason or another and to get them back on track. So, um, quotes in front of you. You'll see there it says one for elementary. We do that for every year. What that is is a what the company calls a placeholder. So, if we do have any students K to five that uh would want an online experience, we we would we would have that option available to us and we can uh invoke that. Since COVID, we have not. There's just no we have not had any K5 students take advantage of it. We started to have one this year and then that student ended up um I think going back to a actually moved to a different district actually. So um all of our enrollments are between uh grades
0226 and 12. If you're wondering currently I can tell you the number of students. Now I'll go back to students not enrollments but student wise uh 22 23 we had 36. 23 24 we had 42. 24 25 we had 41. And this year we're currently at 37 for this semester. It changes each semester. Uh it can we can add some more as the semester goes on if needed. Uh but we're right in that in that ballpark. We haven't grown. Um I remember back to the co days was a little shell shock then we wereund 170 I think we topped out at on people online. Uh so we have have since recovered from those days thank goodness in more ways than one. So, um, >> so you said that that some of the students might only
023be taking like one class, >> correct? >> And then they're in school. >> Yes. >> Normal. They're just like using the online for for a class to catch up or >> Yep. could be in an enrichment option for their GIP if they have one or or or some type of situation like that. Or it could be uh yeah, credit recovery situation. All right. Thank you. >> Thank you, Mr. Alvin. >> So, on that note with uh with Mr. Brady, we will be adjourned. No other >> wait wait wait wait the new business. >> Uh >> the other can we go to the other? >> Sure. Excuse me. Okay. Thank you. Now, uh, Mr. President, I'm not entirely certain of the exact protocol for introducing a new agenda item, but I would like to propose that
024the committee consider placing on a future agenda the exploration of a dual language immersion program beginning in kindergarten. If it's appropriate, I would frame this as a motion. >> Okay. U I don't think we have uh motions or votes, but we can um we will get with Miss Hollowo and Mr. Albin and and hopefully get it on an agenda in a future committee meeting. Does that work? Okay, that worked for me. Thank you. >> All right. Any other anything else under other? All right. Uh we are adjourned. No, wait. I'll bring the business and operations committee meeting to order and we'll start out with Mrs. Hob. She has a presentation about the budget impact. Uh oh. volume is that I I never get it all right. I apologize. We'll hold on you. We'll go to
025you. >> Okay. >> So, I'm just here to say that there are several surplus items. Two Texas Instruments uh T183 not in working condition at the Bigal High School. three T183 plus non- workinging in the Big Bell High School and six T13XA and non- workinging condition at the big high school. I have no idea what those are. >> Little calculators. >> Oh, that's I kind of thought that actually. I'm proud of myself. >> All right. Thank you, Mrs. Youngber. Uh we'll go to Mr. Lady for a transportation update. We're on top of it. >> Uh yeah, approve the following drivers to the Jacobe transportation list uh listed there as three new drivers. >> Okay. Thank you, Mr. Lady. Now, we'll go to Mrs. Hobs for a budget impass presentation. >> Okay. So tonight's uh presentation
026is going to be because we do not have a state budget and just sharing where we stand as a district and also giving a forward thinking you know as we start looking at 2627 because usually in October is when I start planning for that's a little bit um going to be delayed because of negotiation process because I always start with personnel items first but since we don't have um a new CBA yet you know I work on some other areas in the beginning. So at first I wanted to share a historical approved budgets for the state. On the left hand side you can see the fiscal year and when the boards here at Upper Adams has always approved the budgets always prior to the June 30th because that is a requirement by school code. And
027once again, the information on the far left that talks about according to school code, all those things are the requirements as school board directors that you are taking oaths to uphold the financial stability of the district um and being prudent and passing the budget. So those that's what the school code stands for. In the middle where it says state budget approved and I have the yellow and the red errors because the state budget should be approved by June 30th. In many instances it's not. That's why I have the yellow and red. The yellow was okay. It was a few days behind like July August. Red you're going to see there are some many days. Um right now we are at 99 days plus. Um you can see back in fiscal year 21 it went 146
028days and prior to that in fiscal year 16 173 days. Once again just sharing some historical information for you. And I had to put a little fact in there. Um, out of the last 13 years, nine years the PA state budget has not been approved. So that's a 69% rate. And right now, Pennsylvania is the only state that does not have a state budget. At the end of September, Michigan was in that and Michigan has now passed their state budget. Um, so we are the only state without a state budget currently. At this time, the district should have received subsidies from the state totaling $4.3 million. That's a lot of money. That's equal to about 20 I'm just going to round it up. 25% of our state revenue. So, when we budget, our budget is
029made up of local revenue, state revenue, and federal revenue. Our local revenue is about 49%. Our state revenue is about 50% and our federal um revenue is about 1%. So we are missing about 24% 25% of our 50% budget that we are supposed to have from the the state. On the local side, we have received um about 70% of our local what we budgeted and of the 70% 85% is due to the local taxpayer revenue coming in from taxpayers. So that is currently what is covering us to pay our bills that we are um having plus our reserve that we have in the fund balance. And I put some links in here. Um there was a joint um presentation you can click on that. I'm not going to share that. You can click on it.
030It was um done at the state capital. It's about a 30 minute presentation. And then also the source down at the bottom that's listing from PSEA that will give you all the school districts in Pennsylvania and the subsidies they should have received by the end of September. So that's where that data came from. So how else is this impacting upperam school district? So we are actually due some reimbursements back from the state that we expended back in the in last fiscal year 2425. They're actually accounted for in the state budget of 2526. So we're still waiting on some of those funds because we are also missing that $4.3 million in the state revenue. We have lost about $50,000 in interest free money to the taxpayers. Um, some vendors remain unpaid. I have not, um, paid
031any of the cyber charter. So, Mr. Lady, I'm sorry you won't probably have any of those to announce. Um, I also have not paid our Lincoln benefit trust reserve, our non-spendable insurance because we do have a healthy reserve balance there currently. And just some other invoices that I haven't paid and it's totaling about 1.8 million. So, if you're thinking about some of the what's going to happen when the state budget pass, we still have about 2 million and it'll it will continue to grow until the state budget passes that we will have to pay sort of immediately when that gets passed. Also, it could be impacting our prek counts program. Um, we did delay starting that because of the budget not being passed. Once again, that impacts many families, many students, about 17 students that
032need those services and um benefit from being part of that program. Now, the state is offering short-term funding. If you click on that link, it'll give you some information as well. However, if a district or anyone would need to apply for that short-term lending um specifically related to this prek counts program, there is a 4.5% interest rate and then it needs to be paid within 15 days of the state budget being passed. So once again, money that we should be receiving. Um but then the taxpayers in the end would be paying for the 4.5% interest rate if we would need to go down this route. >> That's absurd. we should be charging them interest at this point for the money that we haven't received. >> So with the bills being the unpaid stuff like the
033charter schools. So I'm sure that we're not the only district that's not doing that. I mean obviously so how are how are they operating? >> They have a very healthy fund balance. So, if you would look at the attorney general's, they just um did some very deep auditing and their audit results are out there and you can see the fund balances that they're carrying. And to elaborate a little bit more, Mr. lady. Um, the other week I was at our local business managers meeting. So, individuals from business managers from Franklin, New York, and Adams County, and about five of us in the room said that we are currently not paying. >> Is there going to be a penalty of some sort to us for not paying for? >> The only penalty would be they could
034take it from our subsidy, but if we're not getting paid subsidy, they can't take it from them, >> right? Okay. What is their fund balance? I mean, >> it depends on which one, and I could get those numbers or I can send out the links for you. Um, the most recent one that was in the paper if you would even Google would be Commonwealth Connections, CCA. They have a very healthy fund balance in the millions, more millions than what's in our fund balance that we have here. So, in my conversations that I had with the auditors, and we're still fitting finishing up our audit from 2425, um, you know, with the impass of the budget, they're recommending that districts have at least $10 million in fund balance. Our fund balance as of 6:30 was about
0357 million. Now, we can only have up to 8% of our expenses in are unassigned. and then we can have additional funds in the assigned fund balance. Um we will continue to monitor any budget developments and the cash flow especially um between our what we have at our local financial institution and what we have in PISLAP. Um there are some districts and you might have heard this on the news that they are furlong teachers. They're getting ready to go out for loans. Um they may be stopping extracurricular events. Um, but if a loan is needed, that does impact the taxpayers as well because once again, as I mentioned, even on the state side with that 4.5%. You know, you're looking at they gave a rough number of $200,000 in fees and interest, you know, so
036that's just a very rough number. I have also contacted uh Representative Torren Eer's office three times um you know, just asking where we stand with the budget. I would encourage you all to reach out as well. I have highlighted here um the phone number. When I talked to them last week, I I let them know I was going to be sharing this and they may be getting some calls. So, please um you know, do your due diligence as you see fit. Um I just wanted to convey how it's impacting us here at Upper Adams and keeping you all a breast because that does play into how we start looking at the next fiscal year, the 26 27. Um, Mr. Alvin shared with me about last week he had a federal programs meeting and they are
037already talking about cuts on the federal side for next fiscal year 2627 specifically titles 2 through 4 and for us right now that's about $96,000 um not to count on for next year. So when I start that budget prep, as I mentioned, I will be removing 96,000 and title one is anticipated but would have a significant decrease. But what does that mean for us? We do not know. Once again, these are the planning stages. Mr. Albin will find out more in the springtime. Um would you like to add any more from your >> Right. It's very preliminary right now. They shared two, three, and four will be eliminated. Um that's the proposal both in the Senate and the House right now. The Senate has a safety net there. Um they're looking at possibly creating a
038block grant. So taking that money that was in two, three, and four, maybe some other grants and putting it in one grant and then giving it to the states and saying, "Okay, state, now you have the flexibility to use this money how you wish." Because the philosophy seems to be not targeting funds to certain areas, allowing more flexibility. The problem is it's not going to be it may not be probably is not going to be a dollar fordoll match. So just because we're getting $10 in title four money, that doesn't mean there's going to be $10 in this block grant for us. It could be $5. You know, it's it's not going to be an exact match. Uh that's in the Senate bill or not Senate, that's in the Senate idea right now. The House
039plan is not uh addressing a block grant. they just want as 2, three, and four are completely cut with no block grant at all. So, just a total decrease. Um, where it'll go, we have between now and June 30th to to figure it out. Um, in the spring, we'll get some finalized plans, but both right now, both in the House and the Senate, they're both on board with eliminating those three. One has a block grant idea, one doesn't. We'll see where it goes. >> Thank you. Also in looking ahead the as I mentioned our collective bargaining agreement which expires 6:30 of 2026 um start those negotiation conversations in January um and we'll keep the board a breast as we go through that process but that could have an impact as well to the budget for
0402627. I would recommend that we plan ahead that we have a delayed state budget even next year. I mean we have seen that historical um trend And you know, as we are looking ahead, not saying it's going to happen, but would there have to be a tax increase? Um, I just want to lay it out there, not saying, but just planning like as we look forward, we don't go in anticipating, but I just want to keep that option out there that it may have to be considered in the future. Thank you. >> I'm sorry to share all that information with you, but does anyone have any questions? >> Thanks for the great news. >> I'm sorry. >> I will mention I spoke with Dr. Deson yesterday. I think you wrote letters right to >> Mr.
041Mastriano as well as >> Ear I attached them and shared it with with everyone on last Friday. What uh I guess I hate to ask. I don't know. Without a budget, how how long do we have until we have to look at it though? November, December. >> We will start transferring funds from our PISLAF account between November and December. And we have when I just looked at the reconciliations, we have about 8 million sitting there currently. Um, so we have probably until February, you know, that's once again by not paying some of those invoices that I've already mentioned, but that's just going to keep accumulating as well. >> So, we're in pretty good shape compared to other other districts are already talking about loans and we're good until >> Yeah. Yes. >> And that that
042speaks >> January, February. Yeah. >> The importance of keeping a healthy fund balance within within the law. So, it's not it's not dire yet, but uh Shelley has a close eye on it. It could become dire in February or March, and you know, you may be looking at the option of taking out loans, which would be better than other options, but not the best option. So, I don't think we need to send up the the flares yet, but >> I think if it gets February, March, people are going to I mean, they're not doing their job. somebody's not damaged. >> Has ever happened delayed that long before? >> Yes. Um >> December, right? >> Yeah, there was a December and then there was one year that it actually got signed into law. Um let me
043just pull this back up. Back in 1516, a partial was done in December and then in March 16, it went it was approved without the governor's signature. And the most recent was um in 2324 they did 75% in August and then they did the remaining uh 25% in December. >> Yeah. >> All right. If there's no more questions or comments, we'll go on to some other good news from Mrs. Hobb. She has a presentation about the food service bad debt situation. this does get a little bit better. >> So, we will start there. Um, I just wanted to walk through because this came up at our last meeting. Um, just about the process that we handle that debt, what we do ahead of time, what we do throughout the process, talk about the the C
044program and why we didn't we looked at it here upper, but we did not opt in for it. We'll talk about that and then um where we currently stand as well. So when new students come in, we give them a free meal, free and reduced meal application. Um so that's standard with every new enrollment when we get new folks into the district. At the beginning of each school year, we also send it home with students and it's also provided within the negative balance letters that um Miss Glass does from my office. There's also a process that's run from the state that she pulls in um called direct certification and those individuals don't need to to fill out an application, but it's usually those families receiving SNAP or TANUP benefits and that pulls in automatically and
045even certain children with medical assistant benefits um don't need to complete the free and reduced meal application that we get that information automatically from the state. So that's an ongoing file as well that we pull. And then once we have that information, this is done as applications are coming in. And as I mentioned, the files from the state on a continuous basis throughout the whole school year, not just at the beginning. That information is processed and notification letters are sent out to families whether they qualified or if they are going to be receiving free or reduced meals for the from that point forward. And that's the key. It's from that point forward. Um, so if they did not fill fill out their application until October 7th, they would still be held responsible for anything prior
046to that. So let's say back to the beginning of the start of the beginning of the school year. And then on the screen, this is really tiny and I apologize if you have it up on your computer. It's probably better. Um so what I have here is just the trend of the debt and where it falls in the classification of free reduced and full pay. Um we'll start on the good side first. So if you look to the far right for the total what I shared back in June the bad debt was right around 44 45,000. Right now as of September 30th we're down to 39,000. So that has decreased just shy of $6,000. So folks are paying. we are seeing folks pay. The highest area that has the most debt are those that can
047that have the ability to full pay and specifically those at the high school middle school because that is just accumulating from year to year and you can see that in the chart. Um Bagelville Elementary has little they're about less than 7%. the intermediate it's about 18% and then the rest the rest here at the secondary level. There's also a program, you might have heard, the com community eligibility provision, the C program. And we looked at this program for the district. Um, but there's a lot of provisions, a lot of eligibility things that you have to consider. And this would allow all students to be free for breakfast and lunch regardless of um any income verification. And there's a whole lot of information here about how um it's done. I'm not going to get into the
048nitty-gritty of it, but on the next slide, when we looked at this um and we looked at we used data from October 2024 because we analyzed this in February. And when we looked at the data, the district would end up losing about 18,000 per month, which would be about 160,000 for the year. And this is money that comes from the federal side to pay for these this program. Now, currently the federal, you know, there is no federal budget as well. So those districts that opted into this program probably are not receiving funds as well. So I think you know there is a greater concern for those districts right now and I just included the stats here at the at the bottom and this was looking at Big Leavville Elementary and the intermediate school and individuals
049or school districts that opt into those program it's usually a three-year commitment. However, for us for upper Adams it would be a five-year commitment because we outsource food service. that there's a difference and I think that's where we see the major difference when we looked at the numbers behind the scenes um because we with outsourcing we we don't have to pay for the benefits and things like that of employees where other school districts have them if they're inhouse for food service they're paying health care and pasers and those other benefits that usually account for the highest end of the personnel Well, um, also our return rate on the applications that we receive at the elementary level are far greater than those at the ele at the secondary level. And that reason may be, you know,
050as folks um get into the secondary level, they may feel embarrassed turning in the applications or someone may see um, you know, those are barriers we try to take away for students and parents. um where we offer a QR code where they could just, you know, scan the QR code, take them to a website to and do that information. I know things are posted for back to school nights, you know, and if there's a need, they can also parents and things can reach out to our building administrators and we cannot ask for those applications to be completed. We just strongly encourage those um because it does tie into the title funding that we receive specifically for Bigleville Elementary um that Mr. Alvin reports on every month during his conversations with the board as well. And
051in our conversations with Bartwells and the state, the magical number that they look for is anything greater than 60% for the poverty. You know, so when we're looking at the data, the magical number sort of to break even or to be ahead by opting into this program is 60% and we are about like 36%. You know, so when we look at those numbers, it just was not a benefit for the upper Adams school district to opt in to this program. So I wanted to share that piece of information with you because you might have heard it from other districts and wondering why we don't do that. Um so as we look forward in what we're doing here upper Adams we'll continue to follow our board policy at 808 which talks about you know sending out
052the letters. Um we can't do any sort of alternative lunches or anything like that. We do continue to evaluate our meal pricing each year. In fact, we have to complete what they call a tool each year that states if we need to raise our lunch prices, which we have not. Um, we take that into consideration. We work a lot with our building administrators, especially at the secondary campus because you saw that's our highest area of where we have the debt about 75%. And I will share um they have started even reaching out to those seniors that may have the debt. Usually we start that in January. We have already started that process now for this upcoming school year. Something that we've asked the board to approve for the last couple of years is the my
053school bucks fee waiver. So previously if stu if parents would put any funds onto their onto the students accounts using my school bucks there was a a fee that parents got charged and we have waved that for the last several years. And actually there's a bill in going through the process right now that we won't school districts won't be able to even charge those fees in the future. So we are ahead of that by once again trying to remove any barriers. And the most recent thing is when we've been uh using JP Harris we have turned over just a little bit over 21,000 and we have received and collected about $10,000. So it's not quite half percent but we are 50% I'm sorry but we are seeing some return as well. What we are finding
054is when folks are getting the notices from JP Harris they will then log into my school bucks and pay it so they don't have to go through JP Harris. JP Harris did tell us that if that continues to happen we as the district will still be charged about $20, you know. So that is just an ongoing maintaining cost if the um board wants us to continue that. >> Is that $20 per letter >> uh per um >> per person? Per student. >> Okay. Okay. So So if the parents of the student get the letter, they call in, they pay up, then JP Harris charges $20 for that and it's per student. So if it's multiple students then it's probably 20 per. >> Yes. >> Okay. >> So any questions or recommendations or things that you
055would like us to continue >> Yeah. Go ahead. >> Sorry. When the seniors um when they're they're given like a notice uh that they wouldn't be able to graduate with their class. Is that correct? uh if they have a that >> they still can grad allow them to graduate, right? >> Um just they might not get their diploma until later or you know there's other things that the building administrator may do. >> Is that debt if they've been acrewing it since like you know middle school is that the whole complete debt or just >> Yes. >> Okay. >> Yeah. It's not just for that senior year it's the whole debt. >> Okay. I was wondering about that. And to Miss Hob's point, and I shared I shared with you all a lot of statistics and
056data too that it's going on all over the place. Um, when I met with other super tenants in Adams County, some of them, and I know Miss Hobs was at the business meeting, some of them have higher actually lunch debt than than we do. So, it's it it is an ongoing issue all around. um trying to find ways to support her how we can knock that down. So, >> well, I like the idea of more letters from JP Harris going out, especially if they're receiving the letter. Maybe it's brought to their attention, they didn't know it, they're getting into my school bucks, they're paying up. I think that's a no-brainer. And if it's only 20 bucks, that's probably a lot less than the collected amount that you have on here. It's probably a small portion.
057So, I'd be in favor of substantially more letters going out. >> I am too. I mean, it doesn't feel like we have a whole lot of other options. >> And is there a dollar threshold that you would like us to look at? Anyone? So what's what B that's ask what's your basis now of second >> I think we so in the last two rounds we did the top 10 >> and whatever those >> top 10 being the highest >> yes okay >> and we can continue to do that you know >> yeah the top 33 or something or we could go another 10 maybe another 10 maybe 15 high you think that's >> yeah I mean yeah I didn't know if we did like a small amount. But yeah, just go to about 15 20.
058>> I think that's reasonable. >> So, we got to get this debt down. The taxpayers are already >> being pinched here with the state budget not getting passed. This is another place where they could potentially get pinched at some point. So, you have to pay for your lunch. That's all there is to it. >> And it's money we've already paid, right? It's already all the general funds already paid. So, it's not >> All right. So I think we have a direction there. Top 15% is is the is the consensus. So uh we'll move on here to the next item. Um let me see. Okay. Um we'll go on to donations here. We have $200 donated by the American Legion Post 262 for the sixth grade. A trip to the Gettysburg National Military National Cemetery for
059Wreath Lang, a $80 from Mr. and Mrs. Halballs for the Soul Sisters at the Intermediate School, and $1,600 anonymous donation for the Vette program. So, very generous donations there, and they're appreciated. Uh the last three items uh under finance are the server hardware warranty renewal and all three of these are are in your agenda there for review. Um also the transfinder renewal for busing. Uh that's the program that's used yeartoear to create bus routes in the most efficient way. There's no price increase for this fiscal year. The final item is the docuign agreement which does contain a price increase of $276. And this is so parents, guardians can sign documents remotely. Okay. If there's no questions on that, we'll move on to Mr. Lustig and personnel. Mr. Lustig is not here, so I'll cover this
060very briefly. Um, we have some professional uh position. Mrs. Darnner is going on military leave beginning in November. Good luck to her and thanks for service. Um, nothing under cabinet support positions. There are uh two, four, five individuals um in various positions and their rates under uh support contracts. volunteers. There's 13 volunteers. We appreciate the volunteers who uh sign up and uh donate their time to the school district. Three under Kelly education listings, a substitute, actually I should say one under Kelly uh substitute under there and then one under Chartwells. And that's all I had for personnel. and nothing else. Mr. President, does anybody else else have any comments or questions, statements? All right. If there's none, I guess we can adjourn. I'm not missing anything.