CSD Committee of the Whole School Board Meeting - April 25, 2023

001Okay. Thank you. I'll call the meeting to order of April 25th and I'd like to say good evening to all of you. May we have a roll call, please? Mrs. Bado here. Mrs. Crossen here. Mrs. Eenberg here. Mr. Ghart here. Mr. Godson present. Mr. Leiden here. Mrs. Lynch present. Mr. Martin present. Mr. Saddowski here. Nine members present. Thank you. May we please rise for the pledge of allegiance. Thank you. Pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for which it stands. One nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. God bless America. Thank you. Next order of business is announcements. Right now, we don't have any. We will go into superintendent report. Dr. Ben, please. Good evening, uh, Madame President, the rest of the board. First,

002I'd like to take this opportunity to, uh, recognize and share what you hopefully have heard already. Uh, Centennial School District Music Education program has once again, uh, received national recognition. This is the third year in a row. Uh the the district has once again been honored with the best communities for music education designation by uh NAM which stands for national association of music merchants uh for his outstanding commitment to the music education. Now in his 24th year uh the best communities for music education designation is awarded to districts that demonstrate outstanding achievement and efforts to provide a music access and education to all students. Uh with that said, there is a uh continual history and commitment to uh academics and the arts and athletics uh in our school district and this is just another opportunity

003for recognition uh on that. I'd also like to share that uh on today uh the board is taking up uh an appoint an appointment for a position that is a part of our continued efforts to move forward with our safety and security improvements. Uh the candidate that was selected has 39 years of experience as a highly qualified and innovative change agent. Um and number of years in law enforcement rising and serving to the rank of chief of police in several agencies also spending time in the DA's office and also as an instructor at uh university. Um and pending board's approval, it would be another step forward as we try to centralize and get coordinated in a systemic effort uh to improve our measures. I had the privilege at the board's approval uh last week to

004attend with other superintendents from Bucks County uh meetings in Hershey. Uh the meetings were held in Hershey um because it was coordinated with multiple government agencies. Two of those agencies were the head of emergency management um involved with our version of FEMA which would be FEMA and then also the executive director of um safe to say and it was again as eye opening and pretty daunting uh the task that we're all undertaking to continue to respond to what often good news is not authentic threats but it does take manpower and resources because we do take things seriously. Uh this past Friday um we experienced such an event. Uh late Thursday uh we were informed of a unverified and anonymous threat. Um the initial collaboration with the police department triggers the process to try to do

005an assessment of the threat at which time while it was not verifiable um it was anonymous uh out of abundance of caution collective decision-m with our police departments was to have a presence at high school that was the only school that received uh such a threat. I want to publicly thank uh Warminster and Southampton Police Department. Uh regardless of jurisdiction, uh they both had a presence at our school and there at times we had as many as eight officers present. Um the minimum presence was four and we also did have investigators on the scene uh after the fact following up on some possible leads uh based on relationships and communications with students. Uh, additionally, um, I'm thankful that based on communication and constant assessment, uh, of the situation, we were able to continue to move

006forward with what turned out to be an outstanding program. I could not have been more proud and enthusiastic and happy to see the performance of our elementary students. Those students have been working since September through June uh, January looking for their day on the stage. But on top of it, the impeccable audience of their peers, the cheering, the clapping, the smiling, the happiness was unprecedented. And it was a sight to see. Uh I'm I wouldn't consider myself a music connoisseur. Uh Miss Lynch, um as far as I I enjoy it, but not that I could claim it, but so they sound great to me. So take it for what it's worth. Uh if you want to, I probably couldn't if you close it behind a curtain. some of the things, the singing and the music

007they played, I'm not sure I would have known it was not a professional. Uh, that's how good they sounded. Um, and everything went off without a hitch. Um, we of course um are thankful. Uh, we had on typically anywhere from 9 to 11% absence. So, you know, anywhere from uh 88 to 90% of our school attendance uh was present in our schools. Um, of course, the high school uh was hit the hardest, but it was also coupled with uh MBIT was uh involved in her knock exams. So, that's typical what happens because students are intense taking those exams as Mr. Golderson could speak to um and they're finished and sometimes, you know, they take the rest of the day or they may take the earlier portion to prepare for those exams. So the number is

008higher but that was also coupled with a normal expected uh uh attendance uh lag because of the students who are participating in that exam day program at the MBIT. Uh so all in all uh great response. Uh bus drivers stayed on the premises also. Uh they dropped students but didn't leave right away and they came back like clockwork on time and everything was a sight to see with the show went on without any interruptions. Wonderful. Thank you. That's it for Thank you very much. That was very enlightening and sounds like it was extremely enjoyable time. The next order of business is 1.6 presentation of 2324 proposed final budget. Mr. Greenwood, thank you very much. So, this is a little bit of a change up. So, I appreciate appreciate the time. Um as we get started

009here uh with our mission vision, mission slides, desire to improve our communication expectations, more than just numbers. Uh and our calendar timeline. Uh today um is April 25th. Um and I am bringing before you uh what is uh referred to as the proposed final budget. the proposed final budget uh for clarity sets a new ceiling at what the tax increase can be. Right? So that is the key of this step is to set a new ceiling. Currently the ceiling is set at 4.1% which is the act one index. So tonight we will uh be requesting approval to lower that. uh that is by no means the uh the objective right our goal is to continue to work on this budget process and work through it last year um I stood before you act one was

010a 3.4% increase our proposed budget at that time same last weekend in April was a 3.4 for proposed final budget, we ended up at a 2.9% budget. Right? So, there is work to be done. This is by no means a a fin a finale. Uh but really just lowering which I think is a positive step. Uh lowering um what that that ceiling can be. So, are there any questions with regard to the purpose of the proposed final budget? Okay. I I do have a question because I do see that, you know, you had 3.7 or or about 3.7 is the is the new Why would we not, you know, propose what has been discussed during finance committee meetings? Oh, we we've discussed a range, right? We've discussed anywhere from 4.1 to 2.9. Uh in that

011range, there's still a number as as the uh slide deck will show, right? There's a number of outstanding questions, right? Uh that need to be worked on, right? We have we have our friends at MBIT. We are working through their budget challenges. So those are just to name one, right? But we have we have a number of areas that we are continuing to work on. There are, you know, the the the passage of the state's budget, getting an indication of where the state is with their budget process, right, is a big indicator for us. we are making assumptions around that. So I think we are we're trying to bring the step down but to to to give one room just in case but again it's setting that new ceiling right which again is is our

012commitment uh and the administration's commitment to to uh to that lower number that'll answer your question Mr. I don't have a question. I have a statement if you don't mind. With all due respect to all the work that you've done and you continue to do, there is no way on this earth that I'm going to vote for a budget proposed at 3.67% including MBIT at 4.2. No way. Thank you. Okay. with without this, right? Then then the ceiling is 4.1 just for for sort of statement of fact, right? So we can vote no and that's fine. Um the the ceiling then is 4.1. Uh which I I'm not expecting anyone to vote for. Uh I've heard that loud and clear. Um and that's why I stand here before you with with 3.67. I show what

013the 2.9 is. I show what the difference is and what we need to get done. That's why we're here. At least that's what I believe I'm here for. I thank you for your comment. So, I I will belabor this a little bit longer, but I won't repeat it on the very next slide. Okay. Uh the slide here shows at the March assessment. We still expect uh an April assessment and a June assessment with regard to real estate values which we would then use to calculate our uh revenue expectation. Um we show a projection at a 3.67 uh rate. uh that is more or less a break even at the moment and a uh 2.9% increase which is producing a $646,000 deficit as we stand here today. Um it is a comparison between those two um

014with with similar uh similar expenses uh in in in that process. Okay. Our proposed final budget is is that which is the break even at the moment that's at the 3.67%. Um it includes uh the increases in the Pennsylvania state funding. So, the budget that the governor had proposed and has put forward, we're yet to hear any definitive uh voices from them, but we're working through our folks at Pasbo to better understand where they they think that's going. Uh last year, if you recall, that didn't happen until July, which sort of is unfortunate because then school districts aren't able to really capitalize on that uh on that positive change. Um so we are anticipating that increase to go through and that's pinpoint and you can see the difference between the current forecast for 2023 and

015the projection the budget for 2024. Um I will you know the act one again increase is limits any future increases beyond that 3.67. This slide provides historical trends of both revenue and expenses along with fund balance. As shared in earlier presentations, we're looking at being able to capitalize what we believe is a positive surplus in 2023. We we anticipate receiving and being able to transfer that uh to support the capital fund. A proposed final budget increase of 3.67 is below the act one rate of 4.1 and marks the fourth consecutive year uh that we've been that we presented a budget uh before below that uh act one increase something that as the chart continues to show hadn't been done previously. So I think we take great pride and and very appreciative of the board uh

016for the work that they put in on this and uh and the team here and the administration to really manage those costs. So four years at a 3.67 67 uh 2.9 both of them are south of the 4.1% which is that inflationary measure again I think it's important to state what the act one is right it is a calculated um inflationary measure of of costs that the school incurs those are primarily driven by labor costs uh and there's not many folks out there that have a declining labor cost right so that is the reality of what we're dealing with and and where we are working to try to minimize those increases to our township. Um, sort of a rough calculation because I I felt like it needed something. Um, you know, it it the calculation

017between the act one and where we have uh hit represents almost a $5 million return to our community. Right? So, we have been working hard. We have been working diligently to prepare and to put together budgets that are below the act one increase. um understanding what it represents uh may or may not be able to be done be done indefinitely. Uh but we are working it very hard to make that a reality here at Centennial School District. The next slide shows uh the assessed values since June. Right? Our June budget was based on that $563,522,000 number. it is increased uh from June through March uh of uh 23 um $1.7 million or.32%. So while there is some development and there's some activity um it is it is limited in in terms of its scope at

018the 3.67% 67% increase. That represents uh roughly $138, $139 uh and tax increase to the median home value uh within our communities uh and roughly, you know, just under $12, uh a month in that increase. That's what that would equate to. This slide again shows gives you some sort of historical context uh with regard to revenue and revenue by source. Um you can see uh in here the the bottomist of the uh column there are the federal uh sources of revenue. Federal sources of revenue make up uh 2% at best in our increases in our revenue streams. um that was only it only bumps up because of esser. So you'll see it jumping up in 21 22 23 24 and then it'll go away and it'll return to that uh you know a million $2

019million number for federal money. State had been equally flat till the last two budgets have actually begun to show some significant investment in public education which we are grateful for. And unfortunately, as we talked about in December, we talked about how uh how the burden of education is shared. The burden is really on the local uh taxpayers and and that is a product of the commonwealth. Not any one no one's any different. Uh and these investments uh are in investments in our children. So, we're continuing to try to to manage that. The pie chart really just gives you your breakdown of those costs, local sources, the lion share of of public funding, um, state source, federal sources, and then and other really just captures our transfer of uh, fund balance uh, to offset Pasers. The

020proposed uh budget uh assumes attendance growth in 2024 with increases primarily in our elementary grades um with small declines in our secondary. Uh this chart shows for 2023 just similar to what I shared with you all in December. Um current enrollment is 5,330 kids uh at the printing of this latest chart. This chart shows classes by cohort uh sort of over that planning period. So each grade level as they progress through uh Centennial. You can see two larger cohorts dropping off uh at the end of the at the end of the year in their 11th and 12th grade. They'll then move back down. That sort of shows the drop uh in that previous chart and the difference going forward. The enrolled uh this enrollment slide shows enrollment by uh by category by population and includes

021uh identification of the low income uh group which has grown almost 70% from 2011 till 2022 23. Um it's near 70% 69% in that period of time. the special ed population has grown uh 15% over that period of time and the um the English language learners uh grew about had a 50% jump. It's still a smaller number at that point. Uh most importantly, it's jumped 30% in the last two years, right? So we've really uh experienced and we've shared those stories uh through video and through presentations uh relative to that bump right and and these groups oftent times as as shared require more resources to provide that support whether those are um IAS and PCAs that are mandated by the state for the school to have. I've shared with you uh presentations on mandated expenses.

022we don't have an opportunity to say no, we are not going to provide that instructional aid or that personal care assistant that is identified expenses. We need to be able to do that, right? It's a little different and I'll sidetrack for just a second. Unique in our own budgeting, right? So, if you're a business, if you're a for-profit, if you're a nonprofit, right, you you run your shop, you have control over many of your expenses. The school district collectively is a little different, right? The school district while we run it independently, right? We are told what we need to do, right? I can't say no, right? We can't say no. We are not going to provide this outsourced education to this student who is in need of it. Right? That $90,000 bill is real. I

023can't say yes or no to that. Right? Instructional aids, PCAs, right? If those are deemed necessary for those students to attend our schools, that's that's a cost that we need to include. Those assumptions and those thoughts need to be involved. Right? So when we talk about a person here or a person there, we're we're somewhat oversimplifying the idea in terms of what is what is the reality, right? The reality is our our special education group is increasing, right? our needs of our students are increasing that it could be pandemic related bunch of issues out there right we are working to support those right we can't say yes or no to them right there are positions certainly my own you could say no I don't need Tom no that's moves on right but the reality is

024the majority of those positions the majority of the people we really can't right we have to provide those sources those resources is to those students and this tries to just capture some of those specific groups 30% incline in ELLL 50 70% incline over the course of time in special education uh those are real numbers uh provided uh through our through our database expense assumptions included in this proposed final budget includes all of our safety and security positions uh along with our coordinator of teaching and learning are built into this model. Uh professional staff increases per the collective bargaining agreement. Those are defined increases uh based on on it on the final year of the collective bargaining agreement. Support staff and administration increases of 3.7%. We've shared that before. That was based on the September Bureau

025of Labor Statistics. That is where that number is coming from. We look to identify it and tie it to a source. I believe that number was 4.1 in January if I'm not mistaken. So that cost of employment, that cost of labor continues to rise. Um we do benefit from what may be once in a blue moon uh but it's at least once in in in forever, right? So the peasers is is highlighted down there. It's another mandated cost. I can't tell people we're we're not going to offer you the pension. Uh, every employee is enrolled in the pension plan, right? I can't tell the pension plan how to manage their money, right? They they they maybe it would be helpful, right? if if we uh if they offered uh sought some solutions and some help

026right that the rate would not continue to increase but for the first time in 15 years dropped back a little bit right to that 3 point uh 34% right so every employee there's a 34% load on there that again isn't isn't isn't identified by administration that is a cost that's mandated by the state and we include it that 34% is the first reduction in the paser's cost in over 15 years, right? Once it got loose and started heading north, right, it went from 4% to 35 and change uh over over what was probably 10 or 15 years, right? So, it is a it is a real cost and glad to see it drop back. That certainly gives all of us a little bit of breathing room and a little bit of room uh to maneuver

027other expenses as we are working through them. Uh I just wanted to highlight the other objects which is this second to the bottom line here right shows a 12 and a 12.25% increase that includes the $500,000 contingency as we sit here now. So we last budget had a $500,000 contingency. This budget uh does include that at the at this point uh in our proposed uh final budget. Not to say that it'll all be there uh come closing time. uh but again trying to be transparent into as to what is there the five-year forecast which uh you know when I started this process again in December right I really wanted us to try to stay focused on on the long-term picture become somewhat challenging uh but as we look out we show deficits in in four

028of those five uh upcoming years um and largely in part and as we've known uh the reduction of uh ESSER funding, right? ESSER funding ends at the end of 2024. That'll be the end of it and we'll be moving on. Um from there, uh we'll need to develop sort of funding strategies to make sure that we maintain the supports that we want to provide and that are really required to be provided. Open items. Uh it's just a short list. Uh the PA budget certainly a big factor in in our uh assumptions that the budget in in in a meaningful way is is what the governor had proposed. Maybe not all of it. We've left some off. But again, as we get closer to that, as we get a better feeling around that, we're able to

029incorporate that into our plans. The homestead farmstead rebate comes out on May 1st. that is the amount of money that uh homeowners will receive back as a discount to their tax increase that won't be known until uh May 1st. Um there's a reminder that's really based on gambling revenue uh and includes all gambling proceeds. So not just those that uh are on on the machines, but there's certainly a lot of gambling. those who watch sports. Uh, every other commercial is is uh is looking for you to gamble one way or another. Um, finalizing our healthc care costs, our final expense preview. I did mention the Middle Bucks Institute of Technology. We have been working to try to finalize that budget to be able to bring to you. um we were able to get their final

030audited reports uh just two weeks ago and we've been able to help them uh better understand what's what's happening with their budget and their planning. Uh that has a has an impact uh based on how schools like the Middle Bucks Institute of Technology and the Bucks County Intermediate Unit manage those expenses. So there's sort of a carryover uh that is associated with their uh in addition to their budget. So it looks at sort of prior year uh uh expenditures and that carry over into the next year and that's what we are uh waiting for them uh to come up with. This Middlebucks Institute of Technology the budget that their board approved is a shows a 4.2% increase to their general fund budget. Right. So, that's not something um we can vote our budget down, but

031their budget has been moved on uh out of their uh out of their board. Um and what that is equivalent to. Um it includes uh expansion of their programming uh and and as part of that two positions. One is a new hire to support that expansion. The other is moving an ESSER funded position from the ESSER roles to their general fund. Um the district's share of their budget uh is 2.9 million right now. Again, I think there is some opportunity that that will come down if the audited statements as we've uh as I've understood them to be and as I've shared that insight with uh MBIT, I would expect that to uh to come down. I know as an administration we've been working diligently with uh Middle Bucks. Um but those are those are important

032areas. If Middle Bucks was held to a 3.6 they would have to reduce their budget by $63,84. If they were held to a 2.9% budget, they'd have to reduce their budget by $153,000. Just some comparative numbers uh for you to to digest and to understand. Again, I don't believe it's in our role to you you can we can uh shut our budget down one way or another. But again, that budget has been passed and is being brought forward. Yes. And addressing the role issue, there has been conversation um because of the new executive director obviously inherited a situation, but the superintendents we meeting to cuz several of them are new to go over the articles of agreement. the process hasn't been in alignment with the articles of agreement. In fact, the school districts and the

033CFOs should see the budget before it goes to the MBIT uh board which is a representative of all the districts and that is supposed to come back for the entire board of the districts to have input on which way it should be voted. You do need to know that if three out of the four schools vote for the budget, it passes regardless of a district saying no um in the process according to articles of agreement. But we are we will be meeting including uh with the new executive director to review the articles of agreement to try to get us back into process that was agreed upon and passed when the school was formed. Okay. Because the audit that Mr. um gold spoke about has some inconsistencies that were detected and again nothing about the quality

034program, the students, the school. Uh we got to address some of the things that the new executives inherited to help them get through it. Um and that's been some of the holdup. I mean, I think he even mentioned some of the the findings. Um we believe we've identified it as of our because we met in Hershey. Um, we're working through it, but it slowed down the process of getting to a final number and it's been a daunting task for uh Mr. Corville, but he's hanging in there. Okay, thank you for that. Um, last with regard to the middlebox, we did get an an updated, excuse me, updated estimate on their capital plan. Uh if you recall uh two years ago uh the board approved an $ 8.9 million capital plan uh that is shared uh

035by all of the sending schools contribute to that. We contribute uh it's a 5-year window of plan. This will be our third year coming up. Um uh that $ 8 million plan was largely based on on uh previously un undone maintenance. Right. So, uh, maintenance that was deferred came back to to to roost, if you will. And those costs are are shown at that 8.9. Their estimate now uh has increased u to 12,674,000, an increase of $3.7 million or 42% really based on the cost of materials, uh the cost of of labor to do that work. Um again this is I'm assuming preliminary we haven't had an opportunity to discuss it with uh Middlebucks Institute of Technology uh but it is certainly the most current number relative to where that capital plan starts. Okay. And

036as I as I mentioned and uh you know the the audited statements are being reviewed. I think we, you know, we got it, we were delayed in getting a copy of those, uh, but dug in and and, you know, I think our administration team here spent days sort of going through that, trying to share the insights with with their team as they work to to reorganize and address the challenges within their audit. So the again uh we we recommend approving the proposed uh final budget. Uh again setting a new ceiling. Without this, the ceiling would be 4.1. If we approve the the uh proposed final budget, the ceiling now becomes 3.67. Um and ma and that maximum is the maximum rate that uh the tax increase could be um in this uh this school year

037in this school budget. As I mentioned earlier, last year's proposed budget was at the act one increase um and we came back at a 2.9% increase. That concludes my presentation. Mr. Greenwood. Yes. Um just in the interest of uh individual homeowners getting a better feel for what any sort of a tax increase means to them. Um could you tell me what the dollar amount of the median home value is that was used? Uh Mr. Gard, I I wish I could have that off of the top of my head. I can certainly send that out to the board and and identify what that is. Okay. And if since you're doing that, um the percentage of homes that are under the median, the percentage of homes that are over the median, do you have access to that?

038I don't know, but I could certainly uh certainly work to identify that. Thank you. I mean, I would imagine the median's going to really have half of them on one end and half of them on the other end if it if it's if it's if it's if it if it fits the word, right? That's that by definition. Been a long time since I had by the definition. Forget that. Just go with the medium. So, we we'll cross that question off. I'll come back with the other question. Madame President, if I might, sir, please. Um, as chairman of the finance committee, um, I agree with your opening statement, by the way. Thank you. Uh, we we've had I missed the last meeting, but there have been numerous discussions about the budget. If you recall, the very

039first budget was presented to the board on January 24th. In 3 months, there has been zero reduction in expenditures. The expenditure number today is exactly what was presented to us in January. So in three months, we haven't been able to find dollar one to reduce the expenditures. Now, Mr. Greenwood has done a great job with the revenue side, which has gone up and down depending on other factors that may come in to play to develop the revenue. But it would seem to me that any budgets I've ever been involved with, the first thing you do is look at the expenditure side. And even to get down to this number of $646,992 that we heard about earlier, that is actually less than 1/2 of 1% of the total budget. Now, you you take any budget any

040place and you say to them, you you have to reduce this by less than 1/ half of 1% of your bud your home budget, a business budget, a district budget, a county budget. one less than 1/ half of 1% would seem like it's something that's certainly doable. And we had discussions on many items as to how possibly we could do that. And none of them have come to the board for a final uh determination. So in the next two months, we're going to have to make a lot of decisions that haven't been made yet that could have been made and I've been asking to be made but never have. and they relate to we are going to get reports about new bus routes and walking routes and things of that nature. Um we we have

041don't have the final flow. We may have the first step to it with the security and new employees and those sorts of things have not been totally rectified. We're going to have discussions about class sizes. There's only 15 new students and the budget's gone up almost $5 million of expenditure. We have only an addition of 15 students. So we can't say that it's due to having more students in the district that's making the budget go up. Uh so there's a lot of things that uh again I compliment Mr. Greenwood for all his hard work. But you know if we pass this tonight the way it is, which is the easiest thing to do between now and June, somebody's going to have to do a hell of a lot of work to get the budget down

042to where it needs to be. But not to have reduced the expenditures is very disturbing to me when that's the first thing we need to do in my humble opinion and that if you look at January's budget you were given and tonight's budget the expenditures are exactly the same amount. So we've been able to eliminate zero. Although I read some flyer that said we somebody saved the count district a million dollars. I haven't seen that, but I wish we could save a million dollars, but 646,000 or whatever, that's less than 1 half of 1% reduction of expenditures, which seems to me to be a doable thing and will be done before the final budget or a few of us may not vote for it. Thank you, Madam Chairman. Well, Mr. Martin, I thank you because

043I totally totally agree with you. I thought, but I could be wrong, that we said we had some sort of consensus that we would look at 2.9. Yes. Um, I thought that's what we most of us agreed that that could be a good point to start. I think you even said that. You even said maybe we can go to 2.5. and and I appreciate all your work. Believe me, I do. But in reality, in the world I live in, to bring me a budget with 3.67, no way. It doesn't reflect on you really. But like Mr. Martin said, how could I vote for 3.67 67 what I actually said I'm willing for 2.9 and sir like I keep saying you you've done a marvelous job but I don't want to hear about the 4.1 act

044one increase if we were rich and we all lived in 67 $800,000 homes I could understand that we're a middle class community. So 4.1 is off the wall. It's off the charts. So Mr. Martin, thank you for bringing that up. I totally agree with you. I know you're spending a lot of time, tremendous amount of time. Would you be so kind as to bring back a 2.9? M madam President. Yes. Corona privilege. Your 2.9 is there. This is lowering the ceiling. You all talked about a process to go through. We shared that you can go there now if you want to and you can do that and we'll be fine. Uh this is a propose. It is not the last. It's showing that you're going down. But I do want to remind you that on

045slide 14 and all the previous presentations are there. It says preliminary budget reductions to date 401,96 reduction in charter school expenses with the success of the Centennial Virtual Learning Academy and register review. We actually captured money from improving our registration of the process. $78,754 for moving to screen beam technology versus the current desktop setup in the middle schools and high school, which by the way, that almost didn't pass. We had to debate to get that through, which had cost reductions. $150,000 in staff compensation reduction, $189,382 uh recovery from home district to foster care students, 139,43, and so on and so on. That was a million 59499 in total savings. Slide 20 seven. Expense reductions for the committee andor board consideration. Uh we said you could reduce the plan for safety and security provisions, but that's

046a board's decision to tell us what they want to. We made a proposal. What do you want us to change? Reduce the increase for a 93 support staff was an option if the board wanted to consider class size. Some of these things and Mrs. Lynch was very public in saying let's be real folks. Are we really going to discuss and do any of these and don't wait till I forgot the term you use to the ninth hour and that's where we are right now. And so I that's not quite true that there hasn't been reductions and there hasn't been things put out, but we're not going and I said it again, we're not going to bring something to the table to create an uproar in the community that we know the board is not going

047to consider. That's disingenuous and not a good tactic for board superintendent relations or the community relations. So one board member talked about they were okay with limiting a captain middle bucks enrollment. Nobody else said anything about that. We've had conversations last year about trying to cut back on some of the the the bus stops and routes because we give more than we're required to. That was poo pooed. So, I just want to be transparent that we have, but none of those have been accepted as points of dig down and and and and say that yep, we want more on that from the board collective. one member may be like one member is up to talking about middle bucks enrollment and capping it, but is that the will of the entire board for us to do

048that uh conversation? So, I just want to say that we're happy to bring suggestions, but it needs to be things you really want to consider and not just throwing and hoping something sticks. Because what I will not personally own is putting myself in a position to pro look like I'm proposing something and then it has no way of flying or being considered. Nobody on the team wants to be put in that situation. But we have had reductions. We came in right off the bat with reductions and I've even said we'll deal with the $600 something thousand shortfall. My biggest concern rather than this year is the projected deficits of 2.5 to 4.3 million going forward that are that are looming. But you can do the 2.9 you can change the motion and you can do

049that today if you want to. But it was showing that you're working your way down until it is actually due to your final vote with unresolved issues that may make a difference. Those list of items, we have huge discrepancies based on the audit finding. Go back to the you got a $217,000 potential swing with MBIT that we still don't know yet. Uh the other slide, Tom, that's unresolved when we're trying to reconcile down at the bottom. That could make a huge difference. Go to the next one. Now, the budget from the state was preliminary. Um, the real estate keeps coming. We're trying to finalize the health care costs. They met today. Yes. And to try to get the final numbers, but regardless all of that, if that's where you know you're at, I think Miss

050Lynch said it, we can stop the process and just do your proposed. Are you able to make a change to the agenda to make that 2.9? Someone can make a request to amend the item. And if you so as long as you're you're creating that new ceiling, right? Yeah. Regardless of what happens at the state level, regardless of what happens anywhere else, right? That then you know if the state budget falls apart, right, you would we would have certain uh certain challenges as a part of that and that's why we're proposed what we did. But you're certainly welcome to to Dr. Ben, I hear you. I hear you. You and I and the rest of these board members have said 2.9. Do we this board who I hate to keep saying it are non-paid which

051is our choice and we spend many many hours and each different board member is on a committee that you don't see and they spend hours. We are we are here for our students and our community. I don't want to cut anything that is going to harm any students. In years past when I was on, it was like a game. Well, let's say we're going to cut music. We're going to cut art. And then the board would get afraid because the parents came. No, you can't do that. I said to you, I wanted to move this along in a fast way. I do because I didn't want to be April 25th right where we are and we are right where we are that I didn't want to be. So I respect your opinion. I respect your

052dedication to our district and our students. This board also cares about our children, our students. We are saying if less people want to change their minds which is fine and that happens all the time we collectively said 2.9%. Now another thing that we always bring up every once in a while and then we don't and I really didn't want to have this discussion like this tonight because we've had like Mr. Martin said so many meetings. All of a sudden, we found you all found $2 million. So, that went is supposedly going into the capital fund for projects. I I know we have to keep our building safe and sound, etc., but last year we took a million out of that and put it into our budget. So, why do we have to put 2 million

053in the capital this year? Why can't we, as a suggestion, put 1 million and put 1 million towards our budget? And the answer is, as you suggested, you can. I know what your answer is going to be. We need it. We need it. But you can do that. And because we took that million, we're just kicking the can, which will be an NBIT example of what has happened over the years. And I I want to be clear, we report every month to the board that account. So it's I wouldn't say it's a a surprise we found it. It's just that it is growing and we identified it as a solution to a problem that operations committee have been struggling with also as a possible solution. You absolutely can take that. I mean you can adopt

054an we said you can adopt a structure on balance budget. It is actually on that slide what we said considerations and use some of your draw down onetime funds whether it be out of the reserves or take that 2 million and make it only 1.5 and now your 2.9 is only 10 something thousand. Um you know at the end of the day um whatever cap you set we got to at this point that's what we have to deal with if something happens at the state or something that is the cap right now. the cap based on the governor's proposed budget, right? Leaves us at 600 and something thousand. And I think kind of Mr. Martin's theme is what I said last time. He did a budget. If that's what you do, we got to deal

055with it and figure it out. And if that's the board's will, we got to feel figure it out. And that's either you say to the superintendent, this is your tools that we're comfortable with. And that's what I work within. But it there needs to be guidance. I can't just throw stuff up that you're not even going to consider is what I'm saying. Um I know and I and I value your opinion. But I told you that had spoken to each board member and they all collectively had 2.9 and you knew it was 2.9. And I don't mean to belabor this point honestly. I don't. But if you knew there was a consensus of the board of 2.9, why would you bring me a budget of 3.67? Because it's the proposed, it's not the I know

056it's proposed. In all due respect, I have voted on or voted against 15 proposed budgets and this will be my 16th. That's the answer to the question though. you ask a question because you still can do 2.9 with more information and whatever day they but if you want to do it today again to your point we don't have to believe it you can actually do that today. Thank you. Here's a little intro. I might just real quick to get to 2.9 which is what the goal is. Obviously there's two ways to do that. One the easy way you just move money from here put it there and you're done. The other way is to try to find reductions in the expenditures of less than 1/ half of 1%. And if somebody says that's not doable,

057I won't say what I would call. But that's my opinion. If you want to take the easy way, fine. If you want to take the harder way, we got two months to try to reduce some things. And truth to tell, Adar and Mr. Greenwood, Mr. Godson, Mr. Leiden, at our finance meetings on more than one occasion, we have asked for if there was any needed really needed staffing reductions or reductions. We have 800 and some odd employees. If you had to reduce a few, what would you do? I'm still waiting for that information. Actually, Mr. Martin, so therefore, how can I make a decision if I don't have that information whether or not it's a prudent thing to do? But I've answered that information. I've answered that. You don't like the answer, Mr. Martin. We

058need every position we have. I don't like that answer. You're exactly unfortunately, right? Unfortunately, if you looked at those, right, the administration is is fairly is flattened, right? But there are there are increases in support staff around IAS and PCAs, right, that have gone up. We we've hired 30, right? Those those are mandated costs, right? I'd like to like to be in a in in in a for-profit business, perhaps a municipality where you have greater control around those board might agree with you if we got the information. I'm not used to not getting information. If I I may totally agree with you, you can't reduce anything, but without having that information, it's impossible to make that decision. Understood. Well, Mr. Martin, I agree with you. I don't know what else to say. I agree. Do

059I want to do it the quick way? No, that's not sensible. Okay, but it is April 25th and we've been doing this since January and I I thought we'd have have a better picture than we're being presented right now. Thank you for all your work. May I thank you for your guidance. May I please Excuse me, please. I do apologize. Um I've been raising my hand for about 10 minutes. I'm sorry. It's okay. Let me know when she raises her hand. Um, I just want to clarify something. One of the reasons, am I am I correct about this? One of the reasons we are where we are are that there are the open items that were listed and we're still waiting to see what they look like to be able to make those adjustments accordingly.

060Is that correct? Am I understanding that correctly? Yes. And that's why it's not us waiting just because. We're waiting to see where these land. Yes. Yes. So that we can be responsible. No. No. I don't take it that way. No, that's we're waiting to see if we get an increase from this governor. That's what we're waiting for. Well, the increase is in. Right. The governor's budget is in. Right. So if if if it doesn't, right, if it falls apart, then disagreement. Are you telling me the governor's budget has passed? No. I'm telling you that our assumptions are that the majority of the governor's uh budget will pass. Right? That is our assumption walking in the door. Right? So that so that we can accurately forecast that revenue stream. Miss Allenberg, yes, we are waiting for

061some things, but like Mr. Martin has said, we haven't changed anything. I I thought that Dr. Dr. Ben went through a list of things that he went through a list of things that that were definitely needed and we understand that we understand we need security supervisor and someone's going to say tonight so help me God I know it it's not in the budget. Is it in the budget? Yes ma'am. Thank you. And just to be clear um the question is how do we pay for it now? Well, remember that salary you see is prrated. It's not the full thing for the year. It's May 15th date. That means he works from May 15th to June 30th. So, it's not the whole amount. And then he starts July 1 in the new budget cycle which is

062built into the budget. Okay. Any more? But you can make a motion if you want to. We're on public comments, aren't we? Sarah, I'm not trying to Excuse me. I appreciate your reference. I really do. I realize I can't, but thank you for that thought. And also, I know I'm on 1.7 public comments. Thank you for that thought. Uh, we have Miss Bole. Would you like to come up and address this lively group? Thank you, Mrs. Lynch. Pat Merins Bole, a class of 75, secretary of the alumni association, and I'm here tonight on behalf of the alumni association. I do live in Warster. Um, first of all, I'd like to thank Dr. Henrik. She is going to during the fine arts festival. We're inviting anyone who bought a legacy bench to come and enjoy the

063wonderful fine arts festival. And she will have the courtyard open so those that bought a legacy bench can see their bench in honor of their family, their loved one, their their team that they were with in high school. We've had very generous alumnists who have have donated and we wanted them to see what they donated. Also, I have to tell you, we are extremely extremely limited on um forsomes for the golf outing and I believe there's one forsome left available. So, if anybody wants to come to our golf outing on June 5th at 5 ponds, wts alumni.com, go right on there and get everything for that. We are accepting sponsors as always. We'll always take your money so that we can do the scholarships for the kids. Okay. Thank you very much. Uh, thank you

064and thank you for all the work you do for the alumni. Next item is item two. Okay, Miss Crossson. Um, be it resolved that the Centennial School District board of school directors 2.1 approves the April 25th, 2023 committee of the whole agenda as per the attached. Are there any corrections that need to be made that are allowed by PA law? I I do have a question. And what I would like to do is move the appointment of the police officer, you know, forward toward the next vote, you know, as as the first vote, you know, after Okay. the appointment. Let's do this agenda. Is there an amendment to this agenda? Yes, there is. Uh I would like to request an amendment to the agenda to add an item regarding the old ski lab trailer. Uh

065yesterday after being posted on municipid for 55 days since March 1st, we received an offer of $10,000 for the purchase and removal of the former Ski Lab trailer. The current book value as of April 30th is $25,250. I'd like to make a motion to amend the agenda and add item 8.2E to read. approves the acceptance of the bid of M on municipid listing 55249146 for the 2017 PJ trailer manufacturing gooseeneck in the amount of $10,000 from E-Flow USA LLC to purchase and remove the trailer at their cost. I second your motion. Okay. Um can we do all in favor? I I I Any objections or any abstensions? Motion passes. Thank you. All right. Then also um I would like to add to change or I guess I could should I change it now to add

066the 2.9 for new business with the proposed final budget. I want to have that changed to 2.9 now or do I have to change it? Excuse me. Are are we in item three? Are we presently in item three or were we going to go along with Mr. got us his idea that previous to item three, we would hire or explore hiring a police supervisor. Okay. So, we're going to I I do believe that Mrs. Cross is still looking to amend the agenda, you know, so that is an, you know, amendment to the agenda to change that to 2.9. I would second that. Okay. So that would that would just um approves the proposed final general the amount of so I would need to know the difference in in amounts or or can I just change

067it to a percent? You can see and change it to a percent. Okay. It's on the agenda for actually I have 3.67. On what page is the 2.9%? It's on second. It's on page eight. Slide eight. I'm sorry. Stay tuned. You're saying you can You can see like me. So it would be 2.9 and the the new number would be at 2.9. Tom, yes, it would be. What's the dollar number? Pardon me. Mr. Greenwood, we're only folks. We can't see the little numbers. Could we get some uniformity here? We There's a motion to amend the budget to 2.9. So it would be 140,000 96. Correct. Yeah. 140 million. Excuse me. Okay. All right. So is this one right here? I'm going to go blind. Yeah. It's too small. 2.9. I have triples and I can't

068see it. Oh my god. Can we just do the percentage? 2.9. picks up the new cap, frame, just 100%. But this is this it's this one right here, right? I can get that. Yeah, this is just we'll get there. We're getting your Yeah, I got that. I'm just going to have to hold it out here. All right. So the um so the appro the the change the um proposed change is going to say the proposed final 2023 24 general fund budget in the amount of 140,96,357 which would be 2.9%. Um can I get um second? I gave you a second for that already. It's going to say proposed. Yes. Yes. It's going to all the words are going to be the same except for the numbers. It it does change the mileage rate too, you

069know. So, yeah. So, the millillage would be So, this is just proposed proposed. Yep. Cuz I don't even like 2.9% to be honest with you. Dear God, it's 2.9 proposed. Okay. So, are we we're okay with that one? And let me just make sure. Anything else? So, do we have to vote on that? Yes. Yes. Um all in favor? I any um abstensions or any nays? And this is the change of the agenda wants to change the agenda so it can read um the 2.9% with the correct Now you're I know it's a convoluted mess here with motions, but you also have on there for selling the trailer, right? That's that's included. That's included. And this one this one just passed. So We're good. That's wonderful. Now we're on board. All right. Okay. So, now

070we're going to go to um We still have to approve the whole Oh, yes. Now we have to approve it, right? Yeah. All right. So, we are going to this this one is just going to to approve the agenda with all the changes as amended. Correct. So, all in favor? I I any naysay or any abstensions? So, it passes. All right. And then we're going to pull up The supervisor. Yes. Let me find that one. Public safety supervisor. Is that the correct terminology? It's a supervisor safety and security. Supervisor safety and security. Yeah. I got to find it. It's part of the reg the new employees registration and everything. Right. But I wanted that separate so that it stands out. Right. Oh, so you want me to just do 3.2? All right. He's asking to

071pull that one. Vote on it separately. So it's Yes. Okay. It's being moved up. So you want that one first? Yes. So 3.2 goes first. All right. Three just for for the one, you know, just for uh the police officer, not the whole agenda there. Okay. So we're going to start with new business. Be it resolved that the Centennial School District board of school directors, we're going to go right to 3.2. Two approves the personnel agenda including resignations, authorizations to employee, leave of absence, change of status, homebound tutor, and fine arts festival as per the attached. Well, I would second that, but you know, I did want it as a separate piece. Um, but we can approve the whole agenda as as a second. I'll second it. And then before we vote, you can ID

072the security individual on there. Okay. So that's so noted. All right. So then that one's going to be So we're going to pull that one separate. So we'll do security. Okay. And then the rest. So the first the first vote is going to be for um for the security position. Correct. Um so can I can we do a roll call on that one? Madame chair. Let me get it so you capture in her record what Mr. Collington's uh the motion requested is approval of Mr. John Ward as working title safety and security supervisor safety and security school police officer. Good with that. I'm good with that. That's perfect. Good. Good enough. Yes. So, we're going to do this vote, then we're going to vote on the entire Yes. Okay. All right. So, we can do

073a roll call, please. Uh, Mrs. Eenberg, yes. Mr. Godson, yes. Mr. Martin, hi. Mrs. Crossen, yes. Mr. Saddowski, yes. Mrs. Brancado, yes. Mr. Leiden, yes. Mr. Ginhart, yes. Mrs. Lynch, yes. Motion passes 90. Okay. So, now we're going to take a vote on Congratulations. Welcome to the team. So now people won't ride home. So now we're going to take a vote on the rest of 3.2. All in favor? I. Any abstensions? Any nays? The rest passes. Right. Now, we're going to move on to um 3.1. Approves the proposed final 2023 2024 general fund budget in the amount of Hold on, let me grab it. We got 140 million n 96,357. Did I read that right? I believe so. Okay. Um with a real estate mill rate of I don't have that. Do we do we

074have that real estate approximately 159.5548 5548 that's going to be with a millage rate of 159.5548 further authorizes the display and advertising of the budget in accordance with the act one of the 2006 school code final adoption will occur in June 2023 as for the attached. Can I get a second? Second. All in favor? I. Any abstensions? Any nays? Motion passes. So noted it's 2.9%. Okay. 3.3 approves Michael Levvin of Levvin Group PC to represent Centennial School District in the case of Kravitz for Centennial School District, United States District Court for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania 2-23 CV0000888 as per the attached. And then 3.4 Four approves concurrent represent representation of the Centennial School District. Dana Teddon, Tony Saddowski, Shelley Eenberg, Patty Cross and Michael Leiden, Fleming Goddess, Mark Ginhard, Jane Schrader Lynch, Charles Martin,

075Mary Alice Broncado, David Blatt, Sandy Homl, Brian Wilson, Vicky Deweiler, Joan Jacowski, KS Hoffman, John Doe, and Rita Doe in the matter of Cavs versus Centennial School District in accordance with the acknowledgement and consent as presented. Can I get a second? Second. All in favor? I any obst? Motion passes. Okay, moving to presentations. Education committee. Dr. Best, Miss Daniels, Dr. G, and Dr. Kelly. Good evening. Uh, tonight we're going to present to you our proposal for our enhanced elementary schedule. Uh, I do want to make a point before we begin our our video proposal that that this is a costneutral proposal. Uh, so there's there are no dollars attached to it. Nate, if you could let the film roll [Music] In the Centennial School District, we've always been extremely proud of our elementary program and

076how it supports our youngest learners. In this process, we sought out to seek additional opportunities to improve learning outcomes for all of our elementary students. My name is Julia Skolnick. I'm the chief learning officer and founder of Professional Learning Partnerships. And we are an organization dedicated to transforming learning and leadership using brain science. And we've partnered with Centennial School District for multiple years working with all levels of teachers, coaches, administrators, thinking about how brain science applies to everything the school district does, teaching, learning, and leadership. And so I had the privilege of working with the school district in researching the elementary schedule, thinking about the changes that they might want to make. I facilitated some focus groups with wonderful parents, teachers, and the instructional coaches to get their input on what they felt about the

077schedule, what was working, what could be improved. We also were prioritizing how does brain science help us make an important schedule for kids that's going to work with what they can do, what works best for the science of learning and their brains to really maximize the time that they have in school. So, one of the great things that was a result of creating this new elementary schedule was that we had an opportunity to visit some neighboring school districts and one of the things that we found was that our academic day for our elementary students was considerably longer than some of our neighboring districts. We noticed that this model could be used a little bit different from our current structure and we were able to adopt some of these strategies. That is one of the results

078um of the new schedule. We were able to shorten the academic day for our students so that we are not asking our seven-year-olds to sit longer in classrooms than our 17-year-old students. One of the tremendous benefits for our new schedule is the shortened academic day. With our new schedule, students will be arriving at 8:45 a.m. School will be starting at 9:00. One of the great things that we are able to accomplish in the new schedule is that we are able to provide breaks for our students so that there is a balance between the academics and the fun of the day. Elementary school is supposed to be fun. The rigor is important. We want to make sure that our students are challenged, but it's also important that they have breaks throughout the day. So, one of

079the things that we are able to accomplish with the new schedule is that we are able to provide some seal breaks or that social emotional learning. We're able to provide breaks for our students and one way that's reflected is through additional time in the morning for all students to participate with their teachers and other community members in morning meetings. So that's a time for them to come together, build relationships, um build positive community with one another, and also practice those key PA career ready skills like um social interactions, um agreeing and disagreeing, talking and listening, thinking about how students brains need to be ready to learn. teaching them some of the awareness and management skills, building a safe and connected community so that students brains are not in that fight orflight mode or in survival

080mode, but actually able to be calmed and regulated and ready for learning. That allows the academic time and even the specials time, the win time to be better quality minutes spent learning when it's kind of bookended with these opportunities to provide social emotional well-being for all students. On top of that is quiet time which is a midday reset time for students. So all students will get to participate in this where they are um coming back from more of the exciting times of the day like recess and lunch and coming back to their classrooms spending some time uh resetting. And so it's a little bit of a regulation time they have before the uh rigor of the afternoon academics. And then to close the day, they would have closing circle, which is an opportunity to reenter,

081to connect and reflect on successes in the day or how they navigated challenges and look ahead at what's coming up. So, it's another time for that community to build trust and relationships with one another while they practice those PA career ready skills. And all of those things are elements that are shown to have increased outcomes for students um socially, behaviorally, and academically. One aspect of the re-imagined, redesigned elementary schedule that is really going to support student growth and achievement is our daily intervention and remediation time that's built into the schedule. That is sacred time that cannot be touched. And what that does is provides time for teachers to work individually or in small groups with students around areas of need and extension and enrichment where necessary. Win time at the elementary level. What I need,

082it's the acronym we use for win. Is it a targeted intervention block? Typically 30 minutes every single day. It's a time during the day where students will receive one of three things. They can receive extension of core content. They can receive reteing or a time to relearn and spend that additional time on the core content with the teacher. Three big takeaways for our win schedule in the new elementary model. This will be sacred time that is uninterrupted where students can get exactly what they need in real math and seal. It's also going to be targeted targeted specifically for skills that we can enhance enrich students remediate or rehearse for daily practice. Students will have some dedicated time to work on adaptive programs that we have such as I Ready. Another feature of win is that

083it will happen on a six-day rotation. So there will be certain days dedicated to reading, certain days dedicated to math, and then other days dedicated to SEAL. So students get all of those intervention supports or extension supports on a rotating basis every week. And finally, we're going to utilize all the resources that we have with an all hands- on deck model and bring in our reading specialists, our math specialists to support learning so that we're reaching all of our learners at the elementary level. [Music] The new elementary schedule is especially exciting for our English language learners because it provides them with multiple opportunities to be exposed to the social academic language and skills that are the foundations to language acquisition and development. With this new schedule, our English language learners or ELEL's not only get

084the support and targeted one-on-one instruction from our ELD teachers, it also affords them the opportunity to be placed amongst their peers during a targeted intervention period called when or what I need. During this period, our ELE students will be amongst their school age peers learning and honing in on skills that prove difficult for them during their ELD instructional period. This will not only allow them opportunities to learn both the social, emotional, and academic skills and language of their peers. It'll also boost their esteem and their ability to see themselves as English language learners acquiring English as a second language and feeling successful within and beyond the school community. In order to allow greater access to interventions and enrichment opportunities during the win period, the student services department will be working with the related service providers

085for speech, occupational therapy, physical therapy to move to a more pushin style model. So students will be receiving services in the natural setting of their classrooms where appropriate. Overall, the new schedule will provide special education students with greater access to inclusion in the general education environment and classrooms, which will allow for students to receive education in the least restrictive environment that is best for them based on their individualized needs and the IEPs that are created for them. With a shortened student day, it allows our teachers to have uninterrupted time for collaboration. There's an added 20 minutes in the morning for teachers to meet, collaborate, and discuss different things they might need to discuss, whether it's about the new curriculum or planning for the next lesson, perhaps MTSS. So, this new schedule builds in time for

086not only grade level collaboration, but for meetings, to make phone calls, and a lot of the administrative tasks that teachers need the opportunity to do throughout the day. Currently, the teachers and students are arriving to school at the same time, dismissing around the same time. that really doesn't leave any space for IEP meetings, faculty meetings, parent phone calls. We're pretty restricted to do things during the school day. It also will allow time for teachers to meet with interdisciplinary specialists, reading specialists, the IMG teacher, the EL teachers, which they wouldn't ordinarily be able to meet with during a planning period because they might not overlap. It gives us that flexibility in the mornings to get all of those collaborative times complete. Every student has unique learning needs. Every child's brain is wired differently. So providing those

087opportunities for every student to get what they need and have time built into the schedule for different uh educators to meet with them or plans to be made that really supports what we know about optimizing learning for each individual student. So, the re-imagined elementary school schedule that's going to take effect next school year is truly going to support our work around literacy in K5. We're bringing on a new K5 literacy curriculum called WIT and Wisdom. And the way the new elementary schedule is structured, that time is going to truly support the lessons and the way the lessons are built in Wit Wisdom. The new elementary schedule also provides clear distinct time for necessary skill development in that we have time set aside specifically for foundational skills mainly in using foundations and hegrity resources. We have

088small groupoup instruction time set aside specifically where we'll use geodess that are aligned with the wind wisdom curriculum and other intervention and remediation resources. In addition to that, the time set aside for the core curriculum supports our work around structured literacy. Also, one of the things that we surveyed students about was what subjects they enjoyed most. And our students shared with us that science is something that they wish they had daily. So thankfully this new schedule will provide science every day. And our students really enjoy that hands-on opportunity with science. So what we've decided to do with social studies is add it to our real block. We can now embed our social studies during our reading English language arts block so that non-fiction text can be covered. The new schedule also supports the great work

089that's occurring with math. Uh we adopted Eureka Math as our K5 core curriculum a few years ago and the new elementary schedule provides a structure that allows teachers to complete a math lesson daily while also allowing time for in-class small groupoup instruction and remediation where needed. One of the great things about this schedule is that there wasn't one creator. This schedule is the result of a wonderful collaboration between district administrators, building administrators, teachers, students, and parent feedback. This schedule is best for our students, and it meets so many of our needs because there were so many stakeholders involved with the process. We are excited to implement this schedule during the 2324 school year and excited to watch our students flourish by these authentic improvements we've made. [Music] That was so impressive. Well done. I love

090that little show. What time does school start right now? Uh, right now we open the doors for students to come into the building at 8:25. Uh, if this new schedule is approved, we would move that to 8:45 to provide time in the morning for our teachers uh, similar to the time that our secondary teachers have following dismissal uh, to hold IEP meetings, to collaboratively plan, uh, to to call parents, that type of thing. Right now, our elementary teachers don't have that time uh building. So, will that change the bus schedule? It actually helps with the bus schedule. Uh in in speaking with Miss Morgan, uh she said it provides some relief uh in in moving back the elementary piece. Kids will get picked up slightly later. Um and they'll arrive at school later. Do you

091know how much later they're going to get picked up? Like they're I I don't know the minute increments offhand, but they'll be arriving at school 20 minutes later. So if we we backmap from there I would I would imagine you know a few minutes on each end. [Music] Um my question is regarding uh the services provided for um um for the students that have IEPs or ser other services. Um did I hear correctly that that would be happening uh a little differently in the classrooms with peers? our our goal is wherever possible to push that into the the classroom setting rather than pulling out students from the classroom setting. What does that is that physical therapy? Is that speech therapy? Certain certain services that we provide will still need to be done in isolation. Um

092that would still be a pullout model. But what we're trying to get away from right now there is an intervention period in the middle school I'm sorry in the elementary schedule. Uh but because it's not structured as uh highly as we would like it to be in the new schedule, oftent times students are receive multiple services are being pulled in every direction during that time. What we want to do is is have that be sacred time as you heard in the video so they can receive extension, rehearsal or remediation and math and reading as well as the SEAL lessons and try and get those services at another time. um we believe that for the most part they can happen in the classroom but not every service will be able to have happen in the classroom

093and it'll really depend on on student needs. Okay, understood. Thank you. You're welcome. Dr. Best, thank you. It was a great presentation. Um it it sounds like this is going to be a great improvement for the elementary schools, but of course any change in school start stop times affects families. What was the overall um response from parents? did school start and stop time change how it's going to affect them. So, we did we did not survey parents on school start and stop time? Uh we conducted a thought exchange uh for all elementary parents that that I believe to date uh was the most responded to thought exchange that we've launched uh since we've been using the tool between parent and teacher responses. uh what are what was shared with us through the feedback was that

094the day is long um and that additional breaks and a shorter day would be welcomed. Um so relevant to this schedule piece uh we do offer before and afterare services currently and will continue to uh our beforeare provider is is able to cover the additional 20 minutes. Uh for a point of context, right now we have 91 students participating in before care across our three buildings out of 2,342 students. Um there's plenty of room to expand if additional people would like to use before care. And there is no specific uh drop off time that needs to be there, meaning that uh students can be dropped off as early as before care starts at 7 a.m. or they can be dropped off later if a parent would prefer to do that. Um so we do have

095services available. Yes. So for parents So for parents who who are going to have to utilize before and afterare, what if they can't afford it? So the the afterare piece, I think they'd already be using that now. This this wouldn't be a change for that. It would would simply be before care, right? Um right now the the time that we start is is the time that we start. Um we'd expect parents to be able to make accommodations one way or the other. They don't have to use before care. Um that's an option that's available to them. Our before care rate um just so people understand uh for students who receive before care only is $158 a month currently. Uh that would move that's for 4 to 5 days per week. That cost would move to

096$168. So there'd be an additional $10 fee for the the 20 minutes we're adding to it. Uh for people who do part-time before care it's $103 per month and occasional use they pay by the day which is $20 per day. I'm I'm not talking about I'm talking about people who start work at 9:00 and it takes them longer than 15 minutes to get to work. Yeah. Um some of those people aren't going to be able to afford $168 a month because those will be our store clerks, people people that are not making over $100,000 a year. We're talking about people making $29,000 or $18,000. Um, so what do we do for them? So I think if approved this evening, we're we're providing a a four-month notice that the the time would change for people to

097be able to make arrangements. What if they can't afford those? I'm not sure of everyone's family situation. I I don't know how to answer that question for you. Okay. So what is this? What is the what is the stop? What time is school over? School would end at the same time. Dismissal would take place at the same time. So, the bus drivers will be working a longer day by at least 30 minutes. No. Yes. Not necessarily. No. Why wouldn't they be? Because it depends on if they're full-time or not. But they they run the the runs that they do would still occur in the same amount of time. No, but if they're if if if a bus driver drops off at 7:30 now. Mhm. Um, I'm sorry, 8 8:30. Now, they can be clocked out

098by 9:00. If a bus driver drops off at 9:45, I mean 8:45, that goes that's another half hour at least. So, we'll we'll incur more cost with our drug. I I don't I don't know that there'd be an additional cost. That's something I'd have to speak with Miss Morgan about. Karen was involved. Yes. Yeah. That doesn't mean there's not an additional cause just because Karen was involved. I don't know that answer off hand for you, Mrs. Broncado. I would have to look into that. That's common sense. It goes by the Yeah, if there'll be an additional cost. So, I I just don't know what we're going to do for parents who So, say say a parent drives their kid to school on their way to work or stands at the bus stop with their child

099till and then jumps in the car and goes to work. Those people are all going to be late for work. I I I don't know that. I don't know everyone's situation. I know that if we are telling them four months in advance, people can make adjustments. I I don't know everyone's work arrangement. I I don't know how to possibly answer that question. So, with before and after care, um is it based on is cost can that be based off of um income? Do they do discounts for um those families in need? Do you know if that's they have set fees and they're they're fairly low fees. Okay. Yeah. But they're low for some of us, but not for everybody. Some people just can't afford that. And again, Mrs. Broncado, I don't know how to answer

100that question for you because I don't know everyone's situation, but what I can tell you is uh the the point of doing this now would be to let people know well in advance that the time is changing. We we have a lot we have a lot of people who work seasonal jobs and they're out the door at 7:00 and maybe they're leaving them with their neighbor. We have a lot of low-income people in our community. Again, I I don't know the working hours of everyone in our community. I understand that you don't know the working hours, but do you understand how many low-income families we have? I'm I'm aware of our demographics. Yes, I know it's $168. That just might be a couple, you know, a couple bags of groceries for some people, but for

101other people, it's the difference between paying their rent and not paying their rent. And we have a lot of families like that. I I understand what you're saying, Mrs. broncado and and that's why we wanted to bring this early in the spring so that we could give people advanced notice if the schedule were to be approved. Mrs. Iber. Yes. Did the thought exchange allow for parents to give that kind of feedback as to whether or not it would be highly inconvenient? The thought exchange asked people to give feedback on our current program and what improvements they believed could be made. We didn't ask specific questions like should we start school at 8:25 or 8:45. Okay. Thank you. Any additional questions? Thank you so much. Okay. So, we're going to move on to 4.1 um social

102emotional academic learning curriculum. Miss Gil, I'm going to Okay. Good evening. Hi. So I am here to share a brief presentation about the K8 social emotional and academic learning programming recommendations here in Centennial. Um in consideration of everyone's time I wanted to share up front I'm not planning to read word for word from all the slides. We do put a lot of information on our slides so that it's there for everyone. Um but I won't be reading it to you. It will be available in its entirety on board docs and um will be also added to our website. When considering social, emotional, and academic learning, we're of course talking about educating the whole child um which is or the whole student, which is in alignment with CSD's future ready mission. Um we're also talking about

103preparing students for success in life. um as our vision sets forth. The information I'm going to be sharing is in alignment with several building blocks for high performing schools and ultimately our intention from this presentation is for community to have clear understanding and support for the SEAL programming recommendation we're making. This first visual is a way for us to show that when we're considering students social, emotional, behavioral wellness, we're really talking about three primary buckets of information. On the far left over there, we're talking about the school climate in which students learn in the middle bucket, we're talking about the actual instruction in PA career ready skills or skills or seal skills. And on the right side is the professional learning that faculty and staff will need to have provided in order to support them

104and to enable them to support students. Today's presentation and the recommendation we're making is really in that middle bucket. So, how we are teaching the career ready skills that students need throughout their time at school. Before I go any further into the programming recommendations and specifics, I'd like to regground us in what social emotional and academic learning is in Centennial and what it is not. This slide I am going to read from a little bit more. Um so social emotional learning are the career ready skills we all develop throughout our lives in order to manage emotions form healthy relationships and make responsible decisions. There's a extensive evidence base that supports uh that shows that seal supports mental health and wellness and is associated with greater academic and life outcomes for students. As we always acknowledge

105here in Centennial, social, emotional, and academic learning skills are taught first and foremost in the home and in community groups and then supported with our work at school. Some things to be really clear about social emotional and academic learning and what we are recommending is not in any way teaching critical race theory or teaching about gender, race or sexual orientation. that is hyperl because um the program that we're recommended recommending is being used widely across the country. Uh one area in Texas, a school board requested a review of the program to ensure that it does not include any content that aligns with those two bullets. Um the board found that there was nothing in the program related to any of that, which again is not what social emotional learning is, but that has become really

106conflated and confused lately. Um, so I included that just to make sure everyone's aware of that. Um, some other things is not, it's not taking the place of order and discipline at school. It is not us trying to parent students or suggest that they are broken. It is not asking teachers in any way to provide counseling or therapy. We are not teaching students how to think or advancing a political agenda. And we are not doing this instead of academics. I'll talk more about when this is taking place in a moment. I'm going to provide two slides that briefly just touches on the context for why we are recommending a program for K8. And this really does dovetail well with the presentation from Dr. Best a moment ago. So, a set of lessons to help teachers

107teach career ready skills is important and it's vital that there are lessons that are in alignment with the district priorities and with other regulations and policies so that instruction is consistent. Hence, a program recommendation as opposed to saying to teachers, figure it out on your own and have everybody coming up with something different. Additionally, a program to teach career ready or SEAL skills should exist alongside additional strategies that are used throughout the school day um to support students. Those on the slide are what we are currently doing throughout the school day that can support students career ready and social emotional skill development. So with that context, just a couple more slides. Um there's some additional reasons why it's important for us to move forward at this point in our implementation and recommend a program K8.

108Um there are state and district regulations, internal feedback and data which all calls for this as a next step in our implementation. Most recently, we heard from students, members of the Chamber of Commerce and higher ed, as well as others about the importance of teaching and reinforcing these skills at school as part of that PA career ready skills community forum that we hosted. To be clear, a program to teach career ready SEAL skills is not new in our district. This slide shows the history we've had in the last about seven years with using different programs to support student development in these areas. It also details some of the reasons why these programs were for one reason or another not implemented consistently, effectively, or sustainably. And that's what we're trying to avoid going forward. The next

109two slides before our final recommendation is the criteria that the team who reviewed dozens of programs kept in mind um as we evaluated the programs. On this slide, I just want to highlight one of the points that talks about actually two of the points that talk about program consistency K8. So, it's important to us and it's important in our community that the way that the language we're we're using with students, the skills that are being taught are consistent and the program can help can kind of grow with students so that they're not hearing one thing in kindergarten, a different thing in first, a different thing in seventh. This develops with them. The other point of consistency is that we were looking for a program that would support um the instruction being used to develop these

110skills in the emotional support classrooms as well as general ed because sometimes it's done differently. And then those students when they're in other spaces instead of the emotional support rooms are hearing different language and different different skills related to this. We wanted consistency. The other half of the criteria we used is listed on this slide. And I do want to point out um we were in search of a program that provided resources for families, those families who were interested. Um, we were also, it was really important that the program provided access for families as another layer of added transparency. So, families who wanted to can see what's being taught in the program. The program that we're recommending on the next slide has a parent login feature so those who would like to can see what's

111happening in the lessons. Um, and as always, Centennial supports parental choice if anyone wants to opt out of lessons. After reviewing dozens of programs, the the team recommends the character strong program to be used K8 as it aligns with all of the identified criteria on the previous two slides. To be clear, these lessons would not be taught in place of core content at any time. They would be part of the new win at the and in K5, the new win and then in six, seven, and eight, the win that exists. Um, they would be part of those lessons. So, the lessons would happen on a rotating basis a few times a month. The main gist of the program that we're recommending is to help students develop PA career ready SEAL skills in these areas: kindness,

112strength, and wellness. We're really happy to share this next step in our work to support students social, emotional, and academic development and wellness, and are ready for questions if you have any. Who? Well, let me start then. Uh my real question is about what are we going to do to prepare the teachers to do this kind of training and teaching. Sure. There is one of the criteria that we looked at was that the program we chose we wanted it to be really reasonable for faculty to learn and then also reasonable for them to implement. So we that weeded out a lot of ones that had really heavy intense front-end PD and also like a lot of components and kits and resources and things that people don't necessarily need. Um, so we went with something that's

113a little more streamlined and then we have a plan to, if approved, to be able to begin to give folks access at the end of this school year to let them kind of wait around in it a little bit and then and then take part in a um a 2hour virtual PD with the organization to provide what they call readiness training. So people are ready to go. And then along the way we can add in additional what we call go times at the buildings with the SEAL liaison and myself um and can help at grade level meetings as well to provide ongoing support because what we don't want to do is kind of a oneandone like you guys are you're good now right? It's not like that. We want to be able to keep going.

114Thank you. Um you had mentioned a a parent log on ability. That's so the parents can get in and keep up with what's going on and see how their ch children are progressing. So, it's not because this is not a graded program. It wouldn't be like that. It's more so that families can rest assured that everything that people are that we're saying we're teaching in terms of career ready skills is what's being taught and that if people have concerns about, you know, what is this program teaching about how to approach um empathy and responsibility and they want to log on and see the lessons, they can see the lessons. Great. Thank you. I like that. Yeah, us two. Any other questions? Thank you so much. Thank you. Okay, up next, summer book packs, Mr. Rutz.

115Good evening, everyone. You get me in video and in person tonight. It's great. All right. I'm very happy to be here again. Uh tonight, uh Mr. Gabriel and I presented this last year uh with the take-home book packs uh for this year. Um again, our what we're doing aligns with our uh district mission and vision. Like Miss Skill said, I don't want to read um at you uh these slides. Uh just to refresh her, uh three objectives for the presentation. Objective one, which aligns to uh one of our number one building block. We want to make sure we support literacy and assist families uh in building their home libraries. The second objective is to encourage collaboration and communication which we've had a lot of in this process. We started last year the process and repeated

116it this year. And objective number three to support involvement and connections in order to address student needs to increase literacy with our students. Skip over the norms and expectations. Uh real brief want to um kind of an overview the why, the who, the how, and the what with our summer book packs. Much like last year, an overview. Our goal is to uh utilize ESSER monies to help build home libraries for K5 students to support literacy. It's one of many legs of a stool, if you will, of supporting literacy in our district. We hyperl last uh the report from uh the presentation from October 11th when we reported out to the board how last year went, year one. Uh so we hyperl that in there. Just a brief summary, some successes were we had very good

117feedback on how enjoyable it was um to have books uh to read during the summer for students and also having a very good mix of fiction and non-fiction. Um some opportunity areas for us was were to increase the rigor. Uh some parent feedback um was that some of the books were too easy or too short and we wanted they asked us to offer more rigorous text and also grade level to look at how we might be able to differentiate for students at a much lower level than offered in the book packs as they came from the publisher. Again I mentioned a minute ago this is kind of one leg of a stool of increasing literacy for our students in the district. Summer book packs we also have um March Book Madness. March Madness with books

118in our elementary schools and Log College and Clinger Middle School both um going on I think four or five years now uh conducting one book one school creating a community of readers alignment to college and career ready standards again a lot of this is from uh the previous presentations include social emotional academic learning aspects to increase equity for and representation of our students and as always to encourage family involvement in developing literacy skills. Most importantly, the who uh same who we had last year, four student leadership groups, four teacher leadership groups, a parent leadership group, a board representative group, and an administrator group. All of these groups were the stakeholders that we shared out the survey with to vote, select, and choose the titles for this year's summer books. brief uh outline of our timeline

119here. Uh in March, we sent out to the various stakeholder groups uh the summer book pack survey. Um met with the parent advisory committee, presented the options, talked up the books, had a nice preview of that uh in April with the student advisory committee, presented the options, reviewed student recommendations. We needed to finalize the list. We did that uh a week or so ago. Uh tonight, April 25th, board meeting, making this presentation to the board and reminding the board that the books are available. um for uh review uh here in the office of teaching and learning in the survey everyone and I'll get to this in the next slide. So, pardon my repetition, but everyone has access to PDFs of the book so they can see them, read them in their preview. Uh in May,

120what we're hoping to do is bring this back to the board for full pre uh approval. Uh we'll also send out Mr. Gabriel and I will send out a an optout survey for parents. And finally, when the books uh do come in here, the book packs, which should be around Memorial Day weekend, uh we'll be able to distribute those book packs to K5 students. A little bit more of the how. Um we identified uh or 10 books were identified for each grade level, K through five. Uh the task, the charge for each of those constituent groups were to select your top five. And again, embedded in the survey links to all the PDFs, full PDFs of the books, so everybody could have access to them and read them. And they were all very, very good.

121These were the survey results uh for K5 uh of the 10 uh available choices um which uh the survey was linked in here as well. These were the uh top five titles for all the grades K through five. The next slide is simply if the board has any questions, but I want to just keep this up so everybody could can see the titles if there are any questions. Mr. Rudds, uh, in in terms you said that, uh, some parents, you know, found that the books were too easy to read. Will we allow students, you know, from a lower grade to pick from a higher grade? what we're able to do with the publishers, two things which we're hoping will address that. One, they included more chapter books in the upper grades um and add added

122some more rigorous titles generally to the book packs and also while the book pack may be say a fourth grade may be labeled Mr. go to extin as a grade four summer book pack. They're reading they created some more variety uh of uh the reading level within that book pack in order to allow for that. But they still only have the five books that's been selected though. Correct. Yes. Uh in all of the uh in dealing with any company that we've dealt with and learner has been the best. Um, but even reaching out, we talked about this last year, uh, with your Scholastic or your Macken. Uh, they're even more limited in creating any kind of variety of choice within this. This is the only company that allows us even the choice to whittle it

123down from the 10 to the five as a district. But would it not be valuable for a student that would lean more towards the gifted, you know, area to have the ability to pick books or get the books from the next level up? What we can do is we can create a pathway so we have some extra surplus of different grade levels for a student like that. I would at the grade at the building level. We can absolutely do that. Sounds good. Thank you. Any other questions? Uh one if Mr. Martin uh Mr. Ro good program we've created some good programs. There's yours and there's another one agenda tonight for a lot of money and are going to use your funds to pay for them. What happened? Is it the intent when the ESRE funds

124go away that these programs stay embedded and will be just added to the expense that we discussed earlier this meeting or will the program cease when the funds cease? We as a department we'd always search for other grants or funds to support this. Um the that is the goal. I don't think that we want to shy away from as a district to support literacy for K5 and especially supporting summer reading which the district has done in the past in some way shape or form. So while not having a crystal ball right now should or when funding goes away Mr. Martin the department of teaching and learning would look for additional funds or grants to support the program and Mr. Mark, if you remember when we came first came to this part of the presentation was

125this was part of the recovery effort to give our students more. So your question um is one we talked about and I and it was been a while so you don't remember that was one of the conversations uh regarding our hope is to be able to find funds to continue it but if we didn't we knew that we needed to do this as part of our co recovery to giving our kids more literacy work to try to catch them up so we felt this is better than not doing when we had the resources and effective use to do it. So his answer is that absolutely good answer. Uh we hope we win today, but we also knew that we needed to do this for our children as part of our recovery efforts which was actually

126featured in a national publication. The things that we're doing here as part of our co recovery. I just see another item on the agenda for a lot of money that's funded with ESSER funds. I mean ESRE is going away next year. These programs realize that their continuation is in question. Let's leave it at that. Yeah, you you're correct. and and you know, as you know, 90 something% of our funds went towards focus on teaching and learning, which we're proud of, but you're absolutely right. We're very concerned, but it was a necessary thing to do to try to help our kids to to try to recover from the learning loss. I have faith that you'll find some kind of grant. We'll figure it out. We'll figure it out. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you very much.

127Okay, we'll now go to committee reports 5.1, Education Committee, Miss Crossen. Um so as you just saw all this wonderful work that um our education committee um from these presentations they're doing a fantastic job. I believe our next meeting is next Wednesday. Is it um at noon? Is it next Wednesday? Yeah, I think it's next Wednesday at noon. But um kudos to um the team cuz the presentations they just gave tonight were fantastic and I just can't thank you enough for all your hard work. Okay. Thank you. Finance committee Mr. Martin, I think we covered that earlier in the meeting. Uh, but Mr. Godson was at the last meeting. I was not. So, I will defer to him if there's anything else to add. Well, there's not an awful lot more to add other than

128we did, you know, really stick to the 2.9%. That's really what we talked. Um, Mr. Greenwood did go through the budget. He did, uh, talk about the concerns about the MBIT costs, you know, so um, but the rest was pretty much, you know, covered. Okay, thank you. Operations, Mr. Sidowski, please. Thank you. The operations committee met earlier this month on Thursday, April 13th. We got updates on some complete projects, including security fencing around Playground at McDonald, uh, replaced broken exterior signage at Willowdale, baseball back stops. Good work has been getting done to improve our facilities and keep our students safe all year. So, that was great to see. We also got information on current projects including the needed renovation of the parking lot at William Tenant. Uh we also had some good discussion of district

129security technology improvements. We moved a few items on toward a full vote before the board as you will see tonight in just a few moments. And we will next meet Thursday, May 11th. Thank you. Crossing, please. Item six. Okay. Education student services committee 6.1 items presented for information none. 6.2. Um, does anybody want to pull anything from 6.2? Mr. Broncado? Um, I'd like to vote on 6.2 I separately. Absolutely. Okay. Be it resolved that the Centennial School District Board of School Directors 6.2A 2A approves the agreement with professional learning partnership for professional development for the remainder of the 2022 2023 school year and the 2023 2024 school year cost not to exceed $82,100. 6.2B approves the updated teacher leader titles to better align with the district and state language no additional cost to the district.

1306.2 2C approves the memorandum of understanding between Centennial School District and Centennial Education Association for facilitation of Centennial Virtual Learning Academy classes. Maximum cost is $1,000 per student. Estimated enrollment is 60 students. 6.2D approves the books for the William Tennant High School elective course, Her Story, Women's Voices in American History and Literature. district cost not to exceed $1,57348. 6.2E approves the overnight conference request for the executive director of student services to attend the 2023 PASA women's caucus annual conference. The brain's impact on student success Hershey PA May 21st to the 23rd 2023 district cost not to exceed $1,28321. 6.2F 2F approves the purchase of professional development and curricular materials from Character Strong for the social emotional academic learning seal career ready skills program for grades K to8 district cost not to exceed $32,49741 6.2G approves

131the pen literacy network social emotional learning certificate program district cost not to exceed $168,000 will be paid using esser funds 6.2H 2H approves the settlement and release for student 14-4 which provides tuition at ATG Learning Academy ATG for the remainder of the current school year in the amount of $15,242.35. tuition at ATG for the 2023 202024 school year in the projected amount of $47,700 and tuition at ATG if needed for the 2024 2025 school year to equal at least 40 $47,700 plus any rate increase total cost estimated at $110,642.35 cents. Can I get a second? Second. All in favor? I. Any abstension or any? Okay, passes. We're going to move on to 6.2I. Approves the enhanced elementary schedule proposed effective beginning the 2023 2024 school year. Second. Okay. Mrs. Broncado. Yeah. Can can I make

132a motion to table that until we get some of this information that I'm about to ask for? So, can anybody tell me what the increased cost in transportation is, which you said you didn't know. So, could we get that? And I'd also like to know how many parent how many families participated in the thought exchange and if if it's not a great portion of the families, why can't we send out an email like we do everything else to find out how it's going to affect families? Um, so school's not going to start till 8:45. What is the earliest they're allowed to drop the kids off? I'm sorry, Dr. Best. What time did you say? The doors would open at 8:45 a.m. Right now, they open at 8:25 a.m. Okay. So, could we So, I'd like

133to make a motion to table this until we can get that information. I'll second it. You made a motion, Mr. Second. So, can we do a roll call? This is to table motion to table. Okay. Mr. Godson, no. Mr. Martin, no. Mr. Ginhart? Yes. Mrs. Lynch? No. Mr. Saddowski? No. Mrs. Crossen? No. Mr. Leiden? Yes. Mrs. Einberg? No. Mrs. Brancado? Yes. Motion fails. 63. Okay. Now, we're going to take a vote on um approve it. 6.2 to approve it. Um well, I'd still like that information. Okay. All right. Can we do a roll call to approve it? Mr. Martin? Yes. Mrs. Eenberg? Yes. Mr. Saddowski? Yes. Mrs. Carlson? Yes. Mrs. Branado. No. Mr. Ghart, yes. Mrs. Lynch, yes. Mr. Godson, yes. Mr. Leiden, I'd like to abstain. Okay. So, that's going to be one. No,

134one abstension. And then 71. Yes. And madam chair, uh, we'll make sure that the questions that were asked will be included in the board's weekly report. Okay. Thank you, Finance Committee. Mr. Martin, please. Thank you. Very briefly, there's only one item that's for information. Um, since I don't like acronyms, this is the monthly report for the Pennsylvania School Liquid Asset Fund. Uh, for your information is available. That's it. Okay. That'sformational. Yes, ma'am. Nothing for approval. Yes. Okay. Well, then we'll just conclude that it for approval tonight. None. Okay. Operations Committee, Mr. Sundowski, please. Thank you. 8.1 items prevent presented for information tonight include 8.1A, the capital project summary from April 2023. That includes the full presentation of info from the April 13th meeting that I summarized earlier and 8.1b scissor lift data during our April

13511th meeting. Uh the board requested info pertaining to rental cost associ associated with the twoerson lift, the frequency and regular use of the existing singleman lift and extension letter by CSD and feedback from other districts in the area uh that own operate and maintain twoerson scissor lift. So that information has been provided. Give those a look if you have not. I hope you have. 8.2 items presented for approval tonight. Does anyone want anything pulled? Sprinkado. Yeah, I'd like you to pull 8.2 C and 8.2D. C and D. Mr. Chairman, make sure everyone remembers there's a 8.2E. There was also an 8.2 which I will definitely read into the record. pull E as well. Sure thing. Yep, you got it. Right. So, this All right. So, C, D, and E are separate votes. We'll just do

136A and B now. Be it resolved that the Centennial School District Board of School Directors approves the following items. 8.2A approves the quote from Train US, Inc. to install necessary equipment at the district administration building to implement the seaman's building automation system for the heating, ventilation, and air conditioning system. District cost not to exceed $24,57. 8.2B 2B approves the quote from Seaman's Industry Incorporated to upgrade the existing HVAC building management system at the three elementary schools and the high school to the new version Desigo CC workstation and to install a Desigo CC workstation at the administration building where no system currently exists or presently exists. District cost not to exceed $119,867. Do I have a second? Second. Thank you. All in favor? I I All opposed. Any abstensions? I know. 8.2C approves the quote from

137Stonework LLC to build and deliver two storage sheds to William Tenant High School for girls softball, field hockey, and lacrosse. District cost not to exceed $12,755. Do I have a second? Second. Any question, Mr. Bernado? Um, did did we get a did we get a price from Middle Bucks on building those? I know we asked for that. Did we? We discussed that at early in the meeting. You may not have been on the call yet. Uh, we did uh talk with Middle Bucks Institute of Technology about building the sheds. They did not provide a price. They had just indicated that they weren't prepared to be able to put that into curriculum uh this year and that uh further discussions might be possible about considering helping us with a shed uh some point maybe in the

138curriculum next year. I think it was very but then again I wasn't part of the direct comm the direct conversation can't can't we get the uh can't we ask at middle bucks if they could do it in the fall? Dr. Cavell, we spoke with him and he indicated two things. One, their schedule is full, like their class setup is ready to roll. Um, and that if we had a longer lead time, they could look at incorporating it. Second is that they believe that the cost could actually be more expensive because they buy the materials um at at retail. they would be building them at retail as opposed to uh someone who is mass- prodducing these sheds um for for what it's worth. So you had asked about the cost that Dr. Gavvel thought it would

139actually be a little more expensive. Not that that's not worth the kids education and investment in their their trade. Uh but at at this point we need to get the sheds up and we need to be able to move forward. Would you know ju just a question here would there be any consideration just to rent the sheds until they could be built by MBIT? Oh god help me. [Music] I would have liked to have a comment. We have spent five, one, two, three, four, five months trying to get two sheds. Give me a break. $12,000 for two sheds that are needed. We keep talking about it, talking about it, and talking about it. Can't we come together and vote for two sheds at $12,000, please? And Madam Chair, I'd like to add that one of

140the reasons these sheds also being purchased is the assessment for Title 9 also indicated that we're not providing the same resource to our girls. So, if someone filed a complaint, putting it off just to wait for a school to build it would not be a defensible reason. But he did say he also talked to me that down the road they could, but he again said it probably going to end up costing you more. So I'm not so sure why we would wait other than include them in the planning for another shed as part of the process. Thank you. That's correct. Uh we focused on these sheds specifically to be able to solve a Title 9 deficiency. We did have other requests for sheds across the school district. However, we delayed moving forward with those sheds

141in hope of potentially utilizing NBIT uh in the future. Mr. D Saddowski, I call for a vote. I think that's a great idea. All in favor? I I All opposed. Any abstensions? Nanomous. 8.2D approves the quote from Best Line Equipment for a 26 ft ES series scissor lift. district cost not to exceed $18,632.50 including pre-ely inspection and freight. Do I have a second? Second. Any discussion? We've discussed this one at nauseium, but there we are. All right. All in favor? I. All opposed? I I opposed. Sounds like 63. What was that vote? 81. 63. 63. Sorry. Motion passes. 8.2E approves the acceptance of the bid on municipid listing 55249146 for the 2017 PJ trailer manufacturing gooseeneck in the amount of $10,000 from E-Flow USA LLC to purchase and remove the trailer at their cost. Do

142I have a second? Second. Thank you. All in Oh, Mayor Mr. Marcato, I I just wanted to ask a question. Um, where did all the equipment that was on the trailer go that's been removed? Correct. Over the over the years, um, a significant portion of the materials have been removed. It's basically just the, um, conveyor belts that were on either side of the the trailer. Uh, we still have to kind of remove some of the the ski material. Um, so we'll do that prior to uh, pickup. Uh, they are utilizing it more for uh, their purposes for manufacturing. I'm just asking if there's any tools, any tools that were The only thing that's on the trailer uh that will be given to them will be what's built into the trailer. No specific tools will be

143on. Okay. All right. Thank you. The the equipment that was removed are in our secondary tech classrooms and being used by our students. All right. All in favor? I. All opposed? Any abstensions? Sounds like 90 to me. Thank you. Next item is board comments. Anyone have any comments? I do. Art. No. Thank you. Um the seal presentation brought something to mind for me that um I like to put out there for us to consider. The uh last couple of board updates we've been getting have been showing how we've been progressing very well towards uh improving our technology, the new website, the new portals, um you know, the translation devices, and it looks like the IT department is doing a great job. We're getting close to having um our IT greatly improved and our websites improved.

144Um compliments to them, by the way, for for the hard work. But with um that improvement and the new ability to have access, I think it might be a good time to think about addressing our curriculum review policy to allow for online access. The current policy written in 2015 um has parents have to come into the building, set an appointment, come into the building. Two income, you know, two working families, that's almost impossible to do that. and we have to dedicate someone to be with them, you know, while they're in the building. And it limits their ability, I think, to really keep up on on their children's education. And since they're, you know, we're partnering with parents, the more they know, the better we are that we can work together. And I think if since

145the technology might be there, I think it might be a good idea for us to investigate online access so parents can stay up to date and informed and we can work better together and it makes it easier for them to do it. Thank you, M. Mr. Broncado. Um so first of all um I just want to point out that today is bus driver appreciation day right and um and we have some great amazing people as our bus drivers. Uh the other thing I wanted to point out was um I just want to acknowledge our amazing bus drivers. Today is bus driver appreciation day and we're very lucky to have the this caring group of of folks transporting the beautiful children of this community safely each day. Um they do this job with smiles on their

146faces so that the kids start their day off positively. I'd like I'd like to add that these big-hearted people gifted Tri County cheerleaders and Janice with a very substantial monetary gift to alleviate some of the financial stress that some of the families encounter to keep the kids involved. Um they did that unsolicited. Nobody asked them to do anything. That was that's marvelous really. So, it's it's no secret. It's no secret how I feel about these people and I just wanted to thank them from the bottom of my heart for uh these are people that these people that don't have huge incomes as bus drivers and they still took money out of their pocket and donated and I do appreciate that. Thank you. Anyone else? Mrs. Eenberg, please. I just wanted to share that I had

147the honor of accompanying um our executive uh our uh executive director Rebecca Malamus to Harrisburg today with some of the special education uh team and um the prek supervisor and got to speak with four different legislators today uh to advocate for um the staffing issues that we're having across the state uh as well as um additional funding for prek and some other issues. So, it was wonderful. Ton of people there. I also got to run into our MBIT folks and got to see the demonstration of the patent that they were awarded for that. Um I I didn't I knew that we they did that, but I didn't understand what it was for. And it's this machine that it sounds kind of weird, but I'm going to say it. um it moves uh animal skins around

148to dry them evenly so that they can be used in taxiderermy as well as scientific research. So I thought that was fascinating. So it was really an additional uh bonus today to be able to run into them up there. So thank you. Thank you Mr. Shidowski please. Uh Dr. Dr. Bettton in his report earlier spoke about the continued success of our music program and I just wanted to take a moment to recognize the hard work, dedication, discipline and talent of our students who performed during the fine arts festival last week. Um, our students are awesome. As we all know, as I'm sure you well know if you're listening to this, the shows were fantastic. So, I hope you were able to attend at least one of them. And performances like that are only possible through

149our wonderful music instructors. They do wonders for our kids. and I'm very thankful for what they do to nurture a love of music in Centennial. So, thanks for that. Well, thank you, Miss Crossing. Um, yeah, I just wanted to wish everyone um in our schools that the it's National Library Week, so a big thank you and a big shout out for everyone that helps our future young young readers. I know it's a big task and we appreciate everything that you do. Thank you. Oh, nice. Okay, one question miss just we had so many good events with all our technology. We should be getting to a program so that they can go on our cable channel so people throughout the district would have the opportunity to see those things as well as other sporting events and

150other things. We have a lab over at the high school which is wonderful. They've done TV shows there. We have great stuff coming in here. Trying to put those on our cable channel um would be a great asset to the people in the community who would get to see them as who couldn't attend in person. Mr. Martin, I couldn't agree with you more. Let's get it done, Mrs. Lynch. Hey, I want to get it done. I've been trying to get it done since 2013. Just like Hero Horscham has everything on their cable, this district is behind the times in that issue. Thank you for bringing that up. Yes, Mr. Alenberg, please. Mr. Martin, this is I got the information that you had requested regarding the Hershey superintendent conference. I'm not I'm not The reason for

151that was that they needed to be in um a closer location to Harrisburg to be able to talk to four different uh program directors. So that's the reason it was held in Hershey because they needed to be in proximity to Harrisburg. Thank you. You're welcome. See how efficient we are, Mr. Martin. Okay, my turn is next. What I forgot to mention was we had an executive session on personnel at 6:15 to 7 o'clock tonight. So, thank you. Uh, Dr. Ben want to echo uh Mrs. Broncado uh comments and our bus drivers had a chance to stop over and as you heard earlier do a wonderful job. We won't be here to wish this other group. Tomorrow is administrative professional day. So, I want to uh publicly thank our administrative professionals uh that a lot would

152not happen if they were did not show up their work. Uh so, thank you. I want to thank uh the Centennial Education Foundation. Uh the breakfast um was wonderful. I think they had just over $71,000. I'm doing this for memory. Um so, we're headed to the $100,000 mark. So, we're we're hoping, keep fingers crossed. Uh I did get a chance to see the elementary students perform but was spent most of the time in Harrisburg. Uh did not get a chance to see the festival this year but again it was awesome. And to our librarians we were featured uh this week uh with the high school with the fit bikes uh if you remember in the patch uh and I had a chance to go visit and one of our students was busy pedaling and reading

153at the same time and he said it was awesome. Thank you. Thank you ladies and gentlemen on the board. We've been due diligence for 3 hours now and 5 minutes including executive session. Is there a motion to adjurnn? Motion. All in favor? Hi. For about 3