CBSD School Board Meeting May 2026

001Those who are able, please rise for the Pledge of Allegiance. Under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. Thank you. Mrs. Radcliffe, will you please take roll call? Present. Present. Present. Here. Turn it over to Mr. Amuso for announcement of executive sessions. Since our last meeting, the board met in executive session, leave on May 13th for labor relations matters, and before this meeting to discuss labor relations. Thank you very much. Before we get to Dr. Malone's superintendent report, I'd like to make a brief statement. The district and CBESPA have participated in multiple negotiation sessions regarding a new contract agreement for support staff employees, including yesterday. Our negotiation teams will meet again tomorrow morning for the tenth time. Discussions have been productive, and both the district administration and board remain committed to continuing good faith

002negotiations toward reaching a fair and sustainable agreement with a focus on upfront pay increases for our valued employees. Thank you, and I'm going to turn it over to Dr. Malone. Good evening, everyone. And thank you to the FEM 4K acapella group from CB East. Let's give them a round of applause. They will be performing at tomorrow's high school acapella showcase at that other high school in Doylestown. I'll say it, CB West. More info is on the slide. And for that, we'll move right into the see the good and be the good. We always appreciate showcasing the talents of our students and the ways they contribute to our schools. Teacher Appreciation Week. The teacher I want to shout out to is Ms. Collins. Happy Teacher Appreciation Week. The teacher I want to shout out to is

003Ms. Collins, my second grade teacher. Keeping the theme of see the good, be the good. We'll go to, I believe this is going to be our last student block screen event since we won't have students at our next board meeting. So I'll turn it over to Mr. Jack. Okay, thanks, Dr. Malone. This year we've honored eight student winners, including tonight's winner, whose artwork appeared in thousands of devices across Central Bucks. The previous winners were from Butler Elementary, Warwick Elementary, Hallikong, Tamington, Unami, and CB West. Tonight we congratulate Anna Yan. And I didn't see her walk in. We have a seat saved for you. Are you here in the audience today? Okay, so we're going to honor her anyway. Anna Yan, a seventh grader at Lenape. Oh, she is here. I didn't see her. Oh, come

004on up, Anna, while we're talking. Sorry, I didn't see you behind the clear touch. Let me start again. Tonight we congratulate Anna Yan. Let's give her a round of applause. Anna's work is based on the theme for May, See the Good, Be the Good Through Action. Anna shared the following. My digitally drawn image shows a student working on a mural for the school wall. This relates to the theme of action because it shows this person is acting upon things to work on this mural while giving a positive message. Anna, congratulations, and she has chosen for her gift card for this month Rita's Water Ice, which is her favorite place. And again, thank you, Anna, for your work. Thank you, Mr. Jaffe. Next, we'd like to recognize a member of our staff for an incredible achievement.

005Congratulations to Beth Madden, a teacher at Holly Kong Middle School who was recently named the grand prize winner of the Citadel Heart of Learning Award. Beth was honored by Citadel and Holly Kong at a ceremony on March 16th where both she and the school received awards of $5,000. Beth was recognized for the extraordinary impact she makes on students, schools, and the community. Her dedication to her students and colleagues makes her incredibly deserving of this honor. Please join me in congratulating Beth on this outstanding recognition. We'll now recognize 12 outstanding student musicians who are selected for the Pennsylvania Music Educators Association All-Star Ensembles. From CBEast, Damon Beierschmidt. Ryan Friderkowitz. Dylan Hargrove. Sarah McLean. Santiago Zarate Martinez. Anna Nicotra. Sophia Schweisser. And Max Zhao. From CBEast, Abhinav Mehdi. Frankie Sikora. Eliana Song. And William Yan. Selections to

006PMEA All-State Ensembles is one of the highest honors a student musician can achieve in Pennsylvania. These students advance through highly competitive district and regional festivals to earn a place among the best musicians in the state. We congratulate these students, their families, and their teachers on this tremendous accomplishment. Thank you all. Congratulations. Mr. Groover is going to help you pass out the certificates. We should be thanking him for all his hard work, too. Next, we have our STEM research recognition. I do see Mr. Hayden, I believe, here. This year, I'm excited to report that CBSD students enjoyed unprecedented success in research competitions. Tonight, we'll recognize students who earned first place awards at the Delaware Valley Science Fair and beyond. Yes, Mr. Hayden, a research advisor and coordinator of our CB biotech partnership program to present about

007these achievements. Mr. Hayden, please come to the podium, if you don't mind, and share about these students. Thank you, Dr. Malone. Thank you to the board and to the members of the administration. Each year, under the guidance of CBSD teachers, dozens of our students enter STEM research projects in various competition. These competitions highlight weeks, months, or even years of work in STEM fields. Delaware Valley Science Fair, DVSF, is a STEM research competition for students who advance beyond the county level. As shown in the graphic, this regional competition is attended by students coming from the entire state of Delaware, the southern half of New Jersey, and all of southeastern Pennsylvania. This year, CBSD had 64 winners at this regional event. Eleven of those winners earned first place, meaning that they were the top project in their

008category at their grade level. Six of our students were medalists, meaning they were one of the top three projects in any category for their grade level. Students, when your name is called, we're going to ask you please to exit this way, to come in front of the stage, and to join us in the front to get a picture. If you could please wait there until all the names are called. We'll take one shot, one group shot, at the end. Please help me to recognize the following first place winners. Ishani Yate, Tamanand Middle School, using machine learning to build a litter detecting web application. Sophia Ballas, Holocong Middle School, who let the dogs out, environmental impact on canine health. Lucas Vicente Mendoza, Central Bucks High School South, survival and recovery of tardigrades under simulated Mars surface

009conditions with varying soil burial depth. Kaylee Raison, Central Bucks West High School, impact of photocatalysts in permeable membranes on toxins in water. Audubon Balachander, Central Bucks High School West, developing a CNS drug delivery mechanism to improve the efficacy of neuro-therapeutics. All first place in their category at their grade level for our highly populated region of the United States. The remaining six students earned medals at DVSF, earning first place in their category. They were then identified as one of the top three projects in any category at their grade level. The first is Anisha Cheruvu. Anisha, an eighth grader from Tamanand Middle School, earned a first place prize for her project entitled Guidant, a multi-modal engentic AI system for supportive dialogue in adolescence. Anisha was then recognized with a silver medal for grades six through eight, meaning

010she was judged as the second best project in any category among students in grades six through eight. Again, the entire state of Delaware, the southern half of New Jersey, and all of southeastern Pennsylvania. Anisha has earned an invitation to compete in the Thermo Fisher Scientific Junior Innovators Challenge, the top research competition for middle school students. Anisha earned the same invitation last year and was identified as a top 300 project in the 2025 event. How about a hand for Anisha Cheruvu, please? The remaining five students were recognized as medalists at the high school level. These students earned all expenses paid trips to compete at the Regeneron International Engineering, sorry, Science and Engineering Fair, ISEF, which occurred in Phoenix, Arizona from May 11th through 15th. They are Aditya Kambli, Bronze Medal, Grade 10, Central Bucks High School

011South, multi-modal sparse transformer, an alpha-fold inspired computational framework for solving the degrees of freedom problem in high efficiency prosthetic control. Abhiram Kakarla, Bronze Medal, Grade 11, Central Bucks High School South, developing a CMP-based therapy to strengthen dysregulated connective tissue signaling in hypermobile Ehlers-Danlos Syndrome. Srijath Krishnamoorthy, Gold Medal, Grade 12, Central Bucks High School South, bioengineering novel peptide-based therapies for coron mutation regulation associated with Ehlers-Danlos Syndrome. Again, emphasizing, because it bears emphasis, that the Gold Medal winner, Srijath, is the number one senior level project in the tri-state area. How about a hand for all of our first three ISEF finalists? We've saved our last two ISEF finalists for the very end. The first is Athena Mann, the Grade 12 Silver Medalist at DVSF. Athena's project called development of a carcumin-based pentraxin conjugate for targeted cancer therapy.

012In addition to her Silver Medal, Athena won numerous special awards at DVSF. Athena went on to win a special award at the international event in Phoenix. The award from the Drug, Chemical, and Associated Technology Association came with a $5,000 prize. Could we please give Athena Mann a round of applause? And finally, we recognize Snehan Sharma, a sophomore from CB East High School. Snehan earned the Grade 10 Gold Medal at DVSF with his project called A Faster Algorithm for Solving Constant and Variable Delay Differential Equations via Quantum Block Encoding. I am excited to report that Snehan earned a third place in the Software Design category at the international event in Phoenix. He also earned a first place special award from the Association for Computing Machinery. All told, Snehan earned $5,200 in his trip to Phoenix, Arizona.

013Though he couldn't be here tonight, I'm hoping he'll be able to hear your round of applause from his house this evening. How about a round of applause for Snehan? As the students gather for their photo, I would like to acknowledge the CBSD teacher sponsors who supported tonight's winners. They are Judith Elano, CB East High School at Holocong Middle School, Erica Gamble, Tamanand Middle School, Mark Hayden, CBSD Biotechnology Partnership Program, Diane Lidington, CB West High School, Jacqueline McDowell, Tamanand Middle School, Michelle Rhodes, CB South High School. I would also like to acknowledge the hard work of the scientists who mentor our students. These community members, neighbors, and friends devote hours to training, supervising, and guiding our students. We are particularly appreciative of the PA Biotechnology Center staff who's involved in our partnership program. We would also

014like to thank Dr. Jerry Michaud, who's assisted our high school students for years. Thank you. Okay, my proud parents get their pictures. I understand. You've got to get that great shot. We're going to move on to tonight's agenda, what you'll see on tonight's agenda. For the 26-27 final approval, the board will consider approval of three Act I resolutions related to the district's final budget for the 26-27 school year. The proposed millage increase is 5.7%, resulting in an increase of approximately $334 for a typical home assessed at $40,000 for tax purposes. For context, the average annual tax increase in central bucks over the past 15 years has been approximately $91, and the district continues to rank in the bottom quartile among surrounding districts in overall tax burden. The board will consider approval of the homestead and

015farmstead exceptions and the district's final budget in the amount of approximately $460.4 million. Since March, the projected deficit has been reduced from approximately $22.3 million to $19.4 million, primarily through reductions in salary and benefit costs. The administration will continue reviewing expenditures and identifying opportunities to further reduce the deficit while maintaining the quality of programs and services our community expects. The board will also consider approval of a proposal from the Educational Furniture Solutions for furniture purchases associated with the district's grade realignment work at CD East, South, West, and Mill Creek. These purchases would furnish new classrooms and common spaces as the district continues preparing for next year's transition. The proposal is being offered through the COSTARS Cooperative Purchasing Program, which provides discounted pricing. Additional agenda items include approval related to water systems projects at CD East

016and Hollycom. As many in our community know, the district has been conducting ongoing PFAS testing in accordance with DEP requirements and advancing plans for a new water supply and treatment system serving both schools. Tonight, the board will consider approval of construction contracts for the project, representing another important step in ensuring safe, reliable drinking water for students and staff. Finally, I want to highlight several updated and revised courses of study across music and English language arts for approval. These included updated sixth grade music courses and revised English language arts courses for grades 6 through 10, including academic honors, advanced, and intervention offerings. The board will also consider to develop an AP seminar course for potential implementation during the 27-28 school year. One more agenda item I want to specifically recognize is the recommended appointment of Christy

017Corporate as the next principal of Warwick Elementary School. Congratulations, Christy. Who's here, Dr. Mulholland, with her family? I was looking at her earlier, too. There you are. Stand up and be recognized. Congratulations, Christy Corporate. Thank you, Dr. Zaleski. Mrs. Corporate has served as the assistant principal of Groveland Elementary School for the past three years and was a teacher at Kutz Elementary School for 13 years. She will take over for Mr. Brian Finger, who is retiring in August. Brian and Christy will work together this summer to support a smooth transition. Thank you, Brian, for your service, and welcome, Christy, to your new role. Finally, graduation is just around the corner, and we are proud to celebrate nearly 1,500 graduates across our three high schools. Congratulations to 433 graduates from CB East, the 590 graduates from CB

018South, the 468 graduates from CB West, and all their families and loved ones. Graduation ceremonies will take place on Thursday, June 11th. Rain or shine, we're only 12. We wish these students the very best in their future endeavors. Thank you to all our students and all those who helped get those students to where they need to be on June 11th, so thank you. I pass it over to Mrs. Reynolds. That brings us to the first period of public comments, and this is on agenda items only. Persons wishing to make public comment were required to register prior to the start of tonight's meeting. If current CB students register to speak, they will be permitted to do so first. Please note that the first period of public comment is for agenda items only, except for students who

019may speak about any topic. Public comment is not intended to be a question-and-answer session. When you begin your comment, please indicate which items you're speaking about. Regarding the minutes that appear on the agenda items, agenda comment is limited to approval of the minutes, not their content. If your comments are not about agenda items, you will be asked to stop speaking, and you will be permitted to speak during the second period of public comment. If a question is posed, the individual may be referred to the superintendent for follow-up. When your name is called, please begin by stating your name and municipality. Each speaker is allotted three minutes. You will be asked to cease your comments. We kindly ask that all comments be directed to the board as a whole, rather than to individual members. We appreciate

020your cooperation in maintaining a respectful environment. Please be considerate of all speakers and their opinions, including those that differ from your. Thank you. And with that, we do have a student tonight, Kelsey Monroe. Hi, my name is Kelsey Monroe, and I'm a freshman at Holocaust. I wanted to be here tonight because I think what I have to say is quite important. This year, I was chosen to participate in a collaborative gym class with some of the special education students at my school. I went in not really knowing what to expect, and I was really nervous. It was genuinely one of the most eye-opening experiences that's ever occurred in my life. I have formed such strong bonds with the kids I work with, and they truly have changed my life. I work with the aides assisting

021the students every day. When I first watched these aides work, I was kind of in awe, because it's not just helping. It's knowing exactly how to communicate with each kid, whether it's through an electronic device or with their own voice. They know exactly when to step in, when to give space, and how to keep someone calm if they're struggling. It can be very difficult to communicate with students with special needs. The kids get frustrated and overstimulated when they can't voice their feelings. There have been times when students have had episodes, and the aides attempting to assist the kids have gotten physically injured. Yet, those aides continue to come back day after day, and that's not something most people would do. It takes a special person to do that. My mom is a regular education assistant

022at one of the elementary schools in the district. So for years, I've been hearing about how hard the support staff works. And when people hear educational assistant, they don't fully understand the scope of the job. I didn't either, until I started to work directly with these incredible PCAs. The PCAs I have worked closely with have truly opened my eyes to the lack of respect the support staff receives. These skilled people are doing really hard work that requires immense amounts of patience and dedication. These professionals are the pillars that hold up each and every school in the district. Without them, our schools would simply fail. The work that these dedicated staff members put in does not match the pay that they are receiving. I'm 15, so sadly, I don't get a vote. But I'm a student

023in this district, and these are people who show up every day for kids like me and my classmates. That means something to me, and I hope it means something to you too. Please give them the contract they deserve. Thank you. Thank you. So first, I want to thank Kelsey. Thank you very much, Kelsey, for offering your testimony. And in support of the educational support staff at Central Bucks. So I am an employee at Leonard B. Middle School. I'm an educational assistant. And I'm also a taxpayer in Central Bucks. I live in Chalfont Borough. And I am questioning, and I disagree with the proposal, to hire three ninth grade house principals at the three high schools, which I think is not an essential role. Central Bucks South, it has a principal to student ratio of 1700,

024with just currently three house principals and the senior principal. So I do not see a need for, and I'm questioning why, you are proposing to hire a ninth grade house principal at each of the three high schools, which probably will cost the district half a million dollars in salary and benefits every year. While at the same time, the proposal is to, while hiring the nine grade house principals, to remove the dean of students, which I think is an essential job. I work at Leonard B. Middle School, and I see the dean of students as very essential to the ongoing flow of the school, and also handling many discipline problems, including vandalism in the bathroom. So the dean of student is very present in the hallways. And also, I don't see the necessity of hiring these

025very expensive salary positions, which again probably will cost the district and taxpayers in excess of half a million dollars for these ninth grade house principals. And while at the same time, being very frugal with the educational support staff, and not offering us a fair salary increase in the next five-year contract. So I think that the public knew, I think many taxpayers would not see the necessity of these additional top-heavy administrators at each of the high schools. CB South is handling 1,700 students per principal well enough, and I don't think this is a necessity, while removing the dean of students, the five deans of students at the middle schools, and also seeking to economize on the salary increases for the educational support staff, which we are essential to the ongoing activities of the school every single

026day. So I would like to ask the board to reconsider and do not vote to approve the hiring of the ninth grade house principals at each of the three high schools. Thank you. I think many taxpayers would agree with me. Thank you. Barbara Latterback, hello again. Hi again. Hello, I'm Barbara Latterback, and I'm a couple of weeks away from retirement from CB as a school counselor, and I'd like to share with you my experience with the critical position in the middle schools that was dropped in the budget. Our dean of students significantly impacts the safety and security of our schools by the work they do with our students. We know that learning can't happen unless our kids feel safe. Our school communities have done a great deal to build physical safety, and with our dean

027of students positions, we have also been able to work together to increase making our students feel safe socially and emotionally as well. At Holly Kong, our admin team, counselors, security person, and dean of students meet regularly to review our student body needs for our attention and support. For many years, we were in a pattern of triaging situations with our kids. We were reacting instead of acting. With our dean of students, we have been able to focus on the daily positives and plan instead. Our district uses the MTSS system, and therefore we also use the SWBIS, which is the Schoolwide Positive Behavioral Interventions and Support. Our dean, Karen Lovolo, heads up the positive behavior support this year, has been significant in its increase in positive communication between home and school. In fact, Karen sent home close

028to 3,000 emails recognizing the good things that our students did that impact the climate and safety of our school. Karen builds relationships with our kids. She tracks attendance and communicates with students and their parents to support our kids being at school. She handles some discipline referrals, and she created all of the restorative practices lessons that they need to complete, and she processes those lessons with the students, not to mention the huge role she plays in technology support for our students and our staff. Karen can be somewhat flexible in her schedule to be able to respond to behavior issues in the moment, which is pretty critical in a middle school. Our middle schools of 700, 800, and 900 students have utilized the position of dean of students to the fullest. Not only the supervision that they

029give, but the essential role they contribute as part of the school team that is student-centered. It is all about taking care of our kids. Without this position, there is no way our schools can offer the same level of attention needed to continue these important initiatives. I share all this with you to implore that you restore the position of dean of students back into the middle schools next year. I understand that you are all making very difficult financial decisions. I chose to speak tonight not because I'll benefit from this decision, because I'll be retired, but because my point of view and my experience is about how critical this dean job is. All the things our deans that they do cannot be communicated in three minutes, and they can also not be absorbed by other people in

030the school. It will be to the significant detriment of our school students if the myriad duties they fulfill for our students must be eliminated if this position is not to be restored. Thank you for your consideration. Deneen Dry. Deneen Dry, CBESPA president, speaking to finances, I guess. I actually wasn't going to speak tonight, because I think you all know where we stand. The question is, are you listening? The other reason I wasn't going to speak tonight is because I agree with you. We've met 10 times, actually, I'll correct that. We've met 11 times because we've met today, and we're going to meet again tomorrow. And we still want to keep our respective negotiations. We don't want to go where our membership has voted to go, but it's going to take a lot of work. We

031have 32 days to get that accomplished, and we're ready to do that, and we're ready to continue the fight. But I want to just take a second to talk about what happened this evening, and Mr. Amuso, if you so call me on time, then I'll just say it at the end of the second period. We held a peaceful rally outside tonight. We have not name-called anyone. We haven't called this board out for anything, because this is part of the process. But what we did hear over the walkie-talkie tonight was that to please allow the board members to come into the gym entrance so that they could avoid the circus. So let me tell you, it was someone on this stage. I am not a monkey, and I am not a clown. And I will direct

032the comment to the person who made that. If that's the way you want these negotiations to go, let's go. 32 days. Thank you. Thank you. Christina Bucci. Good evening. My name is Christina Bucci, and I am a Central Bucks parent from Chalfont Borough. Tonight, I want to sincerely thank the board, administration, and Mr. Kratz for the time and effort that have gone into evaluating the AP capstone program and for bringing AP seminar forward for consideration. Over the past several months, I've spoken frequently about AP capstone, because I truly believe it fills an important gap in our current offerings. AP seminar and AP research are not simply additional AP classes. They are interdisciplinary courses focused on research, communication, collaboration, and critical thinking. These are the exact skills colleges increasingly identify as essential for long-term academic success.

033I also believe that these courses help address an issue many families are already navigating, students trying to balance rigorous schedules while still pursuing meaningful interests, leadership opportunities, research, and healthy lives outside of school. AP capstone creates a structured space for deeper inquiry and independent thinking in a way that complements our existing AP offerings rather than competing with them. I especially appreciate that the district has approached this thoughtfully and carefully. Reaching out to neighboring districts and internal stakeholders demonstrates a commitment to implementing programs responsibly and intentionally, and I am grateful for that process. I'm incredibly encouraged to see this conversation progressing in such a meaningful way. I believe AP capstone will become another example of central Bucks continuing to invest in diverse pathways for student growth, rigor, and academic excellence. Thank you again for your time,

034your research, and your continued consideration. Concluding first round of public comments, moving on to approval of the meeting minutes, looking for approval on item 4A, approval of school board meeting minutes from the April 23, 2026 meeting. Moved by Mr. Herring. Second. Second by Mrs. Gibson. Any questions or comments? Hearing none, all in favor? Aye. Any objections? Abstain. Oh, any abstentions? Okay. Thank you. Okay, so motion passes 8-0-1. One abstention. And we'll move on to school board report. The Education Committee, Mrs. O'Connor. Hi, everyone. The Education Committee met on May 7th, and we discussed a few things that are going to be coming to the board tonight for approval. First, I want to send a congratulations to Mr. Gruber and the Music Department on being named Outstanding Community for Music Education by the National Association of

035Music Merchants. This is, we've gotten this award, or they've gotten this award a number of years, and I just want to extend another congratulations there. Mr. Gruber was also there to present music courses for the following. Band 6, chorus 6, orchestra 6, and exploring music for grades 6, 7, and 8, and that will all be on the board agenda for this evening. Also, we had some updates for our language arts courses. Our language arts supervisor, Michelle Myers, and our middle school literacy coach, Lindsay Mussolino, I hope I'm saying that correctly, came to present courses of study. The overviews of language arts 6, academic English language 7 and 8, advanced English 7 and 8, English language arts intervention 7 and 8, academic English 9 and 10, honors English 9 and 10. These classes were all presented

036to us, and the committee agreed to move these to the full board for the vote tonight. And also adding to what was mentioned in public comment, we will be moving to the board tonight approval for the development of AP seminar to be offered in the 2027 to 2028 school year. And I want to thank all the teachers for their hard work in developing those programs. And our next meeting will be on June 4th at 6 p.m., so we encourage everybody who's available to please attend. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you, Mrs. O'Connor. Moving on to policy, Mrs. Smith. Sure, thank you. We have two policies on the agenda tonight, 815 is the first draft. We do expect some prevention. The next scheduled meeting is June 18th, and that would be at 6 p.m. Moving on

037to finance and operations, Mr. Herring had a prior commitment that day, so Mr. Kimikata is going to give the report. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. We will start school-initiated property tax assessment appeals to bring in additional revenue. These steps in the proposed tax increase have reduced the projected deficit for next year, but they are not sufficient to close a gap of the size that we have. This is why administration is recommending the full 5.7% increase, which is the maximum that was permitted under the Act I special education. The committee and administration discussed how tax increases at this level are not a sustainable annual strategy. Relying on maximum tax increases year after year is not a path. The administration committed to developing a three-year plan to reduce costs that will bring revenues and expenses into balance. That

038work is already beginning. The finance and operations committee will discuss building utilization across the district in its June 4th meeting. That discussion about how our facilities are being used and what the data tells us about the right size and shape of our operations is the first step in the planning process. In addition to the budget discussion, there were other items on the agenda for 9th grade students to be added to the Naviance College and Career Planning Platform. The annual special education service agreement with the Bucs County Intermediate Unit was advanced, and the shared technology legal consortium agreement with the BCIU was renewed. Annual competitive bids for classroom supplies and team sports equipment were approved. A five-year K-12 student photography contract was awarded to CNC Photo Studios. A new five-year transportation contract with the first student,

039group 2831, was advanced, and a contract with Assist Services was proposed as a cost-saving alternative for our district's special transportation needs. Facility projects advanced include a sealant replacement project at Warwick, summer flooring renovation at Five Buildings, furniture for realignment classrooms at CBC, CBC South, CBC West, and Mill Creek. A water system replacement at CBC East and Hollingham, and the underground storage tank. Removal of CBC broader 2627 capital projects planned, totaling approximately $7.8 million. District cost was also reviewed, covering elevated modernizations, roof replacements, HVAC, and playground projects. In addition to those items, there was also a couple information items that we reviewed. As mentioned earlier, administration presented a process for restarting the school district, initiated property tax assessment appeals, and the solicitor will prepare a draft resolution of the policy update to consider in a future

040meeting. Administration also introduced and expanded the new digital video scoreboards at the three school stadiums. The scoreboards would allow the district to generate advertising revenue. Administration anticipates that advertising revenue would cover the full cost of the scoreboards within three to five years. An advertising advisory committee would be established to review proposed sponsorships for compliance with the board content policy. We also have a CBC South senior, Lucas Gimerski, present his operations department internship project, proposing two alternative parking lot layouts for Mill Creek to improve capacity and traffic flow. And finally, we would like to remind members of the community that if you qualify for the state property tax grant rebate program, you also likely qualify for the district school tax rebate program. And you can visit the district website for more information and to learn how

041to apply. And our next Finance and Operations Committee meeting is next Thursday, June 4th. Thank you, Mr. Kimikata. Moving on to the Bucks County Intermediate Unit, Mrs. Foley. Thank you, Mrs. Reynolds. Can you guys hear me okay? Sorry, I'm going to move this a little closer. I apologize. I'm going to report out on both April and May, but I was not here last month to report out on April's updates. The Bucks IU Board of School Directors has taken a proactive step to address concerns about funding for critical educational programs by establishing a new advocacy committee. The Bucks IU Board, which I sit on on behalf of Central Bucks, is comprised of representatives from each of Bucks County's 13 public school district. We engaged in in-depth discussions in January with our community members, focusing on funding

042challenges, particularly for early childhood programs. In response, the board voted in February to form the Bucks IU Ad Hoc Committee on Advocacy for State and Federal Programs. The committee will focus on identifying and supporting funding streams for a range of Bucks IU services, including early intervention, pre-K counts, early Head Start, Head Start, non-public school programs, and school age special education services, adult services, and services for students experiencing homelessness. We met in April and again in May to discuss the ongoing challenges and opportunities for advocacy as it relates to funding on behalf of Bucks County. I do sit on that ad hoc committee. Also in April, students, staff, and families at the Bucks IU and at Samuel Everett School came together for an autism acceptance walk, wrapping up a meaningful week of activities in honor of

043Autism Acceptance Month. And throughout Spirit Week, the Everett community showed their support in colorful ways, wearing blue for awareness and calm yellow and gold for acceptance, purple for inclusion, and tie-dye to celebrate neurodiversity. The IU also has done some wonderful work with connecting students to purpose-driven careers. Two of the staff who work there, Amanda Whalen, who's a teacher of the visually impaired and assistive technology team, and Kelly Gabbat, who's a related services program coordinator and assistive technology team member, connected with students during our career fair at Central Bucks South to highlight unique and rewarding career paths. They shared insights into impactful roles such as teacher of the visually impaired, orientation and mobility specialists, accessible materials specialist, teacher of the deaf and hard of hearing, audiologists, captionists, and educational interpreters, careers that support students with vision

044and hearing impairments in accessing education and reaching their full potential. And lastly, for our STEAM enthusiasts, this summer the Bucks IU is offering 10 weeks of fabulous STEAM Camp fun with a different theme every week and some weeks offering two. The summer camp is a great opportunity for our student body who are curious and creative thinkers. Campers will dive into hands-on adventures in science, technology, engineering, arts, and math, and from robotics to designing 3D creations, coding games, digital fabrication, and more, campers learn cutting-edge skills while having a blast. They have expert mentorship and state-of-the-art tools, and every camper becomes an innovator. That's kind of it for this month. The next IU meeting is Tuesday, June 16, 2026. Thank you, Mrs. Foley. Great things happened at the Bucks IU. And now we'll hear about great things

045happening at MBIT. Mrs. Smith. Things again, of course, associate students representing career and technical education day and two of our automotive students. Middle Bucks does have some openings in their Little Bucks child. This is for teachers because the Little Bucks child care program is a whole school year, so if you're looking for a program where you don't have to pay for daycare over the summer, it's a really great opportunity. And finally, I just want to mention again that Middle Bucks does have the summer explorations program for students rising seventh grade to ninth graders in Middle Bucks for a week and a number of the different programs that are offered there, and it's very popular, and I'm just curious to show you a little bit more. Thank you, Mrs. Smith. And that brings us to item

046six, finance. I'm going to turn that over to Dr. Malone as Mr. Mattis is away this week. Yes. Thank you, Mrs. Reynolds. Administration is seeking approval for finance items six B through N. Administration seeking approval for items six B through, did you say N? N. Can I get a motion? Motion made by Mr. Herron. Oh, it was Mr. Kimikata, so sorry. Seconded by Mrs. Smith. Any questions or comments about these agenda items? Okay, hearing none. All in favor? Aye. Aye. Any opposed? Okay, motion passes nine zero. Moving on to item seven. Administration is seeking approval for Mrs. Barb Markowitz as school board treasurer, item seven A. Seeking approval for item seven A. May I have a motion to approve? Moved by Mr. Herring. Seconded by Mr. Kimikata. Any questions or comments on this motion or

047item? Okay, hearing none. All in favor? Aye. Any objections? Motion passes nine zero. Moving on to operations, Mr. Spencer. Thank you. Administration seeking approval of operations item eight B through eight I. Okay, operations seeking approval for items eight B through, may I have a motion to approve? Moved by Mrs. Gibson. Seconded. Seconded by Mr. Kimikata. Any questions or comments on any of these items? Okay, hearing none. All in favor? Aye. Any abstentions? I'm sorry, any objections? Okay, motion passes nine zero. Okay, now moving on to special education, Dr. Malone. Administration is seeking approval for special education items nine B through E. Motion to approve items nine B through E. Moved by Mrs. O'Connor. Seconded by Mrs. Foley. Any questions or comments on this motion? Hearing none. All in favor? Aye. Any objections? Motion passes nine

048zero. Moving on to student services, that too is you, Dr. Malone? Okay. Administration is seeking approval for student services items 10 B through D. Motion to approve 10 B through D. So moved by Mrs. Gibson. Seconded by Mrs. Foley. Oh, sorry. That's okay. Motion by Mrs. Foley. Seconded by Mrs. Smith or O'Connor? Mrs. Smith. It was me. Okay. Sorry, it's hard. It is hard. And I can't see faces, so I can't read lips. Okay, any questions? So the motion was made by Mrs. Foley, seconded by Mrs. Smith. Okay, any questions or comments on this agenda item, this item? Okay, hearing none. All in favor? Aye. Any objections? Motion passes nine zero. Moving on to education. Yes. Yes, okay. Administration is seeking approval for items 11 B all the way to 11 J. Motion to approve

049item 11 B through J. Moved by Mrs. O'Connor. I heard Mrs. Foley for the second first. Any questions or comments on these items? Oh, there we go. Okay. I just wanted to say thank you to Mr. Kratz. I don't believe he's here tonight, but he has done an enormous amount of work as has his entire team in getting the lift of AP seminar into our classrooms in the 2027 and 2028 school year. I also wanted to just give a personal thank you to Ms. Bucci for her advocacy on such an important topic. It's a beautiful example of what the community can do in partnership with our incredible administrators and educators here. So thank you to Mr. Kratz for all of his hard work, and thank you, Ms. Bucci. Thank you, Mrs. Foley. I'll pass that

050along. Thank you. Thanks. And I second that. I know how hard you were advocating and been advocating for this, and it's really great to see it come to fruition. So thank you. And Mrs. Foley has been an advocate. Okay. So the motion was now involved. The motion was made by Mrs. O'Connor and seconded by Mrs. Foley. Any other comments on this? Okay. All in favor? Aye. Any objections? Motion passes 9-0. Thank you. Oh, thank you. Moving on to policy. The administration is seeking approval for one policy. I don't know. 12-8. Approval. Seeking approval for item 12-A. Moved by Mrs. Smith. Seconded. Seconded by Mr. Kamali. Any questions, comments on this policy? We have our solicitor on it, and Mr. Jaffe has been working with inconsorably. Okay. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank

051you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Okay. Any questions, comments on this policy? Yeah. We have our solicitor on it, and Mr. Jaffe has been working with inconsorably. This is a county-wide. Yeah. Society-wide. Yeah. With the I.U. as well, Mr. Herring. The I.U.'s were helping us as well because across all the different districts, we've been in communication with them, too. I want to ask a question to our policy team members. Because AI is so quickly evolving and nearly impossible to keep up with, how often will we be looking at this policy to make edits? Is there a process that will follow for this particular policy? No. No. Part of the policy is going to be solidified through the process, but we're going to have an

052AR slash handbook that will be checked regularly. The goal is, with Dr. Zaleski's help, we're going to have a digital wellness committee which will have an AI component that we hope to have students, parents, faculty members as a part of the process. We have our first planning meeting as a leadership team in July to make a schedule for the year. Throughout that schedule, we hope to say, making up a date now, a September checkpoint, where are we with the AI process in the district? What modifications do we have to make to the handbook? The handbook is more fluid because it won't need board approval. The policy is just setting the foundation for the district. Awesome. Thank you so much. All right. Yeah. So impressive. Impressive. Okay. So the motion for Item 12A was made by

053Mrs. Smith and seconded by Mr. Kamali. Any other questions, comments? Okay. Hearing... She stepped away. Okay. All in favor? Aye. Aye. Any objections? Okay. Hearing none, the motion is going to pass 8-0 because Mrs. Gibson had stepped away. Moving on to Item 13, field trips. Dr. Malone. Thank you, Mr. Hertz. Administration is seeking approval for field trips, Items 13B, C, and D. Seeking approval for Item 13B through D. Moved by Mr. Herring. Seconded. Seconded by Mr. Kimikata. Any questions, comments on these field trips? Okay. Hearing none. All in favor? Aye. Any objections? Okay. Motion passes 9-0. Moving on to human resources, Mrs. Rossi. Yes. Thank you, Mrs. Reynolds. The human resources requesting approval of Items 14B through F. So moved. Oh, wait. Sorry. Yep. So moved. Second. And then we can discuss. Okay. Fine. Oh,

054sorry. Motion made by Mrs. Filiatro and... Mrs. Foley. Oh, sorry. Mrs. Foley. Seconded by Mrs. Filiatro. Gibson. Oh, Gibson. Okay. I just wanted to say your name. Oh, I'm sorry. Okay. Okay. So we're going to move to the next table. Questions, comments? Do you guys want to explain the concern that we have right now, just so we're not the ones doing it? Sure. So unfortunately there was a typographical error for Ms. Cochran's appointment, having her listed as an assistant principal. So my recommendation is simply vote as is, but then we'll vote next month as well for the corrected motion. Okay. You'll be on there twice. Okay. Okay. So I'm going to read out the retirements. I want to say I had the pleasure and the honor of attending the retirement ceremony last night held right

055here, feels like a lifetime ago, but right here at CB East and the Apple Awards ceremony recognizing our educators who are doing really great work. So it was really awesome to be a part of that. So as I read some of these names, I got to see some of these people last night. Colleen Buchwald, teacher, grade four, Barkley, 35 years of service. Grace Geiger, human resources manager, the admin building, 20 years of service. Raymond Marshall, Penn teacher at Doyle, 33 years of service. Jane Poblano, Spanish teacher, CB East, 27 years of service. Lori Roche, special ed teacher, CB West, 19 years of service. Marianne Weiss, library assistant, CB South, 20 years of service. And Michael Zweig, teacher, grade five, at Pine Run, 24 years of service for a combined total years of service of 178.

056Congratulations to them all. Thank you for your service. And a big round of applause. Item 14, looking for approval. We had a motion made by Mrs. Foley, seconded by Mrs. Gibson on items 14B through. Any questions, comments? Yeah. I have a quick comment. Actually, Mr. Zweig was the third grade teacher for my son Alex and my daughter Colleen. And we will forever remember him as one of our favorite teachers. Always so energetic and warm and funny. And he's basically been at Pine Run forever. And I know he's leaving a huge hole there. And I just want to say thank you to him for his years of service and being a warm memory for my family. Happy trails. Thank you, Mrs. Smith. So items 14B through F, motion made by Mrs. Foley, seconded by Mrs. Gibson.

057All in favor? Aye. Any objections? Motion passes 9-0. Oh, I'm so sorry. Motion passes 8-0-1 with one abstention by Mr. Herring. Item 15, student items. Is that you, Dr. Mullins? It is. Okay. The administration is seeking approval for student items 15B for our graduating seniors and 15C for our foreign exchange student. Looking for a motion for item 15B and C. So moved by Mrs. O'Connor, seconded by Mrs. Smith. Any questions, comments on the motion? Hearing none, all in favor? Aye. Any objections? Motion passes 9-0. Congratulations to the seniors. And yes, congratulations to our graduating seniors. And I know many of us or a few of us at least will be at graduation and we're looking forward to celebrating them there as well. Okay. Item 15 is, okay, so we're going to move on to the

058second public comment period. I do need to read a brief statement before we do that. Persons wishing to make public comment were required to register prior to the start of tonight's meeting. If students register to speak, they will be permitted to do so first. Please note that public comment is not intended to be a question and answer session. If a question is posed, the individual may be referred to the superintendent for follow-up. When your name is called, please approach the podium and begin by stating your name and municipality. Each speaker is allotted three minutes. You will be asked to cease your comments at three minutes. We kindly ask that all comments be directed to the board as a whole rather than to individual members. We appreciate your cooperation in maintaining a respectful environment. Please be

059considerate of all speakers and their opinions, including those that differ from yours. Thank you. And with that, Kim Devlin supports Devlin Elementary. Good evening, members of the board, administrators, and community partners. My name is Kim Devlin, and I am an instructional aide at Lynden Elementary. I'm here tonight to speak on behalf of the support staff who serve this district with dedication, compassion, professionalism every single day. I want to share the reality of what support staff are experiencing and why meaningful change is urgently needed. Support staff are the backbone of our schools. We are the first faces the students see in the morning and often the last adults they interact with at the end of the day. We are the steady hands guiding students through academic challenges, emotional struggles, behavioral needs, and daily routines. We are

060the ones who step in when a classroom needs coverage, when a crisis arises, when a child needs comfort, or when a teacher needs support. But despite the essential nature of our work, support staff continue to face increasing responsibilities, additional duties without compensation, and wages that do not reflect the level of service that we provide. Every year expectations grow, students' needs grow, yet our pay does not. Staffing does not. And the emotional and physical toll on support staff continues to rise. Many of us are covering multiple roles, sometimes three or four in a single day. We are asked to supervise, instruct, deescalate, document, communicate, and intervene. We are asked to take on responsibilities that go far beyond our job descriptions, often without training, without additional pay, and without acknowledgement of the strain it places on us.

061This has led to exhaustion, burnout, and stress levels that are simply not sustainable or acceptable. We are not asking for praise. We are asking for fairness. We are asking for a fair contract. And I think we deserve that. We are asking for compensation that reflects what we do every day. We are asking for recognition for our roles that are not optional. They are essential. When support staff is valued, students benefit. When support staff are supported, classrooms run smoothly. When support staff are compensated fairly, schools retain experienced caring professionals who know the children, know the community, and know how to keep our schools running with heart and stability. We want to continue serving this district with pride. We want to continue supporting our teachers, our students, and our families. But we cannot continue to do more

062and more with less and less. Tonight I'm asking you to take a serious look at the workload, compensation, and expectations placed on support staff. I'm asking you to consider the human impact behind these job titles. And I'm asking you to work with us, not around us, to create a school environment where every adult feels valued, respected, and supported. Our students deserve a strong, stable support system. And support staff deserve the resources and respect necessary to provide. I do want to take a quick second and share a story that I shared at our rally this evening where we were all supporting each other. A couple years ago, I was assaulted by a student. I was punched in the face. I suffered a concussion and a contusion in my jaw. And I need you guys to understand

063that what we do is because we love the students. I had to go home and explain to my own children why I was black and blue and purple and yellow and green and why I couldn't open my mouth to speak to them. Because I was assaulted by a friend who had superpowers and was so upset that he couldn't contain himself, nor did he remember what he did shortly after he did it. And before I went to urgent care to get myself checked out, I went to check on that student to make sure he was okay. Before taking care of myself, we do those things. We show up every day because we love those kids. We love what we do. And all we're asking is that you show us the love that we deserve. Thank you.

064Thank you. And thank you for sharing your story and for doing what you do. Megan Maris, Barrington Township. Hi, my name is Megan Maris. I work as an education assistant at one of our middle schools. I'm filling in as a PCA. I've also worked as an assistant coach here at East for Unified Track. And I work for your community school in the aftercare program. I work in low incidence, which doesn't live up to its name. I am a student. I'm studying humanities. I'm working on getting a social work degree. And the one thing I've learned is that we need community to get through. We need community to make progress. Your support staff here, they're what are helping you make progress. Your students who are doing so well, who are achieving these things, they're smart kids.

065They're incredible. And every one of them has had a support person somewhere in their life, whether it be in a classroom helping them or helping a friend. I have children that go in this district. I am not asking you to make it so I can buy them every single thing that their friends have. I am asking you to pay me enough that I don't have to work three or four jobs in the district to give them the things that they need to survive. They deserve to have the same things that their friends have. They deserve quality time with their mom. Instead of me having to pick two or three jobs up in order to provide for them. They deserve for me to be able to be home and have dinner and read stories to them.

066They deserve to have their mom at full capacity. They can't have that because not only is my full-time job incredibly emotionally taxing, I don't have time to recuperate before I need to go to another job to make sure they have what they need. I am not the only person in this district in this position. I am not the only parent that works for you guys and has kids in this district having these things happen. We're not asking for a lot. We're just asking you to pay us enough to live. Shout out to Mrs. Buchwald. She was my second grade teacher and I love her. Thank you. Lisa Welch, a teacher. Good evening. My name is Lisa Welch and I'm a low incidence autistic support teacher at Toheka Middle School. Every day I have the privilege

067of working alongside some of the most dedicated people in our schools. Bus aides, office staff, custodians, nurses, one-to-one aides, paraprofessionals, and technology specialists. Tonight I want to speak about the team it takes to support our students. In special education, success is never the result of one person. It happens because relationships, consistency, patience, and teamwork. Our students rely on familiar faces who know how to help them regulate, communicate, transition safely, and feel secure throughout the school day. The bus aide who starts a student's morning calmly can determine how their entire day goes. The office staff who greet them by name creates belonging. Custodians who quietly adapt routines for sensory needs make a bigger impact than many people realize. Nurses provide comfort and safety during difficult moments. Technology specialists who show up to classrooms to fix AAC

068devices ensure that our students have a voice. Educational support professionals and one-to-one aides often spend hours helping students navigate academic, emotional, behavioral, and social challenges that most people never see. These roles are not extra, they are essential. What I witness daily is extraordinary compassion and professionalism, often under extremely challenging circumstances. Many staff members are managing increasing student needs while balancing shortages, burnouts, responsibilities that go far beyond their job descriptions if they continue to show up. They care deeply about our students. But caring about students should not require sacrificing financial stability. Many of the support staff our schools depend on are working physically demanding jobs, emotionally exhausted, and are working for wages that are really difficult to live on. The people helping our most vulnerable students deserve more than appreciation, they deserve compensation that reflects their

069value and allows them to support themselves and their families with dignity without needing to work multiple jobs when leaving the end of the school day. When we discuss education, test scores and programs are often the focus. But schools do not function without the people who keep students safe, supported, regulated, transported, cared for, and connected. For many of our students, especially those with complex needs, these staff members are the reason they can access education at all. I ask that we continue to recognize, respect, and invest in every member of the educational team by supporting fair compensation and a living wage for the staff who make our schools function each day. Our students deserve a team that feels valued, and the people doing this work deserve to know their impact matters, not only in words, but in

070action. Thank you. Thank you. Kara Aldifer, CB Employee. Good evening, Board and Administration. My name is Kara Aldifer, and I have been an elementary art educator for the past 21 years in Central Box School Districts. I am here tonight representing the Central Box Education Association as the Union President to show our collective support of CBESPA. I have not only benefited from the work and support of CBESPA as a former student, but I have seen from the inside the positive impact our sister union has had on our district. From safely transporting our students who have significant needs to keeping our buildings and facilities clean, safe, and functioning, to managing the clerical duties in our offices and working one-on-one with some of our most vulnerable students, our teachers and professional staff would not be able to do

071our jobs without them. They are integral to the learning community and culture of our schools and are the gears that keep our district up and running. I have watched as our schools have struggled to maintain continuity with support in our classrooms while staff members leave to find districts that pay more for the work they do. Support staff are some of the first adults our students see each day and are often the caretakers of children who do not only require assistance with academic learning, but social interactions, safety, and regulation of emotional and physical responses, including toileting and support through feeding and medical interventions from our staff nurses. It takes a special kind of person to do this work day in and day out, and I thank all of you for the work that you do. Tonight

072I urge the district to show their support in reaching an agreement with CBESPA that recognizes the work they do with fair living wages. Thank you. Thank you. Giazioni Fialco, Doylestown Borough. Did I butcher it? It was actually pretty close. It was pretty close. My name is Tina Giazioni Fialco. I live in Doylestown Borough. I am a parent in Central Box and board. I thank you for your service. I know that you're dedicated community members. I've seen that your values guide you. You show your dedication to making difficult decisions that prioritize our kids and uphold a culture where equity and justice are central. I think your jobs are hard, and I think they're harder than I can imagine. As a parent of a kid in Central Box, I appreciate everything about our school district. I appreciate

073that the baseball fields that my son plays on are well maintained. Anyone who travels around knows that fields in Central Box are pretty amazing, and this is thanks to Central Box support staff. I appreciate that our schools are clean, that back when my son was doing before care, the staff made him feel like family, that his computer works, that a nurse called me earlier this year to tell me my son was sick and cared for him until he could be picked up. I appreciate that our schools are safe and welcoming. This is all thanks to the support staff. I'm so grateful that my son's school experience includes time with neurodivergent students and students with disabilities who are often supported by incredible support staff. I believe our public schools in Central Box are a foundation to

074our community, and this is what brought me here tonight. Support staff are my neighbors, and they're your neighbors. They're our friends, they're our family members, and parents of Central Box students. Here's what I think about when I'm standing in line at the grocery store pumping gas. I want to know that the Central Box support staff that might be standing next to me are able to afford their groceries and their gas. Support staff deserve a livable wage. They shouldn't have to work another job after a hard day of work, sometimes being bitten or hit, work a second job and maybe a third job on the weekend or a fourth and still be struggling. That's not okay. These are our friends, our neighbors, and parents of our kids' friends. They are the people who make our kids

075feel safe and cared for. They create beautiful environments for our kids to learn. I understand that you as board members have difficult decisions to make. Please consider that support staff are an essential part of the foundation of our community. As a parent in CB, I value the work that they do, and I urge you to continue to be guided by your values. There are difficult decisions to make. Please make the right decision and negotiate a fair contract for the Central Box ESPA. Thank you. Carlos Sedario, Levittown. Good evening, my name is Carlos Sedario, PCA support staff at Holocon Middle School. I'm here tonight to talk about a crucial position in our classrooms, the backbone of Central Box, which is support staff. Let me start by saying I love my job, I love what I do,

076and our students. And seeing them overcome obstacles and breakthrough moments that happen in our classrooms. But I'm also standing here because for far too long, support staff in this district have been treated as if we are invisible or as if we don't matter at all. We are the ones handling the most intense emotional situations. We are the ones in the trenches of special education, managing classrooms when things get chaotic, and ensuring that classrooms run smoothly every single day. We are holding the system together. We have been called the backbone of the district, but while we are holding this district together, the backbone is severely damaged. We are struggling to pay our own bills. We are working second and third jobs just to make ends meet and to come to work to do what we love.

077We are facing difficult, unpredictable working conditions that change without notice. We've all heard the phrase, from leadership, it's a nice sentiment, but if we are truly in this together, why are we one of the lowest paid in this district? Our work shouldn't hurt and our work should never leave us in poverty. We are not here today asking for a symbolic gesture or a thank you card. We are asking for a contract that reflects our value. We are asking for safe working conditions, livable wage, and the respect we have for our students through our dedication. I have a challenge for the CB board. I would like to see you spend one full day, not a 15-minute walkthrough, but a full day in a classroom doing what we do, trying to manage the physical demands, emotional toll,

078and constant danger we put ourselves through while we have a staffing crisis, all while knowing your paycheck won't cover rent. How long will you last in this role? This union is our voice. Without it, we are forgotten. With it, we are a force that cannot be ignored. We are staying loud. We are staying strong and united, and we will keep fighting until the board recognizes that we are essential, not expendable. Do not wait until we all leave to finally realize how much we matter, because here's the reality. Once we are gone, we are gone for good, and this district cannot function without the backbone of support staff. It is time for us to work together with the backbone of support staff. It is time to do what's right. It is time for a fair contract.

079We will be seen. We will be heard. We will not be ignored. It is time for the board to act now. Thank you. Thank you, Carlos. Ed Richardson, Doylestown Township. Good evening. I'm Ed Richardson. I've lived in Doylestown Township and this wonderful school district for 34 years. I work as a human resources consultant, and when an employer client tells me they're having trouble with high turnover, I offer them two pieces of advice. One, in order to attract good people, you need to offer strong compensation. And two, in order to retain good people, you need to treat them with respect. Often the employer will then say, well, it's too expensive to increase compensation, and I ask, what are you spending on the constant recruitment, onboarding, and training of new people? What is the hit on your

080productivity when you cannot employ an experienced group of folks who know how to solve problems on the fly and aren't in constant learning mode? Unfortunately, the Central Buck School District appears to be experiencing this problem with its employment of our education support professionals. We begin every school year with a raft of vacancies for paraprofessionals, personal care assistants, nurses and nursing assistants, administrative, custodial, maintenance, security, technology, and transportation employees. In fact, right now, there are vacancies for personal care assistants, people who provide essential services to our most vulnerable and high-need students, and the district is paying an outside consultant to try to fill those vacancies. It's difficult to recruit people for these important and, as we have heard over and over, really difficult jobs. In many cases, they can match the starting salaries at Walmart or

081Home Depot or improve their compensation by going to a neighboring district. In terms of retention, this district has a history of compensating these employees below the county averages. In their utter frustration with this long-term lack of respect, the employees have authorized their union to strike. I know this is a problem that's been years in the making and that most of you have inherited this situation. I also know that you have an obligation to the taxpayers of this district, but your first obligation is to the students of Central Pucks, and we must ensure we have every high-quality employee needed to meet their needs. So this is one taxpayer who is asking you to improve compensation for our education support professionals, even if it costs me a few more tax dollars. Let's attract and retain the best

082people to work with our students. It's worth the investment and it will create long-term savings when we no longer have to spend big on recruitment, onboarding, and retraining. Please negotiate a strongly competitive agreement with the Central Pucks Education Support Staff Association. Thank you. Karina Levenson, Warwick Township. Hi, you guys might remember me. My name is Karina Levenson and I'm a parent of two children special needs in the district. I want to thank you for who gets back to me by email accordingly always. I came to the last meeting and I'm here again to talk about the people who stand beside our most vulnerable students every day. Not as a line item, not as a staffing number, but as human beings doing some of the hardest work in this district. My son is non-verbal. For children

083like him, school is not simple. Every day can come with communication barriers, emotional challenges, and moments of frustrations he can't even express out loud. My daughter also relies on this support. Sometimes these conversations become so focused on numbers and spreadsheets that people forget there are real children behind them. So please think about that. Children who need patience, children who need consistency, children who need adults around them who truly understand them, the people working in these rules are not easily replaceable. What they do requires compassion, emotion, endurance, skill, and extraordinary patience. And yet despite how critical they are, they remain some of the lowest paid positions in the district. And I should concern everybody in this room. Because when districts fail to properly value these employees, they lose them. And right now, Central Box is losing

084them. PCAs, buses, are leaving for neighboring school districts. They pay significantly more. By the way, close to $15,000 more a year. This is not a mystery. This is a competition. And Central Box is failing, falling behind. You train people here. You build trust with our children. They learn complex needs. They leave for better pay. Better stability, better respect somewhere else. Every time that happens, our children lose consistency. They lose relationships. They lose trust. Adults who help them feel safe enough to learn. For children like mine, that's not a small setback that's going to affect everything. You cannot replace trust overnight. You cannot replace consistency with a new hire on paper. And you cannot expect vulnerable students to simply start over again and again. And many of the individuals working directly with these students are doing

085everything possible to uphold their reputation. But dedication alone does not pay bills. Appreciation alone does not retain staff. And right now, that foundation is so unstable. Parents see this. We talk. We compare. We know what other districts are paying, obviously. So what's the plan? A real plan with real numbers and real timeline. Thank you so much. Julie Kimmel, Dole Town Borough. My name is Julie Kimmel. And I'm a resident of Dole Town Borough and an active citizen. I want to thank the board members for serving our community in such a vital role and a challenging role. You run to be elected to a job that is a volunteer position that's full of challenges, difficult problems that began long before you stepped into the role. So I admire you all for the work that you do.

086I'm here this evening to speak in support of our support staff as they negotiate a contract. In conversations with people in my community, I was shocked to learn that some of our support staff, people who play such a vital role that we've been hearing about all evening, earn as little as $15 an hour. That is a poverty wage. This matters because healthy schools are at the heart of healthy communities. Healthy schools are great places to learn for all students because they are great places to work for all staff. Also, our schools and our communities are a reflection of our values. I don't want to hear as I read the news. I mean, I do want to hear about administrators who are well compensated, but I don't want to turn the page and hear they're working

087in the same system as support staff who are worried about stocking the fridge with the nice things that their families would like. We've heard a lot this evening. I must say, I mean, I don't usually come to school board meetings, and we've heard about so many wonderful things that our schools do. You must feel so proud of what our students have and what they accomplish. We've also heard throughout the evening about our budget challenges. That's hard. But the solution to our budget challenges should not come by sacrificing the dignity of our support staff who work in such vitally important roles. And I just wanted to share that even though I don't have the same stake in all of this that some others shared, but just as an active taxpaying member of this community who's paying

088attention. So I want to thank you for doing hard work to solve this problem in the right way that supports our support staff. Thank you. Thank you very much. Thanks everyone who came out tonight. Who took the time to prepare thoughts and to share them with us up here. We're going to move on to board comment and discussion. We're going to start with item 18A, which is the responsible contractor policy before we open it up to the floor for the whole board to make any comments. So I'm going to kind of kick it over to Mr. Amuso to open it up and introduce the responsible contractor policy. Is this on? Thank you, thank you Madam President. So yes, I'm here to talk about we have a draft responsible contractor policy on the agenda simply for

089discussion. It would be a policy in the 800 series. But a responsible contractor policy is something that the county has. County entities like the community college has it. Several school districts in Bucks County, I know Ben Salem and Pennsbury, other local governments. But what it is, is it kind of, it fills in a gap of state law. So as we all know, state law has a lot of rules for public bidding and procurement. You have to pay the prevailing wage and there are lots of rules around bidding. All bids have to go to the lowest responsible, responsive bidder. But what the law, the state law doesn't do is talk about who is actually doing the work. And that's the gap that the responsible contractor policy would do. And it does it really by focusing on

090apprenticeship programs. So what a responsible contractor policy would do and what this draft policy does is that anytime the district has a project of $250,000 or more, anyone who's bidding has to certify that they will meet this policy. And it's essentially that 70% of their workers on site have graduated in what's called a class A apprenticeship program for their craft. And a class A apprenticeship program, this is something run by the U.S. Department of Labor, and it ensures that people who are doing your plumbing know how to do your plumbing. People who are doing your carpentry know how to do your carpentry. And there's something called craft employees. Each of these things I just mentioned and there are many, many others are a craft. So this policy will mean that somebody who is installing the

091plumbing in a new project has graduated from a class A apprenticeship program in plumbing. And it's a way of ensuring a quality of work. So you can see that in the draft policy it defines the class A apprenticeship program. Again, this is something that's run by the Department of Labor. Talks about what's a craft employee. And again, this particular policy sets, it is triggered by any project of $250,000 or more, which is what most entities do. I know that's what the county does. The community college. Pennsbury does that as well. I know we have one school district contract which is at $500,000. That's something that you can set. But we drafted it, again, the current state of the art best practice is $250,000. And then there's a certification and pre-qualification requirement. So essentially what happens

092is when somebody wants to bid, they have to go through this pre-qualification process. Which is essentially providing us the paperwork that shows that 70% of the people on site will have graduated from the proper craft apprenticeship program. And this is something that we handle almost on a daily basis. There are forms. The people who are going to bid give the school district the forms. The school district can just email it to us and we have a colleague in the office, one of our excellent paralegals who will review it and be able to say they've met the requirements or they haven't. And if they haven't, what do we need to make sure they meet the requirements? And then as long as they've met those requirements, then it's like the normal bidding process. It's the lowest responsive,

093responsible bidder that is qualified as a responsible contractor. That's a summary of it. And I also want to, I probably should have announced this, we did discuss the responsible contractor policy or ordinance, it's a policy at the school board level. At one of our finance meetings, like back in February, we had someone from the union come and present to the finance committee and we did have a pretty robust discussion. Mr. Spencer was involved in that discussion along with Mr. Hanna. He was present at the time and answered a number of our questions, but we wanted to bring this to the general meeting because we felt that it would be better to have that discussion with the entire board present. So, and we would like to consider this where we are going to now define the

094word responsible in the process of the responsible policy. We have to take the lowest responsible bid, but we get to decide and define what responsible and in many cases, often the lowest bidder might not be the most qualified or at least, but as a 70%, then we are able to control or have workers here working on our improvement, which we have many going on now and we have many that need to happen in the future. So, with that, I don't know if anyone else would like to kind of comment or at least ask questions. People who might not have been at the finance committee meeting, this would be the time to sort of sure, to address the quality, I would say. Susan and I had again, the pleasure of going down to the education facilities

095for the union, the carpenters, steam fitters, a few of them, when we got to tour the educational institutions that these apprenticeships or these apprentices go through. So, we got, it's a five year program, they earn while they learn, and so they work under an already established depending on the carpenter or this, and so that's how we know they're guaranteed. That's the type of training they're getting. It's safety. One of the other concerns is that sometimes with these lower bids, we receive the lowest bid, but this is not my world. So, Peter, if you want to help me out here, which we qualified in that, that's a potential pitfall that we could experience when we have not defined the word responsible. Right. When you do specifications for a project, you really just talk about what material

096you want, where, and the plans. You don't mandate how many people or the qualifications of the people. So, you could have the lowest, and it's tough to disqualify a bid if it's the low bid. I mean, the law has a pretty low definition of what's a responsive, responsible bidder. So, you could easily have a construction company that just subcontracts, subcontracts out until you just have a father and son. You don't really have any qualifications, but they were hired by the company. Whereas this allows us to say, no, you had to have graduated from one of these Class A apprenticeship programs, which, again, is maintained by, the standards are maintained by the federal government, and their actual real apprenticeship programs are not just some kind of online. Just to jump in and clarify, Hello. Should I

097start singing that song? There we go. Just to make sure that we're clear here, this isn't only union individuals can go to these apprenticeship programs and or qualify. There are several private companies out there that either employ individuals who've gone through a Class A apprenticeship and or provide those apprenticeships themselves. So, I just want to make it clear that it's not like a union versus non-union thing. It is true that a higher percentage of companies that provide the Class A apprenticeships are unionized, but that's not all of them. So, there are other ways to get there, and there's also support at the state level to incentivize private companies in developing Class A training programs for all the same reasons, so that we're sure they're going through appropriate training and not just, you know. I love

098the whole idea. There's not scaffolding without hard pads. You're getting it right. So, do we have that problem, I guess, is my issue, but my question is by doing it. Right, and I think that's a fair question. I think that my view on it and my take and perception would be we don't want to be in that position where we're dealing with it reactively and saying oh, well, if only we had had some sort of way to qualify these contractors before, we wouldn't be dealing with the issues that other districts have dealt with, so it might not be that we have a current issue with the quality of work that's been provided to date, but it's more to make sure that from now on we're sure that the people coming into the district meet these

099certain qualifications so that we're not left only choosing the lowest bidder, because if we have a project and it's $50,000 versus $60,000 and the $50,000 bid may not have met the criteria for responsible, we take the 60 knowing that we're getting quality work and not bound by having to take the 50. So that's what this allows us to do. It allows us to consider more than just the lowest bidder, because we can actually take the second highest bidder or the second lowest bidder because we find that they've met better criteria for qualification. So do we have the date? Wasn't the finance committee meeting, so I don't know if we already had that information presented or not and if not, that's I think why we're here today is like are there questions that we need to

100answer for the board before we move forward with it? So if that wasn't presented during that then it re-presented or Heather could fill us in on what was presented? Well, so, Mr. Spencer did provide, I think the board at large should have received this memo about he did some research. There was a survey that we completed across a number of school districts in Bucks County, Chester County, Montgomery County, whether they had RCOs or RCPs and the data that they provided back to us. So the board should have a copy of that information. I can recirculate that to everybody and then perhaps this comes back to discuss it a little bit more and then maybe we can dig into it a little bit more and get some answers to those questions. There are fair questions, right?

101So anybody else? In terms of the threshold that's something that we determine as a board. We even determine the percentage of people who are Class A apprentices apprenticeships. So that's up to us as well. It's not something that so we can discuss that as part of the discussion. But we can get the answers to those questions. Anyone else on this topic? I'll just add that I'm interested in the program and moving forward with future discussions on it and learning a bit more. I haven't had the time recently to really dive into it, but I'm definitely interested. Next Thursday, she's there. Anybody else? Just kind of touching on the data piece, playing off of Rick's questions, how many of the I don't know if it's possible to get this data, but how much of the low

102bids that were currently selected over the past two years if we're happy with the quality of work, how many of those would have met the criteria that we're setting forth in this policy? So understanding that can also help if we're severely limiting what we were currently doing versus not. Generally supportive of the concept. For sure we want better work and having to do more work because an inexperienced person did something cost the district more. It can be spend $5 to save $10 type issue, but it'd be good to know the extent to which the people who are already doing our stuff would have met this criteria. In that case we would sort of just be solidifying and defining, but already working with those folks, but just kind of spelling out and defining what responsible means,

103but still working with the same I mean I'm just kind of I'm asking more so, right? It's a kind of retroactive or retrospective look to see had we implemented this two years ago, would we have still had the same people with the same low bids and therefore exactly hit it just it's not a heavy impact on us in the negative front because we're I think generally happy with the construction that we're currently seeing. I want to make sure everybody has an opportunity to ask a question or comment. Anyone else? Excuse me. Okay. Moving on to more general board comment. I know Mrs. Smith let me know. I actually had three topics I wanted to address this evening. First I would like to thank the members of our support staff who have been attending our meetings

104over the last few months. I really do appreciate your time and hearing your thoughts and your concerns. I have been attending the negotiation sessions and I understand that many of you are frustrated. You may feel that I don't value your work. I just want to say that is not the case. I know that your work is invaluable. I was a special needs mom. I know firsthand how important you are to our students and I know how difficult your jobs are. During negotiations the work requires me to place our employees in a numerical box. It's a spreadsheet cell. The numbers are inflexible. They're rigid. They're unyielding. And I have to take your work, which is sensitive, empathetic, caring, invaluable, everything that we've been hearing for the last few months, and assign it a value and a

105number. And honestly it just doesn't fit. It's really difficult. It's very uncomfortable. And I'm not trying to secure any sympathy from anyone by saying that this work is difficult and I hope you don't understand me with my words tonight and misunderstand me. I really just wanted to share my perspective and I hope it's helpful in any small way. And if it's not helpful I totally understand that too. I understand if my words sound hollow and empty to you, but I at least felt like I needed to try and respond to your comments in some way. Most of the time as a board member I get to celebrate your work and your success with our students and I look forward to concluding those successful negotiations. I know we're going to get...I thank you for your patience

106as we work towards this agreement. I want to apologize. The three topics I'm talking about are not really related. Next I wanted to address the repeated comments that we've been hearing about transgender students in public comment over the last few months. I'd like to change that narrative a little bit. In my work on the board and through my own children and my friends, I've had the privilege of knowing transgender youth. They never cease to amaze me with their maturity, intelligence, empathy, understanding, their bravery and their strength. They have a unique point of view which challenges others around them to be better and to be different. And we need more of that in our world. I'm grateful for each and every transgender student in our schools, in our district, in our community and in our world.

107I'm really glad that you are here. You are very welcome here and you make us better. Finally, three years ago I sat at this dais and I listened to student after student beg for the pride flag to be allowed in their schools and I watched that board shut them down. It broke my heart and the only promise I could make to myself at the time was to never forget and to keep trying to provide what they had asked for. And we've healed the policies that that board passed. Diverse books are plentiful in our libraries. There are many pride flags in our schools. But hateful rhetoric about the LGBTQ community is skewed daily at the national level under our current administration and discriminatory legislation is rampant across the country. So to counter this and to honor

108the promise I made to myself and to our students in the past, I fully support raising a pride flag at the district office for the month of June. I just want to share a message from the district level that we welcome all students in Central Box and we're proud to have them here. Thanks. Thank you Mrs. Smith. Anybody else like to make public or comment? Okay. Hearing none, may I have a motion to adjourn? So moved. Move by Mr. Herring. Seconded by Mr. Kimikata. All in favor? Aye. Motion adjourned. Meeting adjourned.