001Mr. Pile, can you hear us? Okay. >> Yeah, I hear you. Hear you? Well, can you hear me? >> Yes, we can. >> Very clear. I think we are good to go. >> That's about the best sound quality we we've ever had. Well, then we can uh begin our policy and curriculum committee meeting for January 12th. We have two policies for review and discussion and then we have several policies for revision. That brings us to policy 005 organization. So, just few things. One, we're looking heavy policy tonight. We will be heavy on the curriculum side next month. Um so just knowing what was coming up in February, we wanted to load this agenda up and and uh we'll get where we do um in terms of progress. As we know, Mr. Pile's on and the
002sound is clear. He is here specific to policy 918 because um in our current organization, he is um doing such great work around federal programs and title one. So I don't know if you want to do that first because he's online at the moment might just be helpful. Yeah. >> Also one that we need to do tonight, you know, where the others we have the legal flexibility. >> Are we all right with that? >> Yeah. >> Yep. >> All right. >> Mr. Pile, if you want to open up for >> Yeah. >> 918 >> and and I can speak quickly about the policy itself. Mr. Pile's worked on the family engagement compact school plan. He's He's been meeting with Spars to discuss what's going on with KBS and some of those plans. Um there are
003a few changes in the policy as far as distributing the plan and writing to parents, providing language access services to families need those services. Um, one of the word changes at a minimum parents and family members shall be previously was encouraged to change that to expected to volunteer and support their child's learning and participate as appropriate decisions related to the education of the child. If if parents or family members are not satisfactory with the title one plan, the district shall submit parent or family member comments with the plan when the school makes the plan available to the school board. That's a line's been added. Uh talking about technology and including education about the harms of copyright privacy as appropriate. Another line that's been added and also educating teachers on the value and usefulness contributions of
004parents and family members and how to reach out to properly engage parents and family members in education. So th those are some of the recommended changes. These changes came from PSBA which came from feedback from program monitoring monitoring feedback from those individuals who monitor the programs which uh will occur with us later this year. So that's the policy itself. Mr. Py, if you want to talk about any of that or or the plans that have been developed, some of those ideas. >> Yeah, absolutely. So, I've always been on the other side of things, you know, running a building, the parent uh family engagement policy. Um, it's been a learning experience uh being on the other side of things doing it for the district level. Um the the great thing is is you know having that
005experience at the building level and then also having the opportunity to work with uh Mrs. Barnes. Um, you know, she's very meticulous. Um, follows things to the tea. And I think in terms of this part of our federal programming, um, this is where I would like to use this moving forward in terms of almost like a playbook um, to follow in terms of the district. Uh right now we have Kutztown Elementary that is uh qualified as our title one programming. That could also change in the future depending on numbers. So, um, but I think what we have here is pretty comprehensive and, uh, for me, it's something that I can follow and make sure that we are following as a district and as Ktown Elementary School to make sure that we're checking all the boxes
006that need to take place in terms of getting that federal funding piece. So, um, I will say, um, Mrs. Barnes has done a great job in terms of, you know, working with all of our stakeholders. Uh they have some pretty set uh activities like I know January 23rd they have their um parent uh committee. They have a uh bingo for books. And again, those are some of the opportunities that I can also piggyback on in terms of title one conferences in March and then also field day as well um to make sure that we're getting that feedback from parents um families, teachers, students, stakeholders um and and kind of following all of this. So, um it is a lot that we have in the policy compact um in terms of the district and as well
007as the uh elementary school as well. But I'm not going to go through all this. You can there's a lot there, but if you have any questions, I'd be more than happy to to try to answer them. I do have one question on the language in the parent compact as compared to the policy revise. Um >> okay >> in the policy it says that um volunteering in the child's classroom is expected changed from encouraged to expected but in the parent compact it says required. >> Okay. Yeah. Um, so that's the volunteering in the classroom. >> Yeah. >> If it's required, it's not volunteering. Yeah. >> Right. I I could definitely see that and and we could we could change that. I guess from again uh meeting with the stakeholders and and and I think the
008feel was kind of, you know, the parents are a part of this. We want them to be a part of it. Um and and I think you know Kutztown Elementary has you know around 400 or I'm not sure the exact number you know we should be able to get parents in there but to your point I can see the confusion that might you know that we we could probably change that too um maybe like >> look at the other two bullets there it's you know required to support their child's learning and required to participate in deci in decisions related to so so significantly different than volunteering in the classroom. You know, as far as that standard, um I was just wondering if those required in um parentheses there are because that's required to be in
009the document per our um monitoring. Is that what that required means is that it needs to be a part of the plan. >> Yeah. Yes. I And I'd have to ask uh the lady that I work with um on that. I think our thinking was us as the elementary school or district like we should require opportunities for our parents to come in and and and be a part of the classroom. I think that was kind of how we had it, but um it it could also be required to be in this uh writing as well. I I'd have to check up on that. I don't have that answer for you. given some clarification around that specific point which I think is you know is needed for us all. Are there any other questions related to
010policies or even the plan >> then we could just clarify that Matt? >> Yeah I can definitely check on that. I can uh reach out to my point person and federal grants for sure. Okay. If there's no other questions for 918 for a vote to move that to the full board motion. >> So move. >> All in favor say I. >> I. Policy 918 moves the full board. Thank you Mr. Pal. We appreciate it. >> Oh, thank you for having me. Guess we can jump back up to policy 005 organization then. >> Yes, we began talking about this last meeting. We're looking at different different committees across the county committees topics of not being here tonight. She did have some ideas as far as how to how to categorize those. Um, Mr. Chan, do you
011want me to talk about that or >> Yeah, it's just I mean it ultimately I I mean I will. Ultimately it comes down to are we satisfied with the way that we're organized or um are we open to looking at a new way to organize probably heading really into 2027 which is a little you know time off. So from now um I know Mrs. Ziggler, she brought this up at reorganization and then had shared subsequently maybe a couple days later, you know, some thoughts that she had. Um, you know, when I review those thoughts, I kind of like the idea of looking to freshen it up into the future a little bit. The way we approach it, I think, um, looking at some broader committees, the way we define the committees, um, you know, just
012may give a new opportunity for the way that we approach it as an administration. Um and just to you know to share um if you didn't what she had shared was sort of a she called a student achievement committee. I might go with a different title because it's more broader than just achievement maybe the student experience committee looking at curriculum athletics and activities which is current ECC student services and experience edtech and then if you recall at the time my concern was just about policy where does policy fit because different policies um have to do with different parts of organization you know so at that point looking at student focused policies that would be essentially policy manuals uh the 100s and the 200s um which are programs and students. Um I would if we're looking
013to change and not have a dedicated policy committee, I would like to have them assigned by um policy manual books just so you know so it's very clear where anyone would belong. That's why I would say 100s and 200s on there. Um the other recommendation um that she had was finance, property and operations. That gives us sort of a routine place to break up finance and property issues. um operations which you know lines very similarly to what we do with uh facilities now information technology as we have this evening we have an information technology presentation which the lines blur between facilities and technology very much at this point um and then we would look at that committee being operations and government so pretty much policies the zeros the 300s the 600s the 700s and the
014800s which would be everything except for the ones and the twos um is sort of the if we were looking at that type of approach which again um that was just Mrs. Ziggler's recommendation and um I think it does organize fairly nicely. Um but then that's how I look at policies. Beyond that in the negotiations committee I don't think there's any real change for what negotiations committee does. It meets when when it needs to and then um there's no need we have listed a personnel committee but it is essentially executive session. there's no need to list a committee if it's just we could always list what is legal to occur in executive session um you know which uh happens under meetings in a different policy but it can be reiterated there so I I think
015we're operating fine as we are but also I once looking at an alternate way to to organize I found it you know kind of engaging and interesting to um maybe just open our eyes in different ways we look at it so Um I think it's really just a conversation point this point it's you know whether that would organize us into the future in a different manner the board is interested you know remember these are the zeros it really is the board governing the board right so it's the this all these policies are about how the board organizes no other changes to committees I mean committees be the main advisory organizations to the full I guess if I have a question, the finance, property, and operations committee suggestion, would that incorporate what we now hold as
016budget committee meetings? >> Great question. I wouldn't think so. I think we would still have budget meetings, you know, that we call them budget and finance. we, you know, we could kind of update on things, but I would still recommend we hold dedicated budget meetings in the spring. >> Yeah. I mean, that's such a significant conversation >> and that doesn't operate in committee anyway. I mean, while we call it a committee, we just call it a committee, but it's not actually a committee. It's the whole board. I don't think it's essential that we reorganize, but I also when I again when I look at it, it does look kind of intriguing to me to just approach a different way. So, >> I would just uh say bring us your recommendations written and formalized. Then if
017somebody else has I'm good with however we decide is best moving forward. I either way all of the business has to be handled that I don't really have a strong opinion as to what falls where. >> Yeah. this I mean this you know I just I did just jump up to her proposal because it it's really quick when you start looking if you start from scratch it's really quick and you all of a sudden you have seven committees and I don't think that's what we want I think keeping kind of two committees is is the main advantage >> um so I with very very little change I think um the starting point is good it's there's a student facing side and and a operations side and you go from there so we would need the
018policy revised then to reflect those changes is and >> yeah and I I don't you know while we're we're talking about this in January of 2026 I really think it's something we would want to do with three organizations so there's no rush um you know so I again I haven't drafted here it's really just an edit of what Ziggler had shared so I'll share this with the whole board and we'll bring it back you know before the committee again um if the committee is generally in favor of looking at you know alternate least organized for 2027 then um we'll bring it back and have it with we've done that before we have some policies that um get approved, but they don't um we'll denote it now, but it doesn't the changes don't occur until a
019date has done it. So, >> we'd like to see some samples from other school districts, how they you know, how [clears throat] they handle what they do. >> Yeah. >> Especially some that are similar size to to us. Okay. You know, because I I looking at what Miss Ziggler sent us here and some of like she pulls the athletics activities under the student achievement, but in the past a lot of that has done with the facilities. >> Yeah. >> You know, so it's like >> we got to kind of see what makes the most sense as far as separating stuff out and pushing it. I mean, I I do get why put that underneath the student, but then also, >> like I said, we get a lot of requests for >> where does the track
020painting land at? >> Well, that's the thing, you know. >> Yeah. >> Where does the new bad cage come come into play, you know, stuff like that. So, and like the the edte that kind of just falls under information technology, my opinion a little bit. >> Yeah. I mean we have a we um we have grown to kind of think what was traditionally called edtech is just curriculum now because it really is it's edtech is about the way we deliver instruction um curriculum and instruction um so you know where tonight we're going to talk about the WAN yeah the WAN is way closer to operations and facilities than it is to instruction so that I think actually tech's a little bit easier to differentiate than uh athletics at this point because so much of athletics
021isn't facilities um or it you know the conversations we have every year. So um all right well then um I'll pull a few similar examples and share them with the board and then share you know a recommendation for potential change. We'll bring it back to committee again. >> And that brings us to 004 membership. 004 membership school directors appointed vacancies and such. This was discussed previously about reviewing this policy which is why it's on the agenda this evening. which was pulled from the December agenda when we didn't have time to discuss. So, it's here for review and discussion. So, I know I was at least one of the people who requested that we take a look at this. Um since we recently had a vacancy and um it was handled in a different way than
022vacuum several vacancies in the past and differently than um I've seen other districts typically handle vacancies. Um, and really there's very little that addresses vacancies in school code or in our policy in terms of like there's deadlines like by how fast you have to fill them and what happens if you don't fill them, but nothing that says how you might go about filling them. >> Yeah. And as far as like looking at other districts, I looked at quite a few and we have almost the exact language because it really is just law. Like it's the, you know, if you look at if you look at um PA code and law has the minimum, you know, amount of information necessary. We have it. That's what everybody else seems to have. Um, you know, where you'll find
023some that have the same language and then have an application as an attachment. So you can infer that they may look at a different process, but it doesn't actually say that in the pause. Um so you know that's again it's just how the board wants to organize around these. Um the uh and you talk to neighboring districts and some have had processes of application and interview and some have just appointed, right? like it's because that that is all within scope of of uh legal ways to for the board to fill vacancies. >> So for an example of a district that's just appointed like how did they determine that? >> Someone just made a recommendation and someone just made a recommendation. And that recommendation was um brought up at at a meeting and then on the
024agenda. >> I mean ultimately they must have something. >> Yeah. I don't I mean I guess I don't know you know I talked to >> see somebody in the parking lot if you're on >> Yeah. I think you know a lot of times it has been someone you know who has been at meetings pretty frequently in recent months. um you know where somebody often times there's election fairly at least there's plenty of districts are at large so they don't have the region issues that we have so you have a different breath of candidates who may have run because of that so it just comes down as well the details there so it's just whether or not board wants to expand on what is in here and add a process um or not you know the
025the process The only the only place we could say a process can be a problem, I would say, is that there are legal timelines. So, if the process elongates the time to get someone appointed, then you could be pushed up against the 30-day timeline and then it, you know, becomes a court decision, right? Like, but that would happen either way if you don't have some. But that's just being if there's a process that needs to happen really fast 30 days goes really fast. >> True. And we have had vacancies and that that hasn't presented an issue even when it's been openly advertised that there is a vacancy and then people have a chance to express an interest and then be interviewed by the board. And so we have my knowledge never been in a position
026where we had supporting. >> Yep. I don't I don't believe that's ever happened. >> We do have on our website the PSBA school board candidate guide which does have a procedure for filling board vacancy. So if that is not our policy, we should remove that from the website. >> We were asked I mean after that was brought up at that meeting, we were asked a couple years ago to make sure we had all of the information available for um someone from the community who wanted to who may potentially want to run for board. The information was out there. That's, you know, that is a that's why that document is there and it was a recommend, you know, it has really that small piece at the end that addresses that that is a little bit um
027almost out of place for what that document's purpose is I would say because the purpose is really about advising somebody running for board. Um, but yeah, I mean, we can certainly take that down, too. It's just that's it's PSBA's how do you become a board member documentation that was put there just to support committee members who might still replacing the schoolboard member, they'd be a candidate for the school board, right? >> Say again. I'm sorry. If you were replacing somebody that was for a position at a school board, they'd be a candidate for the position. That sounds sure I mean I think open transparent process is a good thing to have for the community. I'd be in favor of having an open and transparent process outlined in policy. be something like we have followed many
028times in the past which is a resation is received. vacancy is advertised to the community, those interested in serving within an application and then they're interviewed by the remaining members of the school board and some chosen they serve until the next municipal election and then if they so choose they can run the position. Perhaps if we had a draft some language kind of identified those three or four items then we could take a look at adding that to the existing policy to you know for future agencies. language from some other places or you to do it. >> You know, at the end of the day, the the it won't change, you know, process process doesn't change. At the end of the day, it's votes that determine who, you know, who is the fulfills the vacancy.
029So just remember that that at the end like how we identify potential candidates would be the process and then at the end of the day it'll be a vote that makes that determination majority vote >> tricky and and where just I mean this is maybe common sense by doing the math but um where oftentimes districts do end up getting a court appointee is because typically a vacancy is one person you know so then all of a sudden you an even number of votes, right? So then it could be if uh there may not be a major that has nothing to do with our process. That's just pointing out kind of the obvious readout where where that 30-day timeline goes. I don't mind looking at some form of this. My concern would be though that uh
030we get into exceptions to this because we were looking at a very it's a specific situation that to my knowledge has not happened before which made this a very to me at least a very clear route forward without moving through a process that was lengthy and etc. So, I think that would be my concern. If we went into looking and changing at language, we would have to include some sort of exceptions in cases where it just flat out makes sense. So, that would be my concern about that slippery slope to start pounding out language there. But, I'm not opposed to the idea. process this until we get some other language to see whether or not we >> table it do whatever you want. >> Yeah, I mean it policy does not need to change. So
031t tableabling it you know to discuss what time is >> I suppose I will pull some language together then share it with everybody. >> All right and then that brings us down to throwing up this because again remember just talking as we think about different situations. I mentioned the at large situation since we are not at large there is the occasion where we have because we have regionalized board somebody could move and hypothetically need to present your seat. It's just a you know any any regionalized um board has that potential to happen. Just more thing is scenarios if there are exceptions that's that's a scenario that very well could and has occurred indeed. >> Yes. And then that can bring us back down to policies for revision. And we're at 105.2. Exemption from instruction. [clears
032throat] Exemption from instruction. There is a piece added as far as delegation. Superintendent a plan to communicate out to parents regarding the option to have their child exempt from a particular instruction. Um with the request which seems to be in writing the reasons for the request and then add to this policy is part of the mandate with a parent child to be exempt. Historically this was limited to religious beliefs. However recent court case where moral beliefs came into play. Now technically that was only true with parents because parental court case um in our policy currently it talks about students over the age of 18 having the same rights. So so technically they don't have a moral right they have religious right parents have both a religious and a moral right. Hopefully that makes sense. Um
033and then also there's a piece about dissection activities types of educational lessons. So the most significant changes are you know there I guess I don't want to say that the end or moral belief is not significant. it is. It just kind of broadens it. But then from the policy standpoint, there's a requirement to annually notify parents on our behalf of the policy has long existed in some form. Um there was not an annual requirement to notify and then that optional piece which is not a legal requirement. Some PSBA, you know, with the X kind of has the recommendation um that the superintendent designation shall develop procedures to implement this. Um, I will say, you know, each of the last, I'd say at least four years, maybe five years at one of our early meetings, I've
034met with staff and remind staff that we do have a policy that has an exemption for instruction. There's no way for a parent to exempt from instruction if they don't know what's what is happening in the classroom. So we need to communicate um through classroom newsletters, dojo and elementary whatever the product might be but somehow communicate um but have not specifically given like a directive of procedure that's been a reminder you know where um I don't think it's a bad thing to say the procedures will be um issued to teachers of how they would do this by level. It'll probably be a few options, right? Like you can, you know, your parent accessible canvas page, your team newsletter. I think there'd be a couple options, but one of those within some reason and that's the
035conversation we've had over recent years. But I don't I don't I don't think it's a bad thing to say it's required for superintendent to put procedures this beginning because the logic is the policy exists. What good is the policy if no one if you don't know what's coming? Almost makes it meaningless. I you know, watch the comment on the dissection piece. I mean, it kind of cough. I guess it makes sense that if you're going to be doing a dissection, it's good for people to know. I think uh I don't want to speak for science teachers when we have a couple in the room, but science teach science teachers know there's always a few activities that might bring a student to their knees and they probably always want to give a heads up because it's
036just happens from time to time. Blood dissection of those nature. So, um also seems like pretty good. at least three weeks is a it's pretty long timeline, but I think for dissection activity or order of materials, it's it's probably not a reasonable situation. So, I mean to that point, it's my recommendation that we approve that script. The including reasons for request, is that referring to sincerely held religious or moral beliefs or is that asking for something that is more specific as to what are those beliefs? Is that right? >> For me, the specific is it gives us it has to be informative enough that we know what we're avoiding for that child. That's just because otherwise I don't know. I think we could be walking ourselves into a situation. Looking for a motion to move
037to the full board. >> All in favor say I. >> I 105.2 exemption from instruction moves the full board. That brings us to policy 706 property records. >> Extremely clear cut. We have one change with capital assets and purchase federal guidelines requirements number listed previously was cost of $5,000. It's now changed to $10,000 greater. That's simply counting and numbers. What that number should be that the full board. >> All in favor say I. >> I. 706 moves to the full board. Policy 122 extracurricular activities. It's been also very brief as far as the changes PSBA recently although we revised this in November 1.5 recommending we change curriculum related student groups defined group that directly courses offered by district. So in addition to athletic activities that term would be applied this policy >> that just covers
038like home school and charter school and that stuff. Well, it could be, you know, it really broadens it from athletics to other other activities, any extracurricular group, whether it's related to curriculum or not, it would [clears throat] be considered and whatever's in this policy, it would apply to those groups. So whether that could be science Olympiad as an example or it could be And it's basically bringing our language in line with the other policies. >> Make a motion to move that for the full board as well. >> All in favor say I. >> I. 122 extracurricular to the full board. That brings us to 216 student records. Uh this been quite some time since this policyy's been revised. So I contact PSBA to receive most recent policy guide on this. So there is a section
039change with authority as far as the responsibility for the collection of disclosure protection of student records. definitions have been added from the uh older of the older policy. Um there is a line about delegation responsibility as far as all district personnel having access student records shall receive training requirements in terms policy and also should follow state laws and regulations as to superintendent. And then there's additional guidelines that have been included Basically it's protecting data. It is storing data. It is disposing of data. Safeguarding sensitive data. There's also a section that's been added as far as missing child registration. The entire purpose section is lined out. Does it not have a purpose section? >> Uh that was that's under authority. >> Okay. >> There there's a very similar line. the the new bolded piece under authority
040covers what was under purpose. So it's simply convincing sections rewarded somewhat but being behind it's very simple. We don't necessarily need to strike out purpose section. >> I don't know that that it necessarily matters a ton to me. It's just we generally have that at the beginning. So, it's just a summary for those looking at it. Yeah. I don't think this is so weird. questions or comments on 216. Okay. So, we will leave the purpose paragraph. So, on that looking for a motion to move that to the full board. >> All in favor say I. >> I. 216 moves the full board. That brings us to 204 attendance. Attendance deals with the current law code. Um students who are visually truent meaning they have the six or more days of school that are unexcused they
041cannot transfer during the school year to a cyber charter school unless it's determined to be in the best interest of the student by a judge. So that line has been added along with the school district's responsibility to provide resources to assist the student and parents or guardians with returning the student to compulsory school attendance levels that are that are satisfactory and provide opportunities for academic recovery. So th those are the lines that have been added to this policy. This is one of the more exciting changes for school code that you know there to not allow cyber charter schools to be an in the- moment evasion of attendance loss right over time it certainly can be potentially but um at least during that school year the student would not transfer. Now at the end of the
042year it becomes a clean slate to make a transfer at that point but during the school year they can they cannot but that that is an exciting part of the changes in law um they have our policy you know they we we have these discussions internally then what if you get a request to records from a cyber charter and you know that they have six or more absences um how do we handle that so we have to have a process of denying it at that point because the student remains ours so um I think this was a you know good piece of legislation that advocacy led where um we had long been talking about challenges of going to Trinity Court and students then disenrolling and banishing into the win. So at least it gives us
043an honest chance to try to repair that attendance relationship until the end of the year. for a motion. Move that to the full board. First reading. >> All in favor say I. >> I. >> 204 moves to the full board. And that brings us to 218.1 weapons. >> With weapons, there are some lines that appear to be stricken. However, some of this simply been moved to the reporting area. So, the reporting area that is bolded, some of that is brand new, other pieces of it having moved from guidelines over to that area. But along with reporting to law enforcement and also parents of the child who's been involved with a weapons situation is our responsibility also to communicate to the to the school community as a whole that a weapon was involved on campus at
044a school building or if you can see on page four excuse Page two where it states additional parental employee notifications. Talks about incidents occurring at a school building occurring at a school building shared the campus with other school buildings. Incidents occurring at a school sponsored activity or a public surveillance providing transportation to a school or school sponsored activity. So what we're talking about is our respons in incident occurred >> and it's a change to legislation that's motivating that. >> That's correct. >> Yes, there's a change. Act 44 requires now the 24-hour notice um of parents uh in any school building or school campus. You know, for us that matters anytime you have more than one school on the campus, notification of a weapon event. Um which again is uh I think in most situations, well,
045I mean in in most situations that notification is really valuable and important that you're sharing with your families because typically students know something, right? I mean and then word starts to the rumors start to fly about what the reality is. The only place where it gets tricky are things where when you define a weapon um you know if you look under the def definition of u the definition of a weapon you know a replica of a weapon right like um just example was several years ago it's a student who has since graduated um but the student um brought in was in fifth grade I think at the time but brought in a uh went to the World War II um convention is not the right word there's Um there there was an event kind of
046commemorating World War II and came in with the replica of a World War II shell casing that then it had a keychain on, right? Like it was a keychain. Um that point it did not it was not an implement capable of inflicting seriously bodily injury. It certainly was worth the kid coming down to the office and us saying you can't bring this to school anymore because of it because at that point it's a replica. um you know so it doesn't meet the or implement capable but in that instance per this definition we really will be notifying the parents of that where you know there could be value right if 10 kids on the playground saw it and wanted to be sure that it was just a replica there's value to that there's also times where
047only the teacher saw it and it really wasn't a situation at all but yet per the law you're low there are some situations where it gets a little tricky um you know but um and I very obvious one we have a we're very proud of the 80 years of history of our rifle team by definition of you know there it kind of looks like we should be notifying you know incidents of the rifle team right but I mean it's just we have to use a little bit of just common sense and you know almost situations >> destination of butter knife in the cafeteria that we assume we let people use every day >> we do yes um yeah right It's any knife in their possession. They should be expelled for a year. Help the school.
048>> Yeah. We I mean it's we get into policy we have to kind of just use our judgment on some of those um you know in those instances given you know there's a chance somebody could try to harm someone with a butter knife and at that point we would need to notify them. If they didn't we wouldn't. And to the replica of a weapon you know is it was it used to intimidate somebody? Well then yes we should notify. If it was just a kid who regard it as a souvenir and was proud of it because for whatever reason, you know, whether they are in that particular instance, it was a kid who has just a proud military history and went I think it was his grandfather and not something he thought was cool, but
049it was in no way a weapon at this point. So, um, we just have to use our judgment. So, that's where I think the law does not always read in a manner that judgment. So, It is a legal requirement. Therefore, necessary to change policy. Just know we have to use judgment in those situations often. >> Move to 18 full board. All in favor say I. I. >> 18.1 moves the full board. And that polishes off tonight's agenda. Looking for a motion to adjurnn. All in favor say I. I. Meeting adjourned. And I'd like to call the order of the uh facilities extracurricular committee meeting for today. We have a few things on the agenda. I guess first we'll start with uh ECC the extracurricular annual founder. Yeah, as I shared, I think just in the
050board notes kind of leading in, it's just something to take note of and I think um many parents who, you know, starting with young children for sure, but under our uh guidance looking at the extracurricular calendar and how it becomes pretty intense um in high school, middle school is not nearly as intense. Um and we are fortunate here in Kutztown to be to have students who participate in varying different events. I mean you know from our the number of students that cross over between um arts into athletics is very very significant. So as we're getting ready to plan 26 27 already you're in January 2026 in the calendar um we do get questions I would say annually from a small number of parents about you know how time is protected for families during during the
051the 12-month calendar. Um, I will say, you know, my bias is that traditionally my answer has been, and this has been a our answer in our home, I think the same as it has been here, is when you sign up for varsity athletics or, you know, um, marching band or the play, these are kind of very significant commitments and you just plan your calendar. I mean, that's been the answer. I don't not saying that's the right answer. That's been my answer both personally and professionally. Um, again, that's my answer. So I asked Ed to prepare just as kind of a you know a visual and and conversation about what that looks like to ensure to see what our district kind of philosophy on that is from the committee standpoint. >> Dr. Myers, do you have
052the >> Yeah, I was sitting there listening like [laughter] >> I'll try to be less engaging next next. [laughter] >> Well, Dr. just getting there. I mean, just to go off what Mr. Penchin said, you know, the the the athletics and extracurricular activity calendar has definitely changed from the time that many of us have been in high school. Um, you know, as far as the commitments and the opportunities available. Um, you know, we certainly believe in the value, the commitment by our our coaches, our adviserss, our athletes, our our students, our musicians, and our families. And that it can be challenging for everybody, for all the stakeholders. Um, but I think we also have a very dedicated group of coaches and staff members that want to provide as many opportunities as possible, you know, both
053in kind of like a the dedicated traditional season and and outside of the uh that that traditional season. Okay. So, this presentation is just going to provide an overview of what kind of our activities and athletics calendar. >> Hey, RC guys. I want there. But this one will only only Relax your screen. Thank you. All right, back to the show. So, uh, this presentation is just going to outline what our athletics and extracurricular activity calendar looks like. Um, kind of have one slide, which I learned was the name of a Gant chart a few days ago. um created one for the fall fall athletics and I'm just kidding. >> Oh, okay. [laughter] And then also created one for what a yearly um athletics and extracurricular activity calendar would look like. Uh but before that, I
054have just a bit of PIAA information. um just to share uh some basic stuff as far as some of the dates that are associated with our athletic schedule and just some basic PIAA info as far as what kind of their definition is and and and guidelines um and rules for out of season activities and also inseason activities. So the first one here comes from article 12 in section two of the bylaws which deals with how many days of participation in a week uh for athletic participation during in season during the regular season. So no team or individual can practice more than six days in a calendar week. So that is Sunday through Saturday. Uh but once a team qualifies for the postseason they do allow participation in practices and games seven days a week. And
055then in article 16, section E, uh, season, inseason, out of season rules and regulations, uh, open gyms are limited to two hours a day and three days a week outside of the defined sports season during school year. And weight training and conditioning are not considered open gyms and they may be held daily as long as they're voluntary and not compulsory. So that's again directly from the PIAA bylaws. And as we look at the 2026 school year coming up, we have our starting dates on here. Currently for fall sports, um high school marching band, uh that date of August 3rd is the proposed date of when the uh the marching band camp will take place. Um the week of August 3rd, August 10th is the first PIAA date for football heat uh acclamation along with the
056first date for high school golf participation. August 17th is when all other high school fall sports may begin and also middle school football with their heat acclamation. And then August 24th is when all other middle school fall sports can begin. As we look towards the winter on November 20th, 2026 is when high school and middle school winter sports may start. They start on the same date in the winter season. And then moving to the spring, March 8th, 2027 is the first official date for high school spring sports. and March 15th, uh, just one week later, is the first official date for middle school spring sports. So, as we go to our next slide, this is just a chart just for what our fall athletics and activities will look like. We have kind of have it
057blocked out for every week in the fall starting with August and going till the end of October. So, you can see kind of where everything overlaps here between high school football, rest of the high school fall sports, fall sports, middle school football, all of our other middle school fall sports. uh our marching band, our high school activities and our high school musical. Our high school activities, they start up once uh the uh the school year begins along with the high school musical. Um they do offer uh some things our musical does earlier in the summer and at the end of the prior school year to get things ready for uh for their next upcoming show as far as auditions are concerned. Um but then they do take a break in July and August and then
058uh start everything right back up as soon as school begins with mandatory rehearsals. And then as we go into the next slide, sign >> just before you jump from there just to because it is a little blurry for those who might see you know going across the top in the blue bar those are weeks starting with August 2nd uh through August 8th and then you know so it's essentially all of August September and October broken down into week blocks um you know so you look at football has heat acclamation so there's essentially one week in August before there's mandatory activities and your other whole sports have two, right? And before middle school starts, after school, as Ed explained, you know, marching band, you'll see, is really the one that kind of gets the jump start
059on that in the first week of August. Then when you go to the next slide, kind of see it all broken out throughout the entire year going from July to June, the traditional kind of like a fiscal year model here. Um, so you have everything broken down there. Uh, high school football, high school football athletics, middle school football, middle school football athletics, our marching band, the school musical, and then our winter athletics in the high school, middle school, spring athletics in the high school and the middle school, and our high school activities. So, you can kind of see how they overlap and correlate with each other uh throughout the school year. Everything that's kind of in that turquoise color is kind of that defined regular season time slot. And if you're looking at uh marching
060band or musical or high school activities, kind of like that mandatory period. Um and then everything that's is in the gray color there, that's those are our uh outofse opportunities that are provided by our coaches and our adviserss. So, you can see with our fall athletics, there is a break once the uh once the fall season concludes and then most of our teams usually start back up um sometime after Thanksgiving before Christmas and then they just offer those opportunities throughout the rest of the school year to kids who are available to do them and then also throughout the summer. um marching band we could see August, September, October um starting with their band camp and then wrapping up at the end of the fall traditionally with the sea witch parade and then they take a
061break they kind of transition into their jazz band and concert phase of everything with what they're doing and then towards the end of the school year usually like late April and going into May they start to prepare again get everybody back together to get ready for the Memorial Day parade that they participate in every year. uh our school musical, they make their announcements and start advertising open auditions for the musical for the following school year uh in May and hold auditions in June. So, anybody that wishes to have a performing uh role in the high school musical for the next year, you know, they're required to to participate in those auditions in May and June. Um and then they kind of shut things down throughout the summer. There are some optional activities uh available throughout
062the summer. Um but then once the school year starts, they're they're right back at it and they're having their mandatory rehearsals to get ready for their show uh before Thanksgiving every year. Winter athletics, the high school and middle school, uh like I said, they start November 20th next year and then they go up until the uh second week of February for the regular season. Certainly longer once they high school begins their postseason. spring athletics first week of March and the second week of March for high school, middle school, respectively, they typically do not have a whole lot in the summertime once their season is done. You if you think of baseball and softball, most of those kids on our baseball and softball team, they're going out to their club and travel teams and they're participating
063in the Legion or all the softball travel teams that our kids are participating with. So, there's other private opportunities that they're that they're competing with throughout the summertime. Um, and then again, our high school activities, they just kind of follow that traditional school year calendar once uh school is in session. So, just wanted to be able to provide that information and kind of see you kind of a close-up view of what the fall looks like, but then kind of a 30,000 foot view of what how everything relates to to each other throughout the school year. Generally, there are no mandatory activities for June and July. the only June. Sometimes there's a little, you know, there's a little bit um if teams are very successful in the spring, there's a chance they can be playing into
064June, but it's very, you know, limited and nobody complains at that point if you're that successful. >> Um and but the auditions for speaking parts in the musical occur throughout June, right? So that's that's where um those students would have mandatory obligations in June. And it's it's a commitment you make. Um, so then we have July as a as a no mandatory events. Um, I think typically when I hear concerns, the two pieces, the main piece is how early it starts in August, you know, that it feels like uh for a high school athlete, the summer is over as soon as August turns, you know, but that's it's just the way the PI boy schedule goes. um in our marching band, you know, that essentially that the high school athletic schedule drives the marching band
065because they want to get everybody in at least once before he starts losing half of them to different sports. Um we don't have, but you get it. So, it's it's really hard. One thing I'll say is as we put this together, we know this, but I think when you put it together visually like that, the incredible dedication of um first I'll say our directors, coaches, and adviserss. The amount of time they put down is unbelievable. Um then our our students and of course, you know, our families as well because it's not uh none of this happens without parents uh taking their kids to events and being committed. So, you know, the only there's not a lot of wiggle room, right? But it's just we do get questions and I think they're valid questions when you
066as being parents who are in this and it becomes a 12-month thing. It's a valid question to say, is there any time outside of July? I don't know if there's any time to really say there's no mandatory events. Um, I've had questions in the past of like, you know, no mandatory events over the Christmas break, but the way the winter schedule goes, that's a, you know, that that can't happen. Like, it just can't. I mean, it's your winter sports couple days around the holiday, of course, but I mean, your winter sports can't take off the whole break. Can't disrupt the entire season. It's just you look at this uh this GA calendar, man, the fall fall sports have the best, don't they? They kind of have the perfect calendar. Nothing you can do about that,
067but they they really do have like from a preparation standpoint, I think they have the best. Um, winter's tough. You get back from the holiday season and it's over. So, thoughts, questions? I I just, you know, again, the district philosophy has been you sign up for varsity sports, it's high school sports and um the musical and any of the band opportunities and you sign up for it and that's that's what you want to be a part of. That's what makes it special. Um committing to protecting July, I think, is something we should always do. Um reminding our you know, reminding folks and I think our coaches and our adviserss and directors have some flexibility when people do go have later vacations. um we have to you know that but yeah it's just a lot and
068felt like it's valuable to have committee questions or thoughts just a parent [clears throat] of two you know middle schooler and high schooler I mean I I do get the family time thing but then I also look at it the the best way to get better in your sport or activity is to keep practicing. And you know, I mean, I I know some kids that they're out they are out there practicing seven days a week. >> Yeah. >> Not just here, but they go off and find other facilities or whatever to practice at. And you know, then you have some kids that would rather sit at home on a video game. >> Sure. And you know, being a small school like us, the more that we get the kids to participate and get them more
069involved, I think the better our programs will be, as evident with some of our programs. I do think too, like sometimes we um well, most of the time, a lot of families are just going to fill up any extra time with more opportunities outside school opportunity. um some of that the opportunity for students to see each other during the summer, you know, as your your athletes or whether it's the musical getting together like that. It's really really valuable some of our students to have that opportunity even if it's not mandatory just because um it's uh a lot of a lot more students than maybe we kind of think on the on the surface just outside the school year don't stay active socially and participating event allows them to do that as well. So, so we're
070going, you know, we'll stick with no changes. We just um I think I think we should I mean, do we agree we should commit to no mandatory July? >> What would be mandatory anyway July? >> What what what does PIAA would allow that? >> PIAA would not, but I mean I think there is a possibility messaging. >> Well, the messaging I mean Yeah. And that's always a that's always a challenge is to make sure that we we say things aren't mandatory to kids and families receive it that way. That's they're two different parts of communication. Um you know and then um I think there's a desire sometimes for nonPIAA activities uh music and stuff to start creeping earlier because they want to get as much time with the kids before the sports start. Um so
071I think that's really where the potential comes in. Right. And I think that's I mean I know youth football started this year last week of July and I was really annoyed by really annoyed by July football. >> Thing that annoyed me with football was that the first game is before school even starts. >> Is that because a school already started or why? >> I mean some schools had already well I guess there's t sometimes a game before any school started really right. Um that one to me is >> that's the number of games in the season I would >> get in estimate to get them in before the playoffs and stuff happen >> that way the PSA football state championships don't happen till like seven eight n like it's there's teams playing forever but it's
072only a few but about 10 years ago um it was a week later that was before they switched well they kind of got rid of the nomclature as far as week zero where there used to be two scrimmages that the high football team would do. They eliminated one scrimmage, called it week zero that teams could now play their first regular season game in that window because as far as the state championships, you had several schools who were still competing in the middle of December and that was right in the middle of or you know the first quarter of the winter athletic season. So you had several schools, you know, not who had to share their athletes between the fall and the winter sports losing out. And it's even with that with the a week earlier,
073you still see schools like Northwestern or Y missing who traditionally compete far into the football season where I'm missing is rescheduling several of their basketball games because they have half a dozen basketball players still playing on a Friday night and competing in the postseason. So origally it didn't used to be kind of like that first week of school but then it kind of got pushed up and now as far as Labor Day calendar >> go some that was it. It's on the Labor Day weekend. So it's a long weekend when school isn't even in session but you're having a football game when people are wanting to go away for Labor Day. >> That's called commitment. >> Committed. [laughter] Thank you. That's all for the comments questions and I'll move on to the uh Pisstown Area
074High School Marquee. >> Yeah. >> Good. >> Okay. Uh so about November is when we started noticing uh some issues and Mrs. Um she's the primary messenger getting stuff up onto the marquee. Um and there were some communication issues between guess the KD side of things and the marquee side of things. We had uh s signature signs. They came out did a uh inspection of it. Uh Mr. Hoffman and his crew also took a look at everything from our side of things too. was determined by both sides that it was not an issue with KD. So, kudos, Mr. Hoff, that it was an issue on the marquee side of things. Um, as far as they have it narrowed down to possibly a power supply issue or a power supply issue along with a radio that's
075tethered the marquee. Um, so they gave us two quotes for the issue. um if it is just the power supply issue, uh a quote of 1253 to fix and repair it. Um if they are able to determine that it's also the radio that's tethered to the marquee receiving the signal, uh then that quote goes up to 2398. Um so those are two quotes that we received in order to complete the repairs for the marquee. >> How will this marquee? >> Several things in this campus were undetermined. >> [laughter] >> Um, I believe it was it was during Dr. Flicker's tenure. So, so it was after Dr. Flickr arrived. So, it may have been around 2014 or 2015 that it was installed. What's the lifespan of that? Nobody knows. >> Yeah, it'll cost a lot to
076replace it. I mean, it's kind of stuck in that place. >> How much it will cost? No, we can find out. Yeah, we need a replacement. I'm sure signature would be happy. >> I'm just think because we if it winds up being a more expensive repair option and then we could have spent say another 10 grand, you know, I mean, yeah, it's another 10 grand, but where where do we start drawing the line and fixing >> technology is a lot better. >> Yeah. Years ago, >> yeah, we should know the answer. Um, you know, our our obvious inclination is to get it fixed and something that needs to be fixed. Honestly, it was timing. You know, Ed just had given us the quote going to here on Thursday. I said we should talk about this
077committee, but it's a good point where we, you know, see see if you can reach out to them tomorrow and see if they can give you a upgrade cost. Um, I suspect it's going to be 10 times as much. But, uh, that's just my guess. And at that point, we probably repair, I think. But it's five times as much I think than we have to consider. But yeah, >> okay. Be interested to know what the life expectancy of them is as well. And we're already >> end of life on it. >> Could be another We could only be halfway through it. I have no no idea. >> Yeah. Be interesting to see what different capabilities they have for them that do. >> Yeah. very much similar operating system to quickly um we'll share that information.
078I mean, I think if it looks like it's very costly to replace and that there's a reasonable expectation of another five to 10 years on it, you know, I we probably won't recommend um if we if the numbers come in in a way that we would strongly recommend we just prepare it and we'll play it out the next week. If it looks like they are, we'll share the numbers either way, but if it looks like something should be considered, we'll bring it back. Okay, >> sounds good. Now we go to facilities and the uh wide access network development plan. >> Sure thing. Thank you. >> Uh you know I appreciate the opportunity to to talk to this group. You know it's not always uh you know having to talk about the way we and um
079hope is that this will be >> there's a strong demand for facilities that Mr. Hoff waiting for that opportunity. >> More weigh in please. Yes. Uh so so I've heard your calls. Here we are. Um now you know the the first uh you know uh I want to kind of go through way what it is why am I talking to you about today and then ultimately you know timing is right because it's going to end in sort of a proposal for the board uh to to consider in committee to then to then go to the to the large group here. Uh so context matters for the WAN and also to kind of uh allow us to be all on the same page. So we're going to talk tonight about what the WAN is. Um what
080do we do now as far as the WAN? What's the overall plan and then what what's next for it? Go to the next slide. The next one after that. Perfect. Okay, cool. So uh what's the way? Uh you the ways believe there's a combination of all of the hardware, the software, the switches, the fiber, the you know um the firewall, the it's an amalgamation of all these uh prerequisites that end in us getting Wi-Fi. That's really what this is at the end of the day, right? So your wifi, your wired Ethernet connections is the end result of the WAN, but it's there's a lot of the pipeline to get it to that end to end place there, right? Um and WANs are normally over a geographical area, right? Um some school districts, you know, have
081massive school districts might have their own. Um it's not a sustainable method, you know, for for most uh you most school districts. they partner with other other uh you know groups to to provide a WAN at a regional level, right? Whether it be Burks County WAN or other counties. Uh no surprise that WANs are more important now than ever, right? We we we move to standardized testing is online. Uh you know, the curriculum, learning resources are online. Um and infrastructure, right? the the serviceification of everything we know, right? It's all accessed online. So, you know, the um there are few things that get group more frustrated understandably than spotty Wi-Fi, right? Uh and the WAN has a has a huge role to play um in in providing that. Uh you know, and also I spoken
082before, it's a great way to to to share costs. uh you know this is a very very costly endeavor uh running and operating a wham. Um you know it takes highly specialized technicians. You know fiber is glass tubes that have lasers bouncing down them. Uh you know it's it's it's far from what uh copper is. It's what's needed to deliver high-speed internet. Uh and it takes very expensive tools to operate and to cut and to splice that fiber. Right. Um so uh sharing all these costs uh is a core part of our current land infrastructure. Uh so what's so what do we have now right? I think to understand where we want to go we have to understand what we have now. This is a you know I you know apologize for my rudimentary drawing
083here. Um but you know uh we see the high school plays a very uh central role in our current WAN uh development. Um we have two internet connections coming into the high school. Um one from the BCIU which is our our current WAN provider. Uh that's that's a 4 gig connection. That's our primary connection. And then we have a secondary internet connection coming into the middle school from Pentel data that's two gigs and then that goes from the middle school and can then fail over to the high school. So we have a level of redundancy there. Um you know uh accidents happen uh sometimes literal accidents sometimes squirrel related accidents uh you know uh and um uh weighins need redundancy baked into them right sort of a a you know a a way without without
084redundancy is is um sort of asking for failure um so the way we build redundancy in today is by having two providers right uh so if a squirrel ordered to our BCIU uh fiber as it did last week. Um we can be down for a day and we can march on. Our pento data connection can can can carry us carry us through. Um and then the the high school the connection then transfers to the other buildings right to the middle school to KES and to GES. Um but it's critical to understand that um while we have redundancy in internet providers DCIU and PTO data um if the high school were to lose power uh and battery backups and generator were to fail right now we're several layers zip um the entire district internet would go
085down right um even if we had backup internet that's that's sort of the the weakness of our current brand design. Um, altogether our costs are around $70,000 a year. Uh, 40,000 goes to our internet connections. Um, and then 30,000 goes to our firewall. Firewall had, you know, firewalls have turned into firewalls of as a service, right? Where the hardware itself really isn't the expensive part of it anymore. it's the yearly licensing um that becomes incredibly expensive. Um so that's that that's what we're paying now for our for our licensing. So that's that's where we are right now. Any any questions with our with our current land configuration? Okay, cool. All right, next slide, please. Okay, uh text is small. I apologize but um you know uh because the current uh way is so high school
086centered you know I gave us an example to to think through well what does uh um um kind of a reinvisioned WAN look like um and how can we get there right so four phases I think that can can build a more robust resilient and secure WAN for us uh good news phase one's already done. Uh you guys approved um back in April last year uh the first phase of this plan um which is uh transitioning our primary WAN provider from the BCIU um which was that that 4 gig connection to IU13's WAN. Uh they have a consortium model which is different than how we purchase BCIU's internet. Um, so that's a five-year connection we started back in in uh that starts this summer, right? So, summer of 2026 is when we actually start receiving
087that service that we that you you all approved last last April. Um, a couple things to get really excited for, at least I get excited for um for um for the IU13 WAN. One of them is gaining access to internet caching. So if someone maybe in Lions has loaded a page that we want to load here at Kutztown, a web page, right? Instead of having to go all the way out to wherever that content is hosted at, you know, let's say Detroit or California, we can just go to Lions. That's a much faster hop to go to just to Lions and to go all the way out to California, right? Uh so that results in significantly increased internet speeds. Uh another really exciting thing is peer sharing. Uh this is where Microsoft, Apple, uh Google,
088you know, these huge companies have servers in what's called internet exchanges. There's like six across the nation. Those ones in Philly, right? Um this is like where the internet actually happens, right? This is like where the where where these um you have massive cables that transfer internet and distribute them all across the nation. Um IU13 has hardware sitting in internet exchanges giving us direct access reducing hops and increasing the speed. So very excited for that. Um additionally um they handle redundancy in a slightly different way. uh instead of of having redundancy in providers as in we have to have Pentto data and BCIU uh IU13 purchases their internet from multiple companies right so the whole WAN has that done um and their pricing model is is is different uh it's a membership buyin um and
089instead of having to pay for how much internet you use just get the full 10 gig pipe uh as part of that membership. So, it's a significant increase capacity and we all share the file, right? So, we we we we can cut that $30,000 cost entirely. Um so, if that sounds good, fantastic. It was already approved. Uh so, so you guys did the right thing there. Uh phase two is is kind of where we're at now. um and kind of where this conversation will go uh a little bit later on, which is a proposal of leasing 10 gigs of dark fiber. Uh dark fiber is basically fiber that we get to use on either end uh between Brand Line Middle School and our middle school. And what you this is basically building another connection between
090us and IU13 in Lancaster so that we could have you know if a squirrel were truly cable or an accident were to hit a pole uh we would have some additional pipes to to keep our traffic moving through. Um and it's it's full 10 gigs. Uh so we wouldn't even lose any capacity which is great. Uh phase three uh is then which uh phase three and four are still shaking out a lot of the details. Uh so um phase three is then uh adding uh Wi-Fi radios between buildings basically like a new version of satellite if you want to view it like that. Um that would beam Wi-Fi connectivity from the middle school. So if the high school were to have a power wall, we could continue uh connectivity. Um the downside with this plan
091or this this phase as is currently configured is because it's radios, you have to have line of sight to the original source and that means that GES is is too far for visual. So, I'm still looking for uh um to flush out that plan until I propose it. Um you know, uh we need something to to have that back to GS. And then phase four is called collocation where we would host our services, our physical services actually out of the IU13, uh our servers if you will. Um so that even if the high school were to have no power and if there was you know a fire in the building um and the middle school also had to follow them we would then still be able to maintain services coming out of IU13. So um
092you know we're the the three and four is still in development. One you've already approved two is kind of what we're here to talk about tonight. Um and uh you know at the end of that we have a decentralized high school uh network that is very resilient has several levels of redundancy built in um so that we can we can keep keep lights turned on and I guess in this case keep the lifeline going. Uh last slide then is what the actual proposal is um you know uh for this committee. So um the I you know phase two is really what we're what this is um you know I I have a map the the the um fiber does not go in a straight line. It it goes goes mostly along roads. Right. So this
093is a artist's interpretation of of what our current what the IU13 fiber connectivity would be. But lower left hand corner uh is Lancaster. Top right that's that's us and also Topton. Uh you just as I had mentioned um you know there there's um that red line between Topton and Kutztown is really what we're talking about. it would be a fiber connection between so that let's say the left line of fiber were to be cut or an ax them we could then fail over to the right side of the fiber that Brandy Wine would be using um because we we closed that connection um the first year um of the agreement would be um a little shy of $7,000 because you have to purchase hardware. We'll put the switch in Grand Wines's network closet. We'll have
094one here so the fiber can talk to each other in the subsequent years is is is you know just shy of $3,700. This is less than what we pay for Pento data today. Um and we're getting 10 gigs as opposed to two. So um as far as timing if if if you all approve this and um the the IU board would need approval full board approval by the 21st. So, uh that's that's sort of what I do on top. Uh believe this was already built into your budget for this year, correct? >> As the plan unfold. Um very technical just, you know, I think it's kind of a full understanding of where, you know, our um technology resources come from and Mr. Hoff does such a great job of sharing and explaining those. I thought
095it was valuable to have him come with committees tonight and discuss this. >> Get rid of the two gig one or no? >> Yes. >> So, it's >> boil it down. Okay. >> So, right. We're getting better service for less money. >> Yes. >> Do we get a getting an increased security with all this then because having additional portals coming into the school building? >> Yeah. So the um uh the firewall that they have is uh a higher tier than what than what than what we have right now. Uh so we we have security as sort of the traffic level. Um and then uh is that what you meant or did you mean like from like a physical security? >> Yeah, both both. >> Right. Gotcha. Yeah. So yeah, we we'll have uh I mean,
096you know, because the the perk of them being a consortium and having, you know, every school district in IU13 and several in Burks and and surrounding area, they get to they get to buy a really nice firewall, which all the features, right? So you we'll be even more protected. I I think that we're getting better service, better security system, better product overall at a way cheaper rate. I don't see a big problem there. Uh >> I'll make [clears throat] all in favor say I. >> I. Motion passes. >> Thank you, Josh. Thanks for that very entertaining. >> Yes, >> maybe you want to come next week to the full board and I mean had something with that. [laughter] >> Thank you. >> Um, next on the agenda is the uh Ed Foundation staging the future
097an update. Yeah, last week uh we had an in foundation meeting and the as you know the coinary school district education foundation um has a few projects going on. One being staging the future where their goal was to work with us and raise $80,000 to update um update some lighting and other equipment in the auditorium and very excited to find out uh last Thursday that they have met and exceeded that goal for stage one's future. So, um at the and exceeded it by I think about $10,000. Um you know, thanks to some generous donations throughout our community. Um and then a final push that got us over the line. Uh Mrs. metric had reached out to Senator Schwank's office and Senator Schwank's office was able to assist us in finding um a significant portion to
098to finish off that goal that we'll be announcing at the time once we are doing the purchase. Um so at this point now sort of the internal team because um lighting and sound can cost as much as you wanted to for lack of a better word use one quotations. um identifying the right project for us in that price range. Um you know so Dr. Myers I appreciate takes a lead on that but as you can as you imagine it includes technology and facilities and um Mr. Brett will be involved and some others within but to identify exactly what that is. But just really exciting news. Our education foundation is there's no one is better, right? They have just the best intentions of trying to help our students and our school district to continue to thrive
099in all the ways possible and u really exciting that we achieved that goal. So just uh more to come. Just wanted to share that with the committee. We will be um you know as as that that is not a direct purchase from the school district of course um because it'll be an education foundation purchase and uh so we won't be following the typical process. We'll give you updates as we go. >> Excellent. That's all on our agenda. The only other thing is, you know, we did share we had a series of we had squirrels all over the place over [laughter] the holiday and we joke about the squirrels, but we, you know, we were due for a squirrel attack and by this the WAN squirrel attack. Um, so last year we had a squirrel on
100a prior attack within like a two-month period or something that they chew on the wire. So, um, you know, if there's no questions there, we had shared kind of a basic update of some of the facilities challenges we had over the holiday that I would like to thank Richard, you know, for his time and his team and we often get are guilty of in education. We talk about when the kids and the teachers and largely when we are not in the buildings of the holiday and things are shut down but there are people here working and making sure that not only that um some routine maintenance occurs but then um you know coldest of temperatures and um clogged sore pipes out your outside making sure that the uh the facility is taken care of. Thank
101you to you and your team, Richard. >> If there's any questions, I mean, it's most fairly a separate question. Yeah, we talked about or I had to ask about landscaping last meeting, I think, and we do our own landscaping. I assume my experience was that we spend a lot of money on equipment, um, use custodians for mowing grass. I didn't know how our situation operates since I'm kind of new to the cause here. Do you have special team that does that, special equipment or how's that operate? >> So during the school year, the head custodians are responsible from their building to their parking lot and anything else is handled by our two maintenance people. So that is our we have a groundskeeper who does primarily focus on the athletic fields and our other maintenance person
102is doing the rest of it around. they work together on that. Uh that's pretty much how we've looked at several years ago. We looked into getting that uh augmented by a local vendor. Uh again, that price came in and chew up money quite a bit. Uh we haven't replaced the lawn mower in quite a few years. We're able to absorb the unit that we came from uh the admin building. So, but again, one of those is going to be due soon. But, uh, yeah, we we haven't put a lot of money. I can probably get a a figure together of what we spend, you know, on equipment. Uh, gas fuel is actually broken down by our entire department because we fuel all our vehicles uh, individually and we don't rec necessarily record if it goes
103in a truck or it goes in a lawn mower, but we do have it for our complete department. Well, I found sometimes that I was taking people who had expertise in one area and put them on a lawn mower, you know, where somebody with maybe a lesser salary could be just as efficient. So, I was just trying to get a feel for how does it be hardressed to find somebody in our district with a lesser salary than >> Well, in the summer they hired high school students. >> Okay. See, I wasn't I wasn't aware of that. >> Yeah. So >> yeah, we have we'll usually have a small team of high school students that'll help um both in custodial and on the facility side. >> One less this year. >> Yeah, probably one less. >>
104Thank you. So I appreciate that. I'm just new to this and trying to figure out, you know, how the different things operate. So appreciate that. >> Yeah. So 16, as Mr. Tim Chat said, we have a 16-year-old and above. In fact, we have a couple returning people going to college have still come back and worked with us over the summer. that really relieves the head custodians for the responsibility there. Our maintenance people still mow the lawn but around the buildings uh those students or kids help out. >> I think once it gets to the spring setting up an opportunity just come check out the facilities from that standpoint and kind of talk it through. I think would be a great opportunity. >> Yeah. Show show everything we have all the equipment all the spaces we
105have or >> Absolutely. >> Cool. Thank you. >> There's nothing else for a motion to adjourn. >> All in favor?