SV Board Meeting 1-27-2026

001To the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for which it stands. One nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. >> Attendance, please. >> Can you hear me? >> No. How about this one? Better. Okay. Mr. William Broom >> here. >> Mr. Donald Carpenter >> here. >> Mrs. Vivian Demco. >> Mr. Cedric Demar. >> Demar. >> Sorry. >> Here. >> Dr. Laurel Ericson Parsons. Mrs. Megan Lomenino. >> Present. >> Dr. Shim. >> I I know what you mean. I'm present. >> You knew I was going to get to your name and have a problem, right? Okay. >> Shame. >> Right. >> That's my first name. Yes. >> Mr. J. Santos. >> Present. >> Dr. J. Christian Tattoo. >> Here. >> Everyone's present. >> Thank you. Um, I'd just

002like to take a moment to remember Doug Puffer. He was a long-term employee at our school who has recently passed. Um I remember Doug as our school supply guy when I was um working here. He we went from being able to get our own supplies to the district was ordering them and we went down there, not down there, we messaged him to get and he was um a wonderful man and a awesome employee of Sen Valley. So, if we get a moment of silence, please. Thank you. Um, at this time, I'm going to turn the meeting over to Miss Lomanino. I have spent um the past 15 hours between yesterday and today um traveling to come home after the weather and I'm on a five hour time difference. And we just got home earlier this

003morning. So, I'm going to pass the gavl over to Megan to run the meeting for this evening. Can I get a motion to approve the agenda? A previous item is not on the agenda, but everything else stands. >> Second, Demco. >> Uh, any discussion? >> Could you could you say what is the item that is not on the agenda so that everybody knows? >> The item that is not on the agenda is the Do I just say that one? say that >> is item number five the announcement of executive session >> what not >> what >> it wouldn't be that >> that's not >> it would be I'm going to guess uh something under uh u item number three under education right as it was before uh >> is what was taken out that former

004Ian taken out. >> No, it was um approval of agreement. >> Yeah, it was a a grievance settlement that's no longer on the agenda. >> It is a grievance settlement that is not on the agenda tonight. >> Okay. So if I understand correctly, there was previously um an agenda item for a um a grievance agenda item that has been pulled. Is that accurate? >> Yes. >> Okay. Then that is the change. >> Is there any other discussion? Do you want further information on that? I don't know. [laughter] Just briefly, my understanding the board was uh notified that this item was taken off the agenda um for this evening simply because they were continuing to work on the language of this agreement >> and I thought it was important to make that announcement to the public

005because we did already have some inquiry from some members of the public about that. Um my understanding is that that item will reappear uh at our next meeting. >> Yes. >> Uh just can you hear me? They just for clarification we are not sure if it's going to come back for the next meeting. Um all right. Can I move on to all in favor? Any further discussion? All in favor? >> I. >> Any opposed? Motion approved. We met for E exec tonight with the discussion of superintendence goals and an expulsion waiver. Can I get a motion to approve the minutes of the January 13, 2026 meeting? >> Second. Demco. Any discussion? All in favor? >> I. >> Any opposed? So moved or motion approved. Sorry. Um recognition tonight is the I team that we are

006excited to have you here. >> Oh, this is the annual bait and switch that we do all the time. So our I team, I'm leaving it up to you. Go ahead. >> Hello, my name is Samantha and this is Miles. We are both in seventh grade. We are here tonight as representatives of the I team. We are here tonight to celebrate schoolboard recognition month. We have laser printed you each a coffee tumbler. We would like to thank you for all of your hard work and dedication in making the important decisions for our schools and community. Thank you so much. Thank you. It looks success. [laughter] something. But >> those are nice. >> Yeah, >> I don't think so. But they're nice. >> Yeah, >> Miss Lama, can I ask a question? >> So, you guess

007we're missing. Thank you guys. This is awesome. I'm very excited to use this and we're very proud of all the things you guys are learning and doing alongside of your group. >> May I ask a question also? >> You may ask. >> Yes. So this is um did you make the whole thing? [laughter] >> Okay. And uh how much work did it involve uh laser printing the logo? Can you tell us a little bit about how it was? So, first we have this laser printer. Um, and we just set it up by the window because it kind of has a burning smell to it and so we didn't want the entire room to smell. So, we um came up with this idea for you guys tonight. And so, we decided to laser print it since

008we this was a newer thing since we have done in the past. And so we it took a few hours and so we put it set it up and it automatically printed it and it and so we put the shield down and it took a and it was really fascinating to watch. >> So So the fact that this is not flat, did it make it more difficult? >> Yeah, it made it a little bit more difficult but not really. >> So this the the panther head. Do you know who designed this? >> There's a person who is uh here in this uh room who uh may uh want to get some uh credit for that [laughter] >> or maybe you wanted to get his permission. >> I mean, do you know who who do you

009know who made this? >> No. >> He said Mr. Fry who is sitting back there. >> Thank you, Samantha. Thank you. Thank you very much. >> Um, >> yeah. Oh, yeah. You're calling all of us. [laughter] >> Oh, yeah. >> All right. Um, thank you for that. I team and there is no presentation tonight. With that, we will have the ice high school SGA representatives report from Kristen Lucier. >> Hi. Hello. Who's on? gonna give just a minute while they Thank you. >> Hello. On Thursday, January 22nd, Scholastic Scrimmage officers participated in the first Keystone competition at Colonial IU 20. After a Keystone keynote address from Pennsylvania Secretary of Education, Dr. Carrie Row, teams were tasked with designing a change to improve Pennsylvania schools. They were given 15 minutes to brainstorm and two hours to

010create a model and presentation. Is this one? This one's on. They're getting back. >> Okay, it's back on. Okay, perfect. >> Okay. Recalling all the time they spent waiting at the bus stop. Alex Morowski, Stefan Gazuzian, and Ryan Pacad utilized the engineering design process to identify and creatively solve the problem. They created busgo, a tracker and app that enables parents and students to see the bus location through a secure safe interface. The Sen Valley team won first place for creating an innovative solution to a real world challenge. Registration for spring sports is now open and sports have started preseason open gyms and practices to get ready for the spring season. Yearbook is currently in the final process of picking a cover for this year and books are now on sale at yearbookorderscenter.com. Senior Virginia Krauss

011was named Gatorade Pennsylvania Girls Cross Country Player of the Year again. And junior Ryan Paxad and senior Brandon Chaffer were are advancing to region choir. Student government is currently in the process of planning our annual matchimatics where students fill out a survey and on Valentine's Day they get a print out with all their perfect matches in the school and even their worst matches. Sen Valley High School wrestling team took a victory over Northwestern on January 14th claiming the league title. The girls soccer team senior Tasha Makuda and senior Elliot Polyare were named on the Lehigh Valley Live all areas soccer team first team. Club photo day for all clubs in the high school is currently scheduled on February 5th where students that partake in any school clubs can be recognized in the yearbook along with

012senior superlative photos being taken on this day. Sock prom is coming up in May, but it's never too early to start thinking about dresses to wear. An Instagram account has been made for any people going to prom this year that want to send their dresses to be posted so that other students can see dresses people already bought and limit duplicate dresses at prom this year. Thank you. >> Thank you. Any questions? >> I have a comment. >> Yes. >> Um I just want to say congratulations to our students. Um it seems like often um our the students in in cross country um do really well, you know, in um academically also. And um it's it's interesting. Um, but I'm just so impressed with our students are doing incredible things and thank you for your great

013report. >> Yeah, thank you. >> Yeah, >> just no nothing. >> No, no, no question but stay. >> Yeah, I mean I want to ask a question about snow day. So >> any other questions? [laughter] >> I'd just like to comment. I I really um want to give props to the you know who I I assume to be a science team for coming up with a brilliant idea such as a bus tracker you know allowing effectively parents to know where their children are. It increases safety across the district and gosh if we had something like that I think a lot of parents would really appreciate us for that. So kudos to to the team for for winning that contest. >> They're very smart people. like I sit down on like the Scholastic Scrimmage meetings and

014I just it makes me feel very not smart. >> You're very smart. >> Thank you. [laughter] >> And we appreciate your time tonight as well. >> Thank you. Any other questions or comments? Perfect. Thank you. >> Thank you. >> All right. With that, we have the superintendence report. >> Thank you. I'm just going to take an opportunity to speak on some of the agenda items that you see this evening. Um, we're excited to be recommending the approval of our competitive cheerleading participation in the national championship. So, we wish them the best of luck. Our vocal director for our high school musical had to unexpectedly step down to personal reasons. So, this evening, you will be or we will be recommending the approval for the new vocal director, Rebecca Piper, who has graciously stepped in. We're

015also recommending approval of a substitute secretary for our district to assist us when we need some extra hands in our building offices, especially since one of our secretaries, Mrs. welcomed a baby boy last week. So, congrats to the Anger family and welcome baby Oliver. We're also recommending approval of her leave until August on tonight's agenda. Um, lastly, and with great sadness, we're also recommending the approval of Mrs. Marcilio's resignation as our fifth grade language arts teacher, her students, colleagues, and the Sen administration is sad to see her go as she takes on her new role in her home district. So, we're supportive of this move because we know that she's wanted this for quite some time, but we'll be uh she'll be greatly missed by all of us. Some news across our district. We continue

016to focus on strengthening our professional learning to ensure that it's purposeful, data informed, and aligned to district priorities to support this work. We're developing staff surveys tied both to individual professional development sessions and to professional learning across the district as a whole. These tools will guide future planning and help us ensure our time and resources are used effectively. Curriculum alignment remains our top priority as Dr. Tanora and Dr. Casy um as they continue to collaborate with our teachers and administrators to strengthen their vertical alignment across grade levels and buildings including exploring additional collaborative structures to better align curriculum expectations and instructional practices. I've also been working with our music world language department, family consumer science and business departments. Dr. Dr. Tor will be bringing some of these updates to the next AM meeting. So, please

017attend. Um, recruitment remains a key focus as we work to attract the boldest and brightest educators as professionals. So, as part of this effort, I'm excited to say that the district will be represented at the Lehigh College of Education job fair to engage with prospective candidates and promote Sen Valley as a destination district. Our human resource generalist and communication specialists have been working behind the scenes to create promotional material and showcase all the Sen Valley has to offer. Several advisory and partnership committees are nearing launch. We've sent out notifications to the teachers, parents, staff, and students selected to serve and nearly all of them have confirmed their participation. So, we're now identifying meeting dates and times to look forward to beginning this work. From our communication standpoint, our communication specialist has been working with mathematics,

018reading counselors, and other critical departments to develop a series of parent engagement videos. These videos are varying in length and will serve as a centralized resource hub to Sen Valley families that will include guidance on host of topics such as school lunch accounts, parent square, supporting learning at home and addressing areas such as student anxiety. And finally, I would be remiss and I know we will talk about it soon if I did not thank our custodial and maintenance teams for their exceptional work in reopening our campus. Their efforts ensured facilities were ready for the Matilda Junior production and again this past weekend. their commitment remains critical to the successful operation of our school. So, thank you to Mr. Degan and his crew. And that ends my report for this evening. >> Thank you. Any questions

019on that? >> Yeah. So, uh thank you very much, M Miss Velocity. So, I I I I wanted to uh bring up uh two things. One is uh uh the middle school uh play which uh was done I think uh two week weekends ago. Uh it was fantastic. Matilda Jr. uh I I came with my family on uh I don't know Saturday and then all of them wanted to come back on Sunday also. So uh uh lots of talents uh on uh on the stage and uh uh just wanted to acknowledge uh uh all of that and uh uh ask that uh we please have a plan so that this would uh continue as these kids get uh a little older and they are in the high school. I want to make sure that we

020uh nurture uh their their talent and uh we uh make sure that they uh remain as active in uh uh musicals and in theater. it's uh such an important uh uh activity for them for them to have and uh and I say that sort of like uh noting that that hasn't been necessarily sort of like always the way that uh these continue uh you know from elementary school to the middle school to the high school we see a uh drop in a sense uh for the uh enthusiasm of the kids and their families um for uh for for the musical and uh you know sometimes it feels like there's no uh direction you know and uh you know things are sort of like happening without coordination. And I just wanted to sort of like bring

021that up to your attention uh with uh acknowledgement for all of the great work that uh these kids and their directors did uh uh uh just a little over a week ago. And you just mentioned that uh I think the director just uh uh uh had a kid uh maybe like a day or two after the last last show and she was there and she was uh directing them. So there is no lack of dedication in the in the staff. The second question that uh uh I I wanted to bring up and ask you was about uh uh the snow days. So uh >> go back to talking about Matilda. >> What's that? Yeah. [laughter] >> No, this is more about Frozen to the other uh musical. So why can't we uh close the school

022every time there is u uh some uh precipitation? uh you know it's uh kind of like um uh you know safer right I mean everybody can stay home and uh you know uh nobody has to uh uh drive through any ice or any icy situation and and all of that so uh what are the things that you are considering in that uh decision and uh what are the consequences of uh that scenario that I mentioned that you know every time that you see uh anything coming from the skies let's have the school closed because that is definitely, you know, a way that I know a lot of people in this community sort of like prefer it to be, right? Uh so anyway, pass it to you. >> We could do that. Uh so weather is

023extremely disruptive and inconvenient for all of us. Um my main priority is to open up the buildings and the campus as safely as we possibly can for all of our families and our students. So there are a few things that we consider. Well, there's a lot that we consider, but first we a group of us are usually always on the phone talking about is it possible to open up campus? Is campus cleared? Are buildings open? Do we have heat? Do we have water? Can we serve food? Um then we look at transportation and see if we can get our buses out. Are they going to be able to be cleared in time? What does warming up the buses look like in the morning? Do they need to be done before? What do temperatures look like?

024If we know that we can meet all those conditions uh here on campus, we then look to township and burough officials uh and enforcement, law enforcement to let us know how the roads are. We know that the roads are not going to be perfect for every single family. If we can get the majority of the families in and our students in, that's what we do. So, um, we know there's imperfect conditions, but our goal is to make sure that the buildings are open and allow that opportunity to be for our families to make the calls that are best for their households. So, if they don't feel like it is safe for their teenagers to drive, they can keep their teenagers home or they can come up with a different way to get them and transport

025them the buses or they can drive them. Um, if they don't feel like our campus should be open and it's not safe for their kids to be on campus, they can also make that decision as a family. Um, we could close campus every single time the snow comes from the sky. However, that would mean that we are also dealing with cutting vacations short, taking away vacation days or adding days onto the end of the year, which also affects graduation and affects how long our staff and students are in the building, which may cut into family vacations. So there's always a give and take and we try to make the safest decision possible and we know it's going to be imperfect for some. Um but we want the opportunity there for our families to make those

026decisions for themselves. >> Thank you very much. Just to your point, I I was talking with a uh with a senior uh uh today and uh they were very upset about uh today being a being a school day and uh >> I've heard from some of them >> and I uh or by email as well. I I I told them that uh I told them that on the agenda and they knew that that there is the the graduation date is uh June 5th and uh and I said you know you have two more days you will have to uh postpone the graduation to another time and as soon as they heard that they're like no no no we're going to go to school [laughter] let's forget about everything that I said so so people have

027to kind of like know that uh that this has a uh you know an unintended consequence on the other side of it if uh uh uh if the school is uh closed more than the number of days that we have built in in the uh in the calendar either uh uh I think what's what's the other holiday that we have either uh the uh >> spring or spring break >> spring break will uh need to be cut shorter or graduation needs to be postponed neither of them are uh good options for families but thank you >> y >> uh at this time we have courtesy of the Florida visitors on agenda items Seeing that there is nobody, we will move along. Do can I get a motion to for the presentation of bills? >> Any

028discussion? >> I I have a few questions. Uh so uh and these are mainly for uh Mr. Bonnenburgger. And this is I was looking at uh at this one and it's a um it's a big one. We have u uh about uh $1.1 million of uh expenditure uh this u this this board meeting. Not that it's uh unusual, but uh I I figured I ask and maybe Mr. Bonbury can uh uh tell us a little bit about, you know, some of these. So uh uh one of them is uh Kelly Services, Inc. Uh there's a $36,000 almost uh charge there on 128. Uh can you can you tell us what that is? >> Kelly services is we get uh physical therapy from them, occupational therapy. Um there's also u psychology services uh through them. there's

029um there's a a behavioral specialist uh that is through Kelly services. So these are all for one student or for multiple students for multiple students. >> Okay. And uh the the other quick question I have is about uh the two charges that we have for the utilities. One is uh the PPL and the other one is for UGI for electric and for uh natural gas. uh $46,000 for uh electric and 14,000 is for natural gas. This the these are um for one month or what's the what's the period uh that they're for one month. >> Okay. Thank you. >> All in favor? >> I >> opposed. Motion approved. Can I get a motion to approve the presentation of bills? Then >> treasur's report. >> It's just written twice. >> Um the recommendation. Can I get

030a motion to approve the treasurer's report? >> Second. Carpenter. >> Any discussion? All in favor? >> I >> opposed. So moved. Motion approved. Uh okay. Can I get a motion? Do I do the motion to approve? >> You don't need a motion. >> No, you just invite him. >> You don't need a motion. Just >> just so then I invite Dr. Tenor to come up and do his presentation, >> his presentation tonight on elementary assessment and keyboards. The presentation is that we are not going to use the keyboards for stuff in the elementary school. Right. [laughter] >> Good evening members of the board. How are we doing? And also our committee members. Thank you for coming. Yeah. So my presentation today is going to be just kind of uh keyboard piloting overview for the uh

031elementary third and fourth grade. Before we start, I do want to give a special shout out to, you know, working with the elementary team, Mrs. Braxmeer and Mr. Halisc and their leadership as well as their team, you know, working together on this is uh can't find a bunch of dedicated individuals who are passionate about what they do. So we appreciate that. So thank you. So right now kind of the purpose and rationale of our keyboarding uh pilot what what we want to do is implement and examine students foundational typing skills and why we want to better assess also prepare students for our standardized assessment particularly the PSSA's writing prompts for many of of you who know um PTE the state of Pennsylvania kind of pivoted a little bit and went from the traditional pencil and

032paper to uh prompts that are digital. So kind of this pilot we're looking also to long-term digital literacy. We want to promote efficiency uh fluency and also student confidence in various forms of written communication uh across digital platforms. So the barrier one of the barriers that we identified in regards to students uh transitioning from your traditional pencil and paper um is we're looking at kind of visual and navigational setups with the iPads right now. So we look at young students in third and fourth grade asking to conduct writing prompts uh with this mechanism this iPad and kind of creates kind of barriers for younger learners in regards to transitioning between a writing task as well as keyboard use as well too. So we had a conversation in regards to the involvement of collaboration uh again

033led by myself overseeing it but also to working with the building principles Mrs. Braxmeer Mr. Halisac also uh Mr. Hansen, Mike Hansen, and two teachers, Erin Riyak, and also Paige Histand and even Joanna Leini. Looking at the discussion and vision of what we want our younger learners to be uh what kind of skills do we want acquired uh when we're power lending and looking at what is again what are the barriers and what can we do to help ensure that our students are well equipped when we're transitioning for state assessments that they have the skills they need to be successful. So got a pilot was a a two-eek pilot. It was again designed to identify students typing fluency where they are looking at the skill repertoire they currently have right now tr in four different

034classrooms uh one third grade and three fourth grade classrooms at all ability. So the ex the software was uh the the hardware rather was the external keyboards. So piloting the keyboards that we had in store, using them, uh, connecting them to the iPads to see and identifying the fluency as well. We did have a software that we just tried out. It's called Typing.com. It's an application. Um, it's kind of a textual prompt that individuals can see, the students can identify um, during library workday and as well as the classroom just to identify if there's going to be certain patterns or certain letters on a keyboard, they're able to model it on a textual prompt as well. So the classroom and student participation uh Mrs. Histan is she teaches uh one section third and fourth integrating

035the keyboarding into daily practices. Uh we're looking at shortterm writing passages and use of punctuation keys. Uh positive results occurred and also for Mrs. Ruyak looking at for the for the fourth graders students to require for additional time to relocate keys as well too. So kind of the instructional approach when we setting this up um so the teachers are looking to integrate uh the keyboarding into your daily schedule. So we're looking at hey how can we utilize this opportunity to help support and assess the students skill repertoire over time. So looking at the integration of morning meeting approximately 15 minutes a day. Uh the teachers were allotted that time to focus on building fluency when typing also to typing Tuesday as they call using intervention time and enrichment time to analyze and again work on

036these skills and also to embedded frightening responses aligned to classroom writing prompts. So for at the ele elementary level there's uh arts and letters which is the kind of the new implemented curriculum uh that's being implemented and looking at ingratiating and embedding writing prompts and passages within the current practice to get the students more familiar with typing with digital skills. So kind of the feedback in regards to student engagement. Um third grade and fourth grade responded positively um when conversing. Um the teachers in interviewing and having conversation and dialogue um demonstrate high levels of engagement and motivation. The third grade the students were not as fluent as the fourth grade as the fourth graders. However, there still motivation of high was highly engaged. Um very sparely if not there was any reluctancy to complete any

037kind of typing activities. again transitioning from hunt and peck which is one finger uh when typing on a screen compared to teaching the students digital typing skills that they're going to need particularly at the younger level and also the fourth grade students were progressing a developmental appropriate pace benefiting from continued practice. So we identified that again teacher feedback in conversation with the team reported positive experiences with implementation noting that there's been an increase in interest confidence in keyboarding uh skills. So, in regards to that, right now in in [snorts] order to uh preparing our students for um the writing the PSA's writing prompt, looking at purchasing 300 keyboards this year, providing our third grade students as well as our fourth grade students in preparation for the writing prompts uh for the PSSAs. um proposed timeline

038expansion we were looking at to for the district to focus on building again keyboard capacity and fluency through um procurement of keyboard devices this year for our third and fourth grade students. Uh we want to make sure that we uh remove any kind of uh mechanical barriers for our students to ensure that they have the skill repertoire to ensure that when it's time for the writing prompt it doesn't impact our scores as well too. uh PSSAs looking at probably 25% of the scoring is predicated on the writing prompt. So we want to make sure again we analyze and we make sure that the students are well prepared and look at again full integration to classroom for instructional practice as well kind of measuring for ongoing evaluation success again you know within implementation we want to

039make sure that we're not just implementing just implement monitor progress success what does success look like the effectiveness and evaluating through the performance again we want to make sure that we are seeing the students continue to build fluency uh and to not to restrict students ability to write with these writing prompts and minimize the opportunities for them uh to write thorough passages and also to continue monitoring the keyboard fluency and instructional integration as we continue to go through. So [sighs] so that's that's the update for now and then go from there. So I'll leave it up for any questions. M director Brun. >> Yes, thank you very much. Um >> I appreciate that. I um I wanted to ask you what the relationship is between, as you say it, um between keyboarding and helping students

040with keyboarding and um handwriting. In other words, like what is this going to supplant penmanship and handwriting? Um there's evidence that learning how to write letters in with a pen or with, you know, a pencil teaches the, you know, the fundamentals of of how words are formed. And um and so I just wanted to ask you about that a little bit or can you give me some reassurance? >> Absolutely. Well well thank you for your question. I really appreciate and that's a very honest you know question and assessment in regards to that concern. Absolutely not. The foundational uh skills and component for um early learning or early childhood is continuously writing is very important and we value writing. Uh this is not to take the place of writing. This is just another opportunity and a

041tool to enhance student written communication. Um yes at the elementary level and all levels um handwriting is a big uh uh factor in what we do and also a very important aspect of of literacy. However, the state is moving towards a digital platform for prompting. So we want to make sure that we provide and remove any kind of artificial mechanical barriers since it's not writing for typing increasing that skill. However, it is not to replace the foundational skills of writing, how to write, letter formation, um, and print is still a value even within our arts and letters curriculum that continuously parse out time for handwriting. This is just another avenue to prep them for the assessment. But that's a great question. Thank you for asking. But it's not to replace it at all. >> Thank

042you very much. >> Absolutely. >> Uh, director Pakad, >> you're defer. Okay. No, just so I just wanted to so I can understand. So the we elected to do the digital PSSAs one year before it was mandated. Is that correct? That's right. And so that we already did that the first year. And so last year when the students took it, they had to touch the screen to type their prompts. Then >> peek. >> Yeah. Yeah. Okay. Yeah. They had to they had to touch the screen. I just want to make sure I understood what happened last year. Yeah. >> Yeah. >> Director Demar. >> Yeah. Um just curious um I I don't have any experience with kids in the elementary at the elementary level uh using using an iPad but my girls use their iPad

043a lot in higher grades. >> Yeah. >> Um they were very fluent and quick with using the onscreen keyboard. Is that is that not workable for like the PSSAs and that sort of thing? >> Well, I don't want to say it's not >> tradeoff. It's not not that it's not workable. But again, if you look at the iPad and kind of the the setup, the navigational setup, it's a little bit more complex in regards to typing for someone who students in the middle school or high school who may be more fluent with their murk muscles and the type. For younger learners transitioning from handwriting to typing passages, we just wanted to make sure that we kind of analyze and assess, you know, is this something we can do to kind of build that kind of

044written communication skills with more fluency. Are you thinking that the students will um continue to have keyboards as they rise to the higher grades or was this just a kind of a way of getting them going at the beginning? Yeah, I I think right now to just you know to look at projecting long terms kind of analyzing where we are with our written response uh within the assessment and find out you know is what is the impact and to ensure that um is the written uh using the keyboarding is an effective tool to enhance you know writing passages or not. So again, this was just pilot to examine, you know, where can we go longterm for the district as well too. But for right now, the third and fourth grade, you know, make sure that

045we give them the opportunity to remove again any kind of artificial mechanical barriers uh the way kind of is set up. >> Great. Thank you. >> Thank you. >> I think we have the question first. >> Who who had it? >> Yeah. Yeah. I I just temporarily >> Yes, Dr. >> So just thank you very much Dr. Tor where where did this uh sort of like suggestion come from? Is it a uh is it the U initiative or is it uh something that came from uh and I know that everybody agrees with it at this point but uh I mean I'm just trying to sort of like you know figure out you know uh where was the problem identified that now this is a solution to it. Well, in regards collaborating with our team, with

046our uh elementary team, in regards to identifying what are the barriers um to continuously move the district progressing in the right way we want to go to for our school. So projecting in regards to the barriers, collaborating with the elementary uh team, looking at what are the barriers, coming up with a pilot to identify rather than just loosely just saying we're going to go through this, identifying the projected barriers and collaborating together to make this determination. So, so I I have I'm not sold about this. So, let me just first uh you know share with you sort of like where I'm uh coming from. Uh there are uh at least two uh sort of like concerns that I have. One is the cost of it. I think this is 300 uh keyboards. Uh and I

047don't know how many how much each of them is, but it's you know I don't know $50 to $100 I'm assuming. Uh >> 20. >> What's that? >> I believe is No, I think that's 20 >> 20 bucks. Yeah. >> Okay. So, uh, uh, this is Apple. >> Are the keyboards Apple keyboards? No, they're not Apple, uh, keyboards. >> Okay. They're like off-brand. >> Yeah. >> Well, Apple, yes, it wouldn't be something with Apple. >> You can This is like the Apple guy doesn't even uh, you know, respond to your hello with $20. That's what I'm saying. Just like >> So, uh, yeah. So, this is like it's a quality that goes uh goes down. And that's sort of like the cost is like one uh one thing that I'm uh worried about especially since

048we just uh had a uh finance committee meeting and uh the numbers that we were seeing there were uh really not good and I guess we're going to get to that um in a minute when the gun >> Mr. Bonenburgger talks about budget >> but uh the the more important part of it is that uh you know you buy 300 uh uh keyboards for two grades. This is uh each of our third and fourth grade. they're roughly 150 uh kids which means that for you know it's a one-on-one right >> um they're going to use it right uh and uh there is an advantage which is what you mentioned which is that uh they can do potentially a little better uh in the uh PSSA exams but then there is a cost and the cost

049is that uh their penmanship which is already like really not good it's going to get worse and uh there is no way that I can be convinced otherwise because I have experienced it myself. I've seen it with my kids with other kids that uh you know for two years uh in the elementary school you say you know you don't have to uh use your uh pen and pencil and paper it's just going to uh have a lasting impact on uh the quality of their writing and uh and that's that's maybe fine you know for uh some kids who have a problem navigating through the uh the on screen but uh what we are really doing is that hundreds of kids they don't have a problem, we basically take the pen and pencil uh away from

050them. We put them in front of another sort of like uh uh screen and for for a longer amount of time and uh it has it has a cost for them that I'm not sure if they are benefiting from that. So uh I just I just don't like that this direction of having uh more screen and more screen time. uh this is uh this is just exacerbate think that that that problem from uh from my perspective. >> Can I ask a question? >> Yeah. Oh yeah yeah yeah. >> Thank thank you for sharing your >> wants to explain me. That's okay. >> Go ahead. Go ahead. >> Would the just following up on that one when you answer Dr. uh Pax, what is is the usage of the keyboard going to replace all of the

051handwriting stuff we do? I mean, I know that we approved curriculum. We we focused on workbooks that are consumable that are that are used with pens and I know that there was an effort to do it, but that also um they're going to type these prompts no matter what, right? So um so like what's the ratio like how are we using this in terms of um what's going to convert over and what's not. >> Yeah. And again thank you for sharing your concerns. All again all valid concerns but let me rest assure this is not designed to replace handwriting. Um this is just again another avenue for students to enhance written communication which is keyboarding. So this is not to supplant replace um handwriting. Uh again, part of our curriculum in regards to arts and

052letters has a writing feature and component to it that the students adhere to daily. Um again, the state of Pennsylvania decided to go move away from the traditional paper and pencil. So, we need to prepare our students as best we can for the written responses that are going to be digital. So, again, I want to make sure I'm clear on this. This is not intended to replace your traditional paper and pencil. Again, this is just aotting time in a small portion of your day to expose students for various written communication skills to acquire over time to prepare them for a state assessment. So, so what this is like my question is during the time that they're doing this now, >> would they be sitting in front of the screen and uh typing on the screen

053like the the the what's it the digital keyboard that is there or would they be doing something else? >> No, they'll be working on >> prompts in the digital keyboard as well too. So if there's going to be an opportunity for written prompts with the teacher, obviously you got your handwriting, but also to practicing and and conditioning students to really acquire the skills so when it's time for the PSSAs, they'll have the skills to go and type. >> Isn't it better since for the rest of their lives they're going to be dealing with these things which don't have a uh you know physical external keyboard for them to spend that time practicing uh the onscreen keyboard as opposed to a uh an additional keyboard? I'm just trying to show like this because >> I I

054I suspect that time is really the time that they would be spending on on something else with paper and pen and now they are going to sort of like go on uh on on on keyboard because now they have to sort of like navigate through yet another uh thing and by the way I I say that and I Mr. Deathmar mentioned this. This is uh older kids uh they have all graduated from they they use the onscreen keyboard uh very effectively very efficiently and uh uh that's how they're going to sort of like use these devices for the rest of their lives. There are very few people who are uh uh you know still having keyboard in that age group. >> Yeah. So for the PSSAs then they can either choose to use um the

055digital onscreen keyboard or the external keyboard or are we requiring everyone to do the external keyboard? >> Well again we're not requiring it but we just wanted to ensure that if you analyze the way the keyboard is set up the structure to navigate for the younger learners is a little more complicated than the older learners. That's right. >> Like one comment um to Dr. ads keyboards going obsolete. Um >> some of us are not uh in professions that are at the top of the technology chain and we use keyboards 247 and that's all we use and we you know a lot of places don't have the buttons to buy iPads for every single person. I use a keyboard. I can't even tell you how many hours out of the day. And I don't think that's

056going away completely in the next 20 plus years. Maybe like 30 years, but I think for these kids, some a lot of them are still going to have to use a keyboard when they get out in the world. >> I'm I'm I'm not disagreeing with you on uh on on on that setup that you're talking about. I I go to my office and I sit down and there is a computer with keyboard and so forth. But uh this is uh I my point is that first of all you know my generation and yours versus they are different uh and uh you know that a lot of doctors they don't even type anything anymore right they just dictate right so uh that's uh that these are sort of like some of the directions that uh these

057trends are going it's not just you know obviously in the medical field a lot of other places also but uh again my my concern is that at the time that they can develop this motor skill that is very important for them for the rest of their lives. We are reducing the amount of practice that they have with a uh paper and pen and uh we are replacing it with uh you know additional uh screen time and I think that's just that's just sort of and then two months later or you know a year later we are going to sort of like come back and say hey you know what uh why are the kids so much on screen because of tonight right like this >> may I again clarify um whether the keyboard or whether

058it's going to be typing hunt and peck with the screen, it's still going to be screen time. It's not going to be So, I want to make sure I'm clear that the keyboard is not replacing paper and pencil. Um, if anything, it's going to replace your traditional hunt and peck with your finger for the early learners. So, just want to make sure I clarify that. >> Director Santos has been waiting patiently. >> Thank you. Um, personally, I like this initiative. Uh, and I I'll say why. There is a a real difference between the intrusiveness of the virtual keyboard taking up a portion of your screen and not being able to see the prompts that you have to answer within, you know, let's say the PSAs or whatever other exam or test that you're taking. and

059having a keyboard where you can continue to see the prompt and continue to uh effectively think on it just it be able to deliver the answer that you have. So I think that separating the keyboard and providing this hardware for our students is a good idea. Um especially so that they're not touching the screen and you know further causing potentially more damage to the actual more expensive item which is the iPad or you know whatever we're using. So personally I think I like the separation of the the keyboard to a more physical environment. Um, you know, as we were discussing, I I'm sitting in front of a computer all day and I'm not looking at my keyboard. I'm staring at a screen or two screens while I'm working and doing my work there. So, I

060I think that this is, you know, good practice for the future. Um, you know, I'm not necessarily using my cell phone or other devices to communicate through emails or to, uh, create drafts of different proposals that I might be working on. I'm I'm sitting in front of the keyboard. So, I I think it's good practice. Uh I do share u the the same hesitancy, if you will, that other board members have whereby students nowadays, they can't even read cursive because we're not practicing handwriting enough. So, I I do share that. But I I appreciate that there this isn't a replacement for it's an addition to effectively to their competency in being able to again justestate information from a screen and being able to use the physical hardware rather than tapping on the device and doing

061the whole hunting and pecking. And one last thing that I'll add is can we how will we get the results of you know let's say improvement with PSSA scores due to this initiative um and can we gamify this for the kids and make it easier for them. >> Yeah. And thank you for that. Yeah. And that's going to come over time uh you know with data collection and also to seeing you know the fluency and looking at um aspects of the score to see how we're doing with the writing prompts as well too because again approximately 20 to 25% of the score is going to be contingent upon the writing prompt for ELA. So I'll continue to look at that and analyzing and seeing we can build fluency. And to your point, when we're looking

062at writing, um we want to provide our students with the most opportunity to um fill out the prompts as much as we can. We we don't want to reduce that. So having that opportunity potentially um can allow for more fluency when we're writing kind of thorough prompts at at the respective third and fourth grade level as well. So So thank you for that. >> Yeah. One one last comment and apologies team. uh me me personally when I want to learn something uh I don't read it and then type it out. >> I read it and then write it out because the act of writing reinforces that learning. So again I just want to emphasize that the writing portion of it is incredibly important and we don't want to go away from it. We just want

063to add this new skill with new hardware to the students development. >> Yes. Thank you. >> Uh doc director Brun, did you have anything you want to add or you're all set? Uh, I think other people have kind of made the same point, but thank you. >> I I just have one last question. It's a little bit tongue and cheek, but a little serious, too. >> Um, will will our uh third and fourth graders have access to chat GPT on their iPads? and and will assignments now graded assignments uh be uh entered in through the keyboard so that they'll have the opportunity to do what our older kids do now which is cheat on their assignments [laughter] uh at this point? No. Okay. Yeah, we're Yeah, that's not even for for the elementary for the

064AI um portion. We're not even >> So, there's no access to any AI on their iPads >> at this point in time? No. >> Okay. They can't. No. >> Well, I can't say for sure if it's going to be 100% pure access right now. Um, but at this point in time, >> well, make sure. >> Oh, yeah. You know, sure. We'll definitely >> No, no, no browser access. >> No, no, no, no. We'll make sure we're on top of that. Mrs. Brax and her team are on top of that. >> Great. We have director uh Demco wanted something and then director Carpenter. >> Yes. Um, so do you think the amount of time you're donate uh dedicating to this is going to actually teach typing skills? That seems it seems short. I'm also concerned with

065taking IE time. Uh, that is, you know, typing Tuesdays for intervention time is is not what I would go to. Um, quite frankly. >> Yeah. Yeah. And again, thank you for your concerns. Um, is it going to build the the most fluency? No. It's not like our day where we had typing class. >> So, you're not having a typing class? No, we're not typing class. No, we're trying to uh integrate and embed and kind of ingratiate uh time within um our instructional time because this is considered instructional as well too using the keyboard. Not passive screen time, but instructional time as well too. So, >> what's going to be the difference between hunting and pecking and writing a passage? I mean, because I can't imagine I don't know where the home keys are. I don't

066know the reaches and those kind of thing and all of a sudden I'm going to be writing a passage. It it doesn't seem it's gonna be a hunting pack, right? >> Yeah. However, again, looking at that um the application that I alluded to earlier, typing.com that has a feature where you have the keyboard there and students are able to practice that. Again, it's just it's just a trial we're using to see um can it build fluency for the students as well. So allowing the students to, you know, hand placement, being able to type properly, teaching those uh skills now and kind of exposing to them at at um now at this age and also trying to ingratiate and embed it as well uh within the day uh 10 15 minutes a day for that exposure

067as well as a library class um can allow to enhance the skills. Again, we don't have traditional like the the the 45minute classes you had back in the day. whoever exposing them to that as much as we can to help uh to build that fluency for them uh for the PS exam. >> Yes. >> Uh yeah. No. So, um you know, I'm I'm fully um I'm fully aware that we all have our own internal biases here, but I I every time someone tells me that they know a young adult that is better at virtual screen typing than physical typing, I feel like I'm being gaslit because I've never actually seen it in person. I accept that maybe it exists, but I've watched students do it and it's never pretty in my mind. And uh uh

068I think that exposing them to a keyboard is is just a positive benefit. If there's a kid that's super good at the on-screen keyboard and they want to take their PSSC that way, great. But if not, you know, there's so many other aspects of life where there's studies about like tactile touch and how it like fires different things and memory and that that you just don't get any of it when you have a flat screen. And I although I don't have any specific data about this specifically like all my priors lead me to believe that like this is probably a positive thing for them to experience. Uh so yeah >> any other comments before we thank Dr. Tenor for his time? >> I I I I do have one more. So uh this is to

069this is I'm saying this to uh to Mr. Santos or in uh in response or in reflection to what you said and also to what uh Miss Ms Demco mentioned uh there is no uh addition it's always replacement kids are here for a certain number of uh hours and minutes so uh anything that you introduce in there something goes out from the other side so this is like let's just like not you know think about this as a uh you know as a system where you know you just basically you know add stuff on top of what is it this is like any skill that they learn there is a skill that they are uh not going to be practicing and they're not going to be mastering on it and uh this is what Dr.

070you know mentioned here uh the the the uh the the choices are all bad choices. It's either uh the IE time that is going to be replaced with this or it's going to be the other word that uh you used was instructional time which is even worse right so this I don't want the kids to uh you know spend their instructional time you know learning how to use a uh a physical keyboard that's uh and I'm not gaslighting the reality of it is that for the rest of their lives very rarely they are going to be using that and uh that's the that's that's sort of like the observations that uh you know a lot of people have um you know with uh these kids that are a little older uh uh I I know

071families who have purchased the keyboard for their kids at their own expense and the kids don't use them, right? They just basically leave them uh there because it's just much uh easier, much uh uh lighter uh for them to uh move them. But anyway, I I I just want to say thank you very much uh for uh for for your time and effort. >> All right, members of the board, thank you very much for your time. I appreciate it and thank you for your feedback. uh take the feedback to our team and have a discussion but I appreciate your input. >> Okay, moving on. We have recommendations for approval for the class of 2026 graduation national high school cheerleing championship competition and expulsure w expulsion waiver agreement. Can I get a motion to approve them?

072Is there anybody against approving them altogether? Can I get a motion? Could you please do them one at a time? >> One at a time. Okay. Can I get a motion to approve number one class of 2026 graduation? >> So move Demco. >> Um any discussion? >> Just a quick question. Is that the last day of school? U school. >> That is >> correct. Yes. Last day. >> Thank you. >> Um all in favor? I >> I >> opposed. Motion approved. Uh can I get a motion to approve the National High School cheerleading championship competition? >> So move a second. Brun. >> Um any discussion? >> Just my typical question. Everyone gets to go despite fundraising efforts or whatever. Does everyone have the opportunity to go? >> Thank you. Correct. I have also a question.

073So, this is uh have we I think we've done this before, right? Is that one of those competitions that have to come up uh every year because it's out of state? >> That's correct. Yes, this comes up uh and it has come up in the past and we do approve it because it's out of state. >> Thank you. >> All in favor? >> I >> opposed. Motion approved. Can I get a motion to approve the exclion waiver agreement? >> So moved. Santos. >> Second. Brun. >> Any discussion? >> All in favor? >> I appro um opposed. Motion approved. Can I get a motion to approve all motions under personnel or would you prefer them separated? all together. Okay. Uh any opposed? Okay. Then do I just say Okay. Can I get a motion to to

074approve personnel? >> So move. >> Second. [laughter] >> Any discussion? >> Just to clarify, this is for uh B1 through nine. >> Yes. >> Okay. Any discussion? So uh I I I wanted to uh echo what Miss Velocity mentioned earlier about the vocal director for the uh for the for the high school musical. Um I have already heard uh great things about u Miss Peeper Bhan I think is uh the pronunciation. uh uh she she knows what she's doing and I'm I'm so glad that she is uh involved in this and uh uh good luck to uh her and all of the kids uh as they're getting ready for the for the musical. >> Question is the vocal director like the director or is that like a subdirector? >> It is it is not the

075director. It is it is the director of vocals. >> Okay. I I >> Yeah, they have a they have a they have a director and then they have a vocal director and they I think have assistant director also. >> Okay. >> All go ahead. >> I just wanted to say uh thank you to Fran for her years of dedication to Sen Valley and best wishes. >> All in favor? >> I >> opposed. Motion approved. Can I get a motion to approve the facilities items for discussion? We're discussing the committee meeting summary. >> So moved, Santos. >> We don't do that normally. >> You do not need a motion. over there. >> Okay, moving on to finance. There are no recommendations. Any discussion? >> Yeah, I'll just uh >> Oh, sorry. >> No, go ahead. >>

076Sorry. Yeah, I'll just uh there's a summary attached, but I'll just give a report out for the finance committee. Um we did our first review of the initial budget. Um there it's a preliminary budget obviously. It doesn't represent the final. Um I don't have the exact numbers upon me right now, but the initial I believe the initial uh preliminary budget is $9 million in the red this year. $9 million in the red this year. Something like that. So, um there's definitely going to be uh some choices to make this year. Uh and we're going to continue to probably work through some of that at the finance committee and then bring it to the full board as well. Um in addition, so if you're interested in that, you know, please attend to the the finance committee.

077Uh in addition, we talked about what the committee was going to work on, what our goals were. uh and you know I think next meeting we're going to come back with some some some goals of the committee and things like that just what that's summary of the meeting. >> I have a discussion. >> Yes. Um I want to ask uh uh Director Carpenter and um Mr. Bonenburgger to tell us a little bit of the story of the of the of the budget this year so far. what what you see um why is it you know 9 million in the red from what you can see what what kinds of solutions are are possible for that um what's your perspective on it um just some narrative about it so it's you know right now it's just

078a you know I'm not able to go to that meeting and um to me it's really important and I'm hearing this and that and I'd I'd rather get it from the the horse's mouth. The horse's mouth plural. Thank you. >> Apostrophe after s, right? [laughter] >> Go for it. I >> mean, I'm kind of what's an executive's summary at this point? What's going on? >> Well, part of it is the revenues are not generating uh and not increasing that much. So, that's a big part of it. You have 4 uh 7 million in projects that Jim has proposed for next year. That's a big part of it. Um obviously costs are going up for students placements. Uh special ed costs are going increasing, but a big chunk of it is also the revenue is not

079there. We have uh revenue down going down in the assessed values instead of increasing. Um and we do not get that much from the state to begin with. So um it's reliant on tax base. the the the money's not there to uh to draw in to to cover some of the shortfalls. C >> could you sorry can I do a follow-up question just could you say a little bit more about the revenue going down because that's I'm just not I could you just uh unpack that a little bit for for someone who doesn't >> Well, we had I mean our our our assessed value has dropped uh significantly almost 7% drop in in assessed values at this point in time. So, I mean, whether it's based on assessment appeals, there was a property um that

080was supposed to go online for the lura zone. The assessment office put it online uh and then turned around and found out that they couldn't put it back on the rolls because it wasn't ready for occupancy because it didn't have plumbing. So, they had to remove it from it. So, those numbers were in our last year's budget. They turned around and reduced them because of that fact. So, those are some of the issues that we're dealing with at this point in time. Perfect. I I really appreciate that a lot. That's very very helpful. Um Yeah. >> So just I I I wanted to both respond to you and also sort of like ask some questions. So this is uh uh uh the assessment value going down. Uh does it have anything to do with uh

081some of the properties that we have uh within the district that are uh uh going from commercial to uh nonprofit? Um, I don't think that's a big part of it. I think it's based on common level ratio going down, people taking assessment appeals. Um, some of that might be, but I think some of those properties the value was just of the land to begin with. So, there wasn't necessarily a building that was costing that much or being that much. Uh so this is uh can you can you kind of like quantify what is the uh uh reduction in the revenue because you say a lot and a lot means different things to different people. So is it uh u a couple of hundred thousand a couple of million dollars? What is the what is a

082lot here? Well, I'm looking at um again, don't forget we took uh plan to take out of this year's budget $4.1 million out of um fund balance to balance the budget. So, we're basically short about $4 million for next year um in our revenue compared to what it would be um for this year. >> Yeah, the fund balance is not revenue, right? So revenue uh when you say revenue I can think this is to me it means uh federal >> money it means state money and it means the uh local efforts right so the three uh components that I just mentioned if you add them up compared with last year uh how much lower are we >> well again if we take out the fund balance we're out the 4 million because that's what used

083to balance the budget I'm not seeing a $4 million increase and our costs are going up if we have another 4 million in projects plus increases in other areas being health benefits um the increases in the tuition going out to other schools um >> increases let's let's let's focus on the revenue first right so uh uh the the assessed value has gone down I I take your word and uh that would uh bring a certain amount of uh dollars to the district in uh uh school taxes is and now that number is lower. So my question is what is the delta between what's uh the local taxpayers paid last year and what we are expecting that they would be paying this year just like I mean the the the expenditure part of it is on

084the other side. So we'll we'll we'll get to that. We'll talk about that. >> Again looking at the total amount is we budgeted 45 million but I was taking in the fund balance. take the 4 million out. We're only anticipated to get 41. I understand what you're saying, but it is part of that that calculation is because fund balance was used to balance the budget. So, we're only getting 41 million in local revenue where it was about the same. So, it's staying about the same. >> So, it's the same. So, the local revenue is about the same. >> Correct. the state revenue uh I'm assuming that you are not uh reducing the uh the the projection for that right so whatever we were expecting Harrisburg to send us you're assuming that Harrisburg is going to

085send us the same amount maybe a little more but not that much more right >> correct and the same thing with the it's a little bit slight increase because you're getting obviously as salaries goes up you're getting a little bit more for FER and your your social security and state reimburse so uh so so the total revenue revenue that we had is really not less than last year. So, uh maybe a little less and by a little I think the number if I remember it from uh the finance committee maybe like a couple hundred,000 uh because of the uh loss of the assessed value not uh not much more than that. That correct? So on the on the revenue we are about same as last year on the expenditure is where we have a lot

086more. Right? In other words, the stuff that we pay and you know how we uh sort of like make the expenditure and revenue to balance is a different story. I completely agree with you that uh when there has been a gap there we have used the fund balance to do it and that's uh that's understood. So uh just to Mr. Brun's point uh the the state revenue that that we have uh we are in that sort of like forgotten child uh sort of like category right so uh people get together in Harrisburg and uh this year for example they added $500 million to the education budget so $500 million the state of Pennsylvania is spending more on uh education of the 500 00 million and we are one of the 500 districts, right? So obviously

087it's not going to be uh distributed uniformly, but we got almost nothing. So uh uh districts like uh Allentown and uh Philadelphia and so on, they get uh tens of millions of dollars and uh Sen Valley gets nothing. There is a uh uh state grant, the ready tolearn grant that uh was $400 million extra money in that and they shut us out uh that completely. They said that district like our district we can't even apply for that. So >> what they what sorry >> we cannot apply for that. So they said that you're too rich to apply for this basically right. So uh and it's not just us it's uh a bunch of other school districts in in Lehigh Valley who are in the same category. So uh uh the state representative uh from from

088this area they can come back and say in my uh district I brought x amount of dollar but the x amount of dollar 95% of it goes to like one district and the rest of the district that are in that uh state representatives uh district they get nothing. So we are we are one of those district that get nothing. So that's that's one side of it. And the reality of it is that people who live here are the same as the people who live in Bethlehem. This is like it's not like we have like rich people. The poor person who lives in Helertown is as poor as the poor person who lives in Bethlehem. There is uh no reason for uh for for our residents to uh uh not be able to uh receive the

089help and the funds from uh from from the state. But that is the reality of it. So that's why our uh revenue is stagnant is not moving. It's the same number and you know we all know what's happening with the federal government where uh the department of education is uh uh about to be uh completely cancelled right so that's that not that we were getting a lot of money from the federal government anyway we are getting I think less than 1% of our revenue was coming from the feds so so so it's we are there we are staying there we have uh we have only ourselves to look for for for paying the expenses here in other words there is nothing coming from uh from the federal government there is nothing coming from from the

090state. The other side of it and this is uh I think uh Mr. Bonburgger mentioned that and uh Mr. uh Carpenter also is on the expenditure side. I think this uh budget uh that that we saw was basically everything that everybody has uh has asked for. So So this is you know you say why is it $9 million? The reason is because everybody who went there and said, "You know what? We want this. We want a uh I'm not going to say even what, right? We want X." And they said, "Okay, X will cost this much added to the budget." Uh the next person, the next category, the next group went there and asked for something else. So, this is that right at this point. And Mr. Carpenter mentioned, you know, there are some things

091that need to sort of like come off. There is no way that our district can uh run on a $9 million deficit, right? you're not going to do that, right? We all know that. Which means that somebody has to tell somebody, hey, no, you know, we understand it, but no, right? And I think that is the reality here that uh we are dealing with. Thank you, >> Director Carpenter. >> Just uh if I could go back and to your original question uh and provide what I what I think is my opinion is sort of an executive summary of the of the situation. Um, [clears throat] two years ago we we projected an $800,000 deficit. We we uh raised revenue to to t tackle half of that. Uh the reality it was 1.5 deficit at the

092end when we did all the accounting and everything like that. And just so everyone understands when I'm talking about deficit here, I'm talking about our yearly like do we spend more than we bring in? Right? We have a savings account. It doesn't okay. We don't run debt here usually. So, we use our savings account to cover these deficits right now. The next year, we had kind of a big expense. There was a capital project at the vocational school. We used some of our savings to do that. But if you just disregard that, we uh we had about a $2 million deficit. Maybe the accounting will fix that. And that's kind of where we've been running, right? So, every year we've been running 1.5 in the last two years. been taking $2 million out of savings

093to cover what what I see when I look at the budget. The first thing is that um in the past if you look our revenues uh increased a little bit every year. So the current you know kind of the way the district runs is that the majority of our costs are people right the majority of our costs are our people right and as you know because we all have jobs people get raises every year and things like that. Now we uh we cover you can cover that in a lot of years if there's you know real estate development or assessments go up in your town because your revenue even though you know you're you have a static millage rate right this uh local taxes are not income tax they're not percentage based they're a static

094millage rate so as long as your assessed value as a whole for the whole town as long as you're adding development or assessments are going up you're gaining a small percentage of revenue every here and that percentage of revenue can sometimes or usually be used to cover the sort of increases that you go year-over-year when you stop gaining any increases in revenue or you go flat, right? Uh you know, Shim was talking about how the revenue is actually I think it's actually like I don't know $50,000 less or something like that. I can't remember what it whatever it is, right? the revenue for for taxes is is negative this year, but it's not a lot negative, but it's really uh the opportunity of losing that small increase that we had been getting many years where

095we were getting a small increase in revenue even if we did not change the millage rate, right? You don't change the millage rate, you still get some increase in revenue. It's not like you're we're really losing $50,000. It's like we're losing a percent and a half, right? when you when you stay flat or go slightly down like that, you're actually losing kind of like a percent and a half of revenue. And so that's that's the the the down that's the that's the effect of of a of a flat revenue source on a budget like ours where the majority of our costs are costs that increase by a percentage year, right? I don't know what the percentage, but you know, we're not giving 1% raises to our employees, right? So, so, uh, you know, whenever if

096that's our biggest cost, then the money, you know, our costs increase every year because of that. And so, um, there are definitely capital projects on there. There's a lot of capital projects uh on the on the on the list. We can absolutely prioritize which one of those we can afford this year, which ones we can put off, and I'm sure we're going to work on that, right? There's also um you know hiring staff on there and we're going to have to be selective about what we consider there. These are the big areas of increases, right? You're asking where the where the increases are coming from, right? Um so so that's what we're going to have to >> Can you just summarize the the capital projects? Just could you just give a >> what's on what

097is not on there? >> The turf field is not on there. So just to be just to be very clear, >> the turf field is not on there. I don't know them for sure. I think the biggest stadium. The stadium needs some remediation for water leaking into the facilities that are under this stadium. >> We got a leaking stadium that needs to be fixed. Uh there are we've been on a rotation for buses. Laurel, what else is there on there? Buses and vans. So that there is not because for a while we didn't replace them and then all of a sudden we needed lots to be done. I know there are buses and vans on there. the bleachers staff. There's staff uh staff technology >> on on that thing. There is uh uh there there's

098a press box uh in that uh in that list. I think it's a uh I maybe like $500,000 is is for that. There is u uh >> playgrounds on there. It's $900,000. >> Half a million dollars is for that. >> So there are there are definitely items on that Mr. Brun that are things that we need to do, right? I mean, the leaking uh their lockers are on on that list. Uh I think high school locker that's a that's a good million dollar I think if not more. So, uh there are things that you have to do uh because otherwise the operation here is going to be completely disrupted and there are things that are uh I'm going to say more on the want uh list. And then the the the staff that Mr. Carpenter

099mentioned it's about $2 million including the uh the uh the the benefits, right? So, uh that's uh that's the reality of it. It's like I don't know nine 10 uh new new positions. So, uh you know, you add it up and you get to $9 million. >> Director Santos. Oh, sorry. >> Yeah. So, so I think that that's that's kind of like where we're at. There are cut there are cuts that we can make, but we're also challenged on the revenue side because we're not seeing an increase. We're actually seeing a dip. And that means that even if we had none of this extra stuff, we would we would already be in the negative because we're not we didn't get any re increase in revenue. >> Thank thank you very much for that. It's uh

100I asked because I wanted people out there to hear what's going on in in a who couldn't go to the finance meeting in people in the you know the public to hear a basic sense of what's going on. Thank you very much. Um very briefly uh you know I know the answer to this question isn't easy right whenever I think of finances and budgeting I I think that we really have two major levers to to effectuate what what that looks like and that's either increasing revenue or as we're discussing decreasing expenses. Uh, I I guess you know other than hitting it big at the blackjack table, so to speak, do we have any other, you know, plans in and I I know it's early, but do we have a plan to remediate uh this I

101wouldn't say budgeting crisis, but pretty pretty big issue, right? Close to $10 million in in deficit. Uh, what have we thought about in terms of remediating this issue go forward? And is there a plan? >> I think it's up to this board to come up with a plan. I think that uh we have been using our savings to pay our deficit and that's great until you don't have any more savings. >> So, um so it's up to this board to decide what level of savings they're comfortable with. Um uh and it's up to the board to make a plan to uh to to do that. You know, big picture-wise, you know, we we we give we can give a target and we you know, we're not going to sit here and line item everything in

102that budget, right? But, you know, we we kind of have to find something that we're comfortable with in terms of big picture numbers and then allow the administration the the freedom to to work to achieve that as as they can and and come back to us for feedback and you know as iterative pro process from now until whenever we have to pass the budget >> and and also any income from that savings let's say in terms of interests or uh where we have you know put that money in in terms of investments that's also going down as well. >> Correct. >> Right. So we have even less money to work with. >> Yes. If you spend the money that you're gaining interest on then you lose the interest revenue >> and if the interest rate

103goes down which has been going down you know. So uh ju just just to your point and this is a uh we we have had situations where uh we've had big capital expenses that we have had to do and we've done it and that's the least of my uh sort of like concerns. Right. So you have a leaking roof. It's a one-time expense uh for a large amount and uh you do it and then you don't have a leaking roof. Now uh Mr. Carpenter has uh reminded us that uh when this year you have a leaking roof and the next year you have a leaking window and the year after that you have a leaking something else, it's not a one-time expense. But I'm just going to say that uh once the big item things

104are sort of like off your uh list, then uh you get to that point where you don't have a lot of those uh big big item things. So if you uh sort of like go through actually the numbers for the things that we talked about today, this is the uh the stadium uh project that needs to be done from my perspective, which is the leaking uh uh stance. That's I don't know like $200,000, right? So that's not the $5 million, right? So uh the uh there are stuff there that are uh more discretionary than others, right? So uh the thing that should uh scare all of us are the expenses that are continuing right. So uh anytime you uh make a commitment that bring someone that you have to pay their salary and you have

105to pay their uh benefits and you have to that is a continuing thing. It's not a one-year thing where you say that I'm going to bring this person or this uh thing spend $200,000 and then next year it's going to be off my uh uh my my expense sheet. Right? that will continue for the next 30 years. And uh you you know the the question uh was and you asked the question again what can we do? We have to kind of like sit down and say okay what is it that we want to spend for next year and what is it that we want to spend the year after that and so forth. So this issue is not a new issue. If four years ago we had put all of these items on the expense

106sheet we would be in you know $7 million deficit you know four years ago. This is like the board uh decided not to do that, right? So, uh and we have an opportunity this time to again say that, right? Do we want to have $9 million? Everybody who wants everything, you know, will get it or uh are we going to sit down and say we are going to bring it down to a level that we are comfortable with with the with with the level of uh revenue that uh that we have. And just to sort of like one one last thing to your your point about u the expansion of the revenue the number that you said it it has been in the past few years in the order of 1 one and a half

107sometimes 2% sometimes half a percent right so what has happened in the past like I'm going to say 10 15 years is that that small amount of increase in the revenue has been enough to cover the uh additional expenses that have happened on the expenditure side with some cuts that have happened across the board. Right? So, uh this is it hasn't been a sort of like one equation, one one uh one one variable equation. You know, we have uh tightened the belts. We have uh had a little more uh revenue and we have uh managed to make uh payroll. Uh this time the little uh sort of like expansion of the revenue did not happen or is projected not to happen. the uh uh the expenses are going up and some of them are going

108up a lot and we have a we have we have a chance to decide what we're going to do. May I just quickly respond to that? I I highly encourage the board to work on this solution and I think that this should be a uh topic of discussion for our next executive meeting. >> Director Demco, you're good. >> Yeah, I it can't be an executive um meeting discussion. It has to be a public meeting discussion on the budget. I just wanted one clarification from u Miss Velocity before we wrap this up because this is our finance committee accurate. You know, this is what our discussion is. Um a comment was thrown out that said um administration put in everything they could possibly want. I just wanted to know if that is accurate or not. So

109you're you're building principles. they just push in everything or have some already trimmed back on some of the requests that they may have made. Do you know what I mean? Are you >> Yeah. >> Okay. Yes, please. Yes. >> So, in my time here, there has been a significant shift in how the budget's been created and how what we put on the table at the preliminary finance discussion. So, in the past, my administrative team and Mr. Bonenburgger and I have always brought something to the finance committee that was trimmed down and met what our priorities and expectations were for the district. In that time, it has shifted because people who are who are sitting here this evening had concerns that there was not transparency and that everything was not provided to them that was an

110all-in budget. So this that was presented is all of the asks going from teachers up through administration. So this is what it looks like when no cut has been made and has it is an all ask all kids are in the pool kind of situation. Now the board can ask us to go back and look at that and start doing what we would normally do and bring options or you can tell us to meet a certain uh threshold and we can do that. Um our intention is to go back and obviously have conversations to make sure that we are meeting our priorities and that things are aligned. Please remember that there is uh costs in there that are overcalculated because take something like curriculum for right now there are decisions that still have to be

111made on programs. So that's overbudgeted at this point. So that you may see that come down a little bit. Um but everything is in that budget because that was the ask of this board to bring everything as is from all asks across the district. Is that from the finance committee because >> this was this was asked of us even last year that all all things were on the table because there was a concern that we were making cuts and that those asks from buildings were not being brought up to the board. So this is all asks across the districts that are in this budget. >> Thank you for that clarification. >> I did not ask for that. Just to clarify, >> I just don't know where it came from. That's all I'm asking. when you

112say the board, you know, I just didn't know where it came from. >> Um, Director Breen. >> Yeah. Um, I mean, the idea that there would not be mediation of requests by the administration from the administration and from the professional staff and even from board members. um is I think um is a worrisome idea. Um I think that um we depend upon everything that everybody asked for having some level of mediation that is not simply at the board level. you know, um that we have professionals who lead the district and make the tough decisions even if we board members don't like them or if you know the rest of administration doesn't like them. Um, I think that, you know, the the the idea that the budget should just have everything that everybody asked for, that

113that's a preliminary budget. Um, it kind of characterizes the process as, you know, a bunch of drunken sailors basically asking for whatever they want. You know, I'll take one of those, you know. Um I hope that we're h we have a little more of a of a kind of paradigm of decision making than that but that you know so that's a concern of mine. >> So not to speak for the facilities chairperson but like I know that all the capital projects have a ranking in terms of priority for facilities. >> So we can the administration has done that ranking for this facility stuff. So just say just a point about what what you said Mr. Brun. I mean this is you you are absolutely right. Right. So this is the let's just sort of like

114talk about this a little uh more frankly right. So uh uh somebody approaches uh me and says uh I I I think we should have a turf field let's say right? Uh we can't afford it. I think we all know that now right? So somebody has to say hey you know what we can't afford the turf field right? So uh up until now for many years for many decades the process is that the person goes to I don't know Mr. Fry and Mr. Fry sort of like says these are the uh the parameters in this uh in this decision we are probably not going to have it right and uh then the person comes to a board member and the board member says hey you know what whatever Mr. Fry said I trust Mr. Fry

115and I support Mr. Fry's decision right that's one way of moving forward in that setup you can expect Mr. Fry to say to the person who goes to him and ask for the turf field to say you know what we can't afford it the alternative to this setup is this someone goes to Mr. Fry Mr. Fry says, "No, we can't have it." Then they come to me and I say, "Hey, you know what? I think we should have a turf field." Right? You know, Fry is uh cheating you out of a turf field. And the moment that you say that, then Fry is not going to say, you know, we are not going to have a turfield, right? Fry is going to say, "Uh, Shamim, this is uh your turf field. You want to have

116it, have it. You don't want to have it. Go there, vote publicly and say, "We are not going to have a turf field." Right? So we can't have it both ways. You know, the moment that they say no to something here and there, if you kneecap everybody, then you can't expect them to just go there and then, you know, continue to sort of like be thrown under the bus. That's the reality of it, right? So every decision that is related to budget that has happened in the past few years, I mean today we heard a little sort of like gist of it from Mr. Carpenter as in like the board has been doing this and this and this and that in the past, right? The reality of it is that this board and the administration

117team, you know, has tried really really hard to make sure that we live within our means, right? And we have come very close to that to the point that at the beginning of this next uh school year, we have 11 or 12 million, $10 million in the bank account, right? 20% of our operational budget is in the bank account. It's not like, you know, it's a broken uh system and the the the district is broke, right? It's not that, right? So we've tried to live within our means, right? Now you want to continue doing that, right? Somebody's got to go there and say these things we can't do, right? If that person is uh uh just uh thrown under the bus, right? Then it's going to be us. And I'm perfectly okay with that. That

118us making those decision. Obviously, you know, we are going to come here and we're going to tell the administration, hey, you know what? Can you go bring it down to uh $2 million, right? And then they're going to bring a plan that says, "Okay, $2 million version of it looks like this, right? This thing you're not going to have. That thing you're not going to have. This thing you're not going to have." And then you can make a decision. You know, you want this or you want the one that is uh uh presented. >> May I make a quick comment? Well, first off, to be thrown under the bus, we would need to buy the buses. So, that's that's one thing. But no, I think you're absolutely right. I I think that the uh need

119for transparency is also right. So I I'm of two minds here. Uh transparency doesn't mean that we're not removing items off the budget. I think in in this case particularly transparency would mean this is the budget. This is what people asked for. this is what was removed from the budget because of a need for u you know keeping a a budget and and here's why right I I think that's sort of the transparency that at least I as a board member would like to see is what was what all was asked for what all was removed and what can we actually work with so I want to empower the the administration the superintendent and you know everybody here to to provide their input as to you what we actually need versus what we can maybe

120put off for the future. Um, and and see the entire list. >> Any further comments? Seeing none, moving on. And we've made it to community updates. Uh, we will go for Helertown Lower Chamber of Commerce with Director Santos. Next meeting is February 17th. So no real updates for tonight. >> Uh anything from the foundation with uh Northampton Community College. Not seeing Miss Baxter. Going to move on to the next one. Bethlehem area vote tech school from either director Demco or director Demar. >> We haven't had a BVIDS meeting since uh our previous meeting here. So there's nothing new. >> All righty. moves on to colonial intermediate unit with Dr. Pax >> meeting tomorrow. >> You guys are making this part really easy. [laughter] >> Uh >> gave you a hard time in the other ones

121trying to sort of like uh make it a pleasant uh first uh first time with the gavl. >> Right. Yeah. Um PSBA representative Director Carpenter or Director Santos? Uh there wasn't there wasn't really any uh any compellingly new updates that I haven't gone over a couple of times. PSBA must be light on their holiday post holiday schedule. >> Yeah. And I I have to agree with uh Director Carpenter. There is one thing I would like to highlight. Uh I think it uh makes sense for the the topic of discussion prior to this portion. But there on February 6 will be a budget proposal webinar uh hosted by the PSBA. Uh so I think that that would be maybe uh helpful for us here. Um also I'm sure we've discussed this before but just for anybody

122who hasn't heard a new PA law requires schools to notify families of incidents involving weapons. That would be Act 44 which took effect January 6th. Uh so we effectively districts have 24 hours from the time of the incident to send out a notice using a method of communication that is likely to re to reach recipients uh for those uh events. Uh also in national news, public schools enrollment across the US have dipped slightly by.3% uh to 49.3 million in the 2425 school year compared to other years according to data released by department of education. Um so those are really the updates that I would have for today. >> Thank you. All right, new business. Seeing that there is none on here, we move on to old business and discuss the reorganization, right? Or no, >>

123if it if it comes out of uh if anyone wants to bring it up, it's just there for now. >> Okay. It's just there, right? Okay. Uh old business reorganization of board committees, creation of policy committee. Okay. >> Um >> someone brings it up. >> Oh, sorry. [laughter] Sorry. No, I want to bring it up. >> Can I get Can I get a motion to approve the old business? Is that what I'm doing? >> No, you just like move on. Yeah, let's to the next item. [laughter] >> No, >> okay, we're not disc. I don't remember what we did. >> I No, I think >> we we decided to continue the discussion to this meeting. So, I just want to bring something up and I I know I I sent this out, but it was

124rather late in this afternoon. Um, and I I apologize I never have my phone up, but I'm afraid I wouldn't be able to remember anything at this point. So, um, I talked to attorney Fitzgerald. Um, he had a suggestion when we were discussing this the first time, and I I called him over some weekend. I don't I don't know when, but he suggested that we do or we consider um it's a combination of the meetings. And as I was sitting here listening to um Mr. Brun talk about what happened in the finance committee. It made me more um excited about this potential. It's a combination of the committee meetings and a business meeting. And here's how I'm going to read off here. Here's how this would go. For your monthly board meeting one, you would

125start the meeting around 5:30. Now, this is the probably the um pie in the sky part. Committee one would be run by the committee members and would run for 45 minutes. Then committee two would start and it would be run by the next committee, whichever committee that was, and that would run for 45 minutes. The board business meeting would start at 7 and it would contain agenda items that would be from the second um board meeting of the month. So it would be just like you would if a committee sends something to a board agenda. It's usually two weeks later. That's what you want to think about that. Monthly board meeting two would again start at 5:30. Committee three would meet and everybody would be here for 45 minutes and the committee members would run

126that part. Committee four would meet 45 minutes run by the committee member and then you would go to the second board business meeting starting at se um seven and the things that were discussed in the first um meeting would then be brought up on the agenda. So they would everybody understand what I'm saying there? Just so is that uh Miss Demco the the setup is that uh committee business from that day would not be >> correct on the business uh on on the same day it would be >> it would be on the following two weeks later he also said and I did send it to Jamie for her feedback um and you know truly that pie in the sky is the 45 minutes but we've spent probably about 45 minutes tonight going over what

127was in the um finance committee meeting reviewing it for people. This gives everybody the opportunity to hear everything. The the meeting missing is the executive executive meeting and he told me that they schedule an executive meeting if they need it on a different day, not the same day of the business meetings. Um that if it's needed and they said they do very few. Um, so I just thought it might be a a nice workaround. We still have our committee meetings, but you know, the finance committee would be meeting and yet everybody would hear it. Those kind of things. >> I could I comment? >> Yes. Um, you know, I I think that what we talked about here for the finance committee was a summary of the discussion that we had at finance, which uh I

128think allotted us a lot more time to sit there and look at the budget and and all the things. And I I actually think that what happened here tonight is like a tremendous success, which is we distilled like two hours of conversations down to we'll say 30 minutes or something like that. We gave a report and we still have that going. I think this is like that's my ideal. Um I would I'm not sure I would be able to have as much information if I was only given 45 minutes on the committee meeting to provide that level of summary. So that's just my perspective there. >> Dr. Tatu, did you have your hand up? >> No, director. >> I I was looking your way next. Yes, Director Brun. >> Um yeah. Uh I thank you

129for saying that uh Don I I really um I felt the same way. Um I I wanted to ask so would that uh Vivian would that mean there basically aren't meeting I know there aren't meetings on Wednesday then right there are only >> correct >> and everybody would be at every meeting every meeting and if they couldn't be they had the opportunity >> the executive session meetings could be on Wednesday they could be at any time. Yeah, that's what that's what he said they do. He also said that then their business meetings run extremely quickly because everybody's heard the discussion and the 45 minutes it just um hearkens me back to something Dr. Pakad said about um you know I'm not sure every committee would meet 45 minutes like there are sometimes facility is 10

130and then we could roll right into and of course the budget time is going to be very very different than than other times for different committees. >> If I could just chime in you can you can always advertise it that way right you start you start a particular time and it'll be one committee and then immediately following is the way you phrase it. That way you don't feel like you have to sit around and make the public wait if they want to only chime in for certain parts. >> A follow-up question on that though. Could you run into the um business meeting then or no? Would that be a hard start time? >> You I mean when you advertise your business meeting, you should not be starting beforehand. I think that from a public perception

131argument, if you're advertising at 7 and things are routinely running over, so you don't actually start until 7:30 or 7:45. You got kiddos here. It's not ideal. It's not illegal. But it's Could you start it earlier if the facilities I mean if >> your voting meeting is advertised and should not start before it is advertised to start? >> Yeah. Um, Director Demar, >> we we have I mean maybe maybe you guys think about it in a different way, but it seems to me that virtually every business meeting we have a fairly substantive executive session beforehand. So saying that we would rarely need one doesn't kind of match my experience. if it did does that >> it it was only what he said about the other district that was doing this. >> Okay. >> That they

132they rarely have one. >> I can chime in if anyone's interested. I I think that executive sessions are for specific delineated reasons and oftentimes they can be flexible because they're only permitted to cover certain topics. So obviously if something's hot and coming up, it might not be flexible. You might need to schedule it pretty quickly, have it via Zoom, something like that. But it's not it's certainly not a situation where it has to occur before every single meeting. It can also occur after the meeting. So if you're doing something that's going to streamline the length of your actual meeting meeting, your public meeting, maybe you're wrapped up by 7:45 or 8:00 and you can have the exact session afterwards. The requirement in the Sunshine Act is only that you would announce the executive session at

133the next following board meeting. >> Uh Dr. Director um Demar >> I think I think I'm going to say what you were going to say. So uh this is like this is uh that Alicia this I think I think the point uh here was that uh regardless of what the law allows or uh all the sort of like caveats that you mentioned in the past 8 years I've been here uh there have been uh very few uh times where we haven't had at least an hour of uh exec before every board meeting. Now uh uh and you know your esteemed colleague who is very knowledgeable has been there uh and he has always agreed that those are uh you know proper topics. So this is like you know our uh meetings have not sort of

134like run a foul of uh that and I think considering the fact that we kind of like have needed you know an hour of uh exec uh uh every time we've had a meeting it's uh kind of like I think I think it's a little aspirational to say that you know once we go into this system we're not going to need a lot of them and they would be sort of like uh here and there. That's uh that's that's just sort of like one one thing. >> I'm not Yeah, I'm certainly not secondguessing Mr. Mr. Fitzgerald, my esteemed colleague, and I know that he knows the the practices of you guys. I'm sure he wasn't suggesting that any of the exact sessions you've had have been superfluous or unnecessarily long. I think he was probably

135again, I don't want to put words into his mouth, but just suggesting those can be those can be flexible in terms of scheduling and and how when how and when they occur. just just to sort of like think m Miss Demco since I'm sort of I was trying to sort of like think about you know why the meeting uh the business meeting could go uh uh faster and quote unquote more efficiently by the time we get to the business meeting people are beaten up and they just want to sort of like uh you know be done with it and go home right so uh you know we we've been here for two hours at the business meeting everybody's sort of like defeated so uh uh you know just imagine if you had you know another

136hour and a of talking about something you know >> but I think this is tonight's a prime example I am sure we would not have had had everyone been sitting at the finance committee meeting we would not have the extensive discussion we had >> yeah I I I I hear your point I'm just sort of like allow me to be a little suspicious about that but I I I hear I hear your point I'm just saying that this is uh I'm I'm just I'm just worried that by the time we get to the uh to to to the business meeting you know uh you know there's there's been a lot of kind of like energy that has been already spent and uh I I I agree with Mr. Carpenter that uh you know the the

137the conversation that we had today about the budget. I think it's good uh for the public to uh to hear that it was a little uh long maybe uh or uh we said some stuff that you know some of us may not sort of like like it or whatever but that's that's good. That's that's okay. That's the sort of like function of this meeting. I want us to sort of like be on our uh best foot when we come here. And uh I'm I'm not saying that uh you know one uh uh setup is better than other. I'm just sort of like bringing that up uh for your consideration that I think that is sort of like one thing that I would be missing uh uh you know with with that setup. But I'm I'm

138definitely open to uh to anything that works and the board is u u uh is is is in agreement to uh to uh to implement. Director Santos. >> Um I'm actually in in full agreement with uh Director Demar and Poxad in terms of the executive session. I I think that an appropriate format for a meeting that I believe is highly valuable and needed would be to have it the day prior to our board meetings. Maybe on a Monday if possible. Then Tuesday we can have uh our uh committee meetings starting at 5:30 have both of them and then move on into the the business general business meeting that we have. I think that that would be a good format for for our particular board. And uh you know to to your point Director Poxad uh

139it could be chaotic. It it could be messy when we start. Uh I I think that we should at least try it for a trial period, see how it goes. And of course, we always have the liberty to revert back to how we've been running these meetings for the last few years, right? I don't think that that is uh uh we're restricted from going back to the the format that we have now. Personally, I I think that having the committee meetings right before having all the board members that are available present for those would be good in terms of being informed. Uh and I I do not want to sacrifice the executive meetings for that. So my suggestion would be to uh you know as director Demco has been saying start these committee meetings at

1405:30 have both of them run into the general business meeting and then the day prior we have the advantage of the executive session. >> Director Brun. >> Yes. Um we've been talking about uh business meetings essentially um or subcommittees of business meeting but uh we also uh can have working sessions I think madam madam solicitor is that is that right? We can have working sessions uh that aren't necessarily covering um I mean covering that we're not necessarily doing business um but we're working on stuff. Maybe um Madam Solicitor could talk a little bit about that. But also, um, I also think that it would be nice if we could maybe consider events that are things like, you know, like like for example, you know, a a one-day retreat, you know, u on a weekend when

141we're available or something. I know that we don't have a lot of time, but um we don't always have to get together and do business, you know, and um and I think that could also be really helpful for the the for the district as a whole if we understood each other better as individuals and um met without necessarily having to conduct business, which I think we're allowed to do. Um we did that after, you know, some of us were elected. We had breakfast, you know, and that was really helpful, I think, in creating a bond, you know, that's all. >> Director Pax said. >> Yeah. So, just say just to take as I'm thinking about it a little more. So, we have we have a board meeting. Everybody has sort of like blocked off their

142Tuesday at 7:00, right? Uh for that, uh everybody has kind of like blocked off a couple of hours before that also for exec that we have sometimes starting at five, sometimes starting at 5:30 some, right? So uh uh and then there is a second day of the week where uh you know sometimes you have to do something and that is currently Wednesday. So uh the question really is for that hour that we all sort of like can make it we all know that we can make it Tuesday before the board meeting. Do you want to sort of like have that time dedicated to exec where uh there are items that are discussed at the exec that would sort of like show up on the agenda uh you know half an hour later like we had

143uh one of those today uh or uh do it for another important uh function which is the committees but that's to me sort of like a little less. So this is like my my my sort of like my prediction is that if we go with that uh method you will have to with with the new you you will be here uh every other Tuesday at 5:30 and then there is another day of the week that you will have to go whereas right now the second day of the week if you have something else to do you just go do something else. So just my point is that think about it that that second time in the uh in the week that we have the exec session uh kind of like you can't not make it

144right. So this is right now people are sort of like going only to the ones that they want to go to. There are some people who go to all of the committee meetings and there are some who don't. So, uh, that that that that if you are if you are one of those people who don't go to all of the committee meetings, uh, on that other, uh, Wednesday, now you're going to have to go because I I suspect we are going to have every other week, we are going to have an exact session another day of the week and, uh, we'll have to make it. I'm I'm I'm okay with that. I have I I I'm I'm going to the meetings to the to the committee meetings right now and I'm I'm going to be

145fine with that. But just sort of like letting everybody else know that that's one of the consequences of Director Demar. >> Yeah. Um I I know I've raised this issue tons of times before, but I just want to raise it again. Um we just had a discussion or were I guess yeah, we just had a our budget discussion here. um versus having our committee meeting downstairs where the people that the the people in the administration or or you know especially like the facilities committee the you know gym just sits right across the table from us and if someone comes in now if if we have it up here then our administration's going to be way over there for me anyway that's way over there for some of you guys it's a lot closer uh and

146then our any teachers that want to participate they'll be sitting out there in those chairs I just think that it's going to be a lot less likely to have spontaneous uh discussion and and candid comments uh from the people that we really need to to get those from if we want to make good decisions. Um, so you know that's that that's why I think that the committee of the whole idea is kind of in a lot of ways it's self-defeating because we just don't aren't going to get the same kind of information from our staff uh and from our visitors that we can get in that more formal environment downstairs. And then uh um another item which I don't think has been raised is if we if we want to I guess if we broadcast

147our committee meetings then this wouldn't be a concern. But if we don't, then uh everything will be talked about before the public can see what we're doing and we'll breeze right through the business meeting, but no one will learn what our thoughts are, our what our considerations are. It'll just be, you know, all in favor say I. Um, I think that the discussion that we had tonight about the budget was a really good summary of of our like two-hour discussion that we had last Wednesday um when we were really looking at it and getting lots of detailed information from Dave and and having discussion among ourselves and um but tonight was it was a summary, right? And so everybody got the the main points, but they didn't have to sit through two hours, which we

148wouldn't really be able to do if we had to kind of squeeze it in with the 45 minutes each plan. Uh so, you know, I think that there's a lot of benefit to having the discussion here, but having a a more informal committee meeting. Thanks, >> Director Santos. >> Yeah. Um I I don't know that we're requiring every board member to attend the committees themselves. I believe that this is more so to be able to have those joint committees have more access to the board members. Right? So for example, I'm not on the AMP committee. If I wanted to show up to the proposals committee, I don't necessarily have to be here at 5:30. I would show up at 6:15 and then attend the proposals committee just as an example. So I don't know that

149there's a requirement unless you're on the committee for the board member to actually be here. Heck, if you're not on any of the committees for that day, you can just show up for the general business meeting and then that would allow that conversation that that we're you know mentioning uh or at least uh uh that director Demar mentioned that if I just show up at 7:00 for the general business meeting, I can say, "Hey, what just happened with uh the AMP meeting that it seems like there was something that was important that was discussed." Uh so I think I think the format still is valid. Um, I think it allows for more conversation and I don't think that this board would do the public the disservice of not explaining what it is that we're talking

150about in the committee meetings. We can still have the general discussion. We can still have a summary of those discussions as well. Um, and in terms of the formatting, uh, this room might be more conducive for more people to actually attend from the public, attend the committee meetings. As of now, it's pretty sparse. Um, and we also have the advantage of videotaping and distributing this through the same means that we videotape the the general meeting. So, I I think it might allow for more access to the board, not necessarily a restriction that you have to be here if you're not in the committee. And I still support that we do have exec sessions uh again maybe the day prior so that we can be better informed for the Tuesday meetings. >> I saw Director Demco

151with her hand. >> Yes. Um, Cedric, when you said about um people having access to the discussions and thing, that's that's the one thing I heard about from the community before I even started was they didn't have access to the committee meetings. They're not recorded. They don't hear the discussions. And that was one big concern of theirs. And and I know I know it's always been um we want to keep them informal. We and I I talked to Mark about this when I was t speaking with him and he said um he said you can they'll probably run a little more formally but you can after every committee meeting stop and get um input from who's ever here and just like we do sometimes in our meeting we'll ask administration to jump in those kind

152of things. So, and as far as um I I I don't think I'd want to see people just showing up later and then us rehashing, you know. I think it is we come we come. I mean, uh barring you you aren't able to because then we we might as well not do it then in my opinion. >> Director Carpenter. >> Yeah. Yeah. [clears throat] I had two points. My first point is just that if I'm going to be here for 2 hours and have an hourong discussion, if an hour later someone who wasn't there is like, can you just rehash that whole thing for me? I'm going to say no. So [laughter] just I'm just like being very very honest with that one. >> No. Shame on them. If they're not there. >> Yeah. Yeah.

153I'm going to say for benefit of the public watch video. Uh but the uh the other thing is that um you know changing the times of the committee doesn't necessarily change the format of the committee right you it is two separate options you could run the committees at those times in the conference room and then come here for the business meeting or you could run them here those that's like the timing of the committees doesn't actually change the structure those are two sort of like separate considerations. But but this is just a I mean aside that this is you you are correct the location and the timing are not uh you know necessarily tied to each other but uh at the same time you can I mean I I don't understand you know what's the

154difference between one and a half hour of uh committee meeting on Wednesday versus one and a half hour committee meeting on Tuesday before the board meeting. I mean uh since the topics that are being discussed at the committee are not going to be a part of the business meeting anyway, right? So uh it really kind of like from that perspective doesn't matter whether that uh you know combined uh two committee uh day happens uh on Tuesday or on Wednesday right it's just a matter of uh you know >> I I think the hard part of the proposed schedule is the time restriction >> yeah that that's the the other part of it that I just wanted to sort of like touch on a little like quickly is that uh you can't really uh limit the

155conversations you can limit it but uh the limit is way beyond the 45 minutes that is uh is allotted here right so uh that's again I mean he's the Mr. rubbish rule but uh you every uh committee member or every board member on every agenda item has a 10 minute and then another 10 minutes so 20 minutes on uh every person has that right so it's very difficult for me to sort of like imagine that uh uh there is a presentation by the administration about uh something and then we have a robust discussion where multiple people will sort of like try to use their time right and uh we are uh we are able to sort of like finish that in 45 minutes and what happens there is that I mean you can't say that

156we are getting to 45 so wrap it up it doesn't work that way it is that we are getting to 45 so we have to stop here right we uh without the sort of like the topic sort of like reaching a conclusion the conclusion could be a uh vote and recommendation it cannot happen if uh people haven't had a chance to uh use the time that they are they're allowed to use so uh so we are going to have agendas that are not going to like realistically speaking be completely uh uh covered. Which means that you have to have another uh meeting to uh discuss those agenda items or you have to trim down the agenda into uh very few things that would sort of like be uh conducive for the uh for the 45

157minutes uh or or whatever you know sort of like the other the time is. And uh that that's kind of like my concern. Just think about today. If we had a 9:00 stop time and we were in the middle of this, at 9:00 we would gave it. It would be the end of the conversation. The matter would not be resolved, right? Uh and I'm not sure if it's going to be resolved with the conversation that we have, but uh in that case, it wouldn't be resolved and then we had to come back to it again, you know, the next time. So, uh we are going to end up with a lot of agendas that are not fully covered. So that's the that's that's the sort of like danger that I see in that I I

158I've said this before. We've uh had this uh board operate without committees. If we don't want to have committees, you don't have to have committees, right? Uh the function of committees at least for me was what I have said here before. Uh a frank conversation that would sort of like increase the knowledge of the people who are making these decisions. If we want to have it, we can have it. If we don't want to have it, we could just basically do away with it and uh bring the conversations at the board. I mean, there's really no if you are starting here at 5:30, there's no reason to sort of like uh divide it into two topics and so forth. And we can just say that start at 5:30 and have a full uh you know,

159fledged debate and conversation about every agenda item, you know, as much as you want. It's uh you know, with the same format as the board meetings are. So, >> can I ask Oh, >> you're good. Sorry, I forgot to get acknowledge. Um, working sessions, I I I don't do those anymore. You guys used to do those a few years ago. They, as far as I know, the working session is for Maybe I'll turn it over to our PBSA people here, but those are I thought those were supposed to supplant. I think a lot of what we do in our subcommittees are things that other boards do in working sessions where you deal with complex topics, you make strategic plans, you hash over stuff, you don't conduct business. But um and we don't seem to do

160those [snorts] I don't think that they're p they're I don't think they we in the past there have been um budget retreats they were called they were open to the public they were at the uh golf course I attended them um they were open to the public and all it was was an all day discussion on the budget all the different groups would present, you know, the elementary, the facilities, [clears throat] that kind of thing. They would all present and they would it would be a budget retreat. Um they serve lunch there. They And that's what they did. They hashed the budget out. >> The working sessions are public. Yeah. Sorry. Yeah, that I see it here. Director Santos, >> I'm not convinced that I'm not necessarily too convinced that we'll run out of time

161during [clears throat] these, let's say, hour and a half combined committee meetings. Like we mentioned earlier, there will be times where facilities will run, you know, maybe [clears throat] shorter than the allotted time and then that gives more time for finance to discuss um whatever they have to discuss. I I I think it's worth trying the the new uh format and again we can always revert and by the way as we did with this exact topic of discussion, we will run out of time with certain conversations. were, you know, very intelligent individuals who have a lot to say about a lot of things. So, we tabled this exact same discussion last meeting and continued the conversation this meeting. I say that we could use the new business space to potentially bring up any topic of

162discussion that has been cut off due to time limitations or whatnot. I I think that there is definitely an argument for this new proposed um agenda if you will. >> Um if I have never been at this district where an AMP meeting has lasted 45 minutes. So the AMP meeting is usually where the most robust conversations are happening. And I would be concerned because there's a lot of things that go through that committee to make its way to the board. So if our goal is to shorten meetings or not see the business meeting last as long if we cannot get through AMP items and get them then they're going to have to go through the business meeting and that's probably one of the shortest presentations we probably have seen that Dr. Chory gave tonight honestly.

163So I those presentations will be you know double triple what we see now at these meetings and from an AM standpoint and that's where your larger conversations happening and where the meat really is occurring. I would be concerned about what that looks like just from an AMP committee standpoint >> for a 45minut to the business meeting. If the goal is to shorten meetings and to not, you know, carry them on to the night, I don't think that's going to accomplish it. But that's just >> Yeah. And and I wouldn't argue against that. I know that AMP is, you know, one of the most important committees that we have. That said, maybe the proposals committee uh or yeah, proposals committee has policy committee. Thank you. It's getting late. Uh maybe they have no topic of discussion

164for that evening, right? and then you have a whole hour and a half to discuss A&P. Again, I'm not saying that this format is going to be perfect and and definitely it could be chaotic. I think it's worth trying and we as the board have the power to revert back at any time to the current format. So, I just want to remind everybody of this. I just have I just have like one thought that because you you talked about earlier um you know if you if you're not on the second committee you can show up at 6:15 or something like that but that's probably not in reality how it would work because you would run the meetings at the conclusion of and so if you're on either of the two committees you got to be

165there at the start because you have no idea when the second one because the second one could start in five minutes or the second one could start in 68 minutes or whatever it is right so it's a very good point actually thank you for bringing that up demar If you have something up Director Pakad, >> I I I'm just I'm just trying to sort of like think of uh both sides of this. I I I'll say this. Uh Mr. Deathmar, there is as I'm thinking about it, there is one advantage to reversing this. And here's what that that is as I'm again as I'm trying to think of something. uh exec sessions are not public. Uh you can have it over zoom or something. So you can have another day of the week where people

166don't have to really get together. We can have a hour long or hour and a half long or whatever you know exact session at another time and uh that's uh could sort of like be like that whereas you can't have a committee meeting that way because committee meeting has to be public and you know these people have to sort of like be there uh in person in that room and so forth. So that is that is one advantage that I see in uh reversing the the order. The uh the the other concerns that sort of like we were talking about I think the more I think about it they the more I'm sort of like convinced that it's uh a little impractical. This is you know am committee was mentioned also uh facilities committee the

167a a big chunk of the time in those uh committees are presentation by the administration it's not uh before anybody sort of like says anything I mean I don't wait until the end of it but uh uh there is a uh you know half an hour 40 minute uh presentation by uh by by somebody you know explaining the stuff and the data and this and this and this and that. So uh uh pitting that into a 45minut uh uh meeting is just not going to work right now. uh uh the the this uh finance committee that we had last time uh we there was there was facilities committee lasted an hour uh and then we started finance committee at 6:00 and I think by the time we were done it was almost 9:00 right so

168uh uh these are not oneoffs and that's the thing that I want to sort of like emphasize that uh the one-offs are the ones where they are short like uh there is like little on the on on the agenda and you can kind of like even you know cancel the meeting. Most of the time when we've met we've had a uh beefy sort of like uh agenda including a lot of uh presentations and conversations by the administration and uh you know by the time we've had our deliberation and uh conversations it's already been sort of like a you know past that 45 minute mark. I'm just sort of like worried that the only actual sort of like impact of this is um the time limit, right? The day of the week thing is less important

169to me that than the fact that if you push it sort of like right before the business meeting, then everybody's sort of like going to be uh you know short in time to get to 7:00 and uh you know the other meeting. It's we and we have to decide you know what is important for us. Do we want to have that uh long conversation you know at the AM or facilities about you know the bleachers or this or that or do we want to sort of like go through it a little more cursory which again both of them are okay with >> director Ericen Parsons had something first. >> Um so I do not feel strongly either way of keeping it the way it is or of switching. I think both of them could be

170successful. Um, I do think if we were to switch, to me, it just makes sense that if you're going to be in this room, it's going to be at whatever time and it's being recorded. It might as well just be the whole business meeting. And then that way people can talk as much as they want to versus saying this is the committee meeting, then this is a committee meeting, then now we're at the business meeting. I would say if we're in this room and we're recording everything, we should just make it an entire business meeting. That way we don't run into the time limits. Um, also hopefully we don't go to midnight, but you know that we it to me it just makes more sense. It flows more then the public can be there. It'll

171be recorded. Um, it doesn't make sense to me to do the committee meeting, the committee meeting if it's all in the same place in the same day. Um, the executive session I think you could do either way because if you start the business meeting at 5:45, you could do the exact session at 5 o'clock. You have 45 minutes. You're fine. Doing it the day before I'm also okay with. But again, it should be I like I think it should be online and most people should be allowed to come online because to come Monday for an hour or two hours, but then to come Tuesday night from 5:30 till whatever time, I think that's a lot to do um twice a month. So for for that, so those would be my suggestions. U but I think

172I think all of these would be successful. I think any way we do it, we're still going to get the work done and get the same things done. It's just the preference of um everyone here and the community. >> Director Carpenter, >> sorry. Um yeah, I think that there was a there was a comment about that um you know the the the committee meetings are are less accessible and some feel that way, right? I mean these meetings are completely accessible. There's two people in the audience, right? Um, so [laughter] the uh but but I I really do feel like what I felt was missing which from the committees was that some of that discussion was was just written on these little summaries and we said yep there's an attached summary and then we moved on

173and and bringing you know executive summaries or a brief discussion like we had tonight. I think that brings all the value of the committee meeting, distills it down to a I think digestible format for both board members who weren't here and also for the public. It's being recorded. Everything I said, you could watch it, right? And I think that that's a very I think that's a successful model. Like I mentioned last time that, you know, part of the importance of the committee is that the board trusts the committees to do the work and then report back, right? And and that that's and if you want to come, you can come, right? Everyone can come. The public can come to the committee meetings, too. And that report now is part of our business meeting and I

174think that's very successful and I would just be very hesitant to to try to cram all that into time periods. And so I if we are going to do it on the same day which I'm totally fine with. I don't I don't really mind the days. I actually think that uh director Parsons is Laurel Eriken Parsons is correct that uh that we should just do one like mega meeting then at that point there. Don't put there's no reason to put artificial time constraints on the committee parts of it. you just run the committees as topics in the meeting and you have from whenever till whenever and uh you know so I I I would if we are gonna distill it down to one day I would prefer it to not put those constraints on us

175>> vote on the items right we wouldn't have to push them till the next meeting >> yeah that's basically getting rid of the committees >> yeah it's basically getting rid of the committees correct >> committee after committee after board meeting like we're doing that anyway essentially right so We might as well make it more official and we can vote and be more efficient. >> Director Santos, >> I appreciate that feedback. Um, you you all mentioned items or, you know, comments that I didn't consider. I I think the most important part here for me would be access to the community, you know, in terms of the recording, right? Because currently I I don't we're not recording the community meetings. Correct. No. So, I think that that to me would be the most important change no matter

176what we do. I'm in agreement. Nobody else. Okay. Seeing that we are we can move on to citizens inquiry and comments. what you waited for. >> Okay. Um, Tanya share. Thank you all. Um, I thought Dr. Tenor's uh, presentation with the keyboards was a great thing. I know like my son in middle school still struggles with that. Um, but at home on our computer, he does really well. So, I think that might be something really good for the younger kids to build those skills because the iPads can be tricky when you first start to learn them, use them. Um, Dr. Pat hit on it a little earlier with Mrs. Velocity. Um you talked about the snow day. Um I did appreciate your explanation. Um in the future I would ask that you possibly check in

177with Helertown um as well for their snow because I can tell you that the High Street Park um was up to Jacob's thigh because they did not clear the sidewalks today. Um and they were standing in the street and our bus stop has approximately 25 children uh middle school and high schoolers that who get on that bus stop. Um so my safety concern for them was they're standing in the street to get on the bus. Um there were several other bus stops in Helertown that were not cleared. So I would ask that we could find a way to work with the burrow as well to ensure that children who are standing at bus stops are safe and they are not waiting for their bus in the street. Um that was all. Thank you. All right.

178All and now what? Oh, >> two. >> Um, thank you very much, Jason Stern, Viola Lane. Uh, good discussion on the budget tonight. Just wanted to bring up one or two things. Uh, it was mentioned, and maybe this was mentioned at the finance committee meeting, uh, that there are nine or 10 new positions to the district. Uh to my knowledge, none of these positions are teachers. I think it would be a good idea in the budget process to make it public if it's not already. If it has been, I apologize. Uh what these new positions are. I was not at the finance meeting, so I did not see that, but I think that would uh be important. Uh also, uh the budget process as far as people asking for things and and getting everything. I

179know throughout my uh 20 years here there's many times when uh the administration has come back and said you need to cut your budget. Now our budget was not very big but where there's bigger budgets like maybe in a science department or things like that. They have come back and said we need to cut this budget. We need to to reduce some things. So just wanted to make uh people aware of that. And I think that was it. Thank you. >> Thank you. All right. Uh, our announcement of our future meetings is February 10th, 2026 at 7 p.m. is a business meeting and February 24th, 2026 at 7 p.m. business meeting. Can I have a motion to adjourn the meeting? What? What? >> Oh, too late. [laughter] >> What did I do? >> Nothing. >>

180Okay. The running joke is if you don't ask for somebody to approve it, you can just say meetings adjourn. >> Oh, okay. [laughter] Well, now I've asked, right? >> All right. So, >> second. >> All right. Motion accepted. Wait. Oh, wait. Do I need to do the discussion? And >> um >> I think there's debate. >> All in favor? I speak.