SV Board Meeting 5-13-2025

001Attendance please. Judy here. I don't know if your mic's on, but we can't hear you on the Zoom. still can't hear you. Just if if if you can borrow uh Mr. Santos's uh mic for a second probably Mrs. Tracy Mike not here. Thank you Dr. Mr. Shamine Pax, I'm present. Mr. J. Santos here. Board President, Mr. Cedric Demar, here. Present. Thank you. Can I get a motion to approve the agenda? So move. Second. Any discussion? All in favor say I. I. I. Opposed. The motion's approved. Uh we had an executive session tonight uh to to discuss personnel and employment agreements. Can I get a motion to approve the minutes from April 22nd? So moved. Any discussion? All in favor say I. I. Opposed. The motion's approved. We have no recognition or presentations this evening. Uh

002so we have the high school SGA representatives report. Oh, we have two. Excellent. Good evening everyone. I'm Zoe and I'm Peter and this is the student activities report for the high school as of today, Tuesday, May 13, 2025. First is academics. High school students are showing their best in the Keystone exams algebra 1 biology and English literature this week. Um, so for music, theater, and arts, the Sen Valley Indoor Percussion Ensemble are silver medalists from their first ever region 2 chapter championships. Four days later, they traveled to the East Coast Championships in Wildwood, New Jersey, where they were finalists against performing groups from a nine-state region. We are so proud of all the hard work and success they achieved in their first ever season. The high school jazz band performed in their final festival of

003the season at Eastn High School where they were ranked as outstanding and were only a few marginal points away from being ranked as superior. They performed this Friday, May 16th, as a part of the spring concert. On Thursday, May 15th, the first spring concert will take place in the high school auditorium. The elementary band and choir will start the concert at 600 p.m. Following the elementary ensembles, the middle school camera and choir will perform. The handbell ensemble will perform and then the choir will be closed out by the high school chamber choir and the choir. On Friday, May 16th, the second spring concert will take place in the high school auditorium. The fifth and sixth grade band will start the concert at 6 p.m. followed by the seventh and eighth grade band. Then the middle

004school jazz band will perform, followed by the high school jazz band. The high school concert band will close out the concert for the evening. All events are free, but please bring canned goods. We support the new Jerusalem food bank and we always get so much food for the holidays, but people are in even greater need during the summer once school lets out. Please give what you can. Next is sports. Congratulations to Cole Hubert. Cole Hubert was the winner of the district district 11A wrestling scholar athlete of the year. The scholar athlete award is an outstanding accomplishment and we are extremely proud of Cole for being recognized for this achievements in wrestling and in the classroom. Congratulations to Jackson Albert. Jackson Albert was selected for the District 11A Christian Luciano Pinner Award. Jackson recorded 29 pins

005during his senior season, the most by any wrestler in District 11 LA. This past weekend, wrestlers competed at the Northeast Regional Championship in search of punching their ticket to the USA National Championships this summer. Congratulations to Luke Chunko, Carter Chunko, and Max San Anton for qualifying to compete for team Pennsylvania. These three young men will be competing in Fargo, North Dakota in July. We would like to congratulate these three wrestlers as they will represent Sen Valley at the national level. Moving on to clubs, Environ team consisting of Stanon Gzudian, Kyle Chi, Jacob Norwood, Ryan Paxad, and Negudian has submitted their oral component and will have their live Q&A session on Wednesday at 1 p.m. This is the first part of a state composite competition. They will travel to Winber, PA next week with Mrs. Mertz

006to compete in the fivestation portion of the state competition. Wish them luck. Congratulations to the following for being elected by their classmates to represent them in SGAA for the 2025 2026 school year. So for the juniors, which are next year seniors, Marin Bowers, Julia Court, Cameron Cookum, Kristen Lucier, Gabriella Silva, and Nitia Takar. For the sophomores, next year's juniors is Sarah Bchini, Mackenzie Johnston, Von K, Reese Marris, Laya Parsons, Body Spencer, and Bridges Stitle. The freshman or next year sophomores are Anthony Albano, Laya Bowers, Shawn Jebich, Gabe K, Gavin Lazlo, Emma Sven, and Andrew Young. Eighth graders, which is the next year's freshman, are Lauren Hawk, Jaden Humphre, Chase Miller, Amelia Roberts, and Talis Todd. Um, this wraps up the students activities report. Are there any questions? Peter, who is your math teacher that taught

007you Roman numerals? It wasn't Mrs. Just though. Okay, just joking. Don't say their name out loud. Thank you, Zoe and Peter. Thank you. you. Okay. Uh um and thank you, Mrs. Chisi. Um superintendent's report, Miss Velcity. I just wanted to give a short and sweet shout out to our middle school IT team who's going to states tomorrow. I believe they're leaving. So, we wish them luck and we it's our first IT team states competition for our school district. So, we're hoping for the very best and we wish them luck and hope to see them with some win on the way back. Amazing. Congratulations to them. Thank you. Courtesy of the Florida visitors agenda items only. Would anyone like to speak? Amy Luckenville, Banko Lane. Um, I'm concerned about the plan for our middle school and

008high school language program. I am feeling overwhelmed by the amount of resignations that our district has experienced in recent years, especially in positions which are not being filled um because we're not rehiring. Um, some questions that keep going around in my head, my children who are in the languages, especially um my one who's in French. Um, are you planning on adding an additional workload to the already overworked teachers in the district? Um, teachers in our district are asked to cover multiple teachers jobs. This leads to burnout and potentially that contributes to the resignations. Could this be a reason that Mrs. Deal is leaving? Was a second Spanish teacher ever hired in the high school? Was deal doing the job of two people at least? Are you asking middle school teachers to go back and forth

009between the high school and the middle school? Are you posting online options for students who deserve to be taught in person for the best educational experience possible? Has an exit interview been conducted so that the school board can be informed? Are you supporting our professional educators? In addition, Miss Deal was the district K through2 foreign language chair. Mrs. deal. We'd like to thank you for your time and knowledge and expertise inspiration to all of the children, not just the ones that were in your class. You'll be very missed. Language credits are required for graduation. Yet, I feel like I keep seeing more value put on the Spanish immersion program, which I think is wonderful, but it's not being stressed in the high school grades. Um, thank you for taking the time to consider my concerns.

010and I look forward to a resolution for us providing our children with educational excellence. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Would anyone else like to speak? Um Megan Lumenino Rosane, I wanted to speak on behalf of our thanks to Dr. Nicolov for all that she has done for our district as both the middle school principal but also as the senior curriculum specialist and our district's federal program coordinator. Um I am interested to find out who could be holding those positions in the future. I am concerned as a parent of an incoming middle schooler that I have not received any communication from the district that Dr. Nicolof is leaving. It just happens to be that I have been informed of these things through other parents who send screenshots and share things. I have not received as

011an elementary school parent nor a incoming middle school parent. So, that's a little frustrating to me. I sat in on a fantastic&p meeting with the goal of the new ELA program that was presented and I'm very disheartened to hear that Dr. Niclav will not be here to be part of that implementation team. I think it is unfortunately inefficient to have that change over to somebody else's responsibility and I'm sure that's not uncommon unfortunately with also the change over in high schools as high school administration as well. Thank you. Anyone else? Steven Denzel, Quartermile Road. Um, is this a question answer type thing or we just make a statement and that's it? Statement. Okay. Okay. And then does it become part of a meeting at a later date? My topic is around uh Well, it's interesting

012we're responding to that to the question, but uh generally the board might talk about it later in the meeting. I haven't attended one in the past, so I just wanted to get a little bit of clarity around that. I guess my topic is around the the sports field and the opportunity to get a turf field in the Sulen Valley School District. That is a a not it's not an agenda item, but you could speak at the later part of the meeting. There's a second agenda or a second public comment section about that. So, yeah. Yeah. Thanks. Okay. I think anyone else would anyone else like to speak? I guess you're the last one. Okay. Okay. Moving on. Um, can I get a motion for presentation of the bills? So moved. Second. Any discussion? All in

013favor say I. I. Opposed. The motion's approved. Can I get a motion to approve the treasures report? Second. Any discussion? All in favor say I. I. Opposed. Motion's approved. Uh on to education. Um can I get a motion to approve the policy's first reading? Moved. Second. Discussion. Uh Miss Flacity or Mr. Bonberg. Can someone just give us the rundown on these policies for the benefit of uh our viewers? The 254 is education opportunity for military children. That's a brand new policy for the district. Uh policy 246 is our school wellness policy which uh was is supposed to be done every 3 years. So it's way behind uh what it needed to be updated. So there's a lot of additional language and changes in that policy based on what the new regs and and the requirements

014are. Okay. Thank you. Any other questions? All um all in favor say I. I I opposed. The motion's approved. Can I get a motion to approve items two and and three uh summer cheerleading camp and environ championship? So moved. Second. Any discussion? I just like to uh um add my congratulations to the Environ team for their outstanding performance this year. All in favor say I. I. I. Opposed. Motion's approved. On to personnel. We have no items for discussion. [Music] Um can I get a motion to approve item number one, compensation and benefits plans? So moved. Second. any discussion? So, uh these are the basically the contracts we have with non-teers. So, there's pair professionals and uh hack93, administrative assistance, food service. I think that um I think I speak for the board but everyone else

015can chime up that uh you know I think our goal in these was to make sure that we are being competitive and retaining good employees and that was our goal going into it and I hope that we achieved that through the discussions that we had with the groups and everything like that. So anyone else? Yeah, I'd just like to add to what uh Mr. Carpenter said. We we worked and especially um Miss Vassley and Mr. Conenburgger worked with the groups to try to meet their their requests as best we could and I think we did a pretty good job. I I hope they agree. All in favor say I. I. I. Opposed. The motion's approved. Can I get a motion for items uh well, I'll read I'm going to read items 2 through 12. Um

016and then I'll ask for a motion. Item number two, part-time bus drivers. Item number three, resignation. Item number four, resignation. Item number five, approve uh 2024 2025 district day-to-day substitute. Item number six, winter athletic head coaches for 2025 2026. Item number seven, 2025 2026 fall athletic head coach cross country. Item number eight, maternity leave. Item number nine, substitute drivers. Item number 10, yearbook adviser and editor. Item number 11, support staff resignations. Item number 12, summer IEP writer. Can I get a motion? So move. Second. discussion. Anyone? I would just like to um express my regret that we are losing u Miss Mrs. Deal. Um she taught Spanish to both of my daughters. Um and um she was a great teacher and they both loved her and and she was very effective. So we'll definitely miss

017her. And I'd also would like to say that uh our district will miss uh Dr. Nicolov. uh she was uh uh added a lot of of value in a lot of different ways and wore many hats and uh uh she'll be missed. All in favor say I. I. I. Opposed. The motions are approved. The motion's approved. Uh we have nothing for facilities uh for finance. Um, can you just uh give us a very quick rundown of where we're at, Dave, and what our mission is for today? Our our mission is to adopt a a proposed budget that will be converted into a a final, uh, budget. Uh, it has to be on display for 30 days. 20 of those days, uh, it's the proposed and then the last 10 days it gets converted to the

018final budget. Um, as we discussed, um, last time that I presented, um, we talked about the health benefits. Um, our broker did go out for stop-loss and did uh sent out to 30 different vendors for stop-loss. Um, nine responded. Three of them gave quotes. Two of them are pending still. Um, the other ones denied giving a quote. Um, I'm happy to announce that um, we've got better numbers for stop-loss. So, my new number for the budget, I'm able to cut uh 958,848 out of the budget based on the those new stop-loss numbers. So, the um estimated expenses for the 2526 would be 59,2138.884 um which would be um 4.1 shy of balanced at this point. Um, part of that, as we discussed, 2.6 of that is the money that we're paying for upfront for the

019votech. Um, so we don't do the borrowing. The other portion of that is 577,000 uh would be for the projects that we're looking at for next year, fixing the roads, different areas. Um, so that would leave us around 988,000 left to balance the budget for next year. Okay, great. Thank you. Um, since the uh since the budget um item doesn't have any figures in it, um I'm thinking that it would be best for us to have our discussions in advance and then we'll make we'll make a motion for um well, we'll have the opportunity for people to make motions after we've heard each other's thoughts um and move forward from there. So, I'd like to open discussion on uh the budget. Would anyone like to speak? So, for this shortfall of $988,000, are we talking

020about a potential tax increase or are we talking about taking that out of the general fund? I think that that's the discussion. Yeah, that's the discussion. Okay. So, my feeling is to take it out of the general fund. I couldn't hear you, John. Sir, my feeling is to take it out of the general fund and not increase. I tend to agree. So, yeah, I agree with that. What was the total of the general fund again, Dave? The total expenditures. General fund. No, the general fund. You mean the fund balance? The fund balance is 15.9. Thank you. C can I say too is I would I would really appreciate hearing from the public on this too. I think that's really important. I would love to hear what parents think about this. They they they can watch

021this, you know, they can um I I would love to hear what uh other stakeholders in the community think about this, you know, because it's really their choice in a way. I mean, we're we represent them. we represent their their and we have certain but they need transparency about what the facts of the situation are and and honestly I mean I would really I would really benefit from knowing what their preferences are you know I mean do they want to take on more taxes um are they willing to do to to do to do even an incremental tax increase uh what how do they what do they think about spending down the fund balance? You know, um uh surely that's something that, you know, some people would have some some thoughts on and um so

022I just want to put that out there for the community might be watching. Um we want to hear what you think too. What are your thoughts and feelings and uh your own um you know um limits about you know questions of taxation and um and spending. You know just for clarity um as a reminder we do need to vote today. Yeah. But this is a preliminary final budget and our final vote will be next month. So um I would like to second uh Mr. Brun's uh request for our uh our citizens to come in and and give us their input on uh on on our budget and and tax increases. So yeah, um that's I mean always great always great to hear from people. I mean one of the things that um the people up

023here have is that we have more information in the sense that um we are here all the time. So we hear all the things that are happening and we're making the decisions about individual items in the budget and right and so um you know I think the public relies on us to kind of explain what it is that that we're sort of seeing the the sort of the facts on the ground. Um you know I'll give my like overview of of how this works right so um you know we have money in a fund balance that we have available to us to make up for budget deficits. Um, my general consensus on that is that we should use that money smartly um to save us money. This is what we're doing, by the way, for

024the $2.6 million. Um, that's part of the We have $4.1 million shortfall right now. Just so everyone, $4.1 million shortfall. $2.6 million of that is going towards the expansion of of Babitz. Okay. And this is uh extremely smart money well spent. Um, if you think that like the school should have no money in savings ever, then that means that we would have been on the hook for $2.6 million plus 30 years of interest. And we now don't have to pay 30 years of interest in a time when interest is high, right? And so that money while we had it saved, we gained interest on it while we saved it and then we spent it wisely to save money. That's a smart move, right? And so those are the kind of decisions that we're obligated to

025make smart moves for our taxpayers, right? And so, you know, you hear things about like, oh, we should never have any money saved or we should have this. This is using your money intelligently within the system that we have to live in and saving people money in the long run. And so, we should definitely do that. Um, use the fund balance money for things that do not compound year-over-year. And something that compounds year over year are wages, right? You you you have an increase, then you have an increase on top of that, then you have an increase on top of that. That's how it is. We pay our employees, their wages go up, their healthcare goes up. Um and so, you know, I really prefer to spend the fund balance on, we'll call them oneoff

026expenses, right? It allows us to not take out loans. It allows us to do that. But I don't think that it's super responsible to use the fund balance to cover your payroll, for instance, right? It's if you're a business, you probably wouldn't want to be using your savings plan to cover your payroll because you can imagine how that rolls year after year. This is a complicated calculation. There is a slight increase that happens even without raising the rate because of like new buildings and assessments and things like that. So, you have to kind of like read the tea leaves a little bit in this. It's always been my preference to read the tea leaves and do small adjustments and seeing what happens. Last year I made a pretty strong argument that we should make a

027small adjustment and see what happens this year because last year the healthcare broke us broker warned us that we were going to have a much more expensive healthcare year this year and we did right and so um I think that where I'm at now is again in that sense where we're $4 million uh in a shortfall um a small adjustment and seeing where it lands out is is where I kind of am $900 and some thousand which is the the sort of the not one off portion of our budget for shortfall. We'll call the 2.6 six and the 500 is it 580 whatever it is 777 577 those are oneoffs so we okay we'll spend those out of the the the fund I'm totally fine with that um $900,000 for us is what percent it

028would be what percent if we covered the entire $900,000 that were it's around 2.7% it would be around a 2.7% increase right to so almost 3% increase to cover the shortfall for $900,000 so an increase is only in the sort of hundreds of thousand 1% is only sort of in the hundreds of thousands of dollars range for us. So I think I'm of the opinion that we make small changes, we make small increments and we see how they play out. Um as opposed to what I would say I've seen from the board in the past, which is doing zeros and then doing something larger like a two and a half. I would prefer to do one or maybe slightly less each year and seeing how that shakes out and being conservative. And that's sort of

029where I am in the sense that I would like to do small things that don't have big impacts and then seeing how they play out. So if you're asking my opinion about what I think we should do, um, and I'm not saying because this is the only option or the right option, I'm saying that this is how I see the optimal option of in the long run being able to keep things as low as possible. I think we should consider something like a 1% or a 3/4 of a percent increase. And we're not going to cover the whole shortfall. We're still going to use fund balance to do it, but then we can see where things play out next year. Yeah. Yeah. Yes. Yeah. Go ahead, Dr. Pox. I just uh wanted to chime in.

030Uh both uh Mr. Brun and you mentioned u uh public particip I don't know whether there is anyone um uh in the room but I I just wanted to uh request if you can please open the floor so that uh uh people who are there if there if there are anybody uh from the public can uh just you know come to the podium and and speak about it you know we can't ask everybody but uh if there are a few people I I I would like to uh to to hear their uh thoughts about this before uh proceeding would could He we're not that emotion. So So uh what what we'll do is um um after we have a motion on the table, we'll open it up uh in case anyone in the audience we

031have three people in the audience for your benefit. Uh Dr. Pakad. So if any of them would like to speak getting big smiles from each of them as if maybe they don't um but we'll still offer the opportunity once we have a motion on the table. So just to finish my thought, like I think philosophically I'm I'm in agreement with people in the sense that I'm trying to over the long course keep things as low as possible and while still fulfilling our commitments to our employees, our teachers, everyone and but that I see the optimal way to do that as much increments over over year to year as opposed to sort of zeros and bigger increments which is how the board operated in the past, right? I there was a lot of zeros and there

032was like a two or something, you know, I just prefer to be different than that. I'm not saying either approach is incorrect. I'm just saying that that is my approach that I prefer. And then one of the things you always add that kind of uh made me think about it is the amount of interest we get on the fund balance, right? Yes, we Yes, you mentioned that. I thought you were going Oh, sorry. Yeah. Yeah. Interest rates are high right now. We have money in the fund balance. If you spend it, then you don't get interest. So you actually reduce your your income if you spend the fund balance. That's another thing that you have to think of when you when you talk about spending fund balance. Now in the case of Babitz, of course,

033this is a good deal for us because we would have had to take interest on. So it was a wash, right? But in terms of like paying your payroll with it, that's not you're not saving the same amount of money. Uh would anyone else like to speak? Yeah. Dave, could you if we did a 1% increase, could do you have those numbers? I'm sorry. To ask you, Adam, if you did a 1% increase, it would bring in around $358,000 approximately. Do you have the the median tax levy for a household or average is fine, too? Sorry, I I I hate I mean I mean I have I mean obviously if you did a 1% and if the house was I don't have what our specific is but I mean if you did a 1% and

034the house was assessed at $200,000 um it's about $110. So it's about 100. So we're talking about uh if you have an house assessed at 200,000 and we're talking about $100 increase for the year. So about 10 bucks a month something like that which is not nothing completely understand but it's very low. This was my point of keeping it low, right? So, anyone else? I think one of the other things to think about cuz Don you were talking about interest rates and you know when we ask people when we raise the taxes by 1% granted it's low but that's $110 that they can't invest and get that interest money for them and then year-over-year that's another $110 every year that they can't invest. So, I think we also have to think about it from that

035standpoint in that people may want to invest their own money to make their interest versus um having the school make interest off their money. Right. But in the end, the school is going to have expenses and they're going to have to get paid. So, it's like Right. But that's what I'm saying is because you're saying every year to do it and now if the interest rates are good, the people people the public may want to keep their money to invest it versus later having a tax increase. So maybe the interest rates aren't as good and they don't feel that pull to invest their money. Yeah. On on that point, um I I respect the idea that um that the more money we have in our fund balance, the more interest we earn. We've benefited from

036that quite a bit in the past. Um but that money came from our taxpayers. Sure. Yeah. And and it could have been in their pocket and we have the opportunity to put some of that back into their pockets. To be clear, my proposal did not My proposal was not to grow the fund balance. It was to shrink it by a smaller amount. I just want to like be very clear where we're at here. The proposal is not to increase taxes to raise our savings account. It is to drop our savings account by slightly less money. That's it. Um there there also um I mean Don I mean I I really appreciate all that you're saying and I there's a lot of there's a lot of clarity and it's in in your message and um and

037I think that the community I'm sure really appreciates it. Um I I I feel concerned about the the general economy also. Um uh many people believe that what's happening nationally is going to it amounts to a huge tax increase for consumers or will amount to but it's changing every day. And um I've heard estimates as much as like $4,000 a year per household, you know, for the a average the average American, you know, middle class household will be paying $4,000 a year more um in what or as in essence a tax. And um and and I I I I I just feel like we can't operate outside of that ecosystem. Um even though we have different obligations and we have different responsibilities, um it I I I feel concerned about um the the the burden

038on on uh our community, especially like in places like Helertown where, you know, it's it's people don't have a lot of money sometimes and um you know, they're going to be paying more for you know, stuff from the dollar store, from from um you know Target, wherever. Um but that could all change next week too, of course. And um that's part of the problem. There's so much uncertainty. Um and that that's I just want to say that too. There's a lot of uncertainty. Well, I mean, no, I'm I if your argument is that this year lends itself to a specific um hardship and so you would rather do nothing this year and potentially have to do more next year. I'm receptive to the argument. I I I said it very clearly that I think that

039my path is the optimal path, but if you think that there's a specific short-term event that makes it so that that's the case, then that's fine. You know, a specific thing that could disappear tomorrow depending on who's mean to who and on social media. I I can't I I say this in all sincerity is that I'm my only concern is the operation of this school district and the best and most efficient way to do that for the best price for people here. And uh you know that's that's really it. And I can't change what Harrisburg or or Washington DC does and I just have to like live within that thing. So, well, you know, truly what's the consequence of not raising taxes? It's that we would have less money in our savings and that would

040have a little bit less buying power. It would uh increase slower because there'd be less money. So, less money gained in interest. I think that that's a small price to pay so that we can prevent taxes being raised and, you know, potentially putting people who may be in economic hardship in even further economic hardship, right? You know, um I'd rather wait and see, you know, if we could table this. We cannot table the motion. Just want to be very clear. Not the motion. I understand. If we could revisit the wanting to increase taxes by, you know, 1%. I would appreciate that. Me personally, I'd say let's just take it out of the fund balance. And if there is any want by our citizens to increase their taxes, I think they should come and tell us.

041No, I I think that when you phrase it so uh inartfully that you will uh never get the answer that you're looking for or you will get the answer that you're looking for, but that's a uh completely useless endeavor. Let me put it more specific then for you, Mr. Carpenter. We just did increase taxes if I recall correctly. So, let's leave it alone for now. So um different way to say did someone on would you okay go ahead Dr. Poxet no you finish your thoughts you started oh I I was just going to say that um sort of the the way that uh Mr. Carpenter kind of outlined we can do we have kind of two paths. We can do a small tax increase now and and then again you know in in the f

042in future years or we can do no tax increase now and potentially have a larger increase in the future. And I I kind of I'm I'm leaning toward um waiting because then our taxpayers have that money in their pocket and we may need to have a larger tax increase, maybe two or possibly 3% in some future year. But in the meantime, all that money is in our taxpayers pockets instead of in our fund balance earning interest, which you know, I I love having that interest. uh you know it makes our lives a little easier when we're doing budgeting but it's their money and I feel better when it's in their pocket than in ours. May I go ahead go ahead Dr. Pa. Yeah if Miss Demco uh please go ahead. No you were next. I

043apologize. Uh just uh just wanted to uh chime in. Uh Mr. Santos asked I I know rhetorically about uh what's the effect of uh 1% versus uh not for uh for the fund balance. The the the difference is uh $350,000 uh and uh the the difference is whether we are going to have uh $12.1 million in our saving account or 11.8. So that's the that's basically the difference. uh I really with with the with the numbers that uh we have been talking about I really don't think any of them are wrong answers. So I uh uh want want to acknowledge uh what Mr. Carpenter uh mentioned about uh uh the rationale and uh and I think there is there's a lot of u wisdom in that uh and I'm I'm not saying anything that anyone

044hasn't said but uh in this sort of like uh type of environment economic environment that we are dealing with considering that uh and I say this fully knowing that this can go both ways but uh the the numbers that Mr. Bonenburgger mentioned are uh estimates and these are estimates that uh are hinging upon two uh uh uh at least two uh uh projections. One is about the actual cost of healthcare for next year which depends on whether people in medicine and so forth they will uh uh they will need and and so forth you know and you know we were talking about the uh national trends. there was an executive order that was signed just yesterday about uh the cost of the prescription drugs u and you know I don't know how it's going to

045go and I don't know whether it's going to sort of like make any difference in terms of our uh uh cost for healthcare but but all of these uh are sort of like things that are in the in the in in the works so uh so that so that's that's one thing that is an estimate and the other thing is the cost of u charter and I mentioned that because there are two parameters in that one is uh the number of students that we will have in the charter and I think Mr. Bonenburgger has made the most conservative of the estimates that you know he could you know in that uh universe in terms of the number of students and uh the other part of it is part of the governor's budget which is uh

046you know something that we haven't counted on. Uh the the truth is that we have taken parts of the governor's budget that are giving us like very little money and we have said that that part is going to pass and we have ignored parts of the governor's budget that will save us a bunch of money. That's uh the uh the tuition for the charter school and we have said well that's just not going to pass. I'm just saying that uh that's 600 more than $600,000 that we can kind of like uh gain as a result of that if the governor's budget uh passes uh completely. So u so the point I'm trying to make is that that 900 uh and change that we are talking about is an estimate uh 900 out of 59 million

047that's less than 2% uh uh I'm I'm comfortable with sort of like looking at that looking at what Mr. Brun said about the uh the mood of the country and economy and the fact that there is uncertainty that makes people uh anxious about uh where their economics are and uh uh you know we can with the with the amount of money that we have in the in the bank we can always come back and uh sort like fix the uh the slopes of uh revenue versus expenses. So, uh uh I I I I just wanted to sort of like put that out there that uh this year in particular uh uh I more than others I'm in favor of uh keeping the taxes uh the same as uh it has been uh and uh uh

048you know when when when it's time to make a motion I will make a motion to uh uh to to that effect uh for for a 0% tax increase this year. Yeah. So thank you Shim. Yeah. I just want to just clarify, you know, so it's clear is that um it's important for this board to talk in front of the public to explain our rationale, our thinking, why we do things, right? And so um you know I there's nothing that anyone has said here that is offensive to me, right? In sense of like people have a priority of zero, people have a priority of one. These are all right around the edges, right? You know, this district has had the lowest tax increase over the last like 14 years of any district by like a

049huge margin. Okay, so uh like Bethlehem has increased taxes like 35% in the past 14 years. Okay, we've increased them like six. So just like I just want everyone to understand that we're talking about really threading the needle here. We're not talking about like being Allentown and things like that. So this is like a lot of this is um like spiritual or or intellectual disagreements around the margins. It's not like there's uh you know this is going to be a big change here. And so I I'm completely okay with that. I what I don't want us to do is engage in conversations that are not helpful for the public. Um and with all respect like asking the public if they ever want a tax increase is not helpful for the public. It does it does

050nothing but um reduce the actual responsibility we have to inform the public to to something that is is not helpful. It's not helpful. And so everyone should understand here that we're all trying to make the best most optimal decisions. Uh and but it is incumbent upon us to educate why we're making those things and what we're doing. So that's all just an additional point. So this is and Mrs. Demco I apologize. I just want to say that you were talking about Bethlehem and Allentown. There are other uh I'm going to call the suburban districts which is what we are called that are uh doing uh you know 5% and 10% tax increases this year. I read it in the news that one of uh one of the districts in sort of like a greater Lehigh

051Valley was considering that those numbers. So I agree with you that regardless of where we come down, you know, this is uh uh you know showing that we are in a we are in a pretty good shape in uh in general when it comes to uh to to the uh to the finances. I I apologize uh that I I spoke again. Thank you. Um nothing is cut from this budget. Is that accurate? Everything is in there from our last discussion. We haven't cut curriculum. Um we got the letter from LL. in everything's in there. Is that accurate? Nothing is is missing. Nothing has gone. Correct. From our last discussion, there has not been any cuts. Okay. Um except the uh the healthcare that Mr. That's an okay thing. Yeah. Saving $900,000. Savings. Good. Thank you.

052And thank you for this um fund balance as well. Um what was our I'm sorry. Could you remind me of the tax increase from last year? Last Yeah, last budget. did um it was probably I think it was wasn't a 1% again because it was only 300. I thought it was less than one because something happened at the very end where we lowered it. Yeah. I thought it was like less than one. Yeah, it was No, I think last year it was 1%. Yeah, it was 1%. Okay. Yeah. Like 340,000. Yep. And I know you can't predict what's going to happen in the end, but where are we with spending that? You know, are we on track? That's how much we're going to spend. I, you know, just right now, and I understand you don't

053have that crystal ball. Yeah. I mean, I I don't have the crystal ball. I mean, obviously, the concern is the health benefits. what I think what I budgeted compared to what um the broker was saying I think is they're running it's running higher. So that would be my only concern. Um right now as of what I just looked at five as of today's date we we spent 43 million of our budget so far out of the 54 million you know. So um but hopefully no unanticipated expenditures and we come to that. I mean, we were predicted to take 800,000 out of fund balance and hopefully that is where we come more or more closer close to that Rebecca because I'll recall back to that the person who last year said if you don't spend it,

054are you going to give us a tax cut? Did you say that again? I'm sorry. Last year there was a member from the public who stood up and said, "Okay, I'm hearing what you're saying. we need this we need this increase but at the end can you cut the cut it back if you don't need it that's that's what he said so I always recall that conversation of you know of going um so um we've gone you know we I think we've had a good discussion here um I think we need to move to the next step of actually creating a motion would anyone one like to initiate a motion. I think that one last thing. Um yeah, sure. Go ahead, Mr. Brown. I I know there was talk about I just want just just

055for everybody else's benefit after we have a motion, we can continue the discussion but focus on that that motion, but go ahead. It was suggested that uh that we should ask people and who are here to speak and I'm I I feel a little uncomfortable about that because it just seems like it's a lot of it's sort of putting pressure on people that just seems a little unfair, you know. Well, everyone can decide for themselves if they'd like to speak. We're not going to force them up to the podium. But we could say something up here, you know, it would be wrong. Mr. Mark, may I make a motion? Sure. Go ahead. So, my my motion is uh to uh have what's uh uh on the agenda and uh fill the numbers with uh zero

056dollars with uh zero tax increase. The budget number will have will not be zero dollars. That will be 59 million. No, no, additional. Mr. Bonenberger, can you can you give us the numbers that would belong on the motion uh with the 0% tax increase? Yes, it would be the 59,213 21384 would be the total budget. um coming out of fund balance would be uh 4,175,759 and the millage rate will stay at the um 55 hold on uh 55.2055. Okay. Um, so we have a motion um for a 0% tax increase for the dollar figures that Mr. Bonenburgger just stated. Uh, is there any further discussion? You need a second. Second. We have a motion. Need a second. Oh. Oh, I I'm sorry. Yes. A second, please. I I'll second it. Okay. Okay. Um, should we

057do them first or should we discuss first? You can discuss first. Okay. All right. Um, further discussion. Okay. just say you know I mean I I I I speak again uh because I I made the motion. So this is I I really think uh the approach for the for for this year and uh uh you know hopefully this is the approach that we we take is that this is taxpayers money. Uh we should use it judiciously for things that are necessary. We should sort of like always look at it from uh from that perspective as to uh what u needs to be done uh and u take the minimum that we can take from uh from from from the from the citizens and at the same time on the other side of it is that

058uh this is a school where uh it is an incredibly important uh uh mission that uh this school has and uh the resources that we have here at uh at the at the school should be adequate for uh the mission of the school educating the kids and making sure that they have access to uh the best facilities the best education and uh uh the best preparation for their for their future. So uh I I I want to sort of like have uh both sides of this sort of like uh in in mind uh uh when we make this decision uh about uh you know how much of people's money we are going to bring basically in just just a note and this is sort of like to what uh Mrs. uh Demco mentioned is that

059uh uh uh we we set the rate today. So today is the day that we are deciding you know how much of money from people we are going to bring. All of it is new money right. Uh the question is whether it is the same new amount of money that we were bringing or we were asking them to give last year or is it going to be more than that. So uh uh that's uh that's that's the way that I'm uh I'm I'm looking at this generally. Uh and uh again I mean if if there is a need to ask for uh for more of uh people's money I'm I'm okay with that. Uh I I I just don't think that this year we are necessarily in that uh in that situation. Thank you. Go

060ahead Mr. Taches. Thank you. I'll say something very brief. My rationale is very simple. you know, in an era, in a time where people are just getting it from all sides, you know, from the federal, state, and potentially local level, last thing that they need is that their school district also piles on on top of them. So, I think that this relief for at least a year would be excellent. I think that we should revisit the tax conversation next year and that a moderate increase would be appropriate then, but we are definitely in a wait and see period when it comes to the economy and just living situations in general, especially for those most unfortunate. But this is Yeah, exactly. But this isn't relief. It's the same taxes. Relief would be a half percent less.

061Exactly. I mean, relief in that we're not going to increase it. Taxes exist, unfortunately. That's the only thing that's guaranteed next to death, right? Um, relief in that we're not going to increase them. We're not voting on death, are we? It could. The whole thing is quite complicated, right? Because, you know, there's wage gains, there's real wage gains, right? Like, when you're on the margins like this, you know, are we really increasing people's taxes? If you don't get a raise in a year, you actually are taking a pay cut, right? Like not in real dollars, but in effective dollars, right? And so if you hold your taxes flat for a year, you actually are getting a slight pay cut. No one wants to hear that. You're actually like getting a slight tax cut. No one

062wants to hear that because, you know, they it's at the same dollar amount they're paying, but you know, every people get raises and then the money that they're paying is a smaller percentage of the thing that they have. And so it's all quite complicated. So yeah, you have a point there. Um, I'd like to open the floor to anyone in the public that would like to speak. This is your chance to come and and talk about what sort of uh your perspective on our budget. It's obviously not required that you speak. So, don't feel guilty if you're not running toward the podium. Okay. Okay. Seeing no one, um, any last, uh, comments before we take a vote on this motion? Okay. Uh, Judy, can you call the role? I have the microphone. Um, yeah. It's

063for a 0% tax increase with the numbers that Mr. Bonenburgger read. Are you okay with the memory of those numbers? Try to read it. I mean, I filled it. Okay. Sure. Yeah. Why don't you go ahead, Dave? So follow make sure I'm good here. Uh so this would be approve the 2526 proposed final budget consistent with the school code in the amount of 59 million213,884 with 4,175,759 coming from fund balance and a zero millage increase. The millage rate will be is it 0.550255 Dave? It's 55.2055. Yeah. Okay. So 55255 inspection of the budget will only be done electronically via the district website. 55.205 2055 not 0255 2055. Okay. Okay. That is the motion. We're ready for a roll call. Okay. Mr. John Ki. I. Mrs. Davian Demco. Yes. Dr. Laurel Ericson Parsons. Yes. Mrs. Tracy

064Magnata. Yes. Mr. J. Santos. Yes. Mr. William Brun. Yes. Mr. Donald Carpenter. Yes. Dr. Shamim Paxad. Yes. Board President, Mr. Cedric Deetmar. Yes. Unanimous. The motion is approved. Okay. Great work everybody. All right. Uh, on to community updates. Uh, Mr. Conte, anything from the Chamber of Commerce? No, nothing to report. Okay. Uh, Miss Magna, anything from the foundation? Nothing to report. Okay. U, we don't have an update on Northampton Community College at this time. Uh, the Bethlehem area vote. Um, do you want to say anything on that? Sure. Um, we did go over the renovations and it was really good news that the new purchase um has limited things that need to be done to it. A couple of walls, obviously some HVAC uh sorry, exterior signage, minimum wall installs, ADA compliance things, and um

065HVAC um welding seems to be the biggest because of all the equipment. Correct me if I'm wrong. Um, and there was some work being done at the main campus and restrooms. And it was decided our last meeting that this structure that was purchased um really needs hardly any um renovation. So, an architect was not decided on upon being hired for it because of that. Um, there's also on June 3rd from 5:00 p.m. to 6:30 Bridges Senior Recognition up at the Votech. And don't forget food truck Tuesdays. Just to add a tiny bit on the uh the the the construction work. Um, the engineering firm CH CHA was hired to initiate the process. they will be the general contractor for the project and there are two parts to it. One that uh Miss Demco described uh

066which is the uh modifications to the the factory building in South Bethlehem and then the other part is modifications to the main Bethlehem to the main VOTE campus in in Bethlehem uh so that it will be able to support the the new programs that are slated to go in there. So, uh, just to just to add that little bit, I brought the handout in case anybody wants to see the interior. There's there's in that handout, there's a floor plan uh, for the factory building as well as for the the current VOTE building if you're curious where the programs or even a list of the new programs, they're in there as well. Okay. Um, the Colonial Intermediate Unit, Dr. Pakad. Well, there are a few uh events uh in the next couple of weeks. I'm just

067going to uh mention them here. Special Olympic event, swimming is on May 15th at uh 10:00 at Pocono Mountain West High School if anyone's interested. Uh the IU graduation is May 15th also 6:00 to 8:00 p.m. at the Colonial Academy and a special Olympic event. Another one, this is for the preschools. uh and they meet uh on May 29th uh at the Window Community Park if anyone is interested. These are uh amazing events uh and seeing these kids uh compete has been a a real joy. Thank you. Um okay. books. Do we do we people we have a record? No, people just receive this. Why don't we issue them? Why don't we have them respond by the next meeting and then we'll just approve the balance. That's okay. Um, Jody didn't mention this. I I

068can Well, Judy, um, are we okay to um to approve this next time or do we do we need to do it today? Okay. This will give everyone an opportunity to submit their ballots so that then we can approve what what our directors have voted for. Yeah. And then what we'll simply do is once the ballots are received and probably submitted uh to Mr. Regal will just have an approval of the ballots as as as provided to Miss Regal. Great. Yep. Okay. Thank you. Do we need a motion to table that or no? Okay. Yeah, we're good. Okay. Great. Um Okay. Uh PSBA, uh Mr. Carpenter or Mr. Santos. So, was was there a motion to table or was there not? No, there there isn't a need, Dr. Pacad. Um we're simply going to direct

069all all members to fill out the ballot and provide it to the secretary. Okay, thank you. Uh yeah, so we already took care of our required responsibility to nominate our liaison. So that is taken care of it. We didn't hit the deadline yet, but we already took care of it. So that's good. Um there's various uh deadlines for submitting bylaws to PSBA or legislative platforms. If you want to have an opinion on any of those things, there's deadlines coming up within the next month where you could submit um your your proposals for those things. Um there is I don't know if we do this I it came up in the liaison email which is apply for a great PA schools designation um which has to do with how academically rigorous how financially responsible and how

070communitycentric your district is. So I don't know if we do it but the deadline is coming up to apply for that. And there's also for those uh people who perform there is a call for uh for performers at the PSBA leadership conference. So if you really want to if you're a student who wants to perform somewhere and like in front of the meetings and things like that then uh then there's a there's the option to do that. I'm sure you can just find it on PSBA like student performers. No director performers. No director performers. Great. Thank thank you Mr. Carpenter. Uh Mr. Santos, you have anything? Yeah, outside of that, just want to mention a few webinars that are happening this uh month in May. There's the perfectionism in the legal profession webinar that seems

071pretty interesting. And it seems here like they are also starting a series of webinars that will continue on a month-by-month basis which include the building bridges webinar series and the alliance partner webinar series as well. So those again uh will be a monthly endeavor towards the end of the month. And finally, we have the safety and security board report webinar that I think we should all um take a gander at. That seems pretty interesting. Just to make sure that we're up to date on safety and security. Other than that, we're good to go. Great. Thank you. Okay, we're on to uh new business. Does anyone have anything new they'd like to bring up? Well, go ahead. Thank you. Um today was a particularly rough day for me. Um, we laid to rest a 41-year-old employee

072for not 41, I'm sorry, who worked here for 41 years. Um, those of you who know Ronani. Um, he worked in the elementary school and he was the perfect, Judy will attest, the perfect daytime janitor. He interacted with the students and you could see today how loved he was by the massive number of people who turned out for his um funeral today. So Ron, we love you. We always will. And you rest in peace, my friend. Thank you. And Ron also took up the task of driving even though he was retired driving our van for special needs students even though he was retired. Thank you. Thank you. Yes. I wanted to uh just for discussion I I wanted to u there I have I have received a letter from u a member of the public

073actually two letters in the last week and we've heard um comments to hear about the today here about the topic of um turnover and um I I think it is something that is worth uh talking about more deeply and maybe even um thinking about uh the possibility of um like you know an ad hoc committee or something like that where we we take a look at how we can address that. The thing is um I I I think it has to be demystified. Uh it's not I don't think it's a a magical phenomenon turnover. Um I think that um there are thing practical things that we can do and look at to try to understand what's really happening and what's not happening too because I think that's that's really important. As as I understand it,

074it is a national problem. Um I'm not using that as as an excuse because when we campaigned two years ago, the four of us who are on here now, that was something we talked about, you know. Um and uh I definitely remain really um sensitive to that topic when someone brings it up. Um and I'm not the only person. It's not just our campaign can I know all of us it it's something that we worry about. We uh the average tenure of a principal in in the United States is is four years. Um that doesn't seem very long to me, you know. Um uh but when I think back to when I was in high school, um it seemed like principles never change, you know. Um maybe it was different then. And um and it's

075very disappointing when we invest uh a lot into uh and for parents too to see people move, you know, um at at critical times. U um um I was looking at um a little bit about what you know what c how do you reduce turnover um and it's stuff that we talk about all the time. It's like um you know um making sure there's high quality professional opportunities for for administrators to develop their own careers. um making sure they have um like authentic decision-m authority. Uh they're not micromanaged. Um making sure that the accountability that they have is is not punitive, you know, um and and is more um holistic. um obviously compensation and uh has to be competitive and and adequate. Um and then um lastly working conditions, you know, um and um you

076know, those are those are some things, but I I do think it's something that's worth taking seriously um uh maybe separately at some point. And I don't I guess maybe it would be something to bring up at U academic personnel the possibility of of a of a temporary ad hoc committee where we kind of look at I know one of the things that I when we were running for office uh someone sent us a a really interesting um Excel file that had turnover in the district for the it was like it was amazing. it was like the last 20 years and um um and you know it wasn't comparative you know but it was startling you know it didn't have the it didn't show other districts and what's happening because I mean who no one

077can do that but maybe a committee could look into something like that and try to get an accurate sense of really kind of what's happening why is it happening here because even if we're not that unusual this is our home and we want it to be the best. I don't you know whether it's, you know, it's it's, you know, typical or not or there's a national problem or not. So anyway, I just wanted to raise that up as maybe something to bring up in academic personnel as a as a future agenda item or and and I want the people who are talking about the public to know that, you know, I hear you. You know, it's not this isn't like uh you're not just talking to a wall, you know, that's all. Can I just

078add on to what you're saying, Bill, and say that I'm equally concerned about the turnover uh all across the district, not at any one level, just in general. So, I I echo your your concern there. Um if I may. Yeah. Go ahead. Go ahead, Mr. Um I would be remiss not to say something just on behalf of administration. And I appreciate you bringing it up because there is nationally an issue with administrators turning over at all levels, building all the way up to district office. Um, this is something that any of us who have been in administrative meetings, we often get updates yearly of what's the national trends, Pennsylvania trends. So, this is something we follow as administrators. I will say that when you're focusing on mental health, our administration and administration across the state

079and country, there's not the incentive there for administrators the same way there is with teachers. That's just a fact in terms of um agreements and CBAs. That's just what it looks like overarchingly. The other issue is with social media administration are usually the individuals within a school district that are the ones who are most hammered. And I'm just using that word because it's probably the most defining one to use. And it is different in across the board in different districts have it at different levels. And I think that this is something I worry about with administrators in our district in particular and my administrative team because I watch what happens on social media. I'm not part of it, but it gets sent to me frequently. My my members of my administration see it frequently. And

080if people do not think that that does not impact them from any level from a mental health standpoint personally the attacks that they sometimes receive and I know it's very easy to blow off but it's a job they do a lot of sacrificing for their job and to have that be what they receive on the opposite end of it impacts them. I watch it every day and every week when I'm with them and in meetings and when they're being repeated. So, I think discussing it is a great thing and bringing it to light is fantastic because I think in every facet we could always improve and get better at what we do and how a district works as a whole at every level. But I also think it would be um not not the best

081if we're sitting in a convers and having a conversation about it and not mentioning that piece of it because the me you want your your administrators to be the strongest they can be every single day because they are dealing with things internally that never even come to light and they're balancing their personal life as we all are. So when you're getting social media and getting uh criticized in the manner that they have received it and continue to receive it, I think it's very difficult to walk positively into your job and feel like the community that your work and you're being devoted to and you're putting time above and beyond into with kids that you embrace as your own each and every day. And uh they need the support of parents. They need the support of

082the community and when they don't have it impacts them to a much deeper level than I think anyone sees. And when we're talking about administrators that are currently leaving, if you do not think that that's a piece of it, then I would sit back and just, you know, heed what I'm saying because it absolutely plays into each one of our lives every single day. So, thank you. Yep. Thank you. Yeah, I think that um you know, obviously we received letters about um about this and you know, I'll say very honestly like I would have been my strong preference to retain Dr. Nicolov, right? I really appreciated what she brought to the district. Um she was always helpful answering questions. She did a lot of work on areas that were very public facing and and put

083a lot of time and effort in there and I really respected her expertise and and everything that she brought. So, it would have been my strong preference to retain her. Um, you know, this is kind of goes into a larger conversation in the sense that we're a small school district. If we lose a middle school principal, it's the only one we have, right? We just have one. And so, we just lost a third of our building principles in one person, right? And um and we we lost twothirds of our building principles in terms of you know people this year where we had to now we you know we have someone filling in right now and we are doing that search and then now we have to have another search and um so it creates a

084lot of churn and I I it is my strong preference to not do that that has to be addressed through uh you know a number of ways right large I think it largely boils down to working conditions and compensation right and so you know We all have jobs and so you know we all make that same calculation about working conditions and and compensation and um you know one of the things that is in this plan is that we need to look at some of the compensation numbers right because that is an important part of it. If we're way below market value on our administrators um they're going to leave for better jobs. That's just like so-called fact. anyone here gets offered way more money to do the same job, they're going to leave and do

085that and that's going to create a churn, right? And so we have to balance that with um you know, what kind of person we want to hire, how much experience do they have, what is the rate that we're offering on the market. So you know, we have to address and look at all that. And I I will say that I think that we are doing that. We are in the middle of doing that. It just so happens that this happened in the middle of us doing that, which is unfortunate. And you know, like I said, it would have been my preference that we could have kept Dr. Nicklo. It didn't end up that way. And and you know, I I can't we can't change that, but I wish it would would have been different. And

086and I understand the frustration of the community when when there is turnover. I mean, I had the same like the same person was the principal, I think, in all of my school districts for like the entire time I was there, right? I mean, so I I get it, you know. Um there there's certain turnover you'll never be able to stop in the sense that it's aspirational for the employee, right? If someone wants to become an assistant principal and then a principal and a superintendent, our district's very small. There are opportunities to advance like that, they might not be high, right? And so we might have that turnover just because of personal advancement. Then there's the ones where people are unhappy with their compensation or their working conditions. And those ones we should be able to

087try to address that. So great. Thank you. Anyone else? Okay. Any uh old business, citizens inquiries and comments on any topic? Sir, I believe you had something you wanted to say. Any topic. Yeah, the turnover. That's That's a good one. Uh some I'm glad that you're going to make that a more formal approach to it. Uh Steven Danzel Quartermile. My topic is back on money. Uh so but it you know I just heard Dr. Poxad say about you know best for the team or best for the district how to get people here also administrators. But on the topic of um turf field at the high school just to put it out there is that part of has that been discussed? I'm sure it has. I looked through a number of past meeting uh minutes. I

088didn't see anything on it. So, I want to get an update, I guess, where we are in terms of putting a turf field in at the high school uh in Sen Valley or is is or do I just start saying I think it's not in the budget for next year, right, Dave? What what what we what we we we can't do a kind of a Q&A thing, you can make your statements and then after you sit then then we can respond at that time. That's fair. So, I'm sure it's been coming up for some time. I'm over the years. It's probably been around for uh maybe 20 years, I don't know, but we currently do not have a turf field at Sen Valley. I think that it would really improve the attractiveness of the district

089overall for the students. Uh right now we have 10 home varsity sports going on, varsity events going on at the stadium for the whole year. Uh you would be able to have six sports going forward. You'd have football, girls and boys soccer, girls and boy, girls and boys lacrosse and field hockey. Other schools in the Colonial League, most schools, 11 of them do have the turf field. Most schools in district 11 have a turf field. Increase the competition level of the athletes. Everyone's used to playing on the same surface. We're not playing on the same surface as other schools for similar sports. uh going into districts, leagues, states, they're all held on turf fields for those sports that I mentioned, even colleges and universities. Uh more time to practice days like today, no practice on

090grass fields. Um it's more exciting. Kids get the chance if you're playing at a stadium get to play under the lights. You can share multiple sports in the same same evening. Four o'clock start, six o'clock start, 8 o'clock start. kids get their name announced for special activities that they've done, uh, special plays, just more interaction for kids and parents and spectators to understand and get to cheer on their um, person they're cheering on. Um locker rooms can go inside versus uh right now all fields except for the football stadium don't have any type of locker room for changing restrooms getting out of the weather if it turns in clement. Parents uh more spectators can sit down in the stands. Went to a a girls lacrosse game on May 1st. 150 people. There's 20 people sitting

091in stands. You have the field over there where the soccer and lacrosse play. everyone else is on grass standing uh or or folding chair um just not attractive I don't think uh getting other people to be you know come to Sen Valley you know bring your own chair uh access to concession there's no food or beverage it's better viewing experience being able to sit down as a parent or spectator actually using a restroom not a portaot um parents can get to the events also or because they can be held under the lights or at six o'clock a later start time. uh it's kind of providing a varsity experience I guess not sitting on grass you know using a regular restroom snack beverage high school sports most other sports do have these type of opportunities for

092parents and and um spectators to watch the games um even if you're wheelchair difficult walking it's very tough to move around on grass obviously the stadium has uh paved areas so there's a stadium why not put it to use as I mentioned I think there's five home football games, there's five home track meets. That's all that's being used for right now. With the turf, obviously you get six sports, additional six sports to use the field. Utilize this large scoreboard to announce um scores, advertising, announcing the g players games. Uh funding, that's obviously a big topic, right? And I understand that. You know, you have concession stands, parents can volunteer, bring stuff. Most every game I've been to outside of sock and they charge two, four, five bucks. People will pay for that and I get

093it. We're talking about bigger numbers. Um, you can sell bricks boards along the fence. You can sell advertising. Some of the stadiums they have advertising. We have a great big video now. You can sell advertising on there. Donations from families and businesses. Obviously, local hospitals, the big one. Who's it going to be? Well, now Jefferson might want to make an impact in the area. uh or or uh St. Luke's. Um some of the recent schools that have done this, you know, suddenly I put it in opened in 2023. 2.9 million was bleachers track and field everything. Uh Jim Thorp did in 2020 for 1.7. Now they heightened said 6.5. Now that was stadium field, concession stand. Maybe they did a little bit more than others. Um, I guess I'm just want to know where we

094are, what has been done, and what would it take to get uh students, athletes the opportunity to play on a field in an environment that is going to help them be more competitive, better experience for parents, and utilize the stadium that we actually have with a little bit more of a professional environment. lockers, concession stands, restrooms for all. Um, I think that's pretty much what I wanted to say and I didn't know where to start. I started with the athletic director. She's been out recently just o so out of office. Um, didn't know where else to go, so I wanted to bring it up to your attention. Appreciate you listening. Great. Thank you. Thank you. very well thought out. I sure can say something. Um, so I think every year I've been here, we've surf

095has been brought up and it's just not really been carried on. So, um I will say that there's been conversation and there was conversation when we were um negotiating with uh both of the hospitals of what that looked like and we looked into what the price of a turf field is and we all know that and it's very high. It's probably over two million at this point. Um and that was discussed at the time that we were and we didn't obviously get the money for it because it would be in um and there has been discussion. I know that there is athletically a debate on whether or not it actually is the best to be playing on, even though it looks really nice. Um, and there's many schools in the area that our students do

096play on. Um, there has been discussion internally, I can tell you, not necessarily brought to the committee about uh what schools have done from revenue standpoint. So, sponsorships and what that looks like. Parkland did a great job with putting in some of their uh not their football field, but I think it was their lacrosse and maybe soccer and they did it strictly on sponsorships. They're much larger school district. It looks a little different up there, but at the same time, we did look at different options. So, we continue the conversation, but there's not something that has been brought up from, you know, a committee standpoint, right? I was an English major so not not very athletic. Uh what's a turf field as close to grass right now? Synthetic astroturf if you're familiar with that term.

097Astro turf. Yeah. So, I think you have to I think you have to do some fill of the pellets or something like that. It's probably minimal compared to grass, but um actually, you know, I got we got an email about this. I don't know if it was from you. I apologize. Uh what's that? Okay, we got an email about this. I apologize if I do not remember the sender. My my sincere apology. I responded back and I asked them out of a place of complete ignorance that all of the like uh because I I watch sports but you know that that's it. All the professional sports teams that I've seen the trend in the last 20 years has been to all get rid of all their artificial turfs and go back to natural gas grass

098because it it they their claim being that it um it reduces the number of injuries and they have like way money invested in their players, right? So they're super hyper sensitive about even small changes in injury rates because their whole investment is like paying someone $100 million and they absolutely do not want to pay someone $100 million to sit in a hospital room like or or at their house watching TV, right? And um I kind of got a response back that was like, "Yeah, but they have the money to have like professional arborists maintain that grass the whole time." Which is a fair response. Um, but just I just wanted to be open about like my own question about like I thought that the trend was away from this and I they they responded to

099me that the trend locally has been towards it. Um, but I I I actually did not I didn't look into anything further, but that's just where I'm at. Obviously, schools don't have the same incentive for their athletes not get hurt because it doesn't cost us $und00 million if an athlete gets hurt, even though we don't want it to happen, right? Obviously, we don't. But so I just wanted to clarify that I did asked an email and I've received some response and thought I would be helpful for the conversation. All right. Well, yeah, some some things to think about there. It's it is it is um all the all the pros that you listed are are you know, I hadn't really thought about it, you know, ticking down the list of the advantages that you had

100mentioned. Um but then there's the disadvantage that Mr. Carpenter mentioned. So it's uh but it's something that maybe we can talk about uh at uh an upcoming committee meeting. Soccer it makes it's interesting because like they're they're like uh young boys in Switzerland and um uh Bodlint and uh in in Norway they use artificial uh fields there and it does change the nature of the of the of the play which is interesting. It's not I'm not saying it's bad or good. It's just it it makes a little faster game. Um and it kind of the ball bounces a little more. Um it can be kind of interesting. So, you know, that's that's my one minute the trend is to go towards playing baseball consistent field. If you do advance in playoffs, you're you're used to

101playing on grass, go to field hockey, and then it would go to turf, which is going to be a bit different. I I I like a lot of the ideas that were uh proposed there. Um I think the order in which they're adopted would be very important if it were to be something that would be of interest to us. Um definitely want to create that fund and balance from the concessions before we even consider you know uh making a big change like two turf. Um my recommendation bring it to the facilities committee. That would be probably the best way to to approach this and and have that discussion. I will say just if I could speak uh again on a term the priority though we love we would love to see a turf field somewhere

102because it's been discussed even though it's not the best uh option for athletes for moving forward I guess from Mr. Carpenter. Um, lights on our fields probably would be taking more of a priority than that. And I'm just being forthright just because the only field that we have right now um that can be played is that and we have many many teams that are taking the field and are restricted by when they can play. So it is quite an issue with our facilities being used with our sports teams and the lighting would make a significant difference for all of our teams. Also playing under the lights for any athlete is also you know something that they love to do and is usually you know put up there. Exactly. Exactly. Exactly. So they're very restricted. You

103know the sun goes down and that's usually before any parent goes is out of work. So before even looking to our field, we would probably put the priority as even the lighting if we could do it um for our athletes for that reason and many more. So we talk about lighting not the stadium lighting other fields is that yeah like the baseball field or something. Baseball field they're all restricted right now. So they they are playing right after school up until a certain point and it really does restrict the use of fields not just for our players but also then for any of our youth teams that are coming in and using our fields. Um, and again, playing under the lights is huge for kids, especially high school athletes. And when you're talking about when

104parents are seeing their kids play, they are restricted to the hours and they're usually kids are done with games before they're out of work. So, that was the other thing that was being discussed. Thank you, Mr. Denzel, for bringing that up. Just a quick note, facilities is canled this this month. So, it was supposed to be tomorrow. just just just to you know to to your point here um Miss Vaccity is the the order of events would be incredibly important you know I I absolutely agree you know things like lights would have to take priority again concession stand I I think that's a really good idea make sure that we have that but you know bathrooms uh locker rooms that you know what we would want all of those things but again how we approach

105it and what we can do at what time is really the only question. So, so yeah, no, please, please do make those suggestions and let's tackle those slides. Great. All right. Thanks everybody for a great discussion there. Oh, yeah. Yeah, sure. Well, I was about to, so it's good that you spoke up. I may tell you something. Sorry. Um, I don't know how much can be shared here. I just was curious if there were any updates as far as probably hiring processes. I know that the school district's sup assistant superintendent was posted January 13th, February 11th, and it was included in the minutes that was progressing in the March 11th minutes. I wasn't sure if there was any update on that. I see that the communications specialist is not currently listed, so I wasn't sure

106if there was an update on that. On January 6th, the high school principal was listed on school spring and I don't know if there is any update on that. I do see that all three of those things are off and the middle school principal is on there. So again, just looking for that communication piece um to stay informed of what's going on within those schools. And again, if you can't answer that here, I respect it. if there's a place where we can find those answers whether it's an AM meeting that was cancelled last week so it was not a place that I wasn't sure if I was supposed to ask but um appreciate any insight I can provide some information um and hopefully I'll get them all so yell to me if I didn't um

107the communication specialist position was not included in the budget so that position is not going to be hired for this year the assistant superintendent position um there is an offer on the table to a candidate so we are in the process of working that out. The high school principal position has always the intention was that Dr. Cowsky was the interim principal until the conclusion of the year. So once we have um some details teased out in terms of what that process looks like moving forward um we would share that with our community and middle school principal is posted and we would be starting that process of um interviewing soon. May is a horrible time to start an interview process for any principal in general. So if you are interviewing principles, moving principles, any of that

108of May is the worst time to do it in just because they're wrapping up their building. There's awards ceremonies, concerts, graduation, all that. So to bring candidates in at that time is also a really difficult thing to do. So this is why it hasn't probably progressed the way everybody kind of expected. So, we'll provide updates as they come along though. Did I forget anyone? I don't I think I got all of the position. Okay, go ahead. Yeah, the communication specialist that was cut from the budget that was not in the initial budget. So, when we had presented it, that position was not included into the budget. um it was not one that we felt like we could move forward with um just because of the extra positions that we had. So we had decided just

109that was not one of the priorities moving forward. So that was removed from the budget. We did administratively. Yeah. Um, so how will that affect our communication? Um, in the district right now we don't have one. So that would be something that um we would continue with the people that we currently have in place. The um Donovan group is still included with their contract that we have going into next year. So they would continue to work with us in terms of communication moving forward. the so-called words that would have been part of what their job would have been, not all of it. Is it because of the um well I mean I wasn't at finance committee meeting um maybe this was discussed in detail at at those meetings. Is that uh it may have been

110it uh not in detail probably not. Yeah. Okay. Okay. All right. Uh moving on. Uh announcements. Uh, we have uh meetings on May 27th at 7 p.m. here in this room and again on June 10th at 7:00 p.m.