001here mrsy magn here Dr jide I'm present J Santos here board president Mr Cedric deor here all pres great thank you um can I get a motion to approve the agenda so move second any discussion all in favor say I I opposed motions approved uh we had an executive session today to discuss Personnel matters um can I get a motion to approve the minutes from February 11th 2025 so move second any discussion all in favor say I I I'm opposed motions approved uh for recognition tonight unfortunately uh George Len Bill uh is not able to make it we will uh recognize him next time uh we on to our presentations our first presentation uh Miss Downer we're ready for you hi oh hi hello my name is nikisha I'm the new F Source coordinator at
002Su Valley um I just did a small presentation and a tasting of some of the new menus that we new menu items that we have new products that we're bringing to be able to bring more scratch cooking into Su Valley um so first is a little bit about me I have a bachelor's in Food Service management I'm currently in the process of getting my masters in nutrition and dietetics um my career started out in Resturant management that was always my first Passion and then I slowly changed into school nutrition once I had kids so I was able to combine two of my favorite things being able to feed children and being able to keep my culinary passion um so here are the culinary goals that we have have for the cafeteria starting this year gradually
003starting to put more scratch cooking into the cafeteria less processed foods um being able to bring down the low sodium um bringing in more fresh fruit and vegetables by bringing more DOD funds in as well um and just improving the nutrition and enjoyability for each student current year so far we have started scratch cooking slowly but surely um our first thing we are doing homemade meat sauce homemade taco meat um we did a slow pork shoulder which we shredded and we did for tacos burritos and we did it as uh taco bar or or Burrito Bar like Chipotle the kids loved it um we did homemade chili um we did uh chicken noodle soup from scratch which we have on the table for you to be able to try and we did homemade chicken alfredo
004we made the fresh alfredo sauce breaded chicken cuted it up boiled the pasta and we tossed it as the kids came through the line next year my aim is to be at least 50% scratch cooking slowly moving away from processed food and if we're bringing in processed food we're bringing in better quality processed food um some of the new menu items U we have gold kiss chicken patties with a Belgian waffle we used to have Tyson chicken which was very small thin um now we have gold Cris which is mostly meat it's a full muscle Patty it's no longer just a whole bunch of meat mashed in together and it looks like it's coming from McDonald's um we're doing bone barbecue chicken on the bone um we're marinating it overnight cooking it in oven brushing
005with with a honey glazed barbecue and to give it a nice Char um and we're doing a new and approved grilled cheese we're taking garlic toast cheese melting it so you're able to get a whole new flavor so Elementary side one impr proven that we made we eliminated the cereal bowls so now we have three different Alternatives one hot which is pizza which is mini Tony's Pizza which is whole wheat low sodium and lowfat mozzarella cheese and we're also doing a bill your own parfait we have a build your own parfait which the kids can dump um it has graham crackers dried cranberries and a low-fat yogurt and we're also offering a pencil box which is just pretzels apple slices sun butter and carrots so it's something that they could grab in go it's cold
006it's healthy and it's another alternative to the cereal okay so our goals to just increase participation in keep healthy appealing meals more fresh more balanced meal choices and having the kids interact with the meal choices I send out a survey to ask the kids what do you want to see on your menu and believe it or not they actually want to see more homecooked meals and less processed FS okay so we do have a taste test um our new menu I have chicken and waffles which is a Belgian chicken it's a Belgian waffle goldkey chicken which is a full muscle chicken breast homemade chicken noodle soup and a new improved grilled cheese and we also have the walkin Taco which we made the meat sauce fresh today you could smell it throughout the whole high
007school so help yourselves and feedback so homemade means uh made here not a pure home no no this is uh what one one serious question in terms of U uh but first of all thank you very much I I really appreciate uh the presentation and I think uh what you've done has uh really uh changed the way that uh the kids uh view the cafeteria uh I I know a lot of them who were not uh eating uh at the cafeteria and now they uh they they they do and the reason I know it is because uh I get uh uh woken up every morning uh by my kids saying that can I take 20 bucks from your wallet so and this never happened uh uh before uh and if you can please also convey
008my uh gratitudes and uh thanks to your uh to your staff U Helen is here obviously and uh you too Helen please um the in terms of cost has uh this change uh you know how's it impacted that the cost of uh food I know the cost for the for the kids Remains the Same but uh from from the school's uh side um to believe it or not when you do scratch cooking like we're bringing in gr be um raw ground beef um we have grants for unprocessed um to be able to use towards that and also it's cheaper to bring in a raw product than to have it actually go through the manufacturer get made into a taco meat and then you're able to save on the sodium and everything else so the price
009is actually going down Co wise I I just wanted to I wrote a note to Jay just like Am I Dreaming like it's really it's incredible I it's really great to hear this I wow um God it's incredible I'm so happy to hear this um it puts us really on on the you know in the Forefront of you know Innovation at cafeteras that that it doesn't necessarily have to cost a lot too you know and it's really great thank you do you have enough prep time do with your workers and things is there enough it actually it actually works out better and I've noticed that with the staff they will actually work faster because they're having more pride in what they're cooking so we're not just going into the freezer opening up a box and
010putting on the tray no we're actually cooking you're putting love into your food so you're having more pride in what you're serving to the kids so they're they're working harder just be able just because they have that pride and what they're putting into their foods thank you anybody else yeah just I just want to say uh thank you I really appreciate it my son came home a couple a while ago back and just started talking about how good this chicken Alfredo thing was that he had for lunch and I was like that sounds pretty good he was he went on and on and on about it the whole time he was doing his homework so uh yeah he he was I he's having a blast he does say that he misses the total chicken patty
011though that's his one thing is he's like I missed the just just chicken patty you know I'm like well you know take the good with the bad you what else yes very briefly thank you so much for this presentation you know there there's nothing better than a good home-cooked meal and you know I fear for those who might not have something like that so I really appreciate you taking an eye to make sure that students have you know scratch food and that it's healthy right so I appreciate apprciate that I'm uh welcoming all the innovations that you might also bring in the future to this program I you know see great things coming from this so thank you so much and yeah I just want to make sure that this program is also sustainable as
012well right it um appears to be that the staff are enjoying the program and I want to make sure that that continues over time so thank you so much no problem thank you I have a pure curiosity question of self-interest did the coffee milk make the cut so the some kids no actually okay B and the kids was like no this is not coffee and I'm just like we had a bit of an administrative wager going on whether or not it was going to so um you have all this wonderful food sampling so and I'm sure some of it's hot so we can probably take a minute to go awesome I have I have a different uh suggestion Let's uh finish the meeting quick so that we can given the size of the packet I'm
013not sure that's going to happen Ju Just One Last Thing I I just want to re I just also want to add my thanks um this the the stereotypical thing we hear is that oh we can't serve the food the kids healthy food because they won't eat it they won't like it and it's too expensive to make but you you've broken all the molds and and I salute you for that thank you thank you should be okay we're gonna we're gonna take a short adjournment uh while we yeah rather not adjournment a recess excuse me uh while we uh sample the food and we'll be back uh in a few minutes e e e we intimidating to follow that presentation you know we did we had a culinary program so note to file for next
014year clearly really made me nervous when you said let's let run through the meeting and then we'll eat now the pressure is on me between and it's also nice to to talk to a nicely fed happy board so I'm Dave Ruth the president of Northampton Community College thanks for having me here us here this evening I want to introduce my colleague Jason lawal who's our CFO and he'll uh be presenting as well and our liaison for this board from our leadership team is Denise who Denise Smith who's our uh she leads our foundation um so um a face you should know and I also want to say thank you for giving us Susan Baxter as our trustee on our our Board of Trustees at Northampton thank you for your partnership uh a long-standing partnership thank
015you for sending your students to us we love having them we'll give we'll go over some of those numbers but thank you to your superintendent as well Jamie thanks for your partnership it's it's good working with you so oops each year Northampton Community College and hello everyone in administration and audience as well because you know I didn't mean to ignore you uh each year NCC serves about 30,000 students between our credit programs and our community ed programs we've seen a nice Healthy Growth in our enrollment over the last three years um this year our fall enrollment was up winter was up um it says 1% but it was actually 10% in Spring we're actually showing around 6% right now and I want to tell you that that some of those enrollment numbers are not just
016new students but we're retaining the students we have which is a a strong effort towards the things we're doing with intrusive advising and and orientation programs and it's working um all in all nearly one in four Northampton County High School grad will at some point in their career maybe not fresh out of high school end up attending Northampton Community High uh Community College and we are the top college choice for Inc count high school students in the in in the region um we pride ourselves on being a best value 98% of the students we survey say that we are a great value and we are consistently among the lowest tuition if not the lowest in Pennsylvania um so affordability and access are very important to us but of course course quality is as well 96%
017of our graduates tell us that they're either uh employed in their major or continuing their education so that's our success rate 96% it's uh pretty much top of class and we're really pleased with that and that's really a testament to our faculty and our staff who all of us are solely focused on our students and their success and many of our programs our students are hired before they even finish and have 100% placement R for our graduates so we're proud of those numbers as well just a quick look at tuition costs um that's our tuition cost compared to our local competitors if you will or our colleagues institutions um so we are very affordable add that's yearly by the way and if you add housing and dining because yes we do have residence Halls on
018campus um where students can get that live on experience uh at a two-year institution something that's not really very common I know when I went to community college that was certainly not an option and you know I had lunch in my car in between classes but we have a very active campus environment so uh we are very affordable but if you add housing and dining to that it brings it to about uh between 10 and 12 so um in terms of rewards and recognitions last year we were named best college in the Lehigh Valley okay we were tied with Lehigh but still that's a pretty good pretty good audience to be in uh we can continue to win Regional and national awards as you see here and we're continually ranked among the best there's three
019of our programs criminal justice Communications and accounting but like I said uh you get that that four-year kind of feel at a two-year institution we have theater we have clubs and organizations we have a student newspaper and student government we have an athletic program with seven Collegiate sports that actually in the last three years all of our Sports have been uh involved in post season tournament play so they're actually our student athletes are scholars in the classroom but also on the field or the court so they're doing really well here's a list of we actually have a summer theater program and this summer we're showing aita and hairspray and million-dollar quartet these are fantastic shows we actually bring in Talent from Broadway and talent from the Lehigh Valley to work with our students so our
020students are studying learning and acting with the best from New York and the best in the region it's quite it's quite phenomenal and you go to these shows and they're best deal very fun date night if you for for many so I encourage you to come if you're able and then I mentioned at our Athletics program for nine years in a row we've won the champions of character award which means that our students are not just athletes that go to school and take classes but they're engaged in our local communities as well and we're very proud of them for that reason here's a profile the students that you send to us we have 125 students and 34 dual enrollment students most of them are part-time most of them are female um and so uh they
021do really well when they come to Northampton and here's a profile of one of those graduates who uh um she's in the radiography program which by the way has 100% pass rate and completion rate and she will be graduating this may uh a recipient of three different scholarships she's truly a shining star uh she's employed at a local hospital and attending school full-time and that's a typical profile of our students that are students but also have uh very busy lives outside of of class live with children and jobs and other thing but she is looking forward to impacting the patients that she works with in her career once she uh finishes with her degree so we're really proud of Emily and and uh you should be as well and now I'm going to turn it
022over to Jason who's going to go over all the numbers and logistics for our annual operating budget and our request to you so Jason good evening board thank you president Ruth um thank you again for your support over the years I'm going to take you through the numbers for our budget budget summary for Northampton Community College for 2526 is just North of $81 million Allin that will cover our credit instruction our non-credit or alternative instruction also a lot of our auxiliary Enterprises that we operate such as a child care center dining Hampton winds our restaurant our bookstore is all inclusive in that $81 million it's about a 2.92% revenue and expense budget increase over the current year and our capital budget is set around $8.5 million that's actually a reduction over the current year we
023had some debt that we retired and we did not take on any new debt in the current year so that's Improvement for our capital budget as well when we break down our total budget we like to look at what our credit instruction budget is that's for our credit bearing programs um that's about $69 million of that 81 and that is going up 3.15% the credit instruction budget is where the sponsors appropriation supports it um so if you look at our complete School District Appropriations for all of our credit instruction it's 11% but really we carve out what the cost is just for Northampton County students where our sponsors participate and you support us 21% of that budget so when you're looking at support it's it's really the credit instruction budget not the non-credit or the
024other auxiliaries where do our students come from 2324 we had 163,000 credit hours we had 10,000 plus students during the year age ranges from 14 up to 81 students 57% come from our sponsoring districts in this County 21% of our population comes from Monroe County and then you can see the remain Remer of the areas we do get strong participation from other counties in PA a lot of it has to do with our housing on campus but still we get a lot of penetration coming from Lehigh County from skoo County from Montgomery County from Bucks County and then even in New Jersey with our proximity close to the Border a lot of students choose us over community colleges in New Jersey for their education some more comparative student data this is fall 24 compared to
025fall 23 they align very similar on a year-to-year basis can see a little slight uptick in dual enrollment students this fall compared to Prior year what I like to point out is while there's 159 students you can see they're enrolled in 51 different programs of study or Majors so quite the variety of academic selection made by S Valley students Health Sciences General Studies and business are the top three programs of study that they choose health science is kind of that entry level area so if you're interested in something you're not sure if it's nursing yet if it's radiography stenography Dental um many other programs that we offer that's where a lot of students start their programming they get a lot of their science programs taking care of in that first year their chem their bio
026their Anatomy very high subscribed program from um all of our campuses this is a budget history snapshot uh seven-year period you can see back in 1920 preco where our credit hours stood we did hit our bottom a few years after that but now we are on a steady increase uh the past several years saw 3 to 4% increases this year in total we're looking to see over 5% credit hour increase and we're expecting next year we'll see about the same four to 5% increase in credit hours and then also FTE students our budget kind of has followed that same line uh took a downturn during the lower years and now it's back on the rise credit hours are up 14% since 2122 um that is uncommon for community colleges across the state we are blessed
027to have a good area to live in with strong growth families moving in and they're taking advantage of the education that we can offer state and local sponsor support has followed the credit enrollment Trend if you look back over the past years of support that we received from both of our major sponsors they're up up 14.7% as well couple pie charts on the credit instruction budget that I talked about in the beginning to show you where our revenues come from tuition and fee revenue for our college is up over 50% of our Revenue that we received that's different than a lot of other community colleges because we get so many students that are outside of the sponsoring District that pay double or even pay triple than the in-county rates you can see the state supports
028in the mid 20s and then the school district support as well the other area is investment income and other auxiliary income that comes in through the credit side the expense pie chart has stayed the same for several years our instruction is our major category there so all of our faculty all of our academic programming or instructional materials and supplies that get used in the classroom makes up 55% our it budget or the instructional resource budget is climbing um being in education you know that you need to be a technology leader in the classroom and in the offices so we are really uh advancing and enhancing what we're doing um with that over the next three to five periods we have a good strategic plan that's going to bring all of our technology in our classrooms
029to the modern day experience so that our students get the best learning environment they can we have many budget initiatives going into 5 26 I'm going to flip through some of them here aligning our course offerings with when students want to take those courses is a big deal right now as president Ruth mentioned our campus is very vibrant these days with the increase in enrollment the steady 9-2 time block is really jam-packed so we're looking at where we can expand on the shoulders whether that's earlier in the morning later in the afternoon or expanding into the evening to be sure that we can offer courses and classes when students can take them with an adult population coming back to school now a lot of those time slots in the evenings is better for them perhaps
030even on the weekend so we're exploring other alternatives to uh besides that 9-2 time period we're updating our learning management system we're currently on blackboard which is a learning management system we've been using for probably 25 years um we did an RFP search this past year and we selected bright space or desire to learn this software system will be used by all of our students both on campus and remote um it really is where all their classroom materials their instruction their videos their uh course books will all reside within desire to learn it's really going to improve The Learning Experience from a technology end we have a program at the college called students first um it's a committee that was formed well over a year ago before we put our strategic plan together to really
031emphasize that our students are why we are at the institution so we're going to take them through every process from application to registration to working with financial aid to paying their bill to getting enrolled in their classes it's really a a a students first mentality that we're taking at Northampton and we're already seeing the the rewards of that because our retention numbers are so much higher than they were say five six years ago before we took this extra measure campus amenities are important cleaning up the outside and the inside of our buildings is a strategic measure that we're taking we're we're enhancing our dining facilities we're looking to do a renovation of our current Library turning it into a learning comment creating more spaces for our students to sit study learn outside of the classroom
032student Support Services continues to matter a lot our advising and our counseling services are used so much more than they were a decade ago so we're really ramping up the support we have to offer our students beyond the academic environment and then we have a new VP of Workforce Development Shan Thomas will be joining Northampton in mid-march she comes to us from Rowan Community College she will be bringing a Workforce Development Focus to our community ed division we've had for years a strong Workforce um training and professional development program with many employers throughout the region and throughout the Poconos um we're really going to bring her in and let her go and see what she can create the workforce needs have changed so much over the past 5 to 10 years we need to rest
033strategize what we're offering these companies to be sure that we're aligning with their goals then we're investing in the workforce of NCC much like I'm sure you do here at sockum Valley School District your employees are the front line you deal with the students so our faculty our staff deal with students every day we're making sure that we have enough training enough program development resources and just enough compassion and support around our faculty and staff to make sure that they're their best self when they're dealing with students on a day-to-day basis and then we like to get the word out um NCC brand we're very proud of it we think we do great work here in the Lehigh Valley in the Pocono so we want to make sure that we're enhancing our marketing and communication
034efforts to attract all the students may not know about us a lot of people have moved into the Lehi Valley over the past decade and it may not be the first college they think of we want it to be going forward budget highlights Revenue section we're looking tuition fee Revenue make up 1.9 million uh sponsor subsidy increase goes up about $282,000 State subsidy we're not sure what that will be yet um that could be anywhere from 0 to 5% we're not sure about that then we have additional growth in a lot of our course fees and our sciences and that'll pick up a couple hundred thousand as well so our that you can see our increase to our Revenue budget side there's a a 2.9 and then on the expense side most of our expense
035increase is our wage increases for our three unions that we have and then our administrative staff um we have you know advancement in infotech that I've talked about that will add to the budget and we had two programs that started over the past several years through an earmark Grant we got through through the federal government cardiovascular sonography and respiratory therapy program that Grant has ended it paid for the first two years of the faculty all the supplies and all the equipment so now we got to weave those expenses into our operating budget that so that's another increase we have there total budget Revenue expenses balanced at $81 million 2.92% increase the Blue Line shows where the sponsor support in the increase of the year and then the capital budget as I talked about actually went
036down because of that Debt Service reduction there's no increase to the total Capital that we're going to request from the sponsors this year it will stay the same at a total of 175,000 of free fees um we are next to the lowest cost in the state CCAC or alag Community College is the lowest um for the current year we are $185 per credit credit hour we are looking to move that to $195 per credit hour in 2526 that will still put us at the bottom of this list you can see where some of the other colleges across the state have their uh rates set quite a bit higher than Northampton there's more details on the tuition fees going up $10 for the in county and then slightly higher increases for Monroe County the out of
037County and then the international and out of state still very competitive um across the landscape both locally n PA and also New Jersey how how much more is it to go if you're out of County or out of state for tuition it's double for out of okay triple okay great thank you future assumptions you know we're not through the budget season yet so we have some things we're still working on state support once we find out what that number will be we'll plug that in the budget as president Ruth mentioned we had a strong spring enrollment we have um a couple more sessions starting one actually started today but we're looking at five to six% increase there we do have some adjustments to make on our expense side related to those enrollment growth and then
038we have other other varials enrollment volume FIA and financial aid had some issues this year so we're looking at that impact on our students going forward optimistic that that'll all get ironed out over the next few months and they'll have a good summer financial aid season this is a slide I've shown before this is how the school district contributions are allocated for 2526 it's around $7.3 million for the operating budget and then it's divided up based on the five-year average of the FTE from each district capital budget is allocated a little bit differently but again there's no increase this year it's going to stay again at the 175,000 um in total so on the left hand side you can see s and Valley's 5-year average actually decreased relative to all the other sponsors that is
039why on the right hand side you will see the total contribution is 282,000 that's actually a deduction from the current years's amount that you uh support us with and that's really really related to the amount of students over that 5year period so total support from districts this year is just North of 7.5 that's for operating in capital it's about a 3.9% increase in aggregate questions from the board on our 2526 budget um I have just U I had a couple questions I wanted to ask about um uh I think these would probably be more aimed at um um uh uh president Ruth but um I I I wanted to ask if if you could um if you could talk a little bit about um how um what you do at at Northampton uh is similar
040and and and also how it contrasts with um uh with CTE High School level CT because it's it's something that in other words like our votch um education that we that we um that goes through babits what kind of pathway like how the pathways connect or how do they differ from the pathways at um at at a at a place like Northampton to me it's really important to understand that to to you know kind of understand the where such an important institution kind of fits in our in our our own you know kind of um Vision here so um the biggest difference is when they come to Northampton they get college credit for the work that they're doing but that doesn't mean that we don't give college credit to those that go through the CTE
041so if you go to bavitz and you take welding for example if you end up transferring to Northampton to finish the welding program we'll use prior learning so we'll use the credits that you've earned through the CTE and transform them into academic credit at the college so you don't start over at welding 101 if there is such a thing but you know you don't start over at the very beginning and you get the academic credit so one would always say oh you're better off going to the college because then you get college credit but you actually will get college credit by going to bavitz first we do that on purpose so that we don't compete with our colleagues in CTE um but we have you know it's it's it's especially in in um areas where
042it's convenient and close by it's it's much more accommodating to come to the college but we don't want to put ourselves in a position where we're competing with CIT mcti or babits in that case so um it's very similar in terms of what we do but for us it's usually degree or certificate based so that you're not just taking something to see if you're interested you know but you're actually doing something for completion we focus on skills more than we do the degree so come to us get the skills you need to get a good job and then come back to us and get a degree and then those credits will transfer and and will will accumulate to a degree or a certificate um and then in most cases your employer will actually pay for
043the tuition so that you can complete your degree so did I answer your question yeah yeah I mean it's sort of a um kind of an well it is totally open-end question but so if a student graduates from uh High School uh here and um was not involved in in CTE but then expresses kind of a late blooming interest in in something like um uh welding for example um uh Northampton would be a place for such a student to find happens time so you know now you're coming as a high school graduate with a high school diploma entering into one of our trades fields and Welding electrical HVAC autot Tech funeral services culinary all those programs but you you come in that case you're coming in as a college student if you will uh and
044and if you had credits like if you had culinary credits or that they like I said we would work on pla to give you academic credit for those but if you're not then you are starting over or starting fresh I should say you're not starting over but you would start at the welding 101 level because you don't have that prior experience and one just one last question um this is like a a huge question but longterm um looking at the um um long-term job market for um technical education vocational education that is offered through the um through Northampton what sort of trend lines are you seeing these days or what are you kind of envisioning for the the future yes so every year um they put out a list of high priority occupations and those
045truck driving manufacturing look at the Lehigh Valley you know warehouses and um everything from forklift operator to truck driver to you know culinary Hospitality in the pocos especially that's a huge culinary Hospitality so we constantly look at that we're constantly in touch with business and industry asking them what are their needs and how can we help them get to where they need to be with upskilling or Skilling their employees so um but the trend I honestly feel that part of that enrollment growth that we've experienced over the last three years has been because we've been focusing on those trades programs prior to that we really we we had them but we didn't really advertise them and and they were under enrolled or barely enrolled and now we're actually renovating space because our welding program is
046is has outgrown its current space so just by focusing and and there's some stigma about the trades you know like oh you should go to college well you know our by the way uh welding uh you get a certificate in welding starting salaries $90,000 not so bad right um if this President thing doesn't work out I might go in the welding program you know but but I mean that's a it's not a it's it's the The Shame of the trades has really dissipated now and we need the trades we need people doing those jobs as as per that high priority occupation list that I mentioned so that's what helps guide and govern what programs we should do when ppnl contacted us and said we really need line workers because we're Nimble and agile we were
047able to put uh poles up in our backyard over on the other side of campus and we were educating line workers within three months now it's one of our highest enrolled quickest enrolled 100% completion rate and those students have jobs before they even finish climbing po literally so um and then it's it's for cable networks it's not just for ppnl but it's so we are in touch with the region and the workforce of the region to find out what those sometimes it's soft skills or Business program sometimes it's uh leadership development or welding or Machining Precision Machining right now is taking off and that's part of our Harel Hall renovation is to put additional equipment in just for Machining and those students as well uh we can do about 12 we have a partnership with
048babits and CIT to do those programs because of the equipment costs why buy new equipment we can just use theirs they're finished with it at 3:00 you know so we can get in there in nights and weekends and evenings and so um but those students are scooped up immediately upon completion so we're adding to that program as well fantastic thank you so much going every year it changes so yeah absolutely my pleasure any other questions go ahead next time we'll bring chicken and waffles I think thank you very much thank you Dr Ruth so I have a uh comment on a question so the the comment is uh the other uh best college in the area is uh accepting as default uh the credits that your students are uh completing at NCC and uh more
049and more they're taking our transfer students now yeah yeah and that's say this is like one of the one of the big questions in that transfer is whether what they've done in the first two years would be allowing them to uh finish college in four years uh upon transfer and uh uh in the past there was a discrepancy between what the students were thinking and what the what the faculty had in mind uh and uh that has uh kind of like converged in in the other direction to to to the point that uh Now the default is that those are accepted unless uh there is a reason not to and I'm just sharing with you and you uh probably know this already that uh most of the time the reasons for uh uh for for
050credits not being accepted is not because of the rigor of the uh of the courses but it's because the top ICS that are expected are not covered as part of the syllabi so uh just a sort of like plea if you uh can uh share that with uh with your academic units to just make sure that you know what they offer is something that uh is consistent in terms of the content with what uh what colleges uh foure colleges are are expecting I think that's a that's a fantastic path for completing a four-year College it's a lot cheaper obviously yes uh the other side of the country where I live for uh for for for for uh for for for a decade uh uh it was a much more uh uh common path to a
051four-year College completion to to go to Community College for two years and then transfer and here in Pennsylvania I don't see a lot of it I see some and uh I think I think we can have more of that it's good for uh for the students good for uh for for the for the colleges and universities yeah we work really hard and very closely with our neighboring institutions so that that happen happens so that when you transfer you come in at Junior status so there's no you know English is English uh we have some challenges like with engineering courses or whatever and so we do work individually but uh our trans Lehi I'm a graduate of Lehi so I can say but they they were a little um not as willing to take our graduates
052years ago but they do take our students now we have several you know we have a number this is the largest class this past year anyway but um schools like Moravian University tell us that our students that transfer to Moravian actually Fair better than native Moravian students that started there because if you think about it we've kind of weeded out all the the the um retention challenges these students are coming they're ready to go they know they're they're they're focused and ready to complete so yeah yeah the question that I had was about the uh the budget and in particular to see whether the maybe more of your question but I'll take the answer from either so changes that have happened in the past month uh in terms of the federal grants and uh what
053the colleges and universities are receiving from uh from Washington uh do you anticipate that that would impact the budget that you presented today either uh on the revenue side or on the other side of the expenditures uh to a point where you may need to uh revise it and come back with some either additional um uh requests from the funding districts or or the state or cut some of the programs or things that you were planning to do yeah I I mean I I'll give you my answer and then you could either agree I hope you agree but uh uh I I don't think so I'm hopeful that it won't but programs like Perkins that's a federally funded program we get about a million dollars a year from Perkins and that doesn't fund scholarships or
054it's not race based or any of those kind of things that are causing some of the controversy that's going on right now it's to buy equipment so we can put new Machining programs in hartsel Hall so uh and when I I spent a week two weeks ago in Washington I went to Washington trying to figure out what's going on with all these executive orders and and I failed miserably when I came back because I didn't figure out what's going on it's changing daily but but what I did find out is the federal government really does value the work of community colleges and they like programs like Perkins because it's it's equipment that's funding high priority occupation so that we can put folks in the workforce so I I don't want to say we're exempt because
055we're certainly not but they're not as critical to us right now they're looking at institutions for example that have billions of dollars in endowment yet still charge $100,000 a year we're $5,700 you know like we're not at that scale um so but that doesn't mean we're not under the same radar that that everyone else is but I don't think it's going to have significant impact but we do get a lot of federal grants that support research and some other things that we do that uh we have an international grant that that brings us uh students it's called the CCI program it's about 15 International students from the Department of State we've already been told that that's probably going to be eliminated so that just means we won't have those 15 International students but that's just
056additional opportunities for us I don't think it'll cut into the uh actual revenue or expense as far as the operating budget I don't think it'll have a Major Impact maybe one or two% on the um our capital budget which does get support from the Perkins Grant if that would go away speaking if the Perkins Grant would go away that covers around $600,000 of Capital Equipment each year we would have to fund that a different way going forward or we would just defer those equipment purchases for that year so I don't think a Major Impact our grants or a restricted budget kind of is 100% funded by either local state or federal grants there are a couple programs there that could be affected but they're not tied in the operating budget at all so it wouldn't
057matter that way this typically and I'm saying that and I know you know this is on on the on a research Grant uh you can stop the work but that doesn't mean that you can stop the cost so uh the IC or the facilities Administration cost is uh going to be there unless you lay off people or uh sell buildings and and things like that and that's uh not something that uh that could be done so I I I I I must confess that I don't know how much that NCC received from from the feds in terms of uh research so if if the amount is small then the difference is not going to be large significant and we're we're anxious about it um we're more anxious about if um you know if we don't
058do this right and the federal government says you know we're going to take away your federal funding $38 million comes to US every year from the federal government to support student scholarships and financial aid yeah right Appel grants so if that goes away that changes the game for our students clearly because now we're not affordable anymore so that's huge but but again in my conversations in Washington um both sides of the aisle support pel in fact want to increase pel that's a good thing so if you could make you know lemonade out of lemons it's it's a good thing and they're also supporting short-term pel which means the line worker program or the welding program where it's not a degree but it's a certificate they're supporting that so if there's any good thing coming out
059now where will it be administered from maybe it's treasury instead of or we don't know any of that part yet but there's good news that could come out of this as well last and I'm just saying it mostly as a joke but it's not about the two sides of the aisle it's about the other side of the mall uh so that's uh yeah that's where you know a lot of these have been initiated but but thank you very much I appreciate your coming here and all the information our pleasure if I need just offer a question or a statement I'm sorry to hear about your International students perhaps not being there H Town has benefited from one of your International students he is volunteering at our local htown Historic Society he's in the video production
060so he's come twice to interview our two of our residents that are 94 years old they invited us into the home the second time um which he accepted and koola has been a a definite asset to our heler toown Historic Society so thank you now that particular student is one of our J Visa students and they're an international student so that's not the program this is the oneye program where they come they enroll they actually fall in love with the country and our college but it's a one-year program they have to go back and that program is one that's it's it hasn't been eliminated but it's not looking good but that student will be okay because he's a j Visa student who will continue and you know that's one of those triple pay students that
061he was talking about yeah it's Dynamo and what a what a what a value that brings to Northampton as well is that we get to learn from him and them and they learn from us so it's a real great I go to pick him up and on our way but he just looked around he went does everyone here have a car he's from South Africa and I'm like yeah maybe most have two and he's like what I I met with some International students in our residence hall for breakfast the other day and I'm like how are you guys feeling there's a lot going on you know are you feeling supported and can they're like we actually do like we have good tutoring support and our faculty are great and they're like but your country is
062it's your country is crazy right now I'm like I won't disagree with you you know like but we'll get through all of this and we have our students as the center of our focus in everything that we do and their success thank you thank you for that though anyone else if I can I yeah Dr Ruth I just want to say thank you for your partnership and support personally and for the district um the number for dual enrollment has increased um here in the district but for many of the people sitting here don't know that that dual enrollment is actually the numbers of our students that are leaving campus to attend NCC so um I just wanted to extend another thank you from the administration because you have sent out a group of people that
063have worked very diligently with our team of Administrators over the last eight months and continue to do so to set up opportunities here on campus for dual enrollment and they're continuously meeting with us and very supportive and accommodating of unique needs of our students and we we are very appreciative and the food was for you that's sign of our appreciation we we just applied and you're part of that Grant we got for the state we're waiting to hear but uh there's A7 million pot for dual enrollment to make dual enrollment afford actually to make it paid for by the students because that's the way it used to be dual enrollment if it was free students would come to us but when they have to pay we're really only getting the most wealthiest of students to
064take advantage of dual enrollment and that's not what dual enrollment was invented for so we love and we'll talk to Dr Cassie on our way in today he wants to increase that number and I'm all excited about that so absolutely it's a fantastic opportunity we're happy that we jumped on board with the grant too so we're looking forward to it thank you everyone thank you thank you thank you okay um great presentation there all right next up we've got the uh High School SGA representative good evening everyone I'm Zoe and this is the Student Activities report for the high school as of today febu uh Tuesday February 25th so first for academics congratulations to George Lucen bill for coming in first place in the greater Leigh Valley Auto Dealers Association automotive technology competition as for
065the art sorry join us Tuesday March 4th at 7.m for the high school music in our school's month Pops concert it will feature the Jazz Band concert band and concert choir there's something for everyone jazz video game music BTS Billy Joel Wicked Andrew Lloyd Weber student accompanist and soloist admission is free Ryan pad is hard at work preparing to represent us at the regional choir on March 21st in Bethlehem he is currently the highest ranked tenor in the entire region nine students are hard at work participating in Northampton County band their accumulating concert is on March 15th at Banger high school they are performing an exciting variety of pieces by Standridge SAA gerswin hazo and more indoor percussion is gearing up for their first competition at cuts down on Saturday March 8th this is the
066inaugural year of this group come out to hear their exciting Twist on an old classic jazz band just had its first of six competitions this season they represented sbhs in a showing that included high school and college jazz bands that was televised by Service Electric they had a workshop with Eddie serin professional professional jazz musician and were ranked among the top ensembles of the evening the choir is PR preparing for Carnegie Hall at the end of the month we are singing a world premiere by one of the most prolific Coral artists of this decade Rolo Dilworth sorry that's wrong the choir welcomed their first guest artist of the year Patrick kerson we worked on vocal improv now for sports the junior varsity wrestling team completed competed at The District 11 JV tournament on February 14th
067the junior varsity tournament consists of double A and Triple A teams in District 11 out of the 34 teams that entered the tournament s and Valley finished second overall with eight Place winners s and Valley won the double a team title beating second place Le heightened by 79 points placing for the Panthers were Landon oor Zack Regal sorry these are going to be rough um Nick workis Ashton Bowski Noah Torres Third Place Mason W hold fourth place Jerick leser and Gavin Murphy fifth place the varsity team completed in the district 11 doua championship this past weekend at Freedom High School sakin Valley had six District championships and took first place overall District Champions were Carter trunko Max Santoro aen Grog Jackson Albert Cole Hubert Jared Rome second place finishers were Gabe bear and Hector Mato
068Gavin chunko placed third s Valley will have nine wrestlers competing at the Southeast Regional championships this upcoming weekend as for other Awards Jackson Albert won the Pinner award Jackson had the four first period pins on his way to his second district title Aiden Grog became the first wrestler in s Valley School history to win four District 11 wrestling titles congratulations to all the members on the team now for clubs SJ had a successful matchomatics event on Friday February 14th students received their matchomatics results with their best match within their grade and within the entire student body students had fun finding out who they were matched with based on their answers to questions the event was free for the entire student body sj's next event is a powderpuff volleyball tournament on March 21st students are getting
069their teams together and practices are getting planned this event is sure to bring some healthy competition to the student body this WS up the Stu the end of the students report are there any questions anyone great thank you very much Zoe have a good night thank you than chesy okay I just wanted to add I I just saw a h newspaper article the other day that the that our saken middle school math club team came in sixth place at the uh Regional competition and I want to send my congratulations to them okay um Miss flid thank you Mr dear I have a few uh announcements we have just finished our special education cyclical monitoring and whoa I think everybody's worn out from it but we did very well especially Miss Broadhead um anyone who's been
070through this knows that it's uh especially from Miss broadheads perspective it is a lot of planning a lot of interviews um parents all stakeholders parents teachers support staff administrators all get interviewed everything is reviewed from paperwork to processes to uh PD that we offer and support we offer our community and parents so we are looking forward uh for the results but so far the preliminary results were that we did very well and they've targeted a few areas for improvement but that's great because it just strengthens what we're able to do for our community and our stakeholders we also finished the uh McKim Veno monitoring which is our homeless monitoring and we scored 100% for that so we were very happy with that that also is a process that takes a lot of time and effort
071of our administrative team and um our staff and support staff so we're very happy for that also to be over and and happy with the results um we've also been in the midst of comprehensive plans uh subcommittee meetings over the last couple of months um we've done subcommittees to ensure that each part of the plan has specific attention and the right people around the table to discuss each one of those parts of the comprehensive plan which is quite extensive if you've looked at it before and we're wrapping up that process and hopefully we'll have it not hopefully we will have it for review for the public on March 1 and it will be up for review for a month um we will have an opportunity for anyone in the public to provide any comments that
072will be reviewed at the last March board meeting for um before approval so we're very excited about what's coming out of all the subcommittees and look forward to presenting that to the board and that's it Mr Demar great thank you may sure so just about the comp plan uh I I'm not sure if I understand the process uh completely uh there is a special ed comp plan and then there is a district comp plan these are two sort of like separate and parallel uh uh processes and and plans that this just look like something that uh I I I I must confess I should have known but I had forgot yes so the special education plan is different than the comprehensive plan um but there are assurances from Special Ed and support services that have
073to be reviewed within the plan or our comp plan so in in the comp plan process we are not reviewing or doing anything about the special deed plan this is sort of like the okay great thank you very much okay um we now we've reached a courtesy of the floor to visitors for agenda items only would anyone like to speak seeing no one uh we're going to move on now to the main part of our agenda um for any visitors who may not want to stay for our entire meeting uh this might be a good time to leave if you'd like to stay you're more than welcome [Laughter] yeah thank thank you okay uh can I get a motion to approve the uh presentation of the bills second any discussion all in favor say I
074I I opposed the motion's approved can I get a motion to approve the treasures report I'm moved any discussion all in favor say I I I opposed the motion is approved okay on to uh education uh we included in the packet is a uh a meeting summary from the academic and Personnel committee meeting from February 5th is there any discussion on that okay uh moving on so we've got a a bunch of policies for item number one uh Miss flacy are there any changes from our first reading that uh that maybe we could make people aware of the only change was with policy um 103 non-discrimination we changed the reporting form the match in 247 the same uh reporting form that was there okay great all right um can I get a motion to approve
075um to approve the second and final reading of these policies second any more discussion any all in favor say I I opposed motion's approved okay on to Personnel uh we have no items for discussion um we have uh we have four five items tonight um we have uh item number one Mentor item number two fall athletic coaches item number three uh spring athletic coaches item number four resignation and item number five a promotion unless anyone would like to have any of them um uh looked at separately can I get a motion for these five items so move okay any discussion I I I just wanted to acknowledge U uh Miss kalista for uh uh taking on the K22 uh musical uh I I know that for uh for these little ones uh that is a
076very important event and uh these are the future uh actors and singers in in the district it's good that they're starting so so early and I've I've attended every single one of them for the past few years that they have been uh uh performing and uh it's a delight so I uh just wanted to uh thank her for uh uh for for uh uh taking this uh this job and I want to want to encourage everyone to uh participate and watch the musical when it happens I don't I don't see the dates uh here but uh I'm sure it is uh going to be announced in one of the future board meetings okay great any uh other discussion um I just wanted uh um the um I just wanted to let people know it it's
077may be a little bit confusing why we have the uh fall head coaches on the agenda as well as the spring coaches if you look you can see that the uh the fall coaches for this coming fall or all head coaches and uh we like to get them approved early so that they can uh do all the planning and they can uh pick out who they want their assistants to be and then for spring uh these are all assistant coaches for previously approved head coaches just so that there isn't any confusion on that okay uh any other um all in favor say I I opposed motions approved we have no items for facilities uh on to finance uh we have a finance committee meeting summary from February 12th um is there any discussion about that
078um on to the budget um Dave can you give us a an update on uh where we're at and what our next step uh will be um we're still working through it we brought it to finance uh a preliminary look at it um we will be bringing back in the next Finance meetings some suggestions uh working with the principles and the directors as to areas in their budgets and we'll be bringing it back to finance and then hopefully bringing it to the board as a whole at some point great thank you okay we have four items um actually I'm gonna do the first three items together um these are mobile technology Graphics GR graduation stage purchase and graduation backdrop rental um can I get a motion to approve those three items second okay uh discussion
079um um Jamie can you or maybe Mr Fri whoever is appropriate just kind of give us a rundown about things that we're purchasing and things that we're renting [Music] and the first item on the agenda is m TG that is a uh uh group that has come in in the past years to set up our graduation in technology their services this year will be the production of graduation along with the live stream um so they'll be putting the live stream and the production together uh and then the center stage items are for the purchase of uh the accessories that we need for the stage we have stage platforms uh that we can use and these are for the accessories such as stairs um additional legs and also a skirt for the front uh so we
080do not have to rent a stage in the future so we'll be able to use our own uh at that point uh and last but not least we still have to work a little bit on the uh truss and backdrop and some of the details of that so uh the recommendation is for a rental of that for this year as we have in the past which is a $1,200 item and that is the large trust in the backdrop uh along with the black screen okay okay great thank you any questions about that yeah Bob in our um facilities we talked about buying that is that not possible for this year to save rental fees so a couple things with that um one we got an estimated uh price for the trust and for the backdrop
081um the company Center Stage um the original quote that they gave us there's a little bit of a issue with the backdrop as far as color and some of the things that they have to work out so um also depending on what we want to do with some of the um topics of of discussion so far with with uh branding and things like that we might be able to take a look at at that as a part of that so um I think the recommendation now is just to rent that this year knowing that some things may change we can take advantage of that and put that together for the future as far as the purchase thank you sure any go ahead yeah just a just a a general question and that is that when
082we had the graduation Happening Here uh uh in the auditorium uh there was a cost associated with that I don't know what it was it was not uh not a lot but uh then uh uh for the past few years we have uh uh gone to the stadium and uh uh the the cost uh at that time for that uh was uh more in the order of 15 $20,000 uh for the for the event and uh a big part of that was uh alleviated because of the addition of the uh the new video screen yes new screen in the uh in in the stadium which uh I I've been told that it's the biggest and uh largest or whatever in the High Valley still is that still the case as far as I know so
083uh and and that came uh to to the school at no cost of the taxpayers uh it was part of uh uh the uh contract and uh contribution uh by our uh athletic and uh extracurricular sponsor uh so now with with these purchases I'm I'm assuming that uh hopefully we are going to go back to the to the to the situation where the uh the graduations would would come at little to no cost once the what what Mrs Demco mentioned which is the backdrop trust is uh purchased is that accurate overall right so um I think in the future what you'd be looking at would be the live stream of production but your stage there would be no more stage rental or anything as far as that is concerned because we would all have all
084the pieces and parts for that in in house um and then eventually if uh the trust becomes a purchase as well then all of that would be uh owned by S valy and what is the expected life cycle of these uh things that you're buying a long time I mean we've had the we've had the U platforms for the stage as long as I can remember um probably 15 20 years at least if not more for for what I can tell and um you know they're perfectly fine right now so I would say without knowing a number a long time thank thanks any uh anyone else can I ask a related question but not quite related like a little related so and that is about the U the curtains for the auditorial so uh we
085had a conversation about that I'm not sure if uh he did Mr Fry or Mr bonber or Mr may you have a an update about that if you do we can share rock paper scissors we did just get an update today so um we have the cost of replacement for the curtain which came in much lower obviously than what we were intending um so we are hoping that we can purchase it at I think it's about $113,000 for that front curtain only um the issue that we have is that we would love to have it here as fast as possible but I think it looks like it's going to take about 10 to 16 weeks for it to be in so I'm not sure that we would have it for the shows this year so
086duct tap would do it for this year or what is the plan this is I think Mr Degan is still waiting for the mice from Cinderella to sew the curtain but uh the price of uh or the cost of sewing it I think is coming out to be way more than what we had imagined as well and Mr Fry's coming to the microphone because he must have more more information than I have as tried the tape option the duct tape option didn't work so um it's already separated again so we're gonna have to try and something as far as sewing um even if it's I don't know what the solution is but we're gon to try Plan B great thank you okay any other comments okay all all in favor say I I opposed the
087motion's approved um okay we're on to item four Middle School assistant track coach this isn't uh approval for a person this is approval for a position um can I get a motion don't mooved second discussion maybe miss last yeah if I may just jump in um originally this was brought to the committee to approve the addition of one assistant um track coach but since the committee in the meantime there has been a jump in enrollment um for for athletes so we were hoping that we would have the approval of two assistants moving forward because they definitely needed at the middle school I think at this point given the numbers okay what the numbers are Mr Fry has [Music] them yeah I actually uh just looked and I know at the committee meeting I forget the
088exact numbers off the top of my head but two years ago we in the low teens last year we were in the upper 20s and at least as far as registration which indicates people that are interested we're at 58 so quite a jump how many coaches do we have currently C going into this year it was is just a head coach so the last two years has just been a head coach yeah and three years ago this was uh either this is something that either didn't exist or was a part of the uh High School right they were compete they were practicing with the high school and then one of the assistant coaches would uh uh take him to competitions and right we'd have it voluntarily and then and then we had one head coach
089and then now a head coach and an assistant and then potentially a head coach and two assistants right correct okay great any other comments I just want to add that uh um unfortunately because um you know our agenda has one um we're unable to change the approval for tonight but we'll put this on for next week for our next meeting and then we'll appr approve it then hopefully if everyone agrees um any other comments all in favor say I I opposed motions approved okay we're on to community updates um the Chamber of Commerce Mr KY no meaning so I'm not going to report okay uh the foundation uh Miss magnata nothing to report right now thanks um well we we heard all about the Northampton Community College uh Miss bter do you have any other
090to add okay great thank you um Bethlehem votek um we are going to have a meeting next week so there's nothing new well actually Bethlehem approved yeah it was in the news today both Bethlehem and Northampton have approved the new bits agreement that lasts for 50 years so uh as soon as all the signatures are signed and sealed that will be done um and uh we'll be glad to have that behind us um the colonial Intermediate Unit Dr pide meetings tomorrow okay uh psba uh Mr Carpenter Mr Santos uh just one update I I think I had this update last time but it hasn't happened yet so I'm going to update it again there's a March 6 webinar about the intersection of uh privacy laws and immigration enforcement in K to2 schooling on March 6
091you can register on the My psba Portal if that interests you that's for school board directors anything else uh oh sto the words out of my mouth for some reason there's an interest in Immigration nowadays so I I highly recommend the webinar okay thank you um any new business any old business okay okay um any last comments before we move on to Citizens uh inquiries okay uh citizens inquiries and comments uh you may speak on any topic seeing no one uh announcements our future meetings will be on March 11th 2025 7M here in this building I mean here in this room and again on March 25th 7.m here in this room we