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[music] Heat. Heat. [music] [music] >> [music] [music] >> Heat. Heat. >> [music] [music] >> Hello. I call this um committee of the whole school board meeting Tuesday June 23rd to order. Church, can we get a roll call, please? [music] Mr. Baronowski. >> Mrs. Crossen present. Mrs. Depalo >> present. >> Mr. Godson. >> Mr. Hartline. >> Mrs. Kger >> here. >> Dr. Magguire >> here. >> Mr. Martin. >> Mr. Saddowski >> here. Nine members present. [music] >> Please rise for the pledge of allegiance. [music] [music] >> Thank you. All right. Announcements. Um before [music] the meeting, we had an executive session for safety and security. Superintendence [music] report. >> Mrs. Crossen, we do have a number of presentations tonight and so in advance of our first and largest presentation [music] and that being the 2627 final budget, I just want to take an opportunity to thank Mr. Greenwood and also [music] our administrative team, our board, our finance chair, Mrs. Kger in particular. There has been a tremendous amount of work put [music] into tackling a very significant financial issue in our district. We're looking at very very large [music] deficit to us of $7 million. And as Mr. Greenwood presents tonight. It represents dozens and dozens and dozens of meetings and [music] conversations and working with the public, going out into the community, [music] working with constituents, and just really being transparent about the entire process and what we're facing. Educating our public, educating [music] our employees, educating our administrators, looking at ways to pull back, thinking through a different lens, a different mindset. Um, [music] it's not a problem that we said that we could solve in one year. It is a problem that we believe that we can [music] tackle with M3. Mr. Green is going to be talking more detail about that. But, [music] um, I just would be remiss if I did not thank the collective effort and just the thought, the time, [music] the sacrifice, and the hard work that went into bringing this to you tonight. Uh, and I think it would [music] be remiss if I didn't bring that. Very proud of the work that was accomplished and excited for the direction [music] that we are headed in moving forward. Thank you. [music] [music] >> [music] >> Well, thank you very much. Thank you, Dr. Wuka. I appreciate that. I really do believe this was a group effort, administrators and the board coming together uh to effectively [music] address a challenge that was before us. Um tonight, [music] we'll be seeking approval for the proposed 2627 uh [music] final general fund budget. Uh, and to start, I'm going to take us [music] back a little bit, but the compass that directs our comprehensive plan played a critical role in our budget process, keeping us accountable to our students, and to the opportunities that define Centennial. The budget process also reflected a truly unified effort between the administration, the board with both working collaboratively uh and embracing the shared responsibility and mutual accountability to address the fiscal challenges facing the district. >> This year's budget process started in October as administration working with the finance committee began evaluating options. the district could take to reduce the deficit forecasted to be $10 million. The initiatives came from those discussions uh were shared with the board on December 9th and included three a three-year focus on scheduling out of district placements, the IU classrooms at Davis, expense evaluation, and a retirement incentive. Our budget work session in January on January 29th focused on understanding the causes of the deficit, aligning our resources and strategies to bridge the district's structural budget imbalance. The discussion centered around the converging pressures impacting the budget, including rising operational costs, unfunded mandates, and a lagging revenue growth. The path forward centered on continuing to deliver highquality student focused educational experiences while maintaining responsible stewardship of public resources in alignment with our comprehensive plan. outbreak of Congress. >> The following work following the work session administration again in partnership with the finance committee identified five key initiatives along with the necessary steps and timelines for implementation. These initiatives focused on service optimization, financial rigor, and workforce transition. The estimated savings target in year one was $3.2 million. And over the past several months, we've provided updates on each of these initiatives and are happy to report that each has been completed. They included the transfer of entity, which will not only save the district significant money, but it will also reunite these students with their classmates at Davis. Zerobased budgeting. And while challenging, it did require us all to justify every expenditure by asking the following short questions. Whether the expense was required by law or contractual obligation, whether the expense was essential to our core operations, whether the expense directly supported district priorities and strategic goals, and lastly, whether the expenditure represented the most efficient and costeffective option. Our third initiative, scheduling, focused on the personnel costs that make up our largest share of the district's budget. School and central office administrators carefully reviewed staffing letter level levels, course offerings, and scheduling across the district to maintain rigor while improving efficiencies. The retirement incentive started out small and grew as we worked across the district to put forth a retirement incentive plan that was truly unique. This plan will continue to provide savings as we move into the future. And the last initiative that was uh the last initi initiative is more about financial rigor than is about cost savings. making sure that the district is doing everything it can to recover funding opportunities >> to provide savings. >> When we stayed true to the goal shared back in December to ensure fiscal responsibility through a comprehensive examination of district expenditures. um adding financial re aligning financial resources with strategic priorities uh that advance highquality student outcomes with a focus on efficiency and our efforts over the past six months have addressed nearly every focus area we discussed back in December >> I hear another voice I'm Sorry. >> Oh, okay. >> While not among our uh initial initiatives, the finance committee expanded the community outreach. Uh at the suggestion of Mrs. Kger, the chair of the finance committee, and in partnership with our home and school associating associations, meetings were held at each school as well as at Centennial Station to provide community members with insight into the fiscal challenges facing the district and the strategies being implemented to address them. In addition, Mrs. Kger and Dr. Lucaba jointly penned a letter to the community outlining these challenges and the district's plan to mitigate them. Copies of the letter were distributed through the tax offices in Warinster, Ivy Land, and Upper Southampton and were also made available on the district's website. And in an effort to increase financial transparency and with the insight of the committee again, we added a financial dashboard to our website that provides current information on enrollment costs, our 2526 budget along with current year-to-ate financial information as well as a full year as well as our fullear projection. The dashboard truly helped provide context when discussing federal and state mandates like the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act or IDA and the rising cost of special education and its impact to our budget. As noted at the start, the work over the past six months was designed to ensure that our path forward remained aligned with our core goals, preserving highquality educational experiences our students deserve while serving as responsible stewards for the public resources and I believe the collective work the administration and board through the collective work of the administration and board we have increased the quality and we've significantly improved our stewardship. The final general fund budget significantly um reflects significant progress in add in addressing the district's fiscal challenges through the initiatives we have discussed. Forecasted expenditures have been reduced by $3.9 million, exceeding our initial target of 3.2 2 million and included in the savings over $400,000 compared to our proposed final budget just shared in May. As a result, the overall budget deficit has been reduced from $7 million uh in the preliminary general fund budget to $2.8 million in this, the final proposed budget, a 60% reduction. The district's financial outlook has improved as local revenues are projected to increase by approximately 2% inclusive of the full act one increase of 3.5%. While expenditures are forecasted to grow by only 1/ half of 1% resulting in a positive budgetary swing of approximately $2.2 million. While the district continue will continue to utilize fund balance to support operations, the reduced deficit limits the draw on our reserves. Under the final proposed budget, the general fund budget is projected to decrease from 7.4 million to approximately 4.6 million. This slide provides a little history with regard to state, federal, and local revenue. As you can see, federal revenue down in the bottom in blue uh has returned to below COVID levels and state revenue shown in purple after a couple years of increased funding is projected to remain flat. The pie chart on the right shows a growing shows the growing burden on local revenue um where local revenue has grown from 71% 5 years ago to 73% in 2627. A look at our projected expenditures salary and benefits makes up 72% of our to of all expenses. And if we combine that with debt service, the total is 79%. The other expenses, purchases, supplies, property total 21% of all expenses, down from 23.4% just last year. This slide shows the changing changes by object code or expense category between February's preliminary budget and tonight's final proposed budget. A reduction, as I had shared earlier, of $3.9 million or 2.4%. The five-year plan shows the ongoing funding challenges faced by the district as we navigate reduced federal and state support against growing operational costs. Are there any questions before I jump into the other funds? We can come back to them. No. Okay. Along with the general fund budget, we'll be asking tonight for the approval of the capital fund, the debt service fund, and the cafeteria fund budgets. The capital fund is funded through transfers from debt service. The box on the left lists the proposed capital projects for facilities, transportation, and technology. All projects would be subject to an RFP and would come before the board uh to be individually approved. The debt service fund serves as the district's savings fund. The budget includes earnings on investment as well as a transfer out to the capital fund. And lastly, uh the last fund share is the cafeteria fund. All food service activity is tracked and accounted for through uh within fund 50, the food service account. And it's worth noting that this will be the fourth year under Miss Denny that the district will not will have not raised the price for a paid student lunch. The food service team continues to go above and beyond in providing new and exciting opportunities for our students. Are there any questions that I can ask? And I do want to echo Dr. Lucab's uh comments earlier that again it has been a true uh true group effort both the administration uh at the school level the administration here and the central office uh as well as uh colleagues across the across the district and of course the board and our thanks to Mrs. Kger and Mr. Hartline and Mrs. Crossen who are members of the finance committee for their uh additional uh additional work to uh to get us to this place. >> Would you happen to know um I don't want to put you on the spot the challenges for our neighboring districts also just so the community knows that it's not just Centennial facing deficits. Would you know what other surrounding districts are are facing? >> Um I don't have their final reports. I do not. I do know that uh that central bucks uh increased their uh their budget by 6% I believe was their tax increase. I believe Nisham who has a higher act one closer to 41 I think they went to the 4-1 number uh to to name a few. Um I know uh New Hope Silbury also exceeded uh the act one index uh with their tax increase uh and it was attributable to their special education costs. >> Just so the community is aware that it's not just Centennial facing a deficit. It's most school districts. >> It is it is truly, you know, again, as we've toured and and shared those thoughts, Mrs. Crossen, uh it is it is a state challenge, right? it is the the funding methodology for schools in Pennsylvania. Uh the everyone is experiencing the same growth uh in special education costs. Those are overwhelming uh I think the the process and and those mandates that require us to do that work um comes at a cost. >> Thank you. I think one other important point is that the work that our team has done this year is work that we'll continue in perpetuity. It's not something that we will abandon and and not do moving forward. We will continue to zerobased budget. We will continue to do the projections. We'll continue to look at leveraging our spend with vendors consolidation. Continue to look at our efficiencies. We will study um our our our modes of delivery. study the way that we section at staff and schedule. Always keeping that very important slide in play, which is being good financial stewards, but not at the expense of educational quality and studying how that we can serve both of those masters. But the habits, I call them habits and mindsets we are ingraining are here to stay and I believe that they will continue to yield very positive direction. Um I think it's really noteworthy and Mr. Greenwood brought it up again, but for the first time in what seven years or more y >> our expenditures um are below our revenues and that's very significant and that's something to be proud of. I'm I'm especially proud of the work that that you've done in facilitating that to get to the point where we can say that more money is coming in that is leaving the district. That has not been the case for quite some time. Does anybody have any questions? >> I think the other thing to note is some of the other uh like Ben Salem and I know Cherry Hill had tremendous reductions in force in order to cope with it. And I think we've taken a very metered approach to what we're doing, understanding what we're up against. And I think it's important to note and I know you Dr. Lugaba has said people have asked other districts have asked how did you do this retirement incentive. I mean I you know I think uh and I'm very confident that three years from now we will have no deficit. >> Absolutely. And of course [clears throat] you know reductions and force are always an option but that comes at a tremendous cultural impact and um it's very hard to overcome some of the morale issues that come with that. And I think it's very important when we're trying to build culture, we're trying to build team and a sense of collective efficacy. It's one of the norms that we talk about in our presentations and to talk about valuing people and valuing that and then to um cut a wide swath through our employees um when there are other ways that we can do it. And I think our work demonstrated that there are other ways that we can do it. there are other thoughtful approaches that can yield the same outcome and not at the expense of morale in people's lives. >> I'm sure BCIU is feeling the pressure. >> That's another very Benson was another very good example, right? So, their deficit was was over $10 million and and uh the actions they took to resolve it uh sort of differed from our uh our plan. >> Have we begun um billing access? So we have the the person in place. They officially start in July and we'll begin that process. We've always done it uh to some extent and we've always done it and using subcontracting through the IU now that we'll be absorbing that. Um we will continue to maintain and keep the board updated on just how we are using that as a revenue stream. really we've learned so much about how to do it and and it really comes down to registering families that families are registered and eligible and the outreach that'll be some of the initial work is making sure that every eligible student and family is is appropriately registered so that we can maximize those monies from the state >> and then with that the money that we receive back 100% of it comes to Centennial we don't have to pay the IU for it >> that's right >> which is another um helpful for the for our taxpayers. >> That's right. And then, you know, I I guess it bears mentioning I don't know, Mr. Greenwood, you want to mention some of the um benefits that we're starting to see from our our bus patrol. >> Bus p continues to surprise me. Right. So, I think we had 36,000 >> uh come in uh in April. I think we just collected another $31,000 in May. Um, and so the payments are when uh those payments are being processed, those tickets are being processed. So there's sort of a backlog. So it will uh I think continue on um and and hopefully we're creating a safer uh Warminster uh Upper South and Ivy Land uh with with that with that service. So uh you know, I think as we talked about in the beginning, right, the safety was the key. The money was just interesting. >> The that the increased revenue is certainly appreciated. I hope that's a number that goes down over time. It's actually something we don't want to see. >> Absolutely. >> President, I I appreciate all hard work that went into this budget. There really was amazingly some reductions that took place. However, when you look at it, we still have a $2.8 million deficit. So we have some work to do and hopefully as we go through the next year that will be in the back of everybody's mind who wants to go out with new ideas, new projects and whatever. There still is a 2.8 million in spite of all the good work. So don't forget that that is still there as we move forward into the next year and keep that in mind when we get requests to spend lots of money. >> Voice of reason, Mr. Martin. accurately, >> which is why our focus has to be on our buying power and what we do in terms of RFPs and and force vendors to come to the table understanding we're the ones holding the power, not them. >> Anybody [clears throat] else have any comments? >> I'm I'm having a hard time understanding that 360 drivers broke the law. That to me is incomprehensible. And maybe it's tower advantage that's we have street road and county line road which I'm assuming is pretty hard to all of a sudden, >> you know, step on the brake when you got 50 cars behind you. And maybe that's tower benefit, but it's I'm having a hard time getting it. >> 360 people in one month. >> If you think about it, it's about 15 people a day. That may be, but >> I'm saying so, but over several hundred bus routes, it's 15 people a day. And if you attribute probably eight of them to Street or County Line Road, but it is >> it's alarming. >> We should find out how many are students. [laughter] >> You know what? Thank God nobody's gotten hurt through all this. >> Yep. >> Passing the bus and stuff. Thank God nobody's gotten hurt. >> Nobody got hurt. And we have extra funding in the district. >> Yes. >> Which is also a testimony to our drivers that are paying attention to the less than stellar drivers in the area. >> Thank you. >> Any other questions for um Mr. Greenwood? >> Thank you, Mr. Greenwood. >> Thank you. Thank you very much. [applause] >> All right, moving right ahead. Um public comments, we do not have any. And Mr. Saddowski, >> approval of the agenda. Be it resolved that the Centennial School District Board of School Directors 2.1 approves the June 23rd, 2026 committee of the whole agenda as per the attached. Are there any corrections that need to be made? They're allowed by PA Law. >> Second. >> Any discussion on this? Seeing none, all in favor? I. >> Any opposed? I >> Any abstensions? I don't believe so. Passes 90. On to new business. Would anyone like anything pulled? >> I would. Um, on personnel agenda, I want to table cross country girls head coach. >> Uh, that would need a second. >> Can I get a second? >> Second. >> Um, any two items? >> Okay. Further discussion uh they being 3.5 >> and 3.12. >> Got it. >> Uh do we need to vote on the motion to table before we proceed? >> Yes. >> Okay. >> Biz on 3.1 >> agenda cross country girls head coach. >> We have a second on that. >> I do believe >> second >> by itself. Okay, that's fine. We can pull that as one. >> All right, so we did get the second. >> It is kind of a big one. [laughter] >> Mrs. Kger, was it you or um Mrs. Depalo that second? >> Mrs. Depalo, me. >> Okay. All right. So, we need to do a vote on table and that. >> Okay. >> Can we do a roll call? >> You good? >> Is this a table of girls cross country from? want a roll call on that or just >> we can do a simple vote on that's fine with me. >> Okay, that's fine. >> All in favor? >> I >> I extensions >> hearing none passes 90 question that but our next meeting's not >> right close to the start of the school year. >> Can they start the program without havingach? >> They will. Yes, >> they will. All right, everyone's good there. I will go on to the the long the long list first and then we'll go back to the individual items. Um let's see actually we can yeah okay 3.3 adopts the capital fund 32 debt service fund 40 and food service fund50 budgets in the following amounts respectively 2,540,000 2 million and 3,896,314 as per the attached 3.4 4 authorizes the business administrator to close the 202526 Centennial School District books as of June 30th, 2026, incorporating all acrruels therein to pay the 202526 bills that are due by June 30th, 2026 as acred to transfer the budget amounts necessary for processing these expenditures subject to review and ratification by the board of school directors on or about August 18th, 2026. to pay the 2026 27 bills that are due before the August 18th, 2026 regular meeting of the board of school directors subject to review and ratification by the board on or about August 18th, 2026 and directs the administration to proceed with preparing for the necessary audit for the fiscal year 202526. Uh further directs the business administrator andor designate to record or adjust commitments of fund balance in any or all of the following categories. future capital projects, other post-employment benefits, and retirement contributions. Finally, authorizes the business administrator and/or designate to transfer an amount not to exceed the projected 202526 fiscal year surplus if there is one at internal closing to either the capital reserve fund 32, debt service fund 40, or a combination thereof consistent with the district's multi-year financial strategy. 36 approves the renewal ESY tuition contract with New Hope Academy for student 4-8 to attend ESY services during the summer 2026 at a tuition cost of $6,000. 3.7 approves the 2026 ESY renewal contract with PA school for the deaf as per the attached. The tuition cost of $7,834.80 with PCA fees of $4,549.20 20 equals $12,384. Additional costs for other related services at a unit rate of $139 to $166.80 will be added as directed by the students IEP. 3.8 8 approves a placement agreement for student 26-5 to continue the to attend the springtime school for the 2026 27 and 2027-28 [snorts] school years including ESY for summer 2027 and summer 2028 district cost not to exceed $147,3376 per school year. 3.9 approves the agreement for student 13-9 providing tuition to the Quaker school in lie of and in full satisfaction of the provision of a free appropriate public education FAPE. Estimated tuition for the 202627 school year is $58,415. 3.10 10 approves in accordance with policy 239 foreign exchange students the enrollment of two students into William Tennant High School for the 202627 school year through Borderless Friends Forever Foundation Incorporated 3.11 approves a renewal of theou with Bucks County Community College to provide William Tennant High School students with dual credit opportunities in a variety of settings at Bucks County Community College at a reduced tuition rate of $130 per credit plus the cost of consumables. 3.13 approves the renewal of with board docks for the 202627 school year cost not to exceed $18,000. 3.14 appoints Thomas Greenwood as board treasurer for the 202627 school year at no additional compensation. This action is required annually by section 404 of the public school code as per the attached 3.15 affirms as prescribed in board policy 304 employment of district staff the board of school directors authorizes the superintendent to make the required employment decisions and staffing for the 202627 school year from June 24th 2026 through August 17th 2026 in order to maintain the continuity of educational programs and services. These personnel actions will be presented to the board for retroactive approval at the meeting on August 18th, 2026. >> Second. >> Any discussion on any of these items? >> Seeing none, all in favor? >> I >> I >> I >> Any opposed? Any abstensions? >> 90. Oh, sorry. >> One quick question. Where are exchange students coming from? >> Do we know? >> Uh Dr. Labal, >> I didn't see in the backup as >> I'm just curious. >> Yes. Sure. We have one >> We have one coming from Mongolia and one coming from Spain. >> Wow. >> Yeah. >> Awesome. >> Welcome to Centennial. >> All right. Individual items. 3.1 as amended with the tabled item approves the personnel agenda including resinment of employment retirements resignations authorization to employ resinment of sbatical leaves of absence change of status and co-curricular act additions as per the attached do I have a second >> discussion on this all in favor >> I >> I opposed >> any abstensions passes 90 3.2 2 adopts the final budget of the school district for the 202627 fiscal year on form PDE 2028 with a tax increase of 3.5% as the final budget for the school district general fund in the amount of 157 million263,961 in expenses and with a revenue of 154,466,891. authorizes the 2026 27 annual tax levy resolution, real estate tax installment payment plan, and the homestead farmstead exclusion resolution as per the attached. >> Second. >> Second. >> I just have a question to ask. I know that um Pennsylvania Senate and House of Representatives are working on the budget this week. Um do we have a sense at all in terms of it making its way through by the end of the month? I would assume unlikely, but >> um I I attended the IU board meeting and uh it was reported that we do not expect the budget to be done until mid mid July, but I expecting it a lot earlier this year. >> Yeah. >> Well, that was not good. >> Any other discussion on 32? Um >> just our the homestead rebate this year is at 28131. Is that correct? for the average assessed value. >> It's the same for everybody. >> It's the same for everybody. Okay. Stand corrected. Do you want to do we do an up or down or a roll call on 32? Anybody? Okay. Do an up or down on this one? All in favor of adopting 3.2. I >> I >> I >> All opposed. >> I me >> No. >> No. >> Any abstensions? >> All right. Passes 63.5. Approves the compensation educational fund agreement for student 1-8 including an educational fund in the amount of $35,000 and per parent legal fees not to exceed $20,000. Do I have a second? >> Second >> discussion. >> Thank you. Reason I couple things one have a little sometimes you get a little write up about didn't get that. Number two, I can't recall in the years that I've been doing this the number of these kinds of things where we have approved a parent legal fee up to $20,000. Usually, they're significantly less than $20,000, especially if the result is a settlement that goes [clears throat] up to $35,000. That's a pretty poor use of taxpayer funds to pay a lawyer who's essentially taking positions against the school district. So, we're paying somebody to take position against this and the outcome is not great. Usually, you pay another lawyer when a judge orders you to do so. and the ones we've been paying up till now, at least my recollection is significantly less than $20,000. If I was paying a lawyer $20,000 to get me 35, I would say that's a pretty poor result. So, I am not in favor of authorizing this unless I find out something I don't know. Pay $20,000 up to, but it could be $20,000. And if I'm a lawyer, I see $20,000. I'm not going to charge three if I've approved to get 20. So I am unless again I'm perfectly willing to understand there's something I'm unaware of, but I'm not in favor of $20,000 being paid by the taxpayers of the school district. studental fees and seems like >> so I I can speak to this a little bit and and Dr. Hopkins, if I misspeak or if I don't include anything, um, in this situation, um, this really goes back to why we're working so hard to to make sure that our IEPs and our our programs are delivered with fidelity. In discussing this case with our legal team, we would have been on the hook um, had this gone through due process for approximately $170,000. And so by offering a settlement of $55,000, we considered that a win in lie of paying $170,000 if we went through the process. And one of the things, and Dr. Hopkins has talked about this is that we are going to see a few more of these settlements until we can write the ship and [clears throat] get some of our IEP processes in place to make sure that we're delivering IEPs with fidelity to make sure that we are offering a continuum of services before we outplace students. You're not incorrect, Mr. Martin. It is a very higher it's it's it's an atypical it's an atypical lawyer fee. They're not all like that. But in this case, this was at the recommendation of of our special ed council. Dr. Hopkins, if I neglected to add anything, you can if you want. There's something that I didn't capture. >> Hello. Um, just to be more exact, not that you weren't exact enough, but to paint a clearer picture, um, our total exposure for this particular case was at $173,760. Um, legal fees at the time of April 1st for the family were at about $41,000. So, this was a situation where, as Dr. Lucaba discussed the $55,000 was a win. Um, this was paperwork that went back. I actually came when I joined the district on December 3rd. This was paperwork that was already in the works, already occurring. And we have discussed that this will take few a few years for us really to write this ship in terms of our paperwork and our ability to provide FAPE in the district. So it it is deemed a win for us right now as well as for this child. Seems like we always get told that we're going to lose court cases. Nice to win a few. >> Well, so I think another really important thing to think about is that we have a $50,000 deductible. So if we're going to head towards due process, we know right off the bat that our deductible is $50,000. And if we look at our paperwork and if we look at the trail that comes along with that child and we see pretty glaringly that we have issues within how we have serviced that child through the paperwork and now we're looking at a $50,000 deductible. Those are all things that we have to take into account. >> I'm still a little confused as to I'm not following this because >> okay >> it's $20,000 but >> the amount of 35,000 >> I'm not following why it's so high when when 35,000 is the amount >> it was deemed at one point and is it the confusion that the the lawyer's fees are the equivalent but they're fairly close to the compad fund which I can understand that it's interesting I just had a conversation with uh Colani Ashro, who's one of our lawyers with Sweet Stevens, and we talked about how what a lot of individuals don't realize when we talk about these cases is we have no control over the opposing council's legal funds, legal fees. And we have lawyers that come to us via families that their legal fees are much less. And we have lawyers that come to us whose legal fees are upwards of $500 an hour. We can't control that. That's that's who the family chooses to work with. So that's something that we have opposing council is nothing that we have any control over. >> Can you explain what so that I I grasp what has gone wrong for a period of time that it gets to this point? Yeah. I mean, is it something that has been brewing for years and didn't nobody tackled it or is it something brand new and all of a sudden the parent woke up and said, "Wait a minute." Like, I I'm trying to understand why these things happen. >> And I'd hate to paint a broad brush stroke to say that it's always this or it's always that, cuz it really is truly dependent, very individualized. uh very specific on cases and children and what has happened in this particular situation is what really seems to be the picture that I see quite a bit which is I don't truly believe that we are knowingly doing harm to a child. I think when I open up paperwork, what I see is errors that are could seem minute to people reading the document, but when you're looking at it from a legal lens are much larger. And so when I open up a lot of documents and I'm like, "Oi." But at the same time, I know what a lawyer's looking at. And for them it's like woo there's a big old hole. >> Can you explain when you say harm to a child what does that mean? >> Meaning I nothing that I am seeing is because a team has purposefully miseducated a child. It is either not keeping tight paperwork and you have to remember there's a two-year look back. So, it's not even the focus on one team, right? It's two years that they can go back and look, but it's also not making changes. The minute you see that a child is not receiving what we called educational benefit. So if we don't see growth in any individual goal area is the IEP team going back and revising an IEP and looking to see what else we can do to implement specially designed instruction so that student can make growth. Are we constantly going back and doing all we can to say we've done all we can and it's not a my my phrase is we're not nobody's setting out to harm a child. It's not looking at the paperwork from a latigious lens which unfortunately we are in a position like everybody is in a position right now where we have to look at our paperwork so critically and we have to train everybody involved to look at paperwork that way. >> So when you look at Mr. Greenwood's dashboard Yes. And you've got 1,300 students who are on IEPs. >> Yeah. >> How many people does it take to look at these IEPs on a regular like [clears throat] like is does it mean you have to have a staff of 10 people who are reviewing them weekly? Like what does it >> I agree. Yeah, I I hear what you're saying. I I just had a conversation with one of our legal counsels yesterday. I I I will say I'm on the phone with lawyers quite a bit, as you can well imagine. I wonder why I didn't go to law school at many times during my day. >> I might I might still go, [laughter] but you know, one of the conversations that we we talked about is there, you know, there's now districts that are hiring their own legal counsel in house. Um, Radner [snorts] is one of them. They have an an in-house attorney. And is that something we want to think about as opposed to seeking counsel for a variety of different different venues, employment law, special ed law, pupil services law, all that goes along with it. But to your to your question, which is how many people does it take? It takes everybody that lays eyes on that document and it does take time to go through 1300 documents and all of the document because it's not just one document for every student there is an IEP there's an evaluation and there's four quarters of progress monitoring and all of that factors into the equation. How much do we spend on settlements a year? >> I'd have to go back. >> The answer seems to me that there is a return on investment that says if you invest X dollars and we're spending $5 million or whatever and you hire somebody for, I don't know, $200,000 a year, $250 thou whatever. The fact is if you can reduce those fines and have that salary, it's no different than this medical access billing, which is do what you can to mitigate that risk. So, it seems to me that that might be the direction. If these fe um fines or these settlements are large enough, why wouldn't we go down that path? Well, there's there's a whole other point because you're talking about paying the opposing lawyer, not our lawyer in this case. >> That's not even our lawyer. >> So, that is and that's what's you know, you all almost often see parents all of a sudden, you know, have consultations with a lawyer or with other family members that all look at that document and see, well, there's something wrong here. And now these this parent is pursuing this case where they normally would not. >> Yes, Mr. Heartline. I >> see. And so the IU has in-house legal counsel. The executive director or the assistant director originally started as in-house legal counsel. They still retain special education counsel as well. So, it's not 100% coverage for one individual, correct? You do get into multiple situations where they all have a different specialty depending upon the deficiency or what the mark in the paperwork happens to be or or what the the outcome the parents are look or guardians are looking for for the their student or their child. Um, so you don't completely you can't completely mitigate it. Um, do we receive a reasonable breakdown of the attorney's fees so that we're not paying something erroneous with these? >> So, like the $20,000, do we get justification for that? >> So, for this particular situation, as of April 1st, uh, we were at $41,000 of opposing counsel >> and and we had documentation on that. Yes. Okay. That's I just wanted to make sure that we had legitimate documentation that it wasn't, you know, >> we weren't arguing the case. How possibly they run up $41,000? If we knew we were wrong, why not just say you're wrong at the beginning, offer the payment and [laughter] move on? Why why are we paying are we have do we required to pay these opposing councils or we some judge says you have to do it or how the parent says they're going to sue us or they're going to automatically go hire whatever lawyer they want and we're going to pay for [snorts] it. >> Yeah. But I have a feeling it's not all court stuff. It's probably the work that's being done. So for instance, when we >> get the court >> for >> who says we have to pay >> who says we are required to pay their attorney regardless of who it is and how much it's >> we're we're not required. Okay. We're it's part of the ask of the settlement art of the deal. >> Okay. >> Before you get to the settlement, they hire a lawyer. >> Yes. But >> so the lawyer you know in a typical regular litigation suit a lawyer will take a third plus expenses right. So in these cases they may go by the hour and as they are investigating things they tack on their fees as part of the settlement or if they go to litigation or if we go to arbitration. Quite often in arbitration the losing party pays legal fees. Correct. So you could be on the the hook for all of the legal fees. And historically, the losing party is the one that's on the hook for it. >> And if we're doing a settlement, odds are we'd be on the hook for it. [snorts] >> I agree with you. I I I agree with you in in going after cases that, you know, the law school lottery, I used to call it, or the the school district lottery. But there are some times where you just need to cut bait and fish. >> I don't understand how the whole process results in a $35,000 settlement with that amount of legal fee. If we knew we were wrong and did something that we should have done differently, why not just get the settlement as fast as we can, as low as you can, and move on without >> So, Mr. Mr. Martin >> spending weeks and months and run up and bills. This was done before you came. >> But regardless of that, >> but regard regardless of that, by the time we receive a letter from opposing council, they have already docked hours doing a review of files and meetings. So by the time legal counsel sends a letter, >> how do they get the files? >> Because the parents give it to them. The parents have their children's files. >> Yeah. They if you have an IEP for your child, you get a copy of all the paperwork. But parents are in a no- lose situation then. How are they going to lose? They can hire their lawyer, whoever they want. They can file whatever they want. Taxpayers going to pay for it. How are they possibly going to lose? And we don't fight it. How are they going to lose? >> So, I I can speak to that. They're going to lose or they're going they're going to be unsuccessful in the challenge. >> Unsuccessful. >> No, I know. I know. I I I know what you mean. And and we are going to have when we get our the work that we are doing right now is setting the district up so that when we are challenged we prevail because our paperwork is tight. The IPS are are delivered with fidelity. We are offering FAPE and we are positioning ourselves so that if we do have to settle, we can do so um in in a way that it does not cost the district um much money at all. And the goal is to put protocols in place and checkpoints in place and reviews in place so that we are proactively positioning ourselves to not have to pay this out. And that will take a few years, but that's also baked into some of the talk we have with our three-year plan for um fiscal stability because as we start to reduce the payouts that we have to do this because of our internal processes and we are using continuous what I mean by continuous services I don't mean to use educational terminology if we are offering services along the way and not just leaprogging from there's a problem to hey let's place somebody out for 150,000 on and we can do things in advance that maintain that don't force us to do that. We'll save millions. >> Yeah. >> Dr. >> Can I make a comment? >> This is Christa. >> Hold on Christa for two seconds. I don't know if you can answer this question but about um is this child say remaining in our district within our schools? >> Yes. And so where is the money or what's the fund for then? >> So comped funds are clearly outlined in the agreement that the parents receive and it is typically not always but it's typically used for a variety of situations that we hold on to. You an easy way to phrase it is it's like a trust fund. It has to come through us. So I will have a parent that will email my office and say we would like to register our child with this speech therapist and this is what the total cost would be. This is their lure. It aligns with the agreement. I look it over and determine whether or not it falls in with the agreement. And we don't release those funds unless it falls in line with everything. It it really all depends. Yes. It could be technology that is used for the child. It can be uh tutoring services. It can be credit recovery. It can be extra therapy sessions. >> Yes. >> Thank you, >> Mr. Tala. >> Thank you. I was just going to um mention to to Mr. Martin um you probably are aware that this is not unique to our school district. Um, I work for the Montgomery County Intermediate Unit and this is something we contend with all the time and as Dr. Lucab and Dr. Hopkins are saying, this is definitely a win. So, you know, the idea that even if if you move forward with litigation and even if you're you're right, it would take more to litigate than actually settle. And I think it's being fiscally responsible to look at it that way, like this is a win because it doesn't cost us $173,000, it's costing us $55,000. Um, so I I just, you know, just want to say, Mr. Martin, I encounter this all the time. Um, you know, in the agency that I work for, so it's it happens all the time, unfortunately. >> $20,000 all the time to get 35. Uh, no. I don't know, not those particulars, but like like Dr. Hopkins is saying, we have no control over what opposing council would charge. Um, that's really we just have no control over that. Um, it's who the family picks [laughter] to serve, you know, to to represent them. >> Mr. Hartland, did you have something? >> And keeping in mind, too, like so we we just approved two outplacements. those out placements. You know, if that child is in elementary school or middle school, it is conceivable that that will go on until they graduate. >> Yes, >> we could already have signed an agreement that would put us on the hook for 6 years of a student in an outplacement as part of a settlement for whatever reason. >> So, like I said, we're going to be seeing these, >> you know, as administration, you know, does everything they can to pair these down. There are some that have decisions might have been made five years ago that we will be continuing to do until the child graduates. >> And I would like to add in this particular situation, I sat in on the IEP meeting for this child and the team did such a beautiful job and really turned things around for this child and this family that the family walked away from the meeting and said, "I feel so." And this was prior to this settlement agreement. This was in I think February or March. And the family walked away and said, "I feel so good about where we're headed." And our legal counsel who represented us in that meeting said, "It was night and day between the team that presented to that family and the in that moment this school year and the team that presented last year. So even the small shifts that we are making is being felt by families. >> So if they felt good, why is there a settlement? >> Because you have two year you have you have a look back and there's there's education that was perceived to be lost over the past two years. >> And the lawyers have to get paid >> also. All right. Thank you. >> Yes. Thank you, Dr. Hopkins. >> Thank you, Dr. Hopkins. >> Thank you. >> All right. Any further discussion after the robust conversation we just enjoyed? >> Seeing none, all in favor of 3.5. >> I >> I >> I >> All opposed. Oh, >> abstensions passes. 81 3.12 approves the teacher on special assignment position and job description effective July 1st 2026. Do we have a second? >> Second >> discussion on this item. >> Second. [laughter] >> Quick question. This is Chris. This is Mrs. Dalo. Quick question. Um the description teacher on special assignment that's a two-year position. Is that correct? >> No, it's the one-year pilot. >> It's a one-year pilot. Okay. Thank you, Dr. Lucab. That was my only question. >> You're welcome, >> Mr. Martin. >> I'm reading the job. It says this is a two-year assignment that may um >> I maybe misspoke. I guess I misspoke. I apologize. I I was under the impression it was a pilot. So, >> but my my real question is it's a new position. We were reviewed that we have a $2.8 billion deficit. Where is this person who was going to be added to the administrative staff in the bureaucracy? Where is this person coming from to do this new position? >> All right. So, um and I and I did mention this. It is uh not a a new position in the sense that it is it's costneutral. And first of all, Mrs. Depalo, I apologize. I I don't know why I thought it was a one-year pilot, but it is a two-year pilot. It is a pilot program to see what it can do and we need more than than one year. So um that was my error >> and Dr. Luka it's not your error because I saw it somewhere as one year and then I saw it as two year. That's why I was asking for clarification. I thought I was confused but I I do think I saw it that way. That's why I asked but thank you for clarifying and I appreciate that. >> Sure. So we're we're trying to be creative with this. First of all it's cost neutral. It doesn't cost the district anything, but we're trying to be as part of our strategic plan. We are, and you've heard, and Mr. Rest is going to talk about this tonight, we've been talking for years about going from growth to achievement. Growth is when you're showing improvement, but achievement is when you're starting to really get uh academics at a level where okay, now we're seeing actual increases and we can compete at the county level. Um the life of a high school administrator is very complex and I'm I'm not saying this unaware. I mean it's a life I lived for many many years. I the challenges that they have and there are a lot of low-level tasks. Years ago we had a dean of discipline. We had a dean in the high school and we're not asking to have a dean and pay someone. That's not money we want to spend right now. And so the question became as we started to talk about how do you get more creative? How can we address a need but not pay money? We have there is scheduling flexibility where we can have folks do this and teach and give give some help to administrators who are dealing with attendance, tardiness, supervising lunches, supervising arrival of buses, departure of buses, um schedule changes because of an assembly, low-level things that don't require administrative certification. but are big time suckers. They pull they pull administrators away from things. And one of the issues that we've identified is that we have to clear the deck. We have to find ways to that allow our administrators in an administrative capacity to get into classrooms and observe teaching and learning, observe assessment practices. We aren't going to push and get to [clears throat] the next level and move the needle if we don't have administrative oversight. And high-erforming districts have a very robust system of supervision and evaluation and feedback for teachers to improve. And it's really about going in there and providing feedback and working handinand with teachers. And our administrators are bogged down with a lot of low-level things. And not only that, but it's very hard to justify hundreds and hundreds of thousands of dollars of salary standing in a cafeteria or standing in the front of a building at the beginning of a day or end of a day when we can have people in rooms and have people doing those jobs. And we we acknowledged we eliminated the dean position years ago, but rather than pay to have a dean, we have scheduling flexibility where we can have people come out and do some of this and and help. Um, and it's just it's a creative way to do that. um because it requires right now some of the things that I talked about require administrators to spend a sub a substantial amount of time outside of classrooms and they're not having the impact. And there's research that speaks to the impact of an educational leader on student achievement. And so we're trying to be creative. We're trying to try this. It's not a forever thing, but we would like to pilot a potential solution that has no cost whatsoever to try to get our scores up. >> You read this, it sounds like there's one teacher, >> specialist sounded like you're going to have several different people up extra little things in their spare time. >> So, you can do flexibility. It it allows for someone, you know, maybe teaching one day or or teaching like an A day and doing this on a B day or teaching on a B day and doing this on an A day. We we can structure it any way we want to try to get the help that we need and still allow for the delivery of our schedule. Um, but we did it without any cost associated to it and it gives us that flexibility and it doesn't cost the district anything. >> Where the teachers had all this extra time that they can do these sorts of things and they'll do them for no additional money. Well, it's not about it's not about extra time as much as and that's a fair question, but one of the things that we did and we talked about was we looked at our high school scheduling and we looked at our efficiency. And one of the things that we did was more tightly schedule our teachers so that we don't have class sizes that are below board policy. And as we were able to do some of that, we also looked at some of the other pressing needs that we have at the high school. And with our scheduling efficiency, it gives us gave us some flexibility to address a need that has been real and it is bogging down and it is a very difficult job. And so doing some of these things that a dean would have typically done is very helpful and we don't have enough oversight. And our high school administrators would be the first to tell you one of their top priorities is being an instructional leader. And sometimes that very top priority gets cast aside because of pressing needs that have to be addressed. So we're trying it. It's not a forever solution necessarily. Maybe down the road we get to a point where we have deans again. It's not something that we can push out to our security. That's not an option. That's not what they're they're they're trained to do and we need that oversight in the building. Um it helps us to remain proactive. It helps to [clears throat] keep tenants safe and they do a great job in doing so. But there are a lot of issues that can be addressed uh in a manner in a creative way that allow for the oversight that's going to help us to take the next step instructionally. >> Um I have a question with regard to the essential functions. I know we've had a discussion before about what the assistant principles do and I'm reading this and I'm saying this is the assistant principles. Why are we getting somebody else to do this? >> Well, the assistant principles have a broad swath of of responsibilities, and this is why for years the district had deans in place, and the deans were actually doing some of those pieces. When the dean position left the high school, some of the things that are in this job description absolutely fell onto the house principles. But there's a cost that comes with that. Not a financial one, but uh uh an efficacy cost. You can't improve instruction and you can't improve students learning experiences when there is not consistent oversight and feedback and coaching and guidance and evaluation. And it's something that our district can improve upon. And this is just one way to potentially study whether or not something like this would work. And because it's costneutral and because it's something that we want to pilot for two years, um we would we're asking for an opportunity to do that and see if we can't make some strides. >> What was this individual doing before taking this special assignment? What was that person's role? >> They'll continue to teach and and do this that the persons who do end up doing this, it'll be a it'll be a hybrid position. They'll do some teaching, but they'll also do some of this as well. We're trying to find flexibility in the schedule to address a variety of needs that the that the high school has. We can't expect things to get better if we aren't taking um some calculated creative solutions into consideration and if you ask like what's going to get better you know are we going to say for so for example if I were to and I'm just this is purely hypothetical purely hypothetical but if I were to say I expect every teacher to be informally observed four times in formally observed twice that's six observations. There come there's a process that comes with that. That sounds good. That sounds easy to the untrained ear. You think, well, my goodness, you have 180 days. How hard can it be to see every teacher that you have 150 teachers that many times? But there is a tremendous amount of work that goes into that oversight. And high- performing districts honor that work, but they also have pieces in place because it's like a bubble or a balloon. When you squeeze one side, the other side gets larger. And with time, when you're expending that time, there are other things that have to happen. And I will tell you the things that that and I'm not an apologist, but the things that go on in a high school on a daily basis are very significant and they're voluminous. And there's so much going on that is not the best use of our administrator's time. And if we can find a way to offset some of those pieces of the job that take a tremendous amount of time away from us accomplishing our mission and vision. We talk all the time about creating access, opportunity, and choice for kids. And we talk about delivering excellence through teaching and learning. And yet we don't have systems in place that are honoring those two outcomes. This is our ability or our time to try and see if this works and at no cost to our district. >> Don't we have a report in a few minutes that shows everything is uh going in the right direction and moving up and kids are excelling and passing out. I read that. >> Oh, I'm looking forward to marks and it's growing up. I mean, it's not like we're continually going down. They're learning and they're learning more and they're learning better. From what I can see, [clears throat] >> we're making >> we're doing we're doing good. I don't know why we need more administration, but >> well, it's not it's not more administration. It's just to offset it's it's to offset some of this and and to get better. And the whole point is that while we are making improvements, we're not making the kind of improvements that can position us to be one of the leading districts in the county. And that's where I think this board wants us to be. It's certainly where I'd want us to be. But more importantly, I want the support mechanisms in place so that we can achieve that bet outcome. >> So, just a quick question. >> And again, it's not costing us anything. And if it doesn't work, it doesn't work. And then we know one way not to do it. >> So, a two-year pilot, um, how do we see if it's successful? How do we how do we >> Well, I think some that's a great question. One of one of the metrics is first of all, um, how often are we in are we in rooms uh, providing feedback on instruction and assessment? How often do we have administrators leading conversations around assessment data? How many how often do we have administrators with time to develop professional and deliver PD? Um how how many conversations around teaching and learning are happening that don't happen right now. And so you can look at just the number of evaluations, you can look at the number of observations, the number of touch points, you can start to study formative assessment, summitative assessment data. There are ways to measure that over time. So, can we keep track of what was done last year to this year and see if we're meeting goals or >> Absolutely. >> That would be good for the board to see if it's going to be put through. >> Absolutely. We can look just at our walkthrough observation data as an example and and show that because of this we are to and again hypothetical only. But if we would be able to say to the board that last year you know we conducted 87 walkthroughs observations and this year we were able to conduct 290. Um that's that many more touch points that are helping to improve instruction. >> Yeah. >> Okay. And since it's a pilot and it's cost effective, I mean >> it's Yeah, it's completely cost neutral. >> Those teachers could probably be teaching somewhere else instead of doing this other work. They could actually be teaching when there's when we need to hire substitutes. We have extra teachers have time to do stuff. They should be teaching and we don't need the substitutes. >> Can I make a comment? Go ahead. >> Okay. I wasn't sure. Um, there's a little delay. What I'm seeing on my screen versus what I'm hearing on my phone, the what I'm hearing on my phone is quicker than what's actually what I can see on the screen. Sorry about that. So, I also think part of this is also identifying educators who also probably want to move possibly into administrative positions or other positions. So the idea of also kind of promoting from within type of scenario I think would be another benefit to this program if I'm if I'm correct here. Um and you can correct me if I'm wrong Dr. Lucabal. Um but then again like recognizing educators who also have those leadership um qualities and and can move into other positions in the future. >> Uh I mean it may be it's not it's not necessarily designed for that. like I I don't want to give anybody the impression that this is something where we're trying to identify and and promote necessarily. I think there are other ways to do that. Um which I don't know that I want to bring up right now because >> you know [snorts] we're talking about for example having administrators who or or having teachers on assignment that would be instructional coaches uh specific to buildings. There are a lot of ways that for an aspiring administrator to make educational impact and not so much operational impact, but we're not we're not thinking so much about that right now. We're really trying to to find ways to prioritize and allow school leaders to focus their time and their expertise on improving teaching and learning. And it's an area that we have opportunity to improve in and we're trying to think creatively and strategically and also financially responsibly to address an issue. And yes, we are making we are making um we are making improvements but we are still awaiting the achievement and I think Mr. Rutz will speak to this that I believe we can make as a district. Great. >> All right. So, >> next >> we have a a teacher leader who's going to f essentially if they're teaching an A day and a bday who [snorts] will be picking up their Bday classes and teaching those classes while they are performing this task. So, is there >> and I can't answer that because I'm not doing the schedule. there are ways that that they can schedule that. I would have to talk to the high school admin team to see how it's scheduled. Um there there's a way to schedule everything with electives with the classes that meet every other day. There are ways to to to do all that. I I don't I can't I can't answer that. I'm just not at the ready to speak to it. >> I and I think and and correct me if I'm wrong here, Mr. Martin. I think what Mr. Martin's trying to get at is if we can reschedu that teacher to do freeing up that time. Is this then the best use of that teacher's time or could that teacher's time be better used somewhere else? And administration is telling us this is the best use of that freed up time. they are telling us that and I do trust that and having spent significant time in conversation with them and understanding that this work um one of the most impactful I mean there there there are there's a classical study out there that talks about the impact the educational impact on on student achievement of a high value uh um of high impact instruction and what a teacher can do to cause learning. But on a more macro level, when you have um the studies that talk about educational leaders and the impact they have on instruction and on student achievement, you know, growth is when you have 20% of kids proficient and then you get 30% proficient. That's great, but that's not high achievement. 30% achieving proficient is not achieving. um 60 70 now we're talking and that's where we want to get and there's no reason why we can't be a district that has 60 and 70% of its students proficient in mathematics and in reading and if we're going to get there we have to be willing to try different things we have to be willing to be creative we have to look at ways to leverage the expertise of our administrative teams and we have to free up time and if there are ways to be creative with our schedule and still do it with fidelity and ethics and do it at a costneutral standpoint. I'm willing to stand behind that and support our our administrators and I respect I respect the board's comments. I understand but sometimes it takes thinking outside of the box. Do you anticipate or could you see this moving from the high school into the middle middle schools or the elementary schools as well? >> Because that's I mean we see most of our I Ready information comes from there. by the time we hit the high school it is the keystones and you know the exams the the placement exams are different >> I think certainly that's one of the the uh byproducts of doing a pilot is that if you create a model and work on something that that may be impactful you can think about how you can scale that to move it into other levels at the middle and also um at the elementary again it's not just the high school where great instruction matters matters. It matters across the board and our teachers do an excellent job, but our administrators are so bogged down >> and it's it's a problem that plagues education and if we can find creative costneutral ways to try and see if we can make an impact and I'm willing to do >> whatever we can and whatever we can put together creatively to try to move that needle. We've talked about growth for years. Mhm. >> It's time to see if we can move into achievement >> and really give our teachers the support because they do a heck of a job. >> To that point, Dr. Liabal, I would say that the the improvement in the academic performance of our students in Centennial over the past few years has been great to see and I know we're all very proud of it, but you know to doing better isn't necessarily good enough given where we were. And I don't know that there is such thing as, you know, quote good enough when it comes to the quality of education that we're offering our kids. So, it's it's an aspirational goal and it I you know I'm going to trust the educational professionals to lead that effort and capitalize on the momentum that we're building and not let it peter out or even backslide. So, I think it is important to keep going >> till you're at 100% proficient or better. >> Exactly. >> That that's your end goal. >> Yeah. >> So, [clears throat] >> are our teachers um requesting this? Are they are they supporting this? Do our teachers want this? >> I can't I can't answer that question. I mean it's not it's not something that that creates any give or take from with them. I think it's are you asking do teachers want to be observed more? >> Are they behind this change? >> Well [laughter] um I think that professionals are always looking to get better and I think that when you have robust coaching models in place that allow for that possibility to emerge that's a very good thing. Um, I can't speak to whether or not teachers want to be observed more, but I do believe that teachers appreciate highquality feedback done in an instructive and supportive way that helps them to get even better at what they do and most importantly serve our kids. And so, if it's freeing up um that and it's helping uh to improve the instructional experience, that's a good thing. >> Okay. >> Shall we call the vote on 312? >> Yeah. All right. All in favor? >> I >> I >> All opposed. >> I opposed. >> Any abstensions? Passes. 72. And that's on to presentations. Mrs. Tapalo. >> Great. Thanks. This is a great leadin to item 4.1 um education committee presentations. Uh item 4.1A, Mr. Mr. Russ will be um presenting on the spring endofear local data assessment review. Mr. Rutz, >> yes, I am here. >> Hi, Mr. >> Thank you. Uh Mr. M. I know that I know the Phillies are on tonight, >> so I I paired this presentation down so we'd be uh out of here no later than 10 p.m. Okay, >> we're losing. >> Oh, [laughter] okay. So, I have some extra time. >> Good evening, everybody. Um, as usual, I'm here to present our spring end ofear local assessment data uh review. We're going to be reviewing uh three areas. Our Dibbles uh K3 um our I Ready, which is reading and math um in grades K through eight and uh which we conduct at the high school level, grades 9 and 10. in both uh reading and math. Uh what you see in front of you is a uh the bar graph here. Um on your left is the fall assessment data, the middle is the winter assessment data, and on the right uh in the darker blue is the spring assessment data. Um the orange bar is the end ofear national benchmark. And you can see here that all grades K through three scored above the end of year na national benchmark um in Dibbles from uh fall to spring this year. A quick review of MTSS multi-tered systems of support. We've seen this uh pyramid for a number of years. My disclaimer, please remember that these are ranges. Um when we talk about tier three, we're talking about students who may be two or more grade levels behind in reading and math. That's a the range is 5 to 10% of of students. Traditionally, tier two is one grade level below and tier one, which is our goal, is at or above grade level. for K8 reading in our uh I Ready Diagnostic uh we had a 10% decrease in tier three, a 19% decrease in tier 2 for a total of a 29% increase of moving students. 29% of students in K8 K8, excuse me, moved from tiers 2 and three and into tier 1 based on their growth on the spring diagnostic assessment. That's about a thousand students or about 40 classrooms of students moved into tier 1 from the fall to spring assessment uh on the I Ready assessment in reading. Our growth, our progress toward annual typical growth, the available growth that we have collectively um is 100%. As you can see on the blue chart, um what this shows is that our students on average achieved 133% of their projected annual growth in reading on the I Ready assessment. For K8 math, we had an 11% decrease in tier three, a 24% decrease in tier 2 for a total increase of 35% of students in K8 moving from tiers two and three into tier 1 based on the growth on the spring IR diagnostic. That's about 1,200 students or about 48 classrooms of students moving from tiers three and two into tier one from fall to spring. our uh annual growth progress in mathematics again total is 100% and um our students on average have achieved 108% of their typical annual growth. Um, one note I did want to add for the good of the team here. Um, our I Ready data does not include, um, any grade 8 algebra 1 students. Does not include their data from Clinger or Log. Um, Mr. Golder and Mr. Hayes had reached out to OTL and asked for a reprieve for those students. um because students who take the algebra 1 case in eighth grade are still required unfortunately [clears throat] by the state of Pennsylvania to still take the PSSA math 8 exam. So this would have meant that between the IR assessment, the Keystone algebra 1 and the math PSSA, those students in grade 8 algebra classes at Clinger and Log would have taken three assessments in about a fiveweek window. and we wanted to um honor their um mental well-being. Um so those students were excluded from this data. I'm going to switch gears to excel. Uh this is used at the high school only at this time. This is reading and English for grade nine. You can see that students scores increased across all the reading categories in the end of the year snapshot. That's reading strategies, vocabulary, writing and grammar and mechanics. And in the green arrows, you can see not only the point score increase, but also the percentage increase from fall to spring on the LL assessment. Uh this is grade 10. Again, grade 10 as well. student scores increased across all reading categories in the end of the year diagnostic assessment. Um I've got math together on one slide. Uh although they're separate categories, uh grade nine focuses on algebraic thinking which is the focus of grade nine math which is algebra. Um they had an incredible increase um of increase of 160 points or 21 a.5%. Um grade 10 geometry 191 point increase 31% um again students in both uh categories um increase. I did want to um just a note of gratitude um for the high school math department. Um [applause] sorry um because the note I wanted to add is uh we saw gains uh this year um despite the tragedy um that the high school had to live with [clears throat] just some key trends and takeaways. Um while assessment targets um are still a work in progress, um our local data confirms a solid five-year trend of consistent growth. And again, I want to repeat that our state assessment targets um are still a work in progress. We're not where we want to be yet in the area of achievement. We can talk more about that. Um we have solid foundations and interventions. um every single K through three grade level exceeded the national benchmarks um in the dble in the dibbles. In addition, we moved 2200 students out of tiers three and two into tier one. um really good momentum at the high school. 100% 100% of our measured ninth and tth grade categories in both RELA um and math reading and language arts, excuse me, and math showed positive growth from fall to spring this year. And just an editorial comment, but one that comes from my heart and one of gratitude. Um, the data continues to prove that when the school board invests in highquality curriculum, MTSS structures, and equitable resources, it translates directly into student growth. Um, the alignments are working. What we're doing is working, and I hope that we can stay the course. This is just a visual to align it up with our kind of four buckets that we've talked about for years here in Centennial. Curriculum, instruction, assessment, and systems. And a special note at the bottom, I want to make sure I recognize the Wii behind all of this. It's a unified effort, collaborative support, which includes our wonderful faculty and staff, our specialist, reading specialist, math specialist, our instructional coaches, our instructional leaders in central office, and our building and district administrators. A few notes that I want to add to update the board with. Going into next year, we're going to be transitioning away from I Ready for K8 and as a school district transitioning K12 to EXL, the learning platform. We're also adding social studies and science content. Um, for years since Il was brought on, it kind of trickled in over the years going back to 2018 2019 I believe pre- pandemic. Um, we've only had reading and math. We're going to add social studies and um, science content. Uh we're moving dibbles uh instead of paper to pencil, we're going to move it to the digital MC class. Um that's their digital platform. It's going to automate scoring. Um it's going to save significant time so we can get reading specialists with students one-on-one earlier instead of doing manual paperwork. Um the change I talked about just a few minutes ago, um we're going to reduce some test fatigue. We're going to try keeping this permanent with excluding those grade 8 algebra 1 students from the end of the year assessment. Doing the math 8 PSSA and the algebra and keystone uh exam and doing a third round of is too much too much. And looking ahead, couple things. We're going to be exploring a new science benchmark. one currently does not exist but with the change in the steel standards and the importance of those we're uh looking otl uh is looking to identify a science benchmark for grades 58 where the science pieces a is and the biology for the keystone so that in all testable subjects we have some local assessment data to track student progress um and we're also going to continue to um evaluate the impact of our win what I need uh time to strengthen our intervention efforts Thank you. >> Thank you, Mr. Rutz. >> Thank you, Mr. >> Enormous. Yeah. Enormous amount of information um that you've shared and such great results. Really so grateful. >> Thanks to you and to the entire team for these results. Fantastic job. >> It was a very good team that we have here. I'm very blessed uh to work for everybody. Um, and I I'm I'm very satisfied with the growth because we've continued that trend now for five years. Um, the status achievement is still a work in progress. We've seen um some growth starting last year in those achievement scores. They're not where we want them to be and we're going to continue to work toward that. >> Thank you. >> Thank you. >> Thank you. >> Mrs. Mr. Powell, you want to slide right into education committee reports? >> Sure, I sure do. Okay. Good evening, everyone. Uh, the education committee last met on Wednesday, June 10th. Um, I just want to add a note um that this committee continues to dedicate themselves to providing the best solutions and opportunities for our district. I'm so proud to work with such smart, fiscally aware, and experienced professionals. It has been such a great experience um being on this this committee here in Centennial. At our last meeting, we uh we had several presentations including what Mr. Rut just um presented to us on the spring end ofear local assessment review which is so encouraging. Um additionally, Mrs. Murphy presented the climate and culture survey results based on family surveys. Miss Murphy also presented an update regarding the strengthening PBIS through student partnership. Um and then the results that Mrs. Murphy shared were also very positive. [snorts] Mr. Hayes presented on the middle school program where everybody belongs and Dr. Calabrie and Dr. Caracappa shared the William Tennet High School ATSI plan for the 2026 2027 school year um and which we'll be approving tonight. The committee moved um a good number of recommendations to the board for tonight's approval and these include um a professional services agreement for the 2627 school year with Matthew McCarthy, the annual subscription to paraphrase for the AI translation translation management system, the 2627 teacher leader list, the William Tennant High School ATSI plan, um the LRA decodable text license for purchase the reading Olympics library book orders for elementary, middle, and high school. And then a few curriculums, um the second step curriculum, the star autism support curriculum, the reading horizons curriculum, and the attainment company supplemental curriculum. Um we'll discuss all of this um coming up next. Um, and our next education student services committee meeting will be September 8th, I'm sorry, September 9th, 2026 at 4:45 p.m. And that's it for the education committee right now. >> Thank you, Mrs. Depalo. [clears throat and snorts] >> Finance committee, Mrs. Kger. >> Um, our finance committee meeting was held on Thursday, June 11th at 5:30. Mr. Greenwood presented the financials through May 31st. Revenues continue to lag behind revenues re received for the year prior due to an increase in local revenues that have been offset by a decrease in state and federal resources. Expenses [snorts] continue to grow at a greater rate than the year prior due to an increase in salary, benefits, and technology. Comparing the prior year to the current year, revenue as a percentage of the budget is below last year as a result of uh payment timing. Catch up is expected. Um expenses continue to trail last year as a percentage of the budget. Year-end projections show revenue is in line with the budget. Expenses continue to demonstrate a small yet growing surplus of approximately $1.2 million. Um with respect to the 2627 um Mr. Greenwood earlier went through the five initiatives and wonderfully the number which was projected to be 3.2 instead was an additional half a million dollars higher which is great. Um the propos the final budget assumes a 3.5% for the 2627 fiscal year with zero increase included in future years with recurring savings from this year's initiatives being realized in future years plus additional initiatives that are continuing to be evaluated. A community letter is going to be going out and timed in accordance with the school tax bill being sent out to the taxpayers outlining what we have achieved despite state mandates that are unfunded and what we believe we can achieve over the next few years targeting a balanced budget. Um the Centennial financial dashboard continues to be available on the district website providing transparency to the community on how their tax dollars are being spent. What is eye-opening and needs to be understood by the community is with 25% of the student base classified as special ed coupled with an incremental cost of almost $23,000 per student annually, we're talking about an unfunded mandate of 30 almost $31 million. um with respect to our 25 26 expenditure budget with salaries uh equating to almost 44% and benefits almost 26% and debt financing equating to 7% we were at 76 1.5% of the annual budget. This leaves only 23 a.5% or of of um the 36 million 3 almost 37 million for all purchase services and what's included in that and I think it's important that the community understand it's educational curriculums training and development cleaning services utilities repairs and maintenance transportation insurance communications public relations books and periodicals equipment tuition supplies technology security rentals advertising public relations travel and legal fees. Let's be clear. While these while the financials can be very challenging, we're heavily focused on living within our means while continuing to provide an excellent education that will prepare our students for for a bright future. As the letter states, we are optimistic that we will achieve our goals of financial stability and responsible fiscal management. With all of that said, we had a discussion regarding the timing of invoice approvals and actual payment. Mr. Greenwood laid out the approval process for payment of bills covering pre-approved bills and pending bills, noted that noting that pre-approved bills cover an extensive list of run the operations categories that include items like utilities, insurance, payroll, debt service, BCIU and NBIT payments, rentals, and travel. Pending bills include items that may have been approved during previous board meetings as well as incidentals. pending bills will notate going forward timing of the approval so that as we're looking at them we know we approved it six months earlier and it's finally coming in. Some of the next steps are are there opportunities to pay bills electronically rather than via US mail and are there opportunities to leverage RFP processes to build in beneficial payment terms. An additional discussion took place regarding the benefits of zerobased budgeting and the importance of consolidating our vendor base to leverage our spending power. An initial analysis was done at the beginning of the year that highlighted that 492 unique vendors were utilized in support of the 23 and a.5% spend. Uh and the next step was over the summer uh an evaluation was going to be done of the vendor list and uh issue RFPs to consolidate consolidate spend and hopefully yield negotiated contract savings. One of the things that we were awaiting an update on is storm water management. I know that Dr. Lucaba, Mr. Greenwood, Sean Kilkenny, and the WMA were going to get together on next steps regarding escrowing the storm and water management fees and or slash taxes. The next meeting is scheduled for Thursday, September 10th at 5:30. >> Thank you, Mrs. Kger. Um, operations committee, Mr. Saddowski. >> Thank you. The last operations committee meeting was held on Friday, June 12th. Though I was unable to attend that meeting as I was away, my esteemed and very savvy colleagues, Mrs. Kger and Mr. Martin have informed me that it was a brief update [laughter] on the items presented for approval tonight in section 8 of the agenda. Those items were uncontroversial because they are on the agenda and our excellent facilities and IT teams are always fantastic at presenting the reasoning behind these purchases and answering any of our questions as you will see on those four items coming up shortly. >> Thank you, Mr. Saddowski. >> Um Mrs. Depalo, Education Student Service Committee. Yep. Uh item 6.1 uh items presented for information tonight. Um first is 6.1A the ATSI school plan William Tennant High School for the 2026 2027 school year. 6.1B the climate and culture survey results. 6.1 C strengthening positive behavior intervention supports PBIS through student partnership. and item 6.1d where everyone belongs web. Um any discussion on that? Any questions? Okay, we'll move on next to items presented for approval tonight. Be it resolved that the Centennial School District Board of School Directors and before I go through the list, is there anything that anybody would like pulled? >> Nobody's raising their hand. >> Okay, seeing none, then I will just go through the list. Okay. Item 6.2A approves the renewal of, paraphrase, a transition, I'm sorry, a translation management system for the 2627 school year district cost not to exceed $5,988. 6.2B 2B approves the 26 sorry 2026 2027 William Tennet High School additional targeted school improvement plan ATSI no cost to the district 6.2C 2C approves the professional services agreement with Matthew McCarthy effective July 1st, 2026 through June 30th, 2027 to update and enhance the district's English language development ELD systems to ensure cost efficiency and long-term sustainability to meet ELD data needs and improve student outcomes. District cost not to exceed $120 per hour for not more than 40 hours. District cost not to exceed $4,800. 6.2D approves the list of candidates for the teacher leader position for the 2026 2027 school year. 6.2E approves the purchase of library books for Davis Elementary School's reading Olympics. Sister cost not to exceed $396.40. 40. 6.2F approves the purchase of library books for Clinger Middle School's reading Olympics district cost not to exceed $2648. 6.2G approves the purchase of library books for Log College Middle School's Reading Olympics. District cost not to exceed $340.16. 6.2H approves the purchase of library books for McDonald Elementary School's reading Olympics. District cost not to exceed $663.25 6.2 I approves the purchase of library books for Lil Elementary School's reading Olympics district cost not to exceed $2725 6.2J approves the purchase of library books for William Tennant High School's reading Olympics district cost not to exceed $183.73 and 6.2 2 K approves the purchase of digital licenses for Lupraa decodable texts to be used by elementary reading specialists. District cost not to exceed $537. 6.2 L approves the purchase of secondstep special education curriculum. District cost not to exceed $21,888. 6.2 2M approves the purchase of STAR autism support curriculum district cost not to exceed $24,865. 6.2N approves the purchase of reading horizon special education curriculum district cost not to exceed $89,782.97 and 6.20 20 approves the purchase of the attainment company supplemental special education curriculum district cost not to exceed $12,471.90. >> Second. >> Any discussion? Great. Any discussion? >> I I do have a question in in regards to this is Fleming. >> Um in regards to the TSI um >> yes plan, Miss Mr. Rutz just you know gave us this beautiful report you know how well we improving and moving forward. Are we getting any closer to getting out of this >> out of the >> Mr. V is coming up to the podium. >> Yeah. Thank you. >> We're working toward it. There's not an easy answer, Mr. Godson. Um, one thing to keep in mind with any of the TSI plans is that they are lagging indicators. So, we're dealing with data that's three years old because the running record is three years of data. So, it does point out demographics and off top my head, I apologize um uh what the two indicators are, but yes, we are looking at that and that's through scheduling. Um, that's through programming. Uh but we are addressing that. Um it is a challenge. I will say not an excuse but a reason. It is challenging because we're working on a problem now that was identified from data from a cohort three years ago. Those students are not those students. But yes, and the high school team, Dr. Calibri and Dr. Carappa are doing a wonderful job addressing it. >> Thank you. >> I mean, you know, as I see, you know, I mean, the data is improving, you know, and you would assume that you were moving. Yeah. Another thing to keep in mind, not to not to diminish this at all, and I I think in Dr. Calibris's uh PowerPoint that she added, I believe she added the number, the end number, what the number of students that you're talking about um in that category. And I believe you only need I want to say 20, and I could be off on that, but the number could be 20 in that cohort, Mr. Godson, that is triggering that ATSI plan. So you could have a cohort as few as 20 with the graduation rate or the not achievement but the growth on a keystone exam and that n of 20 that number of 20 will trigger the ATSI or TSI. >> Good to know. >> Yes. Thank you. >> Thank you Mr. Russ. >> Any other questions or discussion? >> No hands are up. >> Okay. Great. And I think uh Mr. Saddowski you seconded. >> I did. Thank you. Um Okay. All in favor? >> I >> Okay. Any opposed? Any abstensions? Okay. Then the motion pass 90. >> Thank you, Mrs. Depal. >> Thank you, >> Mrs. Kger. Finance Committee. >> Yep. the um Pennsylvania School District liquid asset fund. Um the rate as of uh the 21st, the 7-day average rate was 3.45. The daily rate is 3.44. So over the last couple of months, it's been going down a point or two. We started out at the beginning at 3.5. So we're just earning less than our money. >> All right. Um next, um 7.2 two items presented for approval tonight. Be it resolved that the Centennial School District Board of Directors um 7.2A to a award art supply bid 20 26-08 to Blick Art, Cascade School Supplies, Freestyle Photographic Supplies, Kurts Brothers, Lakes Shore Learning, Meetco Supply, National Art and School Supplies, Pyramid Schools Products, Quill, SNS Worldwide, School Specialty, and Sheffield Pottery in the aggregate amount of $52,61.17.2B 2B award stock supply bid 206-14 to Cascade School Supplies Curts Brothers National Art and School Supplies Pyramid School Products Quill and WB Mason the aggregate amount of 23,063.29 7.2C 2C award athletic equipment and supplies bid 20 6-12 to BSN sports D and J sports long sporting goods Perth school products Redell SNS worldwide school health school specialty and sportsman in the aggregate amount of 27,28262 7.2D 2D award food service chemicals RFP 26-11 to Crystal Chemical for the 20 26 27 20 27 28 and 28 29 school years purchases will not will be as needed throughout the three school years cost not to exceed $12,000 per year. Uh 7.2E to E award the fleet repairs parts and accessories bid 26-13 to Associated Truck Sales Bright Bill Bodyworks come in sales and service DNW DNW Diesel DF DPF Services Delval International Truck Fred Beans parts carquest of Doylestown Freight Liner Western Star of Philadelphia Jasper Engine Lawson Products Razies Auto Radiator Re Lubricants and Wolf Bington Body Company at the attached discount levels for purchases needed for the 2026 6 through 2029 school years and 7.2F award furniture bid 20 26-07 to Kurts Brothers and WDM Mason district cost not to exceed 26,19441 >> second. >> Anybody have any questions? I do. Um the question is with these RFPs do we know roughly did it was there any financial benefit to doing each one of these? Did we over prior years save money? >> Of course, every year we save money. >> No, but I mean, do you have a sense of what it was for the each of these? Like I know we talked about the furniture one and you said I think you went back to the furniture one and based on the need for furniture for the third classroom, >> you were able to save money on it. But I because I'm looking at this list and saying this is a hell of a lot of vendors again and you know we're trying to consolidate vendors and we have to buy the stuff from who can supply them and I just want to know is there any benefit to doing it? I I I think there's obviously always a benefit in doing it, right? And I think as we discussed um at the finance committee meeting, right, some vendors bid lower than other vendors on certain products and right, the ability to consolidate them is something that we discussed looking into in the summer uh as we as we prepare to start the new school year. But yes, there's always a you know, the opportunity to send the RFP out and do the leg work uh is always going to save us money. The furniture one was a oneoff, right? That looking at uh we had a estimate of about $25,000 uh for the furniture uh that we had just gotten um outside of the RFP process. And when we compared that to the work that Donna Brazzle had done with the furniture RFP, we saved, you know, six or $7,000, right? So it went from 25 to 1918 and change. Uh so that's another example of uh pushing things into a a centralized purchasing to make sure we get those >> right. But you got to self market. That's come on. You just saved $7,000 to our taxpayers. Thank you. >> World. >> Good job, Mr. Greenwood. [laughter] >> Um any other questions? >> No, ma'am. >> All in favor? I >> I any nos any abstensions? >> Nine nothing. >> Thank you, Mrs. Kger. Mr. Saddowski, operations committee. >> Yes. 8.1 items presented for information tonight. None. 8.2 items presented for approval tonight. Would anyone like anything pulled or can I go through the full list >> hearing? None. >> I would like to talk Mr. Sidowski. 8.2. Thanks. 8.2B. I just had a question and I can wait till you go through. >> Sure thing. Um, okay. >> Okay. >> Be it resolved that the Centennial School District Board of School Directors 8.2A approves the disposal of vehicles to Will Wilcox Salvage as scrap with proceeds totaling $6,841.26 and the sale of a trailer through municipal bid for $2,000. 8.2C approves the security camera upgrades and installation of new cameras at Davis Elementary district cost not to exceed $16,52. And 8.2 2D approves the software maintenance and services renewals for the 202627 school year. District cost not to exceed 329,24625. Do I have a second on those? >> Second. >> Any discussion on those three items? >> Yes, sir. >> I will be abstaining on 8.2A. One or more of the biders are a cont a customer of mine. So, >> okay. Right. Any other followup on those? Seeing none, all in favor of 8.2 A, C, and D. >> I >> I >> I >> I. >> Any opposed? >> One abstension passes 801. And back to 8.2B. Be a resolved that the Centennial School District Board of School Directors approves retroactively a 25% reduction of fees for the Archbishop Wood swim team to use the William Tennant High School Pool from November 25th, 2025 through March 2026. Cost to Archbishop Wood with the discount is $4,020. >> Second >> discussion. Mrs. Depala. >> Yes. Thank you, Mr. Saddowski. So, this already occurred November 2025 through March 2026, >> correct? >> So, they I guess the question is they haven't paid that bill yet or is it >> I guess that's my question. So, we're we're approving it now, but it already happened. Um, does that make sense? I mean, my question is they already did they already pay to use the facility or >> Mr. Greenwood is looking it up right now. >> Okay. Thanks, Mr. Greenwood. And thank you, Mrs. Crossen, for um, like I said, there's a lag on my end here on the live stream. And then I guess my other question is, we always give them a discount. And I don't want this to sound terrible, but my question is um I guess why we also do the same when they use our track. Um so I guess my question is just why we we offer the discount. >> So Mrs. I'm it's Mr. Wartman. While Mr. Green and looks up the uh the swim club one. We give them a discount based on our board policy, our district policy depending on the number of in district students that live within the district that are using the say the pool or the track or whatever we we have a set 25% reduction or 50% reduction depending on the percentage of in district students. So that's based 25% is based on they met that criteria. >> Perfect. And we have a policy for that. >> Yes. >> And they [clears throat] are tax. >> I know they are. Yep. I was just curious and and that's good to know that we do have a policy. Thank you. I was just asking for clarification on that. Um I just never understood why we did the discount, but that makes sense now. >> Thank you. >> So for back to the swim team, that was not paid yet, but it was for that period of time. the paperwork was found, it wasn't issued, so we went back and put it on the agenda so we could get paid for that time. >> So, great. >> Great. >> Thank you, Mr. Wman. And question, Mr. >> Thank you, Mr. Greenwood. [clears throat] >> And can we then anticipate that they're going to ask for this for the coming school year as well and get them Yes. >> send this uh permission in sooner. So, we've tightened up our our procedures between schools that everything that's going to cause a reduction cost comes to us prior to the the request or the approval through the school. >> I'm looking forward, you know, an approval before it happens instead of after it happens. >> Exactly. So, next year before the high school says you can use the swimming pool, the paperwork has to come over here for reduct to look at reduction. All right. So, >> perfect. Thank you. >> You get an increase in price. I just want to understand like you know if if as an example they're using it chemicals I know where I live the chemicals for our pools have gone up dramatically. So the question is if they're using the pool I mean yes you give them a discount but also are you taking into account any of the increase in costs in terms of running the pool? >> Well we're about to get more money from them because we just did a tax increase. So let's let them we >> will let them slide. >> So that's part of the policy. We would have to rewrite the policy. Everything's set. Hey, if you're going to use the gymnasium at the high school, it's this amount. And then if you have a percentage of Warster 100%, you get 50% reduction. So everything is in the policy. Uh middle school track is is a cinder track, so it's not as much to rent as the high school track. So it's already in the policy as a set fee. We would have to revisit that policy and potentially rewrite. >> How old is the policy? >> I can't answer that. [laughter] 20 years old. >> Seven years. >> But I do I do believe the prices were updated a few years ago because I kind of remember >> the the the equation was discussed a few years back. But I think it was just the percentages were adjusted more than anything. >> So we're bearing the brunt of all the additional costs. >> Uh exactly. >> Well, we can take a look at the policy and Mrs. Kger. >> That's fair. >> Yep. Anything else? >> Thank you, Mr. Wartman. >> Thank you. >> All right. Any further discussion on 82B? >> Seeing none, all in favor? >> I opposed. >> Any abstensions? No. >> Passes 90. >> Okay. So, before we move on to board comments, does anybody mind? Do we have a community comment? >> Not at all. >> Okay. Um, so for community comments, you're going to come up to the mic. There is you just I'm going to give your name and you don't have to say your address but where you live and you have three minutes. >> Sure. My name is Neil Miller. I live in Warinster and I have a quick question for Mr. Hartline. Item 3.2 on the agenda was the 2026 2027 general budget. I noted that you voted no on this despite the fact that you are on the finance committee and therefore were instrumental in creating this budget. What was your rationale behind your vote? >> Well, it's okay. I'll answer the question. Generally for these, we don't answer questions for the public as part of the discussion, but that's okay. Um, for the last five years, for the last two years that I was on the board, I asked for full funding and did not get it. And I had three individuals that opposed me routinely on that, even though we consistently asked for full funding. And I voted as a protest this year. If you look back at my record over the last 10 years that I've been on the board, I think I've voted for increases eight times knowing that the district has to do it. >> I see. Thank you. You're welcome. >> So, just to to clarify that um on my end, I did vote yes for the increase because we have a plan. Last year, we have some new board members. Last year, there was no set plan. We had the same players except for two, well actually three. Um but we didn't have a plan to sustain um the deficit to bring it down. There was there was no changes made. Um I voted no and I know Mr. Saddowski voted no because he wanted to go to the full act one. Um they're the reasons that they didn't go through last year. We made significant improvements this year and that's why we're going through. Not to mention that we made it crystal clear sending information out to the community um that we do have to fund our special education students. It must be done. They deserve an education. We just need to get funding from the government to help do this for these unfunded mandates. That is why it didn't go through last year. Well, it did pass last year, but we did not support it because there were no changes made. And that's despite the fact that for two years finance asked administration to make 75% of the changes that were made this year by the new administrative team. >> The only difference we had this we had our administration here last year. >> No, we didn't. >> You you did not have a new superintendent last year. >> We had an old superintendent. >> Not last year. You did not. >> Yes, we did. >> Dr. Luca Ballal was here last year. >> No, we didn't. Dr. Lucall came in in July, >> right? >> The budget was passed in July. Dr. Luca was here doing that. >> No, we were going for two days for two days. >> Right. So, but what the previous administration had been asked to make adjustments and changes and they were never done. >> There was nothing. We were we every time something would come up the answer was no. Nobody wanted to increase. >> To be fair, they also asked the board what we were willing to actually negotiate. We asked them to come back with a plan and they never did. >> Right. Because Absolutely not. You can't push it on to administration. This board made no changes. >> None. We made no changes last year. >> Administration did not come to us with changes. >> Administration can't make changes without us. >> They were requested to come to them the same way this administration was requested to do it and they did it. >> We had Tom Greenwood did an excellent job presenting stuff to us and everything he brought to us. The answer was no. You cannot say he did not give us advice. He did and the answer was no. That's why it didn't go through. >> And did you vote yes on any of them? >> Some of them not on the budget. No. I absolutely not because no changes were made. We will be in the same >> when we asked for when we asked for a realignment at the high school >> for them to come back with a plan. We were told it would take a year to do it. We said please come back with a plan. They failed to come back with a plan. >> That that's one item. What about all the other [laughter] item? No. What about all the other things that Mr. Greenwood gave us? education endlessly to present us with information and this board did nothing. >> It's not Mr. Greenwood that did it. >> This year it went through and it was successful. >> You have your opinion. I have mine. >> Moving right along. We're going to go to board comments. >> Do we have any board? I have a question with regard to storm water management. Did you guys have the meeting with uh uh Sean Kilkenny and uh WMA and are we still going to escrow the taxes? >> We did and we are >> good. and and did >> and did they give any argument as to why it's not going to be uh it's not going to be viable over the long term and we're going to have to pay them later anyway. Did Did they Was there a lawyer there? >> Yes. >> And what happened? [laughter] >> We agreed to disagree and we are following the advice of our solicitor. >> Okay. [laughter] Thank you very much. >> Mr. Martin, >> quick comment and a question. Quick comment. I had a chance to review the William Tennant yearbook over the last couple of weeks and I will say it is an excellent job by whoever put that together. It's probably the best yearbook I have seen. I like to leaf through the yearbooks. I know some of the kids and the teachers, the activities, this was a very very well done yearbook this year and whoever had to put that together, I commend them for a good job. That's well done. My question is is there any further information regarding we're not meeting till mid August like I on the transportation for the ban trip? We had that discussion at the last meeting regarding looking at the cost of private versus uh taking our school buses with all the risks that are involved with that. Uh and I just was curious can't wait till the last minute to make any changes or additions. >> Well, Mr. Martin. >> Uh, actually I have a little update on that. >> U, Mr. Martin, thank you for reminding me. I completely forgot to mention this. I did speak with Mr. Ciphford after the meeting and asked him to get me numbers of what it would cost to use um, like private busing, kind of like those coach buses that we talked about. So, he's trying to pull together some numbers um, just as a kind of a factf finding thing. I didn't commit to anything or promise anything. I just asked him to get those numbers, letting him know that we had a discussion after last month's board meeting about it. So, I'm just waiting for him to get back to me with some numbers, which I um you know, will share with the board once he gets that information to me. >> Thank you so much. I hope he includes Mr. Wartman who's responsible really for the transportation in the district. He he didn't know anything about it uh at the best of my know >> and I think Yeah. And I I I talked to Mr. Ciphford about that too. Uh Mr. Martin, I think you know what what what he did was he talked to um transportation. I I I think he ran it by transportation. I I don't think I think that's what he thought the process was. So um you know I guess he was waiting to see if if it would be approved. Um but I I think he thought that all he needed to do was contact um sorry I cannot remember her name. Beth. Is it Beth? in transportation. >> Jennifer, >> Jennifer, thank you so much. I know he talked with Jennifer, so I don't think he thought he needed to reach out to Mr. Wartman. Um, so it might have been an oversight, but I I don't think there was any reason that he didn't reach out to Mr. Wartman. I just don't think it occurred to him to do that. >> Thank you. Enjoy your vacation. >> Yeah. Thank you. Thanks, Mr. Martin. Thank you. >> All right. Any additional board comments? Um, I just want to, it's Chris again. I just want to mention that I saw um, we had a proposal from Carol Engineering Corporation. Um, and I hope this is appropriate to mention, but that is the engineer that the Ivy Land Bureau uses. Um, and I know we've been very happy with their services. Just wanted to mention that publicly. >> Okay. Any other comments? Okay. Um, all right. The next meeting of the committee of the whole will be held September 22nd, 2026. Can I get a motion to adjourn? So moved. Second. >> All right, everybody. Have a good evening.