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[music] [music] >> [music] [music] [music] [music] [music] [music] >> $663 which is an all-time high for the foundation and this level of support will directly enhance learning experiences for our students and will bring a wide range of innovative ideas to life in our classroom. So, we appreciate the dedication of the foundation, their continued commitment to our district, our schools, our teachers, and especially our students. And coming up on April 9th, we are going to have an awards breakfast over at Ant's Choice where we'll award all $78,000 in change. And so, I just want to say thank you to the foundation publicly and we're excited for all the wonderful things that the recipients will be able to do as a result of these funds. So, great great news for our district and for our students as well. All right, thank you, Mrs. Cross. >> Okay, moving right along. Um, we have a presentation, independent auditors report, >> Carl Hogan. Okay. I think it's the I [snorts] think it's the other presentation. Whoever's in control. There we go. Perfect. [snorts] Thank you everybody. Uh my name I'm Can you hear me? Okay. I know the volume issues and I speak generally low so please let me know if you have any issues. Um I >> thank you. [clears throat] [laughter] >> All right. Let's start again. Thank you everybody. Uh appreciate you having me here tonight to pre present the 2025 audit results and financial position of the district. Uh my name is Bob Kaufman. I'm an audit manager with CLA. Um, and instead of going over the 80page audit report page by page, we do have a presentation summary. Um, it is a very interesting document though, so if you want some light reading, I do recommend if you want a summary, the MDNA is very insightful and gives a little bit more of a narrative explanation as to what happened throughout the year um, in the audit itself. Um so on our agenda tonight we are going to go over the audit scope and process, the audit opinions and mandatory communications with the board um that we as auditors must provide. Um the financial position, financial statement highlights um as well as the process and remaining items to enga uh finalize the engagement and overall audit itself. Uh the audit scope. Um, so we are required because you uh have a federal single audit to provide a report on the district's internal controls as well as the financial statements themselves. Uh, we are required to provide a letter to governance at the end of the audit that kind of gives a brief summary over what we're talking about tonight. Um, as well as a report on the inter internal controls over the major program that was audited as a part of that federal single audit. As a part of our audit process, we take a risk-based approach. Um essentially we look at the processes of the the district, the internal controls that are in place, checks and balances as well as the significant estimates um for the district where there's areas of judgment to determine which areas are riskier than others and how we're going to target our testing and do our sampling. Um we do not have the ability to sample or to test every transaction that goes through the district. Um, so this is the best way to narrow down and test high uh risk areas identified by us during our approach. And we like to incorporate an element of unpredictability so that um we're not doing the same thing year after year um and able to catch things that may not have been caught in the past. So as far as the results, the audit opinions over the financial statements themselves as well as the federal um program which was the child nutrition cluster in the current year, you had unmodified opinions which are the best opinion um that you can get in an audit. Um I'd also like to note that you did not have any material weakness or sign significant deficiencies over either internal controls over the financial statement reporting itself or the major federal program. Um, so essentially that is the best uh opinion and letters that we can provide as auditors to the district. Oh, and feel free to interrupt me if you have any questions in between. I know I go fast um and throw a lot of terminology out there, so just let me know. Um, governance communications in the letter that we are to provide at the end of the audit, we will go over the significant note that the significant accounting policies are in your first footnote to the financials. Uh we also implemented a new Gazsby standard this year uh compensated absences which we'll go into a little bit more detail in a couple of slides. Um there were no unusual transactions or lack of guidance on uh transactions themselves. Uh we did not inter encounter any difficulties related to the audit. Um did not have any incorrect misstatements and didn't have any uh disagreements with managements about the financial statements or the audit. Um some of the key estimates were self- insurance and as well as pension and oped liabilities um as well as the compensated absences absences estimation that is new for the current year. So as I had mentioned the the new standard that was implemented this year Gazby 101 compensated absences essentially changed the way the district required to report their liability for sick and leave payout for example. In the past, it was just how much was going to be paid out when somebody retired, how much they're eligible to be paid out. Now, you have to recognize also what is the likelihood that that leave balance may be used in the future. So, instead of being a cash liability, it's more focused on the expense and timing. Um, it can be a little confusing. It that's why it was a high level estimation in the current year because there was a new policy. You had to look at a couple years of data, historical data to come up with a procedure to make that estimation. Also this year, [clears throat] uh, Gazsby 102 was implemented. Certain risk disclosures. There was no impact on the district's financials. Um, it mostly focuses on areas where there's limitations to your government. If you were, for example, had a high tourism tax and COVID happened and you no longer had tourism and that tanked your revenue, that would be something you would have to disclose in your footnotes. [snorts] For the financial highlights, we are going to look at the budget to actual general fund, uh the fund balance composition, the governmental funds, and the food service fund. In your budget to actual, as you can see here, your local revenues, state revenues, and federal revenues were all came in better than budget. Um mostly due to the state's budget passing after your mandatory uh budget date of June 30th. The state passed it in July uh 11 days later. Um so a lot of the federal and state um budgetary figures were estimates. Uh the local sources were due to better than anticipated interest earnings. Um expenditures did come about $950,000 under with the biggest component being I believe a delay to a technology refresh in the central office um due to it. So it was a timing issue. Overall though, the change in fund balance uh was a slight decrease of 280,000. Um this is an overview of the governmental funds activity for the current year or for the June 30th 2025 audit. Um as you can see the general fund is in this column as well as the uh capital projects fund the debt service fund. the capital projects fund uh was a excuse me a decrease of about 400 3,000 um this was due to capital expenditures exceeding interest and the transfer um and the main projects for the current year I believe were a projector project re projector reinment project and a parking lot paving project uh along with um several other capital purchases So, your composition of fund balance as of June 30th, 2025 was approximately 12.4 million in the general fund. Uh 9.9 of which was unassigned. Um this amount was under 8% of your 150 million 2026 budget. Um which is in compliance with the PTE's requirement. [snorts] for your food service fund in 2025. Um the majority of your uh non-operating revenue or revenues is related to non-operating which is essentially your state and federal subsidies. Uh there was a slight decrease there and a slight decrease in overall revenues, but overall I believe it was only a $30,000 change. Um so pretty consistent from year to year. Um and as you can see, your net position did increase by approximately $600,000. Um so a pretty pretty healthy program going on. [snorts] Okay. So finally the steps to finalize the audit engagement. Uh the audit is going to go through uh final reviews and formatting. You know just make sure our punctuation no double periods eyes and eyes dotted tees crossed. Um get a signed representation letter from management. Just noting that you know all the information provided was accurate. They did not give us anything fraudulently fraudulently to manipulate um the audit results um things like that. Um just so that we can be more comfortable with our opinions on the financials. And that concludes my uh highle presentation of the 2025 audit. I know I went kind of fast. So are there any questions um that any of members of the board may have? Anybody have any questions? >> Thank you so much. >> All right. Great. Thank you everybody. Appreciate you having me here tonight. >> Thank you both. >> All right. Moving right along. Public comments by residents on agenda items. We have one comment. >> I don't know if it's on an agenda item. Is everybody okay if we just um allow that? >> All right. Yes. Ellen Newman. When you come up, just state your name and warm and stir and you have three minutes. I'm Ellen Newman. I've lived in Warminster for a little more than 18 years. I spoke with some of the students who participated in the walk out and what they told me was they appreciated the opportunity they were given to express themselves to bond with other students who had the same objectives to learn about their teacher support their right to political expression. [snorts] They're taking a public the teachers supported this the right to political expression and taking a public stand and that they cooperated with the rules set by the district. The students were aware that after the demonstration the teachers showed great professionalism by not siding with either group the Democrats or the Republicans. The fact that the students were engaged, involved, and actively expressing their opinions is significant. In our time, too many teens and adults are involved with their screens, oblivious to all that's happening in their environment. Kudos to the students who process information, think critically, and form their own opinions. And these [snorts] lessons beyond the classroom are very important in a functioning democracy. And I'd [snorts] like to thank the school board, the administrators, the teachers, and everybody else involved for what they did for our kids. >> Thank you. Thank you. >> Okay, moving right along, Mr. Saddowski. >> Thank you. Approval of the agenda. Be it resolved that the Centennial School District Board of School Directors 2.1 approves the March 24th, 2026 Committee of the Whole Agenda as per the attached. Are there any corrections that need to be made that are allowed by law? >> Second. >> Second. >> Any discussion? All in favor? >> I. >> Any opposed? Abstensions? [clears throat] Is everybody? New business. Be it resolved that the Centennial School District Board of School Directors. Would anyone like any of these pulled or can I go through? >> I just have a question. We get to 3.4. Uh, do you want to go through and just ask it during discussion or you want separate? >> Okay. >> Very good. Then I will go through the full consent agenda here on new business. >> Be it resolved. The Centennial School District Board of School Directors 3.1 approves the personnel agenda including retirement, resignations, authorization to employ, leaves of absence, change of status, mentor teachers, fine arts festival, and co-curriculars, clubs, and activities. 3.2 accepts the audited financial report for the year ending June 30th, 2025. 3.3 awards the two-year agreement with to Minute Man Security for software licensing, software upgrade and support for district-wide access portals and security cameras. This renewal is mandated by the equipment manu manufacturer to continue support and provide system upgrades as required to maintain system operation. District cost not to exceed $31,32.80. 3.4 Four approves the letter of agreement with the Southeast Council of Pennsylvania for the continuation of three student assistance programs counselors to work with students daily at each school. Cost district cost for three counselors is $139,610. 3.5 approves the virtual attendance of three district social workers to the attendance/child accounting profession association Pennsylvania resource center webinar April 14th 2026. district cost not to exceed $225. 3.6 approves the access coordinator job description and position effective immediately. 3.7 approves the memorandum of understanding between Centennial School District and the Centennial Education Association to extend the current extended schoolyear teacher rate of $50 per hour through June 30th, 2028, the end of the collective bargaining agreement. 3.8 8 approves the submission of the petition to the honorable Pennsylvania House of Representatives to remove House Bill 41 from the table and schedule it for floor consideration to end the significant disparity of PIAA championships going to non-boundary schools and 3.9 approves the educational fund agreement for student 5-12 district cost not to exceed $13,300. >> Second >> discussion Mr. Martin. Yes, I only have one question as it relates to 3.4. I did take the opportunity to read the contract that is proposed and I do have some familiarity with the Southeast Council of Pennsylvania which used to go under a different name. [clears throat] However, uh taking a sentence from their contract uh they are to support students with problems related to the use of drugs, alcohol, and controlled substances. we are hiring them or they're doing it in the high school, the intermediate school and the elementary school. I was just curious more than anything else how far we have fallen if there's a need for that type of counseling in the elementary schools with drugs, alcohol, and controlled substances. Hopefully, not too many kindergarten to fifth graders are involved with those sorts of things. reason why I certainly understand the high school and maybe even the intermediate school, but why the heck do we need somebody in the elementary school, unless there's things I'm certainly unaware of that relate to kids of that age getting involved with those [snorts] kinds of issues. >> So, Mr. Martin and members of the board, I I can speak to that a little bit. Um I I would share your hope as well first that we would not have a significant need for drug and alcohol counseling in our earlier grades K through 5. And statistically we have I I don't have a percentage in front of me but I can tell you that it is not um a statistically significant issue at all. Um it would be extremely rare to have a drug or alcohol issue in in the early grades. Um that that said the role of the SAP liaons and and just for everyone's um context it is something that we're required to do under uh Pennsylvania school code is to have an external liaison. Uh but they also do other other functions. They they work with um behavioral health as well um clinical mental health services and um they also do a lot of resource mapping which means that they connect families to to resources in the community especially when dealing with uh mental health supports and clinical behavioral supports. And so they they go beyond they go beyond not just drug and alcohol counseling um but also behavioral and mental health. >> I I took that right from their contract and I was just curious if they do these other things >> they do >> for the ele well they're not spelled out in the contract for the elementary part. I understand the high school and the the intermediate, but the the elementary part I it's a little difficult to understand or at least why they need full-time there certainly in the high school they do maybe intermediate elementary that's full-time things that deal with these kids with their drug and alcohol and perhaps in elementary school maybe. [snorts] So yeah I mean there there are I mean for example they they also support at all three levels elementary, middle and high. I mean they they do a lot of crisis intervention um for families that are in crisis or have experienced traumatic events. They offer external resources for that crisis intervention. They do post vention as well to to help families address it. Um and you know there there are I mean there are significant needs that do arise at at any level and it really allows us in our structure to be able to partner with them and to to bring assistance to affected families. Am I correct that this is a renewal of a contract or continuation of a contract that's already in place? >> It's a continuation and because it's a state requirement. It's in school code. It's section 1547 of of Pennsylvania school code. It's just a continuation. We use the Southeast Council. There are probably nine districts in Bucks County who use the Southeast Council. Some of the counties in I'm sorry some of the districts in for example Montgomery use like Mari Mari I think but the council is just one of those providers but we have a long-standing relationship. We've been using them for well over a decade. Any other comments on any of these items? All right. All um all in favor >> I >> I >> any opposed >> only to 3.4 I on everything else >> any abstensions so all passes 90 except for 3.4 which is 81. >> Okay moving right along. Um presentations Mrs. Depalo. >> Yep. Thank you. Uh item 4.1 education committee presentations. There'll be two presentations. The first one um Mr. Mr. Rutz will be talking about the winter 202526 local assessment data review. >> Hi, Mr. Ruts. >> Hi. How's everybody doing? >> How are you? >> I'm I'm actually really well because the Philly's home opener is in two days. So, [laughter] hopefully we'll have a >> 4:30 in the afternoon. >> Yes. Hopefully we'll have a better end result of the season. But anyway, one could wish. Uh thank you for being here tonight. Um, I do want to give a quick uh overview of our winter local assessment data. Uh, winter for us kind of ended around the end of January, beginning of February. Um, for our local data here, let me get right here. Um, we're going to be looking at data from really three data sources that we do annually. um Dibbles for K3, um I Ready for math and uh ELA reading English language arts for K8 and excel which we use at the high school for grades 9 and 10 in both uh reading English language arts and mathematics. Uh for our K3 dibbles, this is our composite score summary at the midway point of the year. um all three grades uh all grades, excuse me, all four grades in K3 scored above uh the national uh middle of the year benchmark. Um so we've continue I think we're going on year four or five or six five or six of this of uh growth throughout the year uh in in many if not all these benchmarks and we've talked uh as a team as a team both in education committee and as a board in the past uh the last several years of the kindergarten class of students coming in further and further behind. to see that that continued growth uh from the fall benchmark to the winter benchmark uh is a good sign uh and a testament to our teachers and students. Uh we always review the uh the pyramid the the multi-tered systems of support tiers uh pyramid uh just a refresher uh for those in the room and watching uh tier one is uh students that are at or above grade level and this is generally these are rule rule of thumb here uh ranges generally about 75 to 80% of students. Tier two would be students who are one grade level below. That tends to be about 15 to 20% of students. And tier three would be two or more grade levels below. And the range for that tends to be about 5 to 10% of students in any organization for K8 reading for I Ready. Uh again, as we do every year, on your left you'll see the fall pyramid of tiers and on your right is the winter assessment pyramid of tiers. So we had a 9% decrease of tier three and 11% decrease in tier 2. So we had 20% of our students in K8 move grow from tiers three and two into tier 1. That 20% 20% excuse me represents almost 700 students and which is about 28 classrooms of students K8 who have moved from tiers three and two into tier one for reading uh at the midway point of the year. Um, one of my favorite charts, um, the progress toward typical growth. I always talk about this bucket of growth. If you think about growth in an academic year being a bucket of 100% growth, uh, the national norm for reading uh, with I Ready is 55%. We are currently sitting at 80% of that bucket of growth at the halfway point of the year. Uh, just to put in perspective, we were in the ballpark last year. At this time we were at 82%. So we're a little little percent off there. Um but again in the ballpark there and above the national norm median. So that's a good sign continued growth. Um a note for everybody uh publicly before I get to the math data and I ready. We had pulled we had pulled uh students in grades six, seven, and eight in advanced math only uh because we needed to pilot and test drive and kick the tires on mastery predictive assessment with our Canvas platform. Um and we needed to pull some students out to try that to see if it was going to give us any better data. It did not work out the way we had hoped uh yet. Um we are working very closely with Canvas. We have a good working relationship with them and we are often um tasked asked um to work as a partner with them to test drive uh some of their features and applications. Um so we did a field test of these assessments. Um it supported instructional planning and target intervention. Um but I just wanted to mention this because you'll see um I wanted you to know that these students were pulled out of the I Ready math data. So that those these students are not included in the data I'm going to present here for K8 math. Again, fall assessment is on your left, winter assessment is on your right. Total, we moved 14% of students out of tiers three and two math into tier 1 from fall to winter. That 14% represents about 490 students, which is about 20 classrooms of students moving into tier 1. That's just from the fall to the winter assessment. Our typical growth here um again uh the median national median is 52%. We're sitting at 58% which is exactly where we were last year. Um so that was an interesting uh data point because we have about 111 students whose data is not included in this. those sixth, seventh and eighth grade advanced students whose data is in mastery predictive assessment and not in I ready uh you know we use um for the high school uh in grade nine this is uh 9th grade across the board students in these four categories uh increased from the fall assessment to the winter assessment um and I always share this in the fall when we we have the fall assessment the it's toward an end of the year benchmark. So the Il calls it a working grade level. These are endofear expectations. Always with state standards in Pennsylvania, whatever grade you're looking at, the standards signify endofear expectations. Students will master that skill, that standard by the end of that academic year. For grade 10, again in these four categories, students uh scores in increase in all four categories from fall to winter. Um, I have math nine and 10 on the same slide since the only two grades we look at. Uh, focusing on grade nine, which is algebra 1, and grade 10, which is geometry. They do students will get scores in the other math categories, but we focus on algebra since that's the ninth grade core course and 10th grade geometry since that is the core course. and really good growth and we've continued to have this growth uh at high school math. Just some key trends and takeaways. We're continuing to move students out of tiers three and two into tier one. Early literacy strength. I mentioned that a few minutes ago. The K3 divvils data suggest a strong foundation and we're continuing to exceed the national benchmarks year-over-year and continued growth generally um across most if not all indicators in reading and math. >> Thank you. >> Thank you Mr. Red news. It is >> the growth is continuing. Thank you. Thank you. >> One simple question for you. >> Yes. um comparative to last year, we see the same um changes in the pyramid. >> Yes, we're seeing this. That's a great question, Mr. Godixson. Yes, the the growth uh is comparable to the last several years. Actually, I go back two more years than that. Um what it we we can never predict year to year but what I feel is a really good sign with the data and you and I have had many conversations about this is last year with the continued growth year into year three we started to see achievement pop. So we're waiting and you guys have heard me say this a million times growth before achievement. uh but last year finally we started to see I think in all indicators except biology if I remember correctly uh biology keystone I think had a slight decrease I want to say of like 0.8% 8% something like that. Uh but every other indicator in PSSA and Keystone increase in achievement to match the growth. So if we're seeing the same growth, we should see continued achievement as well as students are metriculating through the system. And again, we've talked a lot, this group, this team, this partnership, um, about the consistency in curriculum, standards aligned curriculum, instructional practices that eventually would start to see an increase in the achievement on these in these indicators that would start to reflect the growth we've had for a few years. >> Thank you. >> Great work, Mr. Rats. >> Thank you. >> Thank you. >> Okay. Uh our second education committee presentation is the transfer of entity. Uh was presented by Dr. Hopkins. Hello again. Nice to see you. So I'm here to talk about the transfer of entity which we refer to as the TOE and while [laughter] and while I'm standing up here talking to you about the transfer of entity what is important to understand as I talk about this is actually what's before you to approve is not the transfer of entity but the positions that will need to exist because of the transfer of entity. So the majority of my presentation and my discussion with you is what is the transfer of entity but what you're here to think about and approve are the positions that come of that. So the current status and where we are, we have four classrooms in our district that are currently run by the BCIU. We have one MDS classroom at Tenant High School. We have one MDS classroom, multiple disability support classroom at McDonald. and we have two autistic support classrooms at Davis Elementary. In those two classrooms at Davis Elementary, each classroom has eight students. It's important to know that eight is the cap. So, we cannot increase those class sizes and none of those students are aging out. That's just something to keep in mind. [snorts] I could talk to you about the other two classes, the MDS classes at Tenant and at McDonald, but we're going to focus on the two IU autistic support classrooms at Davis Elementary that house 16 of those students. And what I want to share with you that every single one of those 16 students is a Centennial School District resident. Every single one of them. Not one of them. As as is the case at tenant, every one of the children in the class at tenant are not Centennial School District residents. But the reverse is true for both of these classes that we house at Davis Elementary. So I need to start off with a little vignette, so to speak, of my very first day in the district. And I had come into the district. The my first line of duty was to check in with Dr. Herman and to get all of my technology and get set up and get into P school and Skyward and all of that jazz. And I walk back to what is going to be my office. And almost immediately, one of our administrative assistants comes into the office and says, "Dr. Hopkins, there's a parent at the front desk. She's very upset and she wants to speak with you about her child. And I kind of looked around like it was a joke. Like I thought I thought I was being punked. There's no way that this could be happening within an hour of me being here. And so I go out to speak to the mother who is very distraught and very upset and rightfully so. And the entire time I'm trying to find her child in our system because my best practice is that when a parent comes to me with an issue, I want to have all their documentation in front of me because I want to know the profile of the student, I know how to read the documents. So, I'm looking for key key phrases, specially designed instruction, related services, what are we here to provide? And I can't find the student. I can't find them in P school, which is our IEP monitoring system, and I can't find them in Skyward. And so in my brain, I'm thinking, this [snorts] is not a child in our district. [laughter] This kid doesn't go here. What do I do? And I just kept going with it. I kept taking notes. And I said to the mother, I hear you. I will respond back to you today. I need some time to look into this further. And I went back to my administrative assistant, one of our administrative assistants, and I asked. and she said, "Oh, no. He does live in the district, but he's in the IU class, so we have no documentation for him." And so, here was a family. The mother did exactly what she should do. She went to central office to seek help and I couldn't help her. And it was in that moment that I started to uncover exactly the current situation and the state of affairs. And so while this class is in Davis Elementary and it is all Centennial students, we have no oversight of that program. We have no determination as to how the program is going to run. We have no control in the instructional model or the manner in which students are being educated. We can't ensure there's alignment with our district's values. We can't work to strengthen the community with the family. And so there was a perfectly great situation, a wonderful way to capture what I'm trying to say. This is a family in our district and I couldn't help them. and we're not providing these students that are ours the connection that we want them to have to our district. By moving forward with the TOE, we ensure that there's alignment with our ideals, our initiatives, what we believe is best instructional practice. We get to form stronger collaboration with those families. The principles at Davis will be their principles. The supervisor of special education is their supervisor. And what you need to know is our supervisor at Davis Elementary, Amy Denko, she sits in on every one of their IEP meetings. Yet, she has no oversight of those classrooms. And we also now by taking back with through the TOE those two classes at Davis, we now can not only integrate our staff and integrate the children with our staff, but moving forward, we can provide seamless transition as these children get older in our district. What doesn't change with the TOE, those kids will still go to Davis Elementary. They will still walk through the doors of that building. The building and that environment will be a constant in those children's lives which as we know is so important not just to the children but to those families. They are going to have many of the same faces that they see will be the same and the level of service and programming that they currently get through the IU is going to remain the same. their IEPs right now say supplemental autistic support. That will not change. And what I'm going to show you in the end of the presentation is I actually think we're going to be able to do it better. And I actually think we're going to be able to provide more services. So what does change? What changes is now the teachers, the staff, the supervisors will all be Centennial employees. the students will have greater access to inclusion and we know that is something that we are working towards. So right now if one of the students in that classroom is making great strides and it's believed that this student could access a greater level of the general education classroom. It's not that seamless with the IU, but with us, we can say, you know what? Let's try 20 minutes in a science lab. Let's try a readaloud and all sitting together for a readaloud in a general education classroom. We can't do that now. But if we transfer back these classes, those doors are now open to these children that weren't before. The other thing that the transfer of entity would do is it gives us a greater predictability in budgeting. There are things that we know when we budget. We know that our raise for teachers is 2.5 a school year. I'm going to show you on the next slide that the increase that is given to us by the IU is not predictable. It's told to us. We also get to make better use of district resources, our related service providers, our staff, and in addition to the fact that we have a a cleaner line to the possibility of state reimbursements. So if you look at this slide right now in this school year for each one of those students their tuition is $98,923. Our total tuition for those students is $1,582. 581,582,768. I'm not used to saying figures that high. So, I really have to work on that. My my my number skills don't go that high. [snorts] Um, but here's what's happening. We have already been given the tuition for the 2627 school year. It is increasing by 8.41%. We had no say in that. I can't bargain with it. And so that tuition will go up to $17,240 per student. And here's the other thing that we have to remember. [snorts] We are capped out. We have eight students sitting in each of those classrooms. I cannot add another child to those classes. And right now I have 25 students in our early intervention pipeline who we know have a disability category of autism. Chances are I'm going to need to add and program for another maybe five students at this level. That's another class. That's another teacher. So if we were to keep the students in the IU channel, this would be another class that would be under the IU if we kept that way, if we kept that direction. So now you make that 24 students for the 2627 school year because if we now start to max out another class, we're now at 2,573,760. Each year the IU tells us how the tuition is rising. But as we discussed, we know with using our own staff, we know how our salaries increase. What I am proposing and these are the positions that are coming in front of the board. Again, it's not really the TOE, it's the positions. And so what happens with the TOE there's it's it's very programmed. It's a system. So, if you were to approve this tonight, I immediately let the families know that this is in the works. I also immediately let the IU know because then what happens is that we have to give those two teachers that are currently IU employees the right to refusal. They are the only staff or faculty that get that right in the program. So they would be brought into HR with their union representation from the IU and they would be offered their steps and we have to offer them not only their steps but their their credits, their accreditation, their college credits and where they are on the scale. And so that figure of those two full-time teachers is based on if they say yes to us, what we would have to pay them for both of them. We added an additional teacher because we know that that those classes have maxed out and we know that we're going to have more. So, we added an additional teacher and we put it at about step three, 32B, I believe, on the salary schedule with benefits that comes to about $85,000 a year. And then we're going to provide a level of service that we haven't done yet in the district, which is to go with what is called registered behavior technicians. And what that is is a pareducator that comes with a different level of training, a different level of exposure, and a different level of oversight. And so RBTs are something that we don't have in terms of Centennial employees. We have one RBT right now that comes to us from GHR, but it's not a a place where we are right now hiring people. It's not a job description. What comes with an RBT is they have to sit for a qualifying exam. They then need to go through 40 hours of training and then they have to sit for a final exam to be deemed an RBT. Once they're an RBT, they are observed and interacted with by a BCBA for 3 hours a month. One hour individual, one hour where they're observed, and one hour of small groupoup professional development. And what districts are finding is that this this added level of requirement but also added level of oversight has been a gamecher. It's a different level of expertise when you think about a pareducator. So whereas before a pareducator was one pareducator to one child, with this type of support, districts that use this level of support are finding that they're able to do a 1:2 or a 1:3 ratio because the oversight and the professional development is monthly and what they had to do to get that RBT is significantly more than a PAR educator And we decided we would love 14 RBTs into this figure. And the cost of those 14 RBTs, and we did base it off of numbers of GHR because right now we don't have that position, would be 742,000. We also added a full-time BCBA which would enhance the program, enhance the ability to provide services and programming for this population. At this time, we have a BCBA opening in the district that we are filling with a GHR candidate because we can't fill it. There's other reasons for that that are for another night, but we can't fill it. So, we're filling it with a GHR candidate. So, we base that number on what we are paying via GHR. So for the two full-time teachers, for an additional teacher, 14 RBTs and one BCBA were at 1,294,900. Am I saying this right? I feel like I'm com I can't read commas right now. 1,294,95. It is a savings of1,278,855 to bring our students rightfully back home and for them to be under the true umbrella of Centennial School District >> questions. >> Can I ask you a question? >> Yes. >> Um, >> is is the are you currently using the uh RBTs? So that will be another enhancement to that program. >> Yes. Yes. >> And that that was a cost that we were going to be spending anyway. >> We would have been spending [clears throat] 2 million $573,760. >> So that's enhanced outcomes for our students and we're saving. >> Yep. >> Yes. Is there a vacant classroom at Davis that can accommodate another? >> There is. >> There is a vacant [clears throat] classroom right now at Davis. >> There the Davis has already figured out how to add a classroom. Now, I'm going to be honest with you because [laughter] I'm not going to lie to you, Mr. Martin. I am only going to be honest with you. The two current classes at Davis absolutely will stay at Davis. The new class that we would add are going to be students that are coming to us from early intervention that will be residents of elementary schools all over the district. Something that we will have to think about is if it is in the best interest of students to now put another class at Davis or to start to build at one of our other elementary schools. That's something to consider. >> Define start to build. That's a little frightening. >> Well, that would be the class that we just identified. Right. But so you you're going to look for a vacant classroom anywhere in a district [laughter] at the three elementary school. >> I've got a couple spots. >> Okay. [laughter] >> Dr. Zachin and I and Mr. Wharton, we all walked every building asking very careful questions as to what was out there. Karen, do you have a question? >> The existing aids that are in the classrooms now, do they go back to the BCIU? >> They're they're employees of the IU, >> so they have to figure out where they're going to go. >> Mhm. >> This isn't a question, Dr. Hopkins. It's um a [clears throat] statement. I think um our spirit program was that was an IU program initially. >> Yes. I know during our uh education committee meeting, I had asked if we'd ever done this before, [clears throat] but I know I can say my experience with the spirit uh program here since we assumed it back um here in our district, I know that the families are very happy with that program here. So, I guess I was looking for an example of maybe us bringing something back and seeing how how that worked out. So, um [clears throat] yeah, seems like a good program. And please know this is every one of these children and families, all 16 of them, this is an I ultimately an IEP decision. It is not you. This is all we're offering you. If if the team believes that the child needs a different level of service that is not this, but remembering we're going to be offering the same if not greater service to these children. That is that is an individual decision. And what will follow this and follow your vote should you vote yes for this to go through will be setting up IEP meetings with every one of the 15 families. 15 families because one of the family has two children. >> Another um piece of information. So, the current system, the way that it works, those kiddos at Davis don't participate in things like um assemblies or um >> I think they do. Okay. I >> do. They do the >> It's not >> whereas we're so we we work to document every inclusive practice in general education. Mhm. >> Do I do they go to a lot of things that happen in Davis? Absolutely. >> But it's not documented in their in their IEPs, >> right? So if >> and the flexibility of let's try something is not occurring. >> Okay, good to know. So I just feel like this would give them the opportunity to be a little more involved in the culture of the >> of their school. >> Of course. Yes. >> Thank you. >> Thanks. Any other questions? No. No. Okay. Okay. Thank you, Dr. Hoff. >> Thank you. >> Well, Heather, though, I do have another question because you did talk about the tenant group. Are we considering them at all? >> The what group? >> The classroom that's at the high school. >> The classroom at the high school has none of our students. It's all out of district students. >> All out of district students. Now, the classroom at McDonald is I think it's either all of our students or just one isn't our student. We've of course spoken about it and it's it's we're all we're thinking about it. >> Why? Because you had it you kind of mentioned there. That's why I had to ask the question. >> But the high the high school program, not one of those students is ours. >> We had one student there. He he passed away recently. Heather, is this just then a pilot then for um just at Davis when you said there's still students um Centennial students at McDonald? Is it a pilot? Well, you you want to do it. So um why isn't or why aren't we doing the same thing at McDonald? That's a great question and it's something that we have seriously considered as you have been a part of many conversations. There's a lot going on and change right now and we want to make sure that we are really being thoughtful and doing things carefully with children in mind and ensuring that we can provide that programming. >> Okay, thank you. >> All right, moving forward. Um, finance committee, Mrs. Kger. >> Um, next is 4.2 two finance committee presentations. U Mr. Greenwood will present 4.2A the two 2026 202 27 budget update. >> All right. Well, thank you very much uh Dr. Hopkins. That was awesome. It was a great great presentation. Thank you. Um tonight uh and and before I get started, I'd like to give a shout out to the finance committee uh for their work over the past several months as we've gone through uh the budget process. This is a process that started in the fall. If you recall, as the board had requested us to develop action items that would uh work to minimize the deficit, uh we met through the fall. We presented in December uh a series of initiatives. We followed up with those uh discussions and those initiatives in uh in the January report as part of our workshop. Um and tonight we just have an update on those right we've pulled five forward uh that we are aggressively pursuing. Um and that's what we'll talk about. The slide focuses on our norms. Next slide is our compass. Um, and the compass, you know, everything we do, uh, and you could see the passion in Dr. Hopkins's voice, uh, relative to those toe classes. Um, you got that, Mr. Martin. [laughter] The student, right? Student fa focus is our true north star. Um what has has really developed this year as part of the budget process is the unified effort right and really working and fostering collaboration and a sense of shared responsibility has been immense right in meetings with school leaders uh meetings internally with administration right they have been uh there's a almost a dogged sense of determination to to move this forward. So, I uh want to call them out and appreciate that work. Tonight's budget update. Um, the goal we talked about back in December was to ensure fiscal responsibility through a comprehensive examination of district expenditures, aligning fis financial resources with strategic priorities that advance high quality student outcomes with a focus on efficiency. That was the goal we set uh set our ship towards and are working from. Uh there are uh maybe 10 focused items that are shown on this. These were also shared back in December. Tonight we're going to look at those highlighted in red. Scheduling, staffing, alignment, the transfer of entity, access reporting and uh evaluations, 1306s, retirement incentives, and zerobased budgeting. Before we jump into all of those, um I think this slide, this infographic as they call it, um does a great job of pointing out a number of things, right? It speaks to the challenges of rising costs, mandated expendit expenditures against the backdrop of declining or level funding from the state and the federal government. um as we move forward. And it also then highlights uh to the right um our five strategic initiatives and our focus on quality and our focus on efficiency. So the first of our um our initiatives and we will look at the each of these five initiatives. We will look at the steps involved with those initiatives, the timeline, where we are today, obstacles that we believe are there. We'll talk about the risk as we've assessed it and reviewed it. Um, and then at the at the bottom, we'll look at current year savings as well as five-year uh projected savings. Okay. The transfer of entity, as Dr. Hopkins went through. I there's nothing more I could say about it uh with without just great appreciation for the work that that team is doing. I see you know we've assessed it with a fairly low uh risk you know with staffing in the provision of services as she has outlined the real requirement. Um the savings as she has pointed out is over almost $1.3 million um as we've expanded that classroom and over a 5-year period of time we're between 6.3 million and 7.4 million. Okay. >> I do have a quick question there. >> Yes. >> Is that assuming that we have the 24 students for the 5-year time period, not that some of them may graduate or move out? It it it does include those classes. >> Yeah, I I can speak to that, Mr. Harline. It absolutely does because of the age, they will not age out over the next five years. >> Okay. So, I'm saying because we have some students that I'm assuming, you know, and of the eight, you would think one would be in each grade or somewhere around there that we would have some of them move into sixth grade or seventh grade. >> Even as they move through in five years, they would still be in our system. >> Okay. Yep. >> Perfect. >> Okay. The next initiative uh zerobased budgeting right detailed department budgets with expenditures justified from the ground up. Uh this has been a bit of a realization to our groups and certainly requires an additional level of work which uh in my meetings with folks right they're they're determined to work through. uh departments and schools are working to develop their budgets uh uh starting at zero and us utilizing the criteria which is shown at the bottom. Um whether the to determine whether or not that expense is required, right? Whether the expenditure is required by law, regulation or contractual obligation. Whether the expenditure is essential to core operations and student services. whether the expenditure directly supports district priorities and strategic goals and lastly whether the expenditure represents the most efficient and cost uh cost effective option available. So those are the processes that we are going through. Those are the questions we are asking uh each other and challenging each other openly to try to make sure we're working together to those needs. Um, we're targeting uh uh current savings this year of $150,000. Um, that's that is a one-time expense. It's sort of difficult to project that into the future, but what we do know is zerobased budgeting is here to stay. Uh so that process won't change and we'll be moving forward every year with the intent to make sure we are making the most out of every dollar and that we are working so uh diligently to make sure we're being efficient and effective. The sec second the second third initiative, excuse me. The third initiative is a review of secondary staffing needs for efficiency and alignment with board policy. this uh following our course selection process that happened in you know sort of end of December and through January at the middle and high school levels. Uh central administration along with school administration met to review the staffing needs uh with a focus on access efficiency um and approved class sizes. Through this work um we have been able to develop a schedule uh that allows us to not replace a number of retiring teachers more effective scheduling. Um the li we see this as a limited risk as well with the work that was is being put in with the time and effort uh being made to analyze those uh selections to analyze our class sizes. Um ensuring access again efficiency and alignment with the policy. Initial savings this year are projected to be $625,000 with a five-year savings of $3.2 million >> question here from my side. I mean, you're looking at this, you know, and and >> were we that inefficient last year or the year before? And this is what caused us to sit with a much higher budget deficit. You know, I'm also thinking even the transfer of entities, if that had been done one or two years ago, would we had been in a much better financial position than we are in right now? >> The the transfer of entity, as Mrs. Apollo pointed out and I know I've cheered them on before, right? The spirit program was the first of those to do um and and I think we've had marvelous success, right? I think that's really a great opportunity. I think yes. Right. I mean there there would have been an option to to do the transfer of entity uh in the past. Um you know we had we have had in recent time right not as an excuse but we've had some transition within that group. Um I think that makes it a bit challenging uh to be honest with you. Um as we have evaluated those uh the course selection we are looking at again through a a new lens and and really pushing uh that effort. Right? So we are doubling down on the work uh and we're doubling down on the uh on the push to make sure we are maximizing each one of these decisions. Dr. Puka, do you have anything you'd like to add to that? >> No, I mean, I'm not really in a position to speak to the past. I can just tell you that, you know, one of the, you know, we've heard the directive and the will of the board to to move into this aggressively. And we want to do it in a way that honors the district's mission, but at the same time is is the most efficient. And, you know, I believe we are doing that, and our team is working incredibly hard to bring that outcome. >> Tom, is this limited to secondary? There's no opportunities in elementary to do a similar thing or is that >> we we are certainly evaluating all SK all buildings right but elementary is is a little more of a fixed process really tied to the number of students that are there which uh connects to board policy. We are absolutely looking at at those right and we will begin to project as we have done every year what we anticipate the the move forward is right. So we advance or promote kindergarten through fourth grade up a level. We look at what those class sizes are. We look at our history. We understand where we may pick up a student or two. And then we begin to, you know, the the guess if you will as to what our kindergarten class will look like. Um, Altha Tomlinson has done and and again we look at last year has done a marvelous job at moving up that recruitment and that opportunity to one to have a glimpse at what that incoming class will look like. Whether it's just the kindergarteners or it's students throughout that elementary grade uh throughout their elementary grades. It is really a key to that process. There were years when we were registering people sort of right up until the bell, right? It did not provide the opportunity to to have that foresight um which left us a little bit in the dark and her work around uh that registration effort has been amazing. I think we had most of our students registered and in the in the cl in the books accounted for uh by late June which really allowed us to uh to proactively plan uh last year and we expect the same this year. Any other questions? All right, the next um point was the retirement incentive. This is an incentive for professional staff. Uh we had one approved that allowed for the the payout [clears throat] of additional sick days that are accured. Um through that effort we identified nine uh retirees which is which is good. Um and we have we've taken account of that and that was through February 28th and I think that's a valuable exercise because it does allow us to understand what that looks like a little bit sooner. you know, we believe there could be a couple of other retirees moving forward, uh, but they may not have any sick days left and so their their their need to to sign up may be maybe maybe a little slower. So, I think that incentive does push that gives us a good insight as to what that number is. We're also exploring additional retirement incentive opportunities um and evaluating the impact of of those ideas um working with Tara Mossman, our HR chief um and and um CA as we work through that process. Initial savings around that are $653,000 and depending on the outcome in the planning could reach as much as $8 million in savings. uh as we move uh retirees from people at at step 15 to uh to uh you know step one through four. Staff alignment is the next and we're looking to evaluate support staff positions across schools for proper support and efficiency. uh we have begun this process and are reviewing positions in connection with another initiative which is our position control initiative which is an HR measure. One of the bonuses of our cumulative implementation while it came with a lot of pain uh position control is a really important aspect of managing staffing particularly across a a large um large institution like this school district, right? It allows us to really p pinpoint the exact number of positions in each each role, the exact number of monitors, the exact number of chief financial officers you have, the exact number of IAS or a PCAS that you have and it begins to define that Miss Moss through uh Miss Mossman's leadership um we are going through sort of position by position and looking to identify and through that process We're going to make sure we are efficient in each one of those decisions, right? Just like we are doing on the expenses, we're going to be looking at staffing the same exact way. So, it'll be a sort of fresh view. It's nice to have her here. She's doing a wonderful job and it'll be just good to have that new opinion, right? A new v a new thought, new minus says, "Hey, this is a great idea. Hey, I think we could, you know, need more people here. I think we could use maybe a few less here." Okay. Current projected savings that we have put out is just over $400,000 in the current year and a projected five-year savings of just over $2.1 million. The access uh billing and access as a as a thing, it was glad to hear the approval of uh an access uh manager or supervisor. Uh I think that's going to be helpful. uh that is an everchanging dynamic and an everchanging set of criteria that allow us to access those funds. Um these are both things that we are have underway this year around access and the 4605306 billing process is underway. It started in the fall. We are issue we meet monthly as a group. We are sending out invoices quarterly. um beginning this beginning with the end of March. Um and that is a process as we've shared is is very labor intensive and requires extensive followup because the process is really chasing down other school districts to invoice them and then to follow up and make sure that they not only are we invoicing but more importantly is they're paying that process. So it does take some time to find them. It does take some time for them to admit they are their students. Uh and then it takes the the same amount of effort to track down that bill and make sure it clears, make sure the money is good and get it in the bank. So that brings us sort of to the end of our five initiatives and the update as to where we are in those. Um the total from those five, the access and the 1306 and 4605s, they are already included in our budget. We we have uh $500,000 in access funding in our current projection for 267 2627 as well as $500,000 in uh potential revenue for 4605 students as well. So they're not on this list, but the next those five uh equal over $3.1 million in savings next year. So that is a a big number. I think it is uh and and I don't know if it's the final number to be honest with you, right? We are eating, sleeping, and drinking this push. Uh as Dr. Luca has shared numerous times, this is a personal mission, right? And I think we have collectively taken that on and are working very diligently to make sure we are truly assessing each one of these decisions at a level that we have not uh we have not been able to do in the past. And again, while I don't think we're across the bridge completely, I don't think we are uh, you know, we're working on it, but I do think we are taking the steps necessary uh through the steps outlined at our workshop work session uh to a sense of financial stability. The business administrator team across the county has a has a email chat ability, right? So we can blast out questions to fellow fellow business administrators during the year. Hey, have you ever heard of this? Hey, have you ever done this? Um and and it's always very useful. The most [clears throat] recent one uh just asked school districts to respond to where where their initial preliminary budgets were, right? What was your number and how much expenditures and what was the percentage? So of those of the 12 schools, nine reported. Three didn't. I won't name them, but three didn't. The nine that did, every single one of those schools is facing a deficit. Somewhere between 5% of their expenditures up to almost 9% of their expenditures. They are significant. And all of them lined up the exact same way. So counting as zero%, right? No increase. They all had that level of deficit, right? The challenge is real. Flat funding is a challenge, right? If we are not if the state andor federal government are not raising uh their their money uh funding for public education, then it really falls back on the on the heels of local uh local taxes. Uh so we are doing everything we can. We're certainly not alone in that. I think our number came in at just over 5%. So, we're sort of in the middle of that group of uh nine reportes. But I think that just shares some perspective as to where we're at. Uh we're not alone. Uh but I think we're doing an incredible job to to rightsize and to move forward. >> Any questions, >> comment? Thank you, Mr. Greenwood. Um, I really appreciate the the the risk assessment under each item. That's really helpful for someone that's not financially as much, but um I do really appreciate understanding >> Absolutely. >> the risk assessment for each one of those, but thank you. >> Mhm. >> Yeah. Can you explain um because I'm sure we're probably going to get this question as well. Why a school district like Philadelphia is allowed to the mayor's talking about levying an additional tax for money to go to the school district. Why that's not a type of option that is viable for a suburban school district like ourselves. >> Um I can I can look into that. Right. I mean, I the school district is the ability to uh to have taxes, right? We we do have uh the earned income tax, right? Not all school districts in uh in Bucks County actually have an earned income tax. Um so, you know, I I think those are certainly steps that one could assess. Um I did hear, you know, uh the mayor went from 40 cents an Uber ride to a dollar an Uber ride. Uh and hopefully she could get that in before World Cup and 20 250th anniversary come in. Uh because we know there'll be a lot of uh Ubering then. Um we could certainly explore alternative taxing certainly within that. I'll utilize that group at the IU uh of business administrators to to sort of kick that around. We can get back to you. >> Okay. >> All right. Thank you very much. Appreciate it. Thank you. Okay, moving forward. Uh, committee reports, education committee, Mrs. Depalo. Thank you, Mrs. Crossen. Uh, education committee report. So, our committee met uh last on Wednesday, March 11th, and we discussed the a couple of the well, we discussed the two presentations that were um shared, the transfer of entity um and then also um Mr. Retsz's presentation as well, the winter assessment. [clears throat] Um we talked about the uh Lego summer camp which will be um at McDonald Elementary from July 6th to the 9th at um and there will be no cost to the district. I do think that there is a fee change for the campers. Um just an FYI. Um, then we talked about, like I said, the presentations. Part of the presentations, which we didn't discuss tonight, was Dr. Herman's GoG Guardian three-year renewal. Um, which was discussed tonight and will also be up for approval this evening. Um, after presentations, we talked about recommendations. The recommendations included uh moving the library book orders for Clinger Law College um [clears throat] for approval and the final uh recommendation was to move the new positions necessary to staff the two classrooms at Davis Elementary um to tonight's uh meeting. So that was that was our committee meeting in a nutshell. Um and again we'll talk about the items up for approval tonight in a few minutes. >> Thank you. Finance committee. Mrs. Kger. >> Finance committee held their meeting on uh March 11th. Um the first piece that was covered was the audit update um which was presented earlier. Uh second piece was uh Mr. Greenwood's financial update as of the end of February, providing us revenue insights as well as expense insights showing that the year-to- date revenue for the current year as compared to the prior year is less due to an increase in local funding being offset by decreases in both state and federal funding. And the expense insights were um the expenses as compared to the prior year are 1.1% higher with the decrease in purchase professional and tech services being offset by an increase in salaries and benefits. The year-end budget basically shows that the revenue is in line with the budget coupled with the small but growing surplus in expenditures. Um the last piece was around balancing the budget. The bulk of the meeting focused on the initiatives in progress that are required to balance the budget. I'm really very pleased to say that the district's management team understands the importance of providing transparency to our stakeholders while working towards living within our means. Um again, uh Mr. Greenwood showed the project plans with the required tasks in the delivery time frames um with uh some items being forecast one time and versus recurring savings um with the potential risks. Um they've also now added the annual uh forecast reflected through the 2030 uh cycle in line with the previous forecasts that have been presented. Balancing the budget is not going to happen within a year. Some of the initiatives are starting as pilot programs and if successful will continue to expand and hopefully continue to deliver responsible fiscal management. There was a piece on reporting which is critical to really building trust in the community. Mr. Greenwood and Dr. Lucaba are putting together documentation that will be available on the district's website that will enable all of our stakeholders to understand the components of our budget as well as how our dollars are being spent. Um in addition, uh Dr. Lucaba is working on a deck that provides transparency associated to the initiatives in processes also going to be made available. Um and uh one of the things we did discuss is having a summary communications out to um the community so that in the simplest terms they understand the complexities of what the district is trying to do. One of the pieces that we need to identify is a mechanism how we get the community to know they need to go to the website and whether there are other mechanisms that we can use um to make sure that people have an understanding in the community. I live in we have a monthly newsletter. When that documentation is ready, I'm putting it out to the 280 homes and you know if we and it I also have all of their email addresses. So any mechanism that we can come up with people who live in the district, that's how we want to get the information out um with the regular um monthly updates in case there's still a need to increase taxes. Um, it's important that we get a complete understanding of what it costs to educate students that fall into either special ed, English as a second language, or economically disadvantaged students. The community really needs to understand that the Centennial Stu student base is a heterogeneous population and what it actually costs to educate these diverse groups. That really is part of responsible fiscal management. Um, one of the the last piece that we discussed was potentially changing the timing of the finance committee meeting. It is key that the community is really an integral part of the process and understands the financial components of running a school district. We should enable the community to participate in these conversations and buy into the steps that the district is taking. Mr. Hartline in fact stated that previously at meetings the meetings were in the evening so that the community could actively participate. So, I think it's really important that as we do these things that they get an understanding of what we're doing to um bring the the budget in line with our revenue resources. And so, I think that's a thing that we need to discuss further and see if we can get a meeting that's scheduled so people who work um will show up at these meetings because as Mr. Hartline said, they did show up when the meeting was later on in the day. >> Thank you, Mrs. Kger. Uh moving on, operations committee. Mr. Saddowski. >> Yes. Our last meeting took place on Friday, March 13th. Uh we had a pretty quick one. Mr. Wartman lives the efficiency ethos that Mr. Greenwood spoke of. Uh thank you for that. Uh the meeting largely focused on the item I provoked tonight in section 8, which will come up shortly. Uh we got an update on our bus camera or bus ticket camera proc or progress. Uh so everybody make sure you're stopping when the little bus stop sign comes out or else you'll be sorry. and we discuss ways that we might uh be able to find savings over the long term with a 5-year longerterm vision uh on the technology side. Uh also look out Chromebooks, Apple is coming for you. We talked about that a little bit and that was so fun. So, thank you for that discussion too, doctor. Um but yeah, our next meeting is Friday, April 17th at 11:00 a.m. So, join us. It's always fun. >> Thank you, Mr. Sidowski. Can >> I make a comment to Mr. Saddowski? So, as would as it would happen um at last two weeks ago Ivy Land Burough Council meeting, the mayor is in communication with the what's the bus patrol? It's called bus patrol. >> The bus patrol. So, evidently there's a backlog of um processing um people who want to re um what's the word? They want to contest their ticket for the bus for the buses. So they have a huge backlog. So I think PennDOT, just an FYI to put it out there, Pendot is now looking at letting people contest their tickets without actually attending in person. So they said the backlog is so large for all the tickets that they're they're generating uh using bus patrol. >> And it's dedication to student seat. [laughter] >> Isn't it on camera? >> It's on camera. It is on camera and on. >> It sure is. I think the scary part is that they have a backlog which means there's people violating. That's scary. I thought that was scary that little piece of information. >> 28 in the first 28 violations in the first two days. >> So I don't want to misspeak but my understanding was in the first hour 15 tickets were issued in the first hour. It only it ran it ran for four days in February, right? So not now it went live on the 23rd, but the 23rd was a snow day, right? So we had four days in uh in February. I think we had over 20 uh violations. I think then they get reviewed. I think there was 18 uh verifiable in those four days. on camera. >> Oh, yeah. >> Okay. >> Um, moving right along, I guess. Education services, Mrs. Depalo. Yes. Thank you. And before I start, does anybody have um Well, let me do let me start with item 6.1. Items presented for information. There is none. Um, before I start with item 6.2, does anyone want any item pulled? Okay, [clears throat] then I'll just do all of them together. So, items 6.2, items presented for approval tonight. Be it resolved that the Centennial School District Board of School Directors 6.2A approves three the three-year renewal of GoG Guardian, an education technology program to monitor, manage, and protect student activity on schoolisssued devices as well as conduct web filtering. district costs not to exceed $64,849.95 per year or a total cost of $194,549.85. Item 6.2B approves the revision to the 2025 2026 district calendar designating May 19th, 2026 election day as the day off for students and a professional development day for faculty and paraprofessionals. The date was originally scheduled as a snow makeup day. Item 6.2 C approves the Lego STEM camp at McDonald Elementary from July 6th to the 9th, 2026. There is no cost to the district. Item 6.2D approves the purchase of library books for the Clinger Middle School library. District cost not to exceed $487.92. 6.2E 2E approves the purchase of library books for the law college middle school library district cost not to exceed $445. And item 6.2F 2F approves the necessary staffing needs according to the transfer of entity of two Bucks County intermediate unit classrooms housed at Davis Elementary consistent with the provisions of the Pennsylvania school code effective for the 2026 2027 school year and to authorize and direct the administration to modify the Bucks County Intermediate Unit of this change. Second. Any discussion? All in favor? I >> I any opposed? Any abstensions? Okay, motion passes nine zero. Thank you. Okay, moving right along. Finance committee. Mrs. Kger, >> I have an update on the PSDF reporting. February 24th, we reported >> On February 24th, we reported a PSDLAF uh flex rate of 3.5%. As of yesterday, the daily and 7-day average rate is at 3.46%. Once again, demonstrating an additional decrease in rates. We will be earning less returns on our existing funds, which highlights the pressure on the district to balance the budget. >> Thank you, Mrs. Kriger. Um, operations. Thank you. 8.1 items presented for information tonight. None. 8.2. Items presented for approval tonight be a resolved that the Centennial School District Board of School Directors 8.2A awards the Internal Connections Equipment Pennsylvania Education Purchasing Program for MicroMP mini bid to CNI for the replacement of switches to all buildings. district cost not to exceed 40 400 sorry $447,117.92 after recovery. Do I have a second? >> Second. >> Any discussion of this item? Seeing none. All in favor? >> I. All opposed. Any abstensions? Passes 90. >> Perfect. Um, moving on to board comments. Um, I just wanted Oh, you want to give a shout out? >> Go for it. I just wanted to give a shout out to um Matilda Jr. at Clinger. It was absolutely fantastic. >> Students, staff, families, all involved. Just a shout out. Kudos. It was a great job. Um and don't forget that this weekend, Mean Girls at William Tennant. Be sure to be there. We hope to see you. >> Friday night, two on Saturday. If you go to the Saturday afternoon show, I may personally sell you a can of soda or a candy bar. So, if that's not an incentive, I don't know what is. Mr. Saddowski, uh, >> I wanted to give a shout out for the first Mid-Atlantic Robotics Competition, the latest round of which was hosted this past weekend at William Tennant High School. It was a very large event with robotics teams coming in from many schools with incredible robot creations to show off and even more impressive students. Our Panthers competed valiantly, and I was very proud to be there for uh, the early part of the day on Saturday. Uh, seeing the pit area, as they called it, set up in our cafeteria was really cool. uh and the dedication and intelligence and creativity and passion of our students, our teachers, our coaches and of course all the parents who volunteer so much time uh as with any activity to make an awesome event like this possible. So like you know like any sport it takes a lot of time and energy to make it happen. So thank you in particular I want to say to Kevin Dler for his role in championing STEM education, being an incredible educator and inspiration for our students and building up the robotics program districtwide. If you know Kevin, he's one of the kindest and most generous uh teachers and mentors and coaches. So, the hours spent after school and on weekends uh really show and just the the camaraderie and there's a good naturatured spirit of competition between the different schools that were there. Um it was just really encouraging and this this just everything on display really impressed me this weekend. So, great job once again to everybody involved in what was a pretty large scale event that took place Saturday and Sunday at our high school. Um, so I look forward to our program continuing. We just approved the uh the Lego kits for the grade school again, which I I shared a photo recently of our kids 10 plus years ago playing McDonald's. So I look forward to that continuing to grow and our students discovering new STEM pathways and uh both in the classroom and through activities like the robotics team. >> It was a blast. >> All right, any other board comments? I just want to add there um the competition's um concession stand parents the parents worked raised $20,000 for the for the robotics program. >> It's a lot of food. >> $20,000 worth. >> They were busy. >> They were busy. >> It was [clears throat] phenomenal. >> Really cool, wasn't it? >> It was. And >> you know, not just the kids that um competed and where the schools came from. We were talking about um Camden, Lansdale, Catholic, whatever. But the announcers, the um volunteers, um the parents, uh all those people that we sometimes forget it. They did a phenomenal job. >> Yeah, it has a phenomenal job. If you go to the Mid-Atlantic, first Mid-Atlantic Robotics uh YouTube, you can see the live the recorded live streams of this weekend and watch some of the matches. Really, really cool to be there. So, absolutely. >> Was phenomenal. Yeah, the music was good. It was fun. [laughter] >> Yeah, it was just as good. Everybody entertained. It was a great fit. >> Any other board comments? Okay. Um, let's go. The next meeting of the committee of the whole will be held Tuesday, April 28th, 2026. Can I get a motion to adjurnn? >> Motion. >> Second. Have a good evening.