A call to order the Centennial School District School Board Committee of the Hall meeting, Tuesday, November 25th, 2025. Mrs. Rou, can we do a roll call, please? >> Mrs. Brancado, >> here. >> Mr. Godson, >> present. >> Mr. Ghart, >> here. >> Mrs. Crossen, >> present. Mr. Mr. Hartline >> present. >> Dr. Maguire >> here. >> Mr. Saddowski >> here. >> Mr. Martin >> present. >> Mrs. Lynch. >> We have eight members present. Thank you. Can we stand for the pledge of allegiance? And if you don't mind, if you could just stand for an extra moment of silence and maybe offer up some prayers for Mrs. Lynch so that she recovers quickly. Thank you. I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for which it stands, one nation under God, indivisible, [clears throat] with liberty and justice for all. Thank you. announcements. I have none. Um, Dr. Lucall, do you want to give the superintendent report, please? Thank you, Mrs. Branado. Good evening, everyone. So today um one actually as we approach um this coming Thursday and and and Thanksgiving for for many members of our community and across our country um a lot to be thankful for but I wanted to to bring highlight to something in particular and then talk a little bit about some of the reasons behind it. So today uh there was a newspaper article. I don't know if anybody saw it yet or not. And it was highlighting the recent release of the PSSA scores in the in the state of Pennsylvania and our Keystone results as well. And [clears throat] tonight, Mr. Rutz is going to be presenting our district data to the board and to the public. And there is a very very um encouraging picture that he's going to highlight and some trends that are very exciting. But in particular, and I think this speaks to the work of the team here and the work that they've done, the foundation that they've put in place, and the foundation that they continue to build upon. Um, of all the districts in Bucks County, only one district improved its scores in English language arts and that is Centennial. The other 12 um experienced some dip. Centennial improved and I believe that is not by accident. I believe that that is very purposeful and intentional and it's because of the the good work that is occurring here every day. It's the work that has been occurring in the district. And I will tell you, coming in um and seeing what is going on here and seeing the quality and seeing the care that people put into the work every day, it's very inspiring. And I think that the results that Mr. is going to talk about and that incredible affirmation of achievement that was reported on today is an indicator of not only where we are now but more importantly where we're going to continue to go as a result of what's going on. And I can tell you education is really guilty as I guess many [snorts] uh occupations are of using jargon. We have our own language and a lot of um um uh terms that we use, acronyms and there's a fancy term called collective efficacy which research says is the number one indicator of achievement and the number one indicator of great organizations. Collective efficacy really boils down to this. It's when all of the adults believe that they together can coales around students and cause learning. And it's rarely found in districts, the research will tell you it's rarely it's rarely found in school districts. And I really do believe having visited schools all the time. I try to get into schools every day if possible. And as do our teams, we're very visible and involved. When you see the quality of our employees, when you see the dedication of our employees and you watch the way they interact with our students and the quality of our students, it's very impressive and it's something to be proud of. And I just want the community and the public to know that the children, the 55 almost 5,500 students who come into our district every day are being met at the school doors by people who care about them as people, who care about them as individuals, who care about them as um those who deserving an education. And I believe that as this work continues, our students are going to leave here very prepared, very ready for the challenges that lie ahead. And I just want to say thank you for that. Um the results are exciting. Uh it's a wonderful thing to hear about and celebrate. But I just want to thank everyone who causes that. We talked about something called interdependence at the start of the year where everyone's roles matter starting with the board and all the way down through the organization, you know, but our buildings, if you walk into our buildings right now, they look like they did in August when the floors were done. Um I was talking with our new assistant superintendent, Dr. Zach, and and he said, "These buildings are incredible." I said, "Yeah, you would. Our facilities are amazing." Um and Mr. Wartman and his team and what they do. Um, just and that's but one example of of hundreds of examples of just the work and the time and the quality that people invest every day and it speaks volumes. And so I just want to say thank you. There's a lot to be proud of, a lot to be grateful for and uh just wish everyone a very happy and healthy holiday and um thank you for everything that you do to cause learning um in and outside of the district. Um and looking forward to Mr. to write your presentation tonight. Okay. Thank you. >> Thanks. >> Thank you, Mr. >> I'm sorry. Thank you, Mr. Godson. It's your turn. >> No public comments, I take it. >> [clears throat] >> Uh item two is the approval of the agenda. Be it resolved that the Centennial School District Board of School Directors 2.1 approves the November 25th, 2025 committee of the whole agenda as per attached. Are there any corrections that need to be made that are allowed by PA law? >> Second. >> Second by Mrs. Crossen. >> Any discussion? Seeing none, all in favor? >> Any opposed? Any abstensions? Passes 8 nothing. Moving on to new business. We have three items. We can we take them all together? Sounds good. Be it resolved that the Centennial School District Board of School Directors 3.1 approves the personnel agenda including resignations, terminations, authorization per employee, leaves of absence, rescending rescendment of sbatical, suspensions, change of status, fine art festival and co-curricular clubs activities as per attached. 3.2 two approves the tuition agreement for student 11-3 to attend comprehensive learning center per their IEP recommendation and requirements for the 25 2026 school year district cost prrated not to exceed $97,94 and lastly 3.3 approves retroactively the before and after care service agreement ment with a child's place for elementary students for a 3-year period effective July 1st, 2025 through June 30th of 2028. Second by Mr. Saddowski, any discussion? Seeing none, all in favor? >> I >> I Any opposed? Any abstensions? Passes. Eight. Nothing. Moving on to presentations. And this is where Mr. Rutz comes into play. The state level assessments data for the 2425 school year. Good evening everybody. Uh last month we presented the local assessment data. Uh you remember we looked at Bibbles and I Ready and Il data. This is a review of the state assessment uh data PSSAs and Keystones. Let me get right to the meat of it if you don't mind. There is a table of contents on the slide deck if you need that. Uh I always like to pause uh every year just to differentiate between achievement and growth since we cover both achievement and growth on the state assessment uh uh assessments. Uh achievement is one big test. Uh it's a snapshot in time for achievement and it compares you compares a student to a statewide standard some kind of level of proficiency or standard that is different than growth in that growth looks at a student's improvement over time. So we take a snapshot of a previous year's PSSA or PSSA and we look at how the student is doing in that time to the next PSSA. growth is often considered a fairer um uh component uh because it compares the student to him or herself rather than just to a standard. So I just want to clarify that I do that slide every year. [snorts] uh for grades 3 through 8 uh PSSA math um the achievement uh we were 44.7% of our students were proficient or advanced which is a 4% increase uh from 2024 to 2025 and on the next slide you're going to see our trend line that we've shared the last few years um we are above the state average of 41.7% which is the blue line and what I tagged in there on the orange line um for Mr. Godson's request, I was able to find just uh where we were where we were where the state was um last year. So you can see we were comparison uh to the state um average and where our scores were um last year. The orange line um on this slide represents 40.5%. Um so there was just a slight uptick in the um in the state average, but we are at 44% 44.7 and the state average is 41.7%. That's grades 3 through eight on math. Uh next we looked at Keystone algebra. Keystone algebra 37.1% of our students scored proficient or advanced. This is a slight decrease year-over-year uh from 2024 to 2025. Um the achievement was still above the state average. We're at 37.1%. The state average was 31.5% on the Keystone algebra for 2025. Again, there's a trend line there that you see in your slide. Uh pre pandemic and post- pandemic for our growth. That was achievement. For growth, uh you could see where our schools were for growth uh in mathematics. Um ranging from well below uh to well above um more consistency in the grades 3 through 8, which we can uh circle back and discuss in a moment. uh for PSSA English language arts uh grades 3 through 8 came in at proficient or advanced 52.8% this is a 2% increase uh from 24 to 25. The state average was 49.9%. We're above the state average this year. We were below last year. Make good headway with that with grades 3 through eight PSSA. And for PS uh excuse me for Keystone literature uh 59.8% was a 3.2% 22% increase year-over-year 2024 to 2025 for again this is achievement um our 59.8% on the keystone literature was above the state average of 51%. And our growth, we ran the table uh with growth with ELA. Uh both grades three through eight and the Keystone were well above in growth for 2024 25. Wanted to pause here about the PSSA science test. We talked about this last year a little bit. Um there were no scores reported uh for last year. Last year was the first year that the PSSA was moved to grade 5. It's in grades five and eight now instead of grades four and eight. Uh so we have some students who are lucky enough to have the PSSA in grades four and five. Uh but last year was a field test uh for science. So we do not have any reportable scores in that. uh bio keystone uh last spring stayed the same except for there were some field test items uh practice questions in the test uh but they were not counted as part of the score uh because the state is still kind of working through what the new uh biology keystone uh exam is going to look like this spring. So I only have our bio keystone scores to report right now. uh 37 and a half% of our students were proficient advanced on the Keystone. This was a slight increase year-over-year 2024 to 2025 still slightly below the state average uh 41.2%. And our growth at the high school was well below um again we have sign we have science waiver basically for grades five and eight. So there are no scores to report uh for the PSA science. We'll have them next year. We'll have scores to report, but it's going to take the state about 3 years of tests to have growth uh growth data. We're going to look at four subgroups as we do all the time. Uh economically disadvantaged uh for last year, 85% or 11 out of 13 of grade uh excuse me, of grade level growth measures met or exceeded uh the state average. So we're very happy to see this growth for economically disadvantaged. Uh same for English language learners. I believe this is two years in a row we've had 100% of this cohort um 13 out of 13 indicators grade level growth measures met or exceeded the standard and demonstrated growth. Uh our lowest performing 33% 92% of this cohort 12 out of 13 met or exceeded their standard for growth. and students with IEPs, 92% of this cohort as well uh met or exceeded their grade level growth standard uh for the year. Uh in summary, uh this little chart here for PSSA math 3 through 8, we were both above last year's district score and above the state average. Keystone algebra 1, we had that slight dip, 2.7% I believe, yet still above the state average. uh three through eight PSSA language arts was both above last year's district score and above the state average. Same with Keystone Literature. No score to report for PSSA science in grades five and 8. Keystone bio had a slight uptick in achievement did not beat the state average uh rise above the state average for growth. I don't want to read all this at you. I'm going to get to the next slide. This is just our summary of the evidence-based systems that we have put in and maintain um that that really are helping to support the growth and achievement that we're seeing in our our local and state [clears throat] scores. Um this is just a quick slide for takeaways and trends um leaning into this statement. The data reveals a district showing steady post-pandemic recovery with achievement scores that are at or above both preandemic levels and the PA state averages. Just highlighting a few things, systemic success, uh high growth in our PEOS, especially ELA access and opportunity for all. We're seeing those each of those cohort groups achieve and grow. um some next steps uh for full full transparency. We do have some mixed performance uh in our Keystone scores and EL ELA needs continued support. I'm we are very happy to see the growth uh that we have. But just a reminder that we're only in year three of a new literacy program aligned to the science of reading for grades K5, year two for grade six. This is the first year of implementation of Whitton Wisdom in grade 7. Whiten wisdom gets implemented next year in grade 8 as we're also moving to preAP English at the high school. So we're just at the cusp really um of a lot of work in our ELA program and we're already seeing uh great results with that. Any questions? >> Just a comment from my side and and that is in regards to the um Keystone algebra. >> Yes. So no, our numbers did go down, but this is, you know, a statewide, countywide issue. It's not just a centennial issue. >> Correct. We saw scores statewide decrease. It reminds me a little bit on the ELA side, Mr. Got. So we're nationally, fourth grade reading scores uh have been dropping the last four years. We've bucked that trend this year. Our fourth grade scores actually in ELA increased year-over-year. So I'm happy to see that. I'm also glad that we are continuing our partnership with handover research. Uh they've been working for the last year with the district to do a capstone report like we did in ELA and science before it. That handover capstone report which is a full programmatic evaluation of K12 math that should be published in uh January and that will lead our work for the next 12 to 14 months to find areas of strength and areas of improvement in math. I do want to take a moment um to just recognize that we've been working with your support on our K12 science as well. Um I didn't touch on that too much in the presentation, but this is our first year of implementing open SIED in K8 for science. Um that's K8 at the high school level. We have uh I'm sorry for the slang. We've stealsed up uh for the new steel standards. um uh environmental literacy, uh earth science 1, earth science 2, and in 2728 we'll be moving biology from 9th grade back to 10th grade where it used to be. And that will give us a full K12 plan um to address uh areas of need and areas of improvement for our students. >> Thank you for that and thank you to the whole Centennial team. >> The team is amazing. The team's amazing. >> Thank you very much. >> Thank you. >> Yeah, we all agree. Kudos to our students for the wonderful gains they've been making and there's stuff to work on, but there's some very positive things to celebrate and thank you to our teachers for their hard work. As Dr. Lucall said, you can't find a building in this district that isn't packed with stellar educators who are very dedicated and very good at what they do for our kids every day. And again, it's a, as you said, it's a full team effort. So this is the result of years of organization and coordination and learning and adjusting curricula and putting the right supports in place. So thank you all for what you've done to help us get here as well. >> Thank you. It's um I'm very blessed to work with the teachers, work for the teachers that we have. Our instructional coaches make a difference. Um I do want to shout out to our building administrators. Um without their support at the building level, what we do in teaching and learning just could not happen. So thanks to the team. Thank you. >> Thank you. >> You Thank you, Mr. Ruts. >> Committee reports. Mr. Goodixson, I'm >> going to start there and and where where not to start? Um, we actually spent probably half the meeting talking about these state uh assessment data, you know, that as Mr. Ratz just presented. Besides that, um, Dr. Saccharine presented some upcoming meetings and the other items that was discussed quite uh a bit was program >> um from the high school. Uh we're looking at adding four new courses um and very exciting uh courses, one an AP course. Um we'll see them down on the agenda. [clears throat] um working on the um astronomy astronomy uh program [clears throat] or creating a class there as we are now uh looking back to the uh uh program that we have here at the high school. And then lastly um um we are looking at four items for that's recommended for approval tonight. [clears throat] Thank you. Mr. Line. >> All right. So for finance um we laid through some um procedural events that need to take place around development of the budget um and the budget uh calendar that will be coming forward shortly for a motion item. Um, additionally, uh, [clears throat] we had a a discussion regarding the year-to- date budget as well as some financial updates. Slide, um, 17 has the budget discussion statement in it. And in that is laying out three to four year time frame with some um, grants, overtime reductions, uh, district placements, etc. that we are looking at for financial purposes. Uh it was also brought up that we have two um development projects that are currently underway. One in Warster and one in Upper Southampton. The one in Upper Southampton is a substantial development which I believe is a 55 plus community. So that will be bringing on um some healthy tax revenue for us with no additional um students coming into the district. The one in Warminster is a a much smaller um development project. I believe it's under 20 units and that one is a complete or or traditional residential district as well. Um finance as well as administration has also been looking and comparing our budgets and our expenditures to some of our surrounding school districts to see if we are out of kilter in some of the um in comparison to some of our peers in the area. And there are some things that we do that we are spending more money on that we are looking at as to why we are going down that path and see if we can put a correction in on that as well. Uh for information items, you have our standard, you know, Pennsylvania school districts liquid asset fund [snorts] monthly report and the um investment reports that are required, you know, where we can invest in etc. So that will be it. Thank you. >> Thank you, Mr. Ginhard, please. >> Okay. For operations, we met November 14th, and the entire meeting was dedicated to the updates on the long aaited and finally happening renovations to the family and consumer science labs in both Clinger and Log. Um, it's going to be they're going to be really great when they're done. There's a lot of good stuff going in there. uh biggest part of the presentation was on hiring the engineering firm to act as a project manager to handle all phases of both projects. It'll be on the uh agenda later on when you look at that item to be approved. Keep in mind that all but 23,800 of that is costs that we would incur anyway for doing this project. engineering drawings, plans, permits, all the standard construction items. It's just going through Barry Isizette. So that's why that that number looks the way it does, but it's stuff we would put out anyway. So, um, what we're left with is the 238 divide that among two different classrooms, two different projects that are going to be very large in scope, just a little under 12 grand to get full project management to make sure that these go start to finish flawlessly and we end up with fantastic classrooms. It's a bargain to uh to get this done in this way and not have to tie up Mr. Wartman's valuable time to be running back and forth between two different buildings and not being able to stay on top of keeping the facility so great. So, um other than that, that was all we talked about and the next meeting will be January 16th at 11. Mr. Ghart, do you have a question? Sorry. Don't a lot of those drawings have to be under an architect or an engineer seal anyway? So, we'd have to go through a process anyway. So, okay. Thank you, Mr. Goodixen. >> Education Student Services Committee. Uh, we had the presentation, so we do not have any more. [snorts] Uh, 6.2, we have four items for approval. Can we move them together? Seeing no objections, uh, be it resolved that the Centennial School District Board of School Directors 6.2A 2A approves the overnight conference request for the supervisor of student services to attend the 2026 improving improving school performance conference January 25th through the 28th it uh in 26 uh in Pittsburgh PA district cost not to exceed $275.19 6.2B 2B approves the overnight conference request for the data assessment and PIM specialist. The register of student services administrative assistant to attend the 2026 PTE data com summit conference in Hershey PA March 30th uh 2026 through April 1st 2026 district cost not to exceed 3,100. 6.2C 2C approves the purchase of library books for the Davis Elementary School library district cost not to exceed 2,847.37 and 6.2D approves the 2026 2027 William Tennant High School program of studies including four new courses and the revised course proposal district cost not to exceed $12,250. >> Second second by Mr. Heartline. Any discussion? Seeing none. All in favor? >> I. Any opposed? Any abstensions? Passes. 8 nothing. [clears throat] >> All right. Finance. Um, there are two items that are for information that were forementioned. Um, one is the monthly report for the liquid asset funds. The other is the annual reported outlook presented by the same organization. And for uh approval tonight, we only have one item. Like I said earlier, this is pretty much a procedural item. It sets the calendar for the whole budget process based upon the adoption date required by law. Working our way backwards from the um [snorts] election in May. So from the primary election backwards starts the process and then the completion date is the same every year. So are there any questions regarding that? [clears throat] All right. Seeing none, be it resolved that the Centennial School District Board of School Directors approves the following item. 7.2A adopts the 2026 2027 budget development calendar. >> Second. >> Seconded by Miss Crossing. Any discussion? Seeing none. All in favor? >> I >> opposed. Abstension. Motion passes. 80. >> Okay. Moving into operations. Nothing for information. One item for approval. Be it resolved that the Centennial School District Board of School Directors 8.2A approves the agreement with the engineer of record Barry Isizette to plan all phases of the Log College and Clinger Middle School family and consumer sciences classroom renovations district cost not to exceed $81,400. Mr. >> A question um Mr. curious >> question >> um why we don't ever solicit proposals from other engineering firms. There are many qualified engineering firms located in Bucks County and when you go out for a project for a proposal you can get a wide variety of numbers and we award it to somebody without I have no idea. This may be a wonderful deal and a great price. I have no way of knowing that unless you have somebody or several people to compare it to. So, we know we're getting the best possible price for this. So, I was just curious why it seems like we never go out and solicit proposals for some of these uh engineering jobs when there are many firms who are qualified and able to do it. Um, Barry Isette is our engineer of record, but because it has to do with bidding and operations, I'm going to defer to Mr. Greenwood and Mr. Wartman. >> Um, like Mr. Ginard said, it Barry Isaette is our engineer of record that we brought on for a three-year period. So, I normally use them. We have set fees for them that we've already approved that were approved in that three-year term by the board. So, we use them because they were approved by the board to be used. >> I mean, >> I think they also have uh uh they've worked with the district as as you know, Mr. Martin, for some time, right? And so, they have very intensive knowledge of our buildings. uh they did a lot of work in uh log and clinger uh back I think six years ago when we we had some instability in walls and and some issues that uh that played out there. Uh and I think that's the that's the course that we have been on. Maybe next time we have an engineer to entertain, we solicit other proposals. I'm not knocking the company we have. It's just you don't know what else is out there and what their prices are. When you go continuously with the same, they can charge you whatever they want basically. >> We'll look into it. >> Okay. Thank you. >> Any other discussion? Okay. All in favor? >> I I opposed. >> Abstensions carries 8. >> Are there any board comments? >> I just have a question. Go ahead, Miss McGuire. >> It came to my >> Dr. McGuire, >> it came to my attention about two weeks ago um of um at the transportation department there were they were doing some team building etc. and a um employee of the month or employee of the week and apparently they were notified I don't know who by whom um that they had to take all that down and not do that is um can you know can some have an answer to that or why they had to remove all that >> that was employee of the month >> employee of the month right so why were they asked to take it down and and not proceed with this um good team That is something I'm I'm not able to answer at the moment. I'm I'm going to need to ask questions and find out what the >> the the genesis of that was. >> Oh, okay. Great. >> So, >> thanks, Mr. Wman. Do you know why? >> I not to speak about it right now. I don't want to I don't want to not speak about it, you know, knowing everything about it. So, >> yeah. I'm just curious where that would have came from and because it was something that was really nice, something that they were implementing and everything and next thing you know they get a phone call from um administration administration or the administrative office. They had to remove remove it and not um move forward with any more of these recognitions. >> I get more detail. >> It didn't cost anybody anything except for a parking spot for a month >> which is that here too. you employ of the months midnight. >> I think it was a nice thing to do and something nice to bring up and when you're trying to do something nice for your the the people that you work with and then you're asked to um um administrative office to um take it down and not do it anymore. I just strange. So, thank you, sir. Thank you. Appreciate it. >> Does anybody else of course Mrs. Crossing? >> Yes, I do. Um, I just wanted to wish um our Centennial team and our community a happy Thanksgiving and be safe. Is there anybody else? Okay, that leaves me. [clears throat] So, it's no secret today's my last night. I wish all of you or most of you well. Um, I debated whether to make this statement tonight and I felt it was something I needed to do. Eight years ago, I was asked to run for the school board. I had no desire to be on the school board. Um, I am somebody who fights for kids. That's what I've always done. They are our most precious gifts and I feel we all need to care. So, I cared. To those who have supported me over the years, I thank you. I could not have done it without you. I have met some incredible people along the way and I am so thankful. I have no regrets for my decisions. We now have a wonderful superintendent who is student focused. We have a superintendent who guides with respect. The superintendent has been in more classrooms and at more events in five months than our previous superintendent was in 5 years. We have brilliant administrators and amazing principles who strive to make our schools impeccable. These children are lucky. We have great teachers and the hardest working support staff. To all of you, keep being amazing. The kids are counting on you. To those of you on the board who have supported me, I thank you. To those who have disagreed respectfully, I understand. That's the ones who have disagreed respectfully. The other ones not so much. To those of you on the board who tried to tear me down, I want to assure you that you did not succeed. I will still be the same person when I leave here. and that is a woman who values children above all. To those of you who will make up this board next week, ask yourself why you're here. Some of you are here for the kids and community, but sadly some of you are here for your own egos. Being on the board makes you feel important. I find that very sad. This board never brought me a sense of importance. I already get that in my own family. To those of you on the board, come next week. That slung mud as much as you could my way. I want you to know you did not destroy me as you planned. I stood 2 feet away from some of you and your friends while you blatantly lied about me. That's something you have to answer for one day, not me. That's very sad for you. I feel bad for you that you had to lie to further yourself. to those of you who have actually paid off mentally ill people at one time, not recently, four years ago, to arrest my grown children. I want you to realize that my family stands together. My daughters were stalked, but you failed to realize that at the end of the day, they are my daughters. So, who do you think they take after? My sons were harassed and again fa and and again you failed to realize I've taught my children well and you did not change their lives although you tried. The hatred on this board was blatant and I want you to to know I feel badly for you because you're very small people. The personal vendetta was immature at best and I feel badly for anyone who ever has to deal with you. It must be difficult for you to live that kind of hate in your heart. Thankfully, I don't have that. Fine. For for those of you who said, "I did not listen to this community." I want you to know I heard you, but I also listened to those that supported our decision without the rage. I will never understand your rage. It's twisted. I spent hours every week listening to this community, to the teachers, to the staff, and to the students, and I have no regrets. Finally, to the community. You have some fine school board members that are here still who will continue to represent you with honor. Keep your eyes open for those who are not here for you, but for their own pompous egos. Be an upstander and speak up. Don't sit quietly back while they destroy your children. Meeting adjourned. Can I get a motion to adjurnn? I'm sorry. Thank you. Meeting adjourned.