Township School District Board of Directors to order and announce
that this meeting is being live streamed and audio recorded.
This meeting is being conducted both in-person
and virtually limiting our in-person attendance to ensure the ability
to social distance during the COVID 19 pandemic.
I also like to request that board
members please state your name when speaking.
Mrs. A.G. Rocca.
Mr. Abel here, Dr.
Cronan here, Ms..
Drew here, Mrs.
Haverstock here, Mrs.
Manning here, Dr. Shore here.
Mrs. Secor here.
Mrs. Singer Here.
Sorry, Mr. Singer.
Mrs. Steiner Here.
Nine present.
Zero Absent.
Thank you.
Please rise available and join me for the Pledge of Allegiance.
The United States of America and
one nation, under God, indivisible,
and justice for all.
May I have a motion to approve the September 28, 2020 Board of Directors
agenda?
Senator Lindsay Drew Sushant Maria murray.
Is there any discussion?
Okay, I Those in favor say I was opposed.
Say no. Can the agenda is approved?
Tonight we have an elementary facility study presentation by Mr.
Friends and Mr. McFarland.
Thank you, Madam President.
Just to refresh the board's memory, it's been about a year ago
when we undertook the process of doing an elementary facility study.
And to refresh your memory back
a little bit further, about three years ago, we started.
What started this process was the fact that the elementary chiller
is very dated and has been
mandated together over the years and we knew we needed to do something
within the next couple of years in order to make a decision
of what we did with that, the chiller or with the building itself.
So that started the process of the elementary facility study
warehouse did a phenomenal job throughout the course of the fall
and early winter last year of talking with all groups
that had any stake in the elementary school,
getting their input on
what was needed, what was best for education,
all of that and brought a proposal, brought some recommendations to us.
We presented at the general services, I believe, in June,
a lot of discussion around that.
There's a lot of information as reports.
Hopefully you had a chance to read through those over the last couple of weeks.
We were originally going to bring that to the full board sooner,
but with everything COVID related and decided to push that back.
Obviously, COVID has impacted us a lot more
than we ever anticipated, especially on the financial end.
But we felt we still wanted to bring it to the full board
so you can go through and hear what all the proposals are
and what all the recommendations were, and then we can talk about what
what are our recommendations for next steps?
What do we think we need to do at this point
and answer any questions you may have.
So I'll turn it over to to Mr.
Friends to sort of walk us through
the information we shared at General Services.
Then you just want to give me the preliminary.
So before I started, do you want to orient
provide orientation to the handouts that are attached to the agenda?
So this first one is is option one.
I mean, all of these options deal with
the CC and the elementary in one way
or another, albeit connecting it.
So this current
option one maintains the existing building.
So this current part here is the SCC.
The part you see in gray is the current elementary school.
The part you see in orange are when we talk about additions.
So additional square foot, so that's orange in here
as part of prior.
I just cleared out some of the
prior presentation.
I'm sorry
we get back to
the actual agenda.
Dan, if you could just
can you switch it to the wall plate?
Sorry for that.
A little bit of delay
just as a as a point of reference as we talk about these buildings,
the elementary school was originally built in 1954
and it had its major renovation sometime around 1995.
And it looks like the renovations started sometime in 1989
and maybe was finished sometime in 1991.
So a lot of the the building was originally built in 54.
It has been more than 30 years or has been more than 30 years
since it was renovated, lasting from a major renovation.
In comparison, the SCC was opened in 2002,
so that's just a point of reference
as we talk about these buildings and what they have in here.
So as I noted, the
the three options we have two slides attributed to this as Mr.
McFarlane noted, there is an 80 page report that kind of put all this together.
So we're just condensing all that information down
into these these options.
As he noted,
this would this potential option would increase the square footage of that,
this combined building, if you will, by about 46,000
square feet on the other slide.
So that gives you the layout of kind of the reference for building.
If I go to the other slide that we have
associated with each of those, this is a better breakdown
if you're looking at what you know, the rooms are marked here.
Now, what loses the definition or what you can't really see as well as the
what's new and what's existing.
So you kind of have to toggle back and forth between there.
This is the same layout of the SCC being.
Connected to.
The elementary in that way.
Some of the pros of this option
are that it maintains the existing facility
in terms of the building's existing
bus drop off areas.
One of the cons though to this is it would require a phased construction
and the estimation is that this would take this process
from beginning to end, could take four plus years.
So while it has the least or the lowest construction cost
from a, it has additional costs
for modular classrooms and having to phase in the construction,
that that would present challenges in terms of pulling this off.
So the construction cost for this option
is just a little over $70 million.
However,
when you add in though, the cost of phasing
and that's not only the cost over time, but includes a cost,
as I noted, the best example is kind of those modular classrooms,
what we would need to do while the building was being renovated
because we would have to interrupt education and the students would have
to be displaced for a little while while the work was being done,
that estimate that estimated cost is around $30 million.
So when you add in some of the other existing
general conditions and some of the other requirements,
the noted the estimation for for this
part of the renovation is $112 million.
When we started this discussion, all three of these options
are in that $100 million category.
We were
we were concerned and very scared by those numbers when we first saw them
and even thought we were in a place where maybe we are
at a place where we can share this or should share this publicly.
But we felt the ideas in terms of what is needed for
the best educational space and what would improve
learning.
All those ideas were out on the table during this process,
so we felt more comfortable working through them and trying to determine
if we could actually pull that cost down into
a realm of $80 million.
That would be something tangible.
And by the way, this thought process was all pre COVID 19.
As Mr.
McFarland noted, we were definitely in a different thought process there.
But I wanted to provide that option because I find it
honestly difficult to sit here and talk about $100 million building.
And I would ask myself the same question as the administration
why you even bringing this forward?
It is more in line with making sure that the educational needs were
met to the best extent and then trying to work backwards from there.
As we go to option two,
this would maintain and renovate the existing SCC
and we'd construct a new elementary school.
So this very rough.
Once again, we get back to this, the V or U-shaped
is the existing SCC.
What is shown in Orange would be essentially taking down
the elementary school and putting a new elementary, a new footprint in its place.
Once again, all three of the first three options
include really making the SCC and the elementary one building
that is that is useful and covered under under
that process.
This does this renovation or this option
does maintain the newest building within the school district.
As I noted the SCC was constructed in 2002 and this essentially leaves it
as it exists with very little work being done.
There.
It does provide the opportunity to construct
a new central mechanical plant prior to removing the existing equipment,
which could reduce phasing in down time.
And that is a little bit shown that this process or this construction
period has three plus years in terms of the phased approach
from beginning to end.
Some of the other things
that it does include
the kitchen, DCC,
kitchen and cafeteria will remain offline during phase one.
So some of the things that that warehouse was helping us
think of are just some of the real nitty gritty things that we will have
to determine how we were going to deal with them
in that we wouldn't have certain spaces here.
This does increase the square footage by 16,000 square feet.
So it
in changing the layout of the the current elementary school provides
that additional square footage for some of the additional needs
noted in the classroom.
This has once
again has a very high construction cost
at about $94 million, almost $95 million,
$32 million for the cost of phasing.
And so when we add in the other general conditions that requirements,
this price tag is over $140 million
to get that additional 60,000 square feet
and tied into the current building.
The last of the three options
is a completely new elementary facility.
The in this phase,
the the elementary school
is once again torn down and rebuilt and I believe the same
that DCC is the footprint where
it so the SCC is somewhat not changed again
this was the ultimate scenario that included all the wishes
and wants as warehouse worked through with the instructional staff
in terms of increasing classroom space.
So these options are specifically this option
provides for a larger classroom larger square feet
and not
looking that one of the challenges that I heard
is this not necessarily we would not stick more students in that classroom,
but it is just more space that is needed for the types of learning that goes on.
It would be useful and be helpful.
So in this, I think we looked at it, was it a thousand
square feet per classroom?
So we set a standard and said we
every classroom that you'll do here, we want to be a thousand square feet.
We're currently only at 600 square feet.
If your classroom range probably between 86 and 80.
So a lot of these cost drivers we're looking at outside
of the traditional box of renovation and starting from the standpoint of what
from instructional side, what do you need
to have the best instructional space you could possibly have?
And those were identified here in option three.
This also provides essentially this building would be built
where the middle school and elementary school teachers are parking right now.
So the thought would be is a new building goes up on that parking lot.
Learning could still process or progress, just as it has in the elementary school.
And then you could have a transition when that new building opens.
Parking would be an issue.
There would be
we'd have to figure out what we would do with with that during that time.
But that was one of the phases or one of the things we looked at is, is
how could we do this in a way
that would have no interruption on education currently,
and this is
the only thing we can come up with that didn't include some kind of phasing,
as you saw before.
The other items have a 3 to 4 year construction phasing, and
so that would be 3 to 4 years of classes that would be interrupted in some way.
Obviously, we do our best to have that as minimal as possible,
noting that's not something we regularly do here at Derry Township,
so it would be completely new for us.
The other so we have a total of five options.
So option four and there are no visuals to go along with that.
This would be, I think, what we're calling a modernization of the building
and would really look at more
of the mechanical renovations
would not at all change the footprint
or the layout of the elementary building.
It would have to include
some upgrades in ADA accessibility,
and it would also include a connector
between the elementary school and the SCC.
That price tag was noted as a little over
$28 million,
and that would be more in line with your traditional renovation
that other school districts would do on a 20 to 30 year basis
to just kind of upgrade the mechanicals
really in the building or in the classroom.
You're not getting much new, maybe some paint,
but in the classroom they probably wouldn't see much of a
an increase other than maybe it's more comfortable because we've upgraded
and worked on the atrium system in the cafeteria.
We'd also have some upgrades to that.
It was also included in the classroom
updating of the work that's in there school.
For. Basically all your finishes
typically have a 20 year span beyond that.
So you would walk into a classroom and it's
everything in there is going to be new, the shape is going to be the same.
The walls are going to stay there, but it would have new casework and ceilings.
So that was included in the finished.
But there were portions of it that weren't.
But for loose desks and chairs that
are thank you them, there was issues with
the cameras.
Existing cameras didn't open any more of us.
There was issues with
water issues.
Sure. Okay.
So in addition to the paint,
any casework, any cabinet work that would be in
the classrooms would also be updated as part of that renovation.
And finally, the
last is is really we had kind of just the lowest level
of addressing the vasey issues
and where else pulled together a project
that would address all the issues and other mechanicals in the building.
It would also allow us to upgrade and do some adjustments to our parent,
pick up and drop off that were identified by some of the instructional staff
in the building as well.
And that price tag is just a little over $4 million
in total in terms of the total cost,
it's drop off.
And so we also
said the option for the time frame, how you would
that be disrupted with the learning or none of that was an issue with the option?
Oh, it still would be an issue there because this renovation
would have to happen mostly, obviously would start
and do what we can during the summer, but this work would still be going on.
What students are there,
I don't know that it would be to the extent
that we'd have to necessarily displace of modular classrooms
while the work was happening,
not to the extent that
there might be some modelers or what I've done on a project sheet
that maybe set up some temporary learning spaces in the
cafeteria spaces as workspaces,
so wouldn't have the same expense as the others for moving.
Right.
And number four, we don't do the connecting right.
Number four does have a connector for doesn't connect four.
Okay. Okay.
And what was the timeline for that?
For that one
construction time?
I would I would put that within a year, the normal months, the normal construction
phase is is a full calendar year from start to finish.
And I missed four option three.
What was the increase in square footage with a drawing?
40,000.
Thank you 40,369 additional square feet.
And if I can just add into the SCC was originally designed to add
an addition to make a connection to the elementary building.
So that's why it's designed the way it was.
And I know Mrs.
Funk, Ms..
Scoville are here to be able to answer your questions, but I know that Connector
would be something that maybe not initially right now,
given the financial status we're in.
But down the road, depending on what we what's decided longer term,
that connector would be a huge benefit for
staffing and being able to transition students
across buildings easier.
Prior to COVID 19
options four and five.
I would have from a business manager perspective,
and I made this comment during the general services meeting
prior to COVID 19 options four and five could be done without a tax increase.
We were confident of that based on our debt levels.
We are in a situation now where we're looking at refinancing some debt
and doing some different things because of the COVID 19 environment.
So I would have to go back on that statement.
And at this point, options one through four would
definitely have a tax increase associated with them.
Option five is possibly something we could do bits and pieces of
with with revenue that we currently have.
And just to clarify, you were saying, though, that Option five
is included in four.
So option four covers option five, is that what you were
saying covers the mechanical systems? Yes.
What he really was pointing out there, Mr.
Stick, is that there was a a connector between the SCC
and the elementary in both options four and five.
I thought that was only an option for.
But he clarified that it was in oh there's no connector but it's not
a connector.
Five parking is involved the connection between the buildings
and for that is not as okay
so if we did four we'd still need to do part of five is what you're saying.
Some of the
No it would be all in four.
So then it would only just be the 28,000.
Don and Craig, if you guys can come to the mike
just because we do have people on Zoom who are listening
and they may not be able to hear you.
Thank. Sure.
So, yes, option four has the connector
from the elementary school to the SCC.
It also includes the the front parking and bus.
The drop. Off area.
Five does not include the connector
from elementary school to the SCC, but it does include the front parking and
drop off
and all the AC stuff.
And we do also Mr.
Anderson on as a panelist too so if you have questions for him or Mrs.
Goebel or Mrs.
Funk they're available as well.
Right here from from sort of the administration
of. The.
Connector.
Somebody should do that
because I mean is it is it just because people are not going or not
in a lot of times like I like it or not why not have some you know
so I would say that we do share a lot of stock
between the buildings and our students right now.
When students have to transition from building to building.
So for a lot of our support groups or intervention groups or groups
that are working with some of our other staff that work, K-5,
the groups are moving back and forth.
Also, space, space and classroom
areas have become an issue where we sometimes
have to take our kindergarten and first graders
and bring them up to the elementary
building to use an intervention classroom there and vice versa.
So that connection would be a safer way to allow kids to transition
more easily.
Yeah.
Thank you.
Are there any other questions?
Okay, so you want us to talk about
what our recommendations are, what we want to do next steps?
I do want to say one thing, though.
The price tags are jarring, but in other school districts
you would have four different separate buildings
over 25 million each.
So this is like one giant building that is
probably the same prices for different buildings.
And that's what we need some direction from the board.
Yes, those numbers are our are jarring and there'll be a lot of work.
And in
working with those numbers to
to refine them and paring it down.
But you make a good point as a sector
that in most districts there give campus buildings and, you know,
they may do all their elementary schools, which over time adds up a lot.
However, we know that at this point, even
with COVID and financial situations,
none of those are options given the the short term.
So what were looking at and were what we would like to recommend is right now
we know that what started this project was the chiller
and the that system.
We would like to explore that a little bit further.
A couple of things of what, what, what, what would it cost to replace it?
What would it cost to repair it, and that it buys some time
for making some larger decisions.
Once we get through COVID and we can see where we're at on a better
financial basis.
But like Mr.
Friend said, the options four and five are the two right now
that even in this current financial situation, we're not sure
we could do without a an impact of taxes.
So what we would like to do is have the okay to pursue
what does it look like just to do the chiller and some of the other
absolute necessities to keep the building going.
But we don't want the board to lose sight of the fact that these are these
plans are out there and that we need to be thinking
longer term as well when we when we can do that again.
In the price I'm sure expires for those plans
in a in a certain amount of time frame.
So there
I mean we're looking at probably
when we look at this again, it's going to be higher,
but not significantly is what you're saying it
this is pretty much a ballpark of what we would look at down the road
just to give us an idea for planning purposes.
I mean, there I think there's other items.
Yeah, come to the microphone. Thank you.
I think there is with the curve.
But I think there's some other things
to talk about with the school district from a ventilation standpoint.
So that may change some of that.
As to what you should do
that we'd have
to explore those things with you guys as well as part of it
is anything we might do related to the chiller or ventilation or AC,
would that be have to be done again with any of the other options related to
taking buildings down and putting the buildings up?
But it may not be as as like with number one,
where you're you're doing interior renovations with some additions.
There might then just be some additional equipment that you would need with that.
When you start looking at two and three
and two and three, then that kind of pretty much changes.
The elementary school, for the most part, really goes away.
And if you remember too, that the only three schools are two pipe system,
the other buildings are four pipe systems.
So like right now we have two.
The elementary has the dubious task of figuring out when to make that switch
from air conditioning to heating and never fails.
When you make that switch,
then you're going to get Indian Summer and we're going to get really hot
and we want to AC and the same thing in the spring they do that that again
this what we're looking at with the chiller would not do anything
it would still remain a two pipe system.
This is just for the chiller and Mr.
Anderson's on so he might be able to speak a little bit more intelligently than me
about the chiller and what what all they might look at.
So Mr. Anderson, are you there? Yes.
Good evening. I'm sorry, I'm terribly on. You're right. I look frozen.
I'm not frozen and I also alive.
Thanks for giving this and
a couple of points.
First of all,
with the current two pipe system, unless the district
was committed to that footprint,
I think it would be an error to put any more money into that building.
Let's say, you know what?
That we felt this is the footprint would stay with
that cooling tower, which is integral to the chiller.
And I've got to tell you,
the chiller is currently oversize and the building was built.
I cannot explain why I've spoken to train about that.
We run the trailer, which is the inside portion of that
and about 65 to 60% every day
because we have more capacity than we have piping for at this point.
But that chiller, that water cooled part of the show
which caused the water that brings it back to the building.
Those chillers and this cooling towers originally ran for about 20 years
on our system, 31 years old and has some structural deficiency.
So at the request of Mr.
McFarland tomorrow morning at 9:00, I'm meeting with a firm
that will give us some insights on potentially rebuilding what we have.
But again, it doesn't change the two pipe system.
And one of the early studies that I did here was to work with more engineering
on looking at that building and to look at those options.
And it really is an expensive option to go from a two 5 to 4 place
to get the difference from A to a four issue with active Dehumidification
Yeah, that's the question that comes up is if you change two pipe systems,
you still don't have the blower capacity to increase outside the ventilation.
So again, I think that these are issues that if we're really committed
to that footprint, then we need to bring this other equation
of water treatment
was not done on the current cooling tower
when it was installed in the current or previously
been done by our staff correctly for about the last
12 to 13 years.
So, Mark, yes, this is Kathy Sicker.
You're saying that that that chiller
has a 20 year lifespan, but we're on year 31.
So are you saying that's correct? Okay.
I don't know if any one of us would let that happen to our own homes,
but is it is it that they don't sell that anymore
so we don't have to get it built?
It's so old.
That's part of it.
And I'll know a lot more tomorrow morning of about 10:00.
Yeah, because there's a lot of those kind of questions.
You know, one of the questions that we've has is, is it clear?
Is the current unit right size?
I don't know that answer.
I can tell you
that every year when we turn it on, our guys probably spend two
or three days in there literally with epoxy patching holes.
And I mean, we've done what we can to it.
The question was raised with me just inside.
I really can't because there are some structural issues on the outside
of the cooling tower that need to be remediated
regardless of what we do.
I did at Joe's at the fire's request last winter,
get a price tag to rent a unit for a trailer
that could be built there to provide the building.
And that's a pretty significant number.
And if my memory serves me, it's roughly $26,000 a month.
So think our options are limited.
But I think that based on my conversation with Mr.
McFarland, I think the concept of looking at trying to rebuild the existing unit
and is less, much more time, that is the best approach.
Okay.
And now at this point
that we have at the full board, well, we get an update on that. Yes.
What we were we were talking about was we felt
it was important to do this presentation even though we weren't recommending
any of the options that were done just because of where we're currently at.
But also to share with you where we are at and what absolutely needs to be
done just so you can start thinking
about the short term and maybe even the longer term.
We would like to come back the end of October once we have all the data.
And then on rebuilding or replacing the chiller or whatever
we need to do and then look to the board for direction on on.
Do we move forth rebuilding, Do we look for
replace in that chiller?
And really that's all we're looking at at this point.
Yeah.
I mean that.
I mean it's
going to be curious to see a price on that.
But we do need to be thinking the short term.
But also then what are the longer term you know, five, ten years down the road?
What what are we what's the board thinking at this point?
So look. Thinking about the.
Long term and looking at the cost
per square foot construction estimates,
it appears from the handout
that the cost is much higher for our proposed
these proposed options, especially option three than the comps that are given
in. My not.
Reading that correctly.
Or can it be.
Some due diligence done on that?
I mean, in some cases.
$130 a square foot and more
for for this proposed.
Construction?
You're looking at the
that the LNG facility comparable sheet that was provided in there.
Yeah. Yeah.
That's the.
Last two.
They announced. The contract. Correct.
Mr. Anderson, you had pulled
some of that information, the top part of that information.
Maybe you can just give a little insight into that.
I don't have my exact notes here, but I did do I did contact PBB
and I did contact some other
architecture firms that are they do an extensive amount of school work.
And and these numbers that we're looking at
are higher than they thought and certainly higher than what
I've seen in my time as a board member is again, our conception college.
And all together.
You've got to go through a process, you know, with state approval,
but by experience it's been
these are numbers that I've not seen before.
I put it that way.
This is kept.
Thank you very much. More
if I can make one other point real quick is, as Mr.
McFarland pointed out, there becomes a bit of a game as to when we switch over.
We were slated to switch over this morning from getting a cooling in.
Scott Dodd and I got together this morning
early and said, you know what, The next one looks kind of warm to me.
Looks kind of damp.
Let's not switch over just yet.
So it is a little bit, oh, crap, you don't have any options.
Once we cut off of the cooling tower and the chiller,
we about three days to get that process complete.
So at this point what we'd like to do is at the end of October
come back with some more data on the chiller itself
and then look for direction from the board, because that is,
that is critical at this point.
So are there any other questions about this information at Seton?
Hold onto this. Yeah, keep this tooth. Roy
chew through the full report
for us and thank you to warehouse.
Thank you guys for being here.
Thank you for. Coming Mrs.
Funk and Mrs. Gavel.
And thank you, Mr. Anderson.
You're very welcome.
Have a good evening. Yep.
All right.
Well, thank you very much for the presentation.
Please.
We have a full understanding of long and short term
issues.
Okay.
I would like to announce the board met in executive session prior to this meeting
to discuss safety and security and agency business, which, if conducted in public,
would violate a lawful privilege or lead to disclosure of confidential information,
recognition of citizens.
This is an opportunity for residents and taxpayers
to address the board on matters related to the agenda.
Those who speak, if present,
are asked to come to the microphone and state your name and address.
For the record,
those who are attending virtually are asked to raise your virtual hand.
Once recognized and unmuted.
Please state your name and address for the record
to provide other residents with an opportunity to speak each speaker
during the public comment
portion is limited to 5 minutes of speaking time once recognized
and limited to one opportunity
to address the board during each of the public comment periods.
Those wishing to present private concerns or questions
any follow up outside the board meeting
may go to the district website and submit a community correspondence.
Are there any citizens or taxpayers who will like the comment at this time?
We don't have anybody here live any more
like.
And I do see
we have five people watching the livestream,
but I do not see any virtual hands
okay Standing committee meeting report.
Ms.. Drew, do you have a report
yet? Yes.
For the Finance Committee.
Sorry. Yes, thank you.
The Finance Committee met today and on our agenda,
we had a review of the current revenue just for updates
as to where tax collection is at this point year to date,
we have added an ongoing item for COVID 19 related expenses
to the budget, to our committee agenda, and reviewed that as well
and then discussed into new business the budget timeline process
for the 2021 2022 budget
and then had presentations from
PFM regarding possible refinance options
for some of the bonds that we currently have in our debt structure
looking at potential ways for relief
as we look ahead for that,
this was just the preliminary to see where the
you know, where we would potentially look.
They gave two different options that they were recommending that we take a look at.
The Finance Committee reviewed all of that, provided feedback
and additional information
that we wanted to have included for when that comes back to the full board.
So we will expect,
I believe, by the last meeting in October to have a presentation
and look for the full board to review and weigh in on that.
Fulton Financial also came today and gave a presentation
on the Milton Hershey Trust and reviewed
various things on the performance of the Trust, but
also reviewing the options that we would have should budgetary
needs require that to be able to draw additional funds that we have not been
that we've not done
in the past, but that the law would allow for us to,
in, you know, an emergency need if we needed that.
And so they will be continuing to come back quarterly
and we'll be in a position to have those conversations if we need to.
And that was on.
All right, Thank you.
Any questions?
Okay.
The listed items are on the anticipated October 13th board of directors
meeting agenda.
Okay.
There's no unfinished business.
The consent agenda contains routinely adopted items and items
that normally do not require public deliberations on part of the board.
A board member may pull items which will then be discussed and voted on separately.
May I have a motion to approve the consent agenda items as listed so moved?
Maria Me second. Tara Singer
Is there any discussion
of the standard voice vote?
All those in favor say aye. Aye.
All those opposed say no.
Okay. The consent agenda is approved.
New business school enrollment Mru Mr.
McFarland.
The administration recommends the approval of the Memorandum of Understanding
with Harrisburg University of Science and Technology
to offer dual enrollment course options through the University.
May I have a motion to approve the MRU with Harrisburg University?
So move Lyndsey through second.
Maria Mimi Is there any discussion
of standard voice vote?
Others in favor say aye? Aye, I suppose.
Say no.
The endorsement is approved.
What?
Everybody be okay
if I put all the unopposed positions in one motion as a standard voice, vote
for these PSB positions, then we'll vote separately on the Vice President.
Since there are two running for one position.
Okay.
May I have a motion to elect the following?
President elect Treasurer PSB,
Treasurer, Insurance Trust and Forum Steering Committee.
All those people are running unopposed.
Tricia Steiner So moved
on. Second.
Okay, is there any discussion
standard voice The person who is.
The second on that?
Lindsay said at the exact time it was a dead heat
right?
I've got an 11.
Okay.
All those in favor say I.
I was opposed. Say now.
All right, so those positions are appointed
and now we're going to have Madam Secretary collect
the votes for the vice president.
You will pick one of the names either Sabrina
Bakker or Daniel O'Keefe.
Ms.. Mr.
Abel,
Mr. O'Keefe,
Dr. Cronan, Mosbacher, Mr.
Crew, Mr.
O'Keefe, Mr.
Ristic, Mr. O'Keefe,
Mrs. Manning, Mr. O'Keefe.
Dr. Shaw. Mr. O'Keefe.
Mrs. Secor.
Mr. O'Keefe.
Mr. Singer.
Mr. O'Keefe.
Mr. Steiner.
Mr. O'Keefe.
By a vote of 8 to 1.
Mr. O'KEEFE.
Okay, Thank you very much.
May I have a. Yes?
We are going to now vote on him now.
We just did vote on him. I'm sorry.
I don't know why that's there.
Okay. We are done with that
event. Spectators.
Mr. McFarland, thank you.
The administration recommends the board approve the issuing of two adult vouchers
for each student participant in events that are live streamed
and for adult vouchers
for each student participant in events that are not live streamed.
Hey, may I have a motion to approve event spectator recommendations?
So move Nancy Drew and Donna groaning okay, as many discussion.
And I just want to let the board members know that Mr.
Governance
is here on as a panelist in the webinar so you can ask him questions as well.
Mr. McFarland or Mr.
McGovern, do you want to
explain what this means for the district
as far as which events are livestreamed and which ones are not livestreamed?
I'm going to go ahead Receiver
Yeah, I can do that.
Varsity football, cheerleading and band and volleyball
because of the indoor
recommendations that we have.
We are live streaming that.
So we have a professional group outsourcing some of our livestreaming
for the football and through our huddle focus,
we can do a live streaming and place it on YouTube for volleyball.
So as a result of that, people have the opportunity
to view their relatives or children playing.
So that's why we wanted to offer
two vouchers for those for the other sports
field hockey, soccer,
the cross country, the tennis.
We wanted to give them four vouchers
because we're not livestreaming as to this
and we're not going to exceed the 250 limit as well.
So that's why we are requesting and recommending that we provide
for four sports with our livestreaming and two for
those that are last night and those are adult only tickets.
So we are not allowing students, spectators, correct?
Correct.
And we are not also allowing visitors.
That is correct.
Now, the only thing with that is we will be one of the few schools
that are not doing that and that may come back on us later on.
We're a school.
So because a lot of opponents, we play twice and they may say,
that's great, you, we, you, you can we come to you?
We are not allowed to come to your game.
You're not allowed to come to class.
Now, even so, I'll play that by year when the time comes.
I think
a lot of people are going to be stricter, just like we are in the very beginning,
and then maybe loosen restrictions later on as far as visiting spectators.
But yes, that's what we're proposing.
No visiting spectators at this time. And Mr.
Governor, this is Lindsey Drew.
If is something obviously this is something that the board can take action on,
you know,
at another time if things need to be changed.
But I guess for me, given
the kind of chaos, if you will, of who determines, you know,
what's where, I really think that this gives the best opportunity
to allow for our students and their, you know, family, spectators or,
you know, adult spectators to be able to participate and do that while still
being mindful of the governor's current restrictions that while,
you know, with the lawsuit was not issued to stay during
that, it's still being mindful of those while also addressing
the the concerns and requests we've heard from our community.
And this will allow for,
you know, what we feel there to be
a number that stays comfortable.
But, you know, as far as the visitors, I see, this is the first step.
Right.
And we want
we're still doing everything we can to make sure that we keep schools open.
And I think this allows us to be able
to provide for participation at activities and athletics
while still being mindful of the mitigation efforts
that we have in place to be able so that we can continue to move forward
to getting kids back to school full time.
I agree with that 100%.
Lindsey So, Mr.
Governor, you're saying that like if we have a high school field hockey game
against a local or a local rival,
they can't come but inside our fence.
But we all know that that field up
there has four sides and people can sit up by the mean.
So we're not monitoring outside the fence, correct?
Right.
Within reason.
You know, so you're in or something like that.
We would, you know, obviously remove that.
But you are correct. Right.
And we still require masks on our property
and we still require social distancing no matter where you are, correct?
That is correct.
And we have signage all over our schools as well.
So can you just confirm visiting visitors
are just not allowed inside the gates with issued tickets?
They are allowed on district property to view from an adult as.
They are adhering to our other guidelines of masks and.
Distancing.
Yes, that is correct.
I was just curious, though, at this time what the you had mentioned
that some of the other schools do allow visitors, and I'm an agreement
with not doing that at this time.
But I was just curious
of what their policy is, though, on visiting teams currently.
So what do most of them are giving to vouchers for visiting team?
And that seems to be the going rate for, I would say 95% of the schools.
That's what they're doing, the ones that are allowing it.
But what you have to remember too, is we're in a unique situation
since we have Hershey's Stadium as you know, usage,
since we're
not using that now, we really don't have a stadium.
So we can guesstimate how many people
we're going to be able to hold in like, for instance, our track football area.
But those bleachers are being used by our band students right now as we speak.
So parents will have to come in with their their chairs and sit in there.
So the schools that are doing things like some of our neighboring schools,
they have a smaller like
multipurpose stadium that they can do football.
They can do multiple sports that have more seating capacity than we do.
So we can't compare everything to what others are doing
because if we had the privilege of utilizing the stadium
and it would allow us to decide the numbers, that'd be one thing.
But since they are not, we're in a really unique spot
where we really don't have large seating capacity facilities anywhere.
Well, that's the reason I brought up
like soccer until hockey play up on that three two turf
and there is viewing outside that fence there.
There is no way we could get there's there's indoor track with allowing
two vouchers per football cheerleading and being and we just don't have the room.
But I think
that it's still a good situation given that
somebody from another school district could come and put a chair up
by the highway and watch a sporting event at the turf at 3.0, easily.
Correct.
So tonight and I can attest to that, we said, well,
I guess he's pennsboro one Oh.
Aaron sat up on the top saying it's probably a better view anyway.
Absolutely. Absolutely.
And on last Friday, we had four those that were fortunate enough to come.
We had the band in one end and the cheerleaders in the end zone
and two football teams across from each other.
And we had spectators outside the fence, but it was very reasonable.
It was to adhere to the rules and it ended up being a nice experience,
very nice experience.
So yes, it can be done. Okay.
And you and I just you know, you're you're comfortable with this recommendation.
And I know we got to talk to you an agenda planning about
how we were going to go about this.
And we took about an hour to go over many different scenarios
and we came to this conclusion.
And I think it's a it's a good one
because the parents can come and watch their participant children.
We're keeping it to the families in our own zip code, and
they're
still viewing outside the fence if people wanted to come out.
So I think we're being very fair and
square of our people, which we should be, and I should be on number one priority.
And then with the facilities that we do have,
it gives you the opportunity to sit outside the away.
Okay. Okay.
All right.
Well, I want to thank Mr. McGovern and Mr.
Government and administration for bringing this forward.
I support this.
I think this is a measured, responsible step.
And it's important to to the students, to the participants and their families.
So thank you, Mr.
Government, for bring it forward and the administration.
Appreciate it.
Yeah.
Any other discussion.
All right.
Well, I appreciate you being on our livestream.
Scott and Angela, thank you so much.
All right. You guys have a good one.
All right. You do you want to hear the vote?
Don't. Oh, yeah,
I'm still here.
All right.
Just wait to see if we approve it,
okay? This is a standard voice.
All those in favor say I know all of the personnel, okay?
The event spectators are approved.
And I said this, too.
And last thing I'll say, I know guys have an agenda.
I said this to Cathy Lindsey the other day with Joe.
You guys have been amazing to deal with with this whole COVID situation.
I talk to other administrators about how things are being handled
in their school district, and I couldn't be prouder to be part of this
district is I'm like, Oh my gosh, they're they've been so supportive.
They've been on you know,
they've been on board with everything you guys have been amazing with.
And I'm not saying that because I'm getting my way.
I'm saying it because you guys have been fantastic
with this whole process and listening to the other horror stories.
I'm very pleased. Very pleased.
All right.
I really, really appreciate that very much.
Thanks.
Thank you. Thank you so much.
I see you guys.
Okay, Bye.
All right.
May I have a motion to approve personnel resignations?
So moved. Maria, Miami second.
Lindsay drew there.
Any discussion?
Kate, there's a standard voice vote.
All those in favor say I opposed. Say no.
The resignations are approved.
Personnel. General. Mr. McFarland.
Thank you. The excuse me.
The administration recommends
the approval of the listed personnel and recognition of any listed transfers.
May I have a motion to approve the listed personnel?
A recognition of listed transfers.
So move.
Donna Cronan, second. Maria, Mimi,
any discussion?
All those in favor say I was opposed.
Say now.
Hey, personnel is proved.
Delegate reports
Dauphin County Tax Collection report is attached.
Dr. Shaw, do have anything to add?
Madam President, only that our tax collector
Keystone, is estimating that the shortfall in earned income
tax revenues for the current calendar year will be about 15 to 20%.
So that should be
a reduction in what we'll see next year for income
related to 2020. In.
Okay, Thank you.
The CAIB report is attached.
Mrs. Steiner, do you have anything to add
on? I just wanted
to commend the IAU for their continuous innovation,
even on top of the pandemic and
all of the things that there is department is continuing to take on.
They went from 20 gigs to 40 gigs.
They're just recent hotspots.
They've had, you know, just thousands
of schools and students,
thousands of students, rather,
coming on board with
with online academies that
through through the through the IAU.
And if you haven't been paying attention to this after,
say, as all end reports, I would highly recommend
you read them, because there's a lot of really good information in there.
It's really comprehensive.
And one of the really things
that's exciting is the rapid response team, which they're just
got, got up and going and it's really
an innovative program that they're working alongside with
a partnership with the United Way as well
to help kids that are in daycares that have are having behavioral issues
or caretakers or parents that aren't sure how to handle some of the situations.
And a lot of times these kids just get kicked out of daycares
and they move around from daycare, daycare
and then or they get misplaced into special education.
And they it's really just wrapping their arms around these kids
and the caretakers and the parents without judgment,
but trying to figure out how they can help this child succeed
and figure out what they really need using a trauma informed lens.
You know, looking at the whole situation, looking at behavior
in a really comprehensive way.
And so it's just really exciting
because they've developed this this program and they have a tool kit
and their hope is to expand it out across other.
I used to have it,
you know, duplicate across across regions and across the state.
So it's just really exciting to hear all the things that they're doing.
And I know people don't usually talk about the IAU meetings, but I really
I really enjoyed being a part of that board
and I'm just continuously impressed with all the work that they do on every
level and every department.
So that's all I think.
Thank you.
Glad you enjoy it.
Dauphin County Tech School.
As all of you already know, Judy, however sick, and I are on the Joint
Operating committee for Dauphin County Tech School.
We have monthly meetings.
And I just wanted to let you know that we did have
a special meeting last Wednesday
just to approve a poor building that they're going to house
on, build on the property that's going to house equipment
that was moved out of the regular school building
because they're adding
they added the welding program shifted a lot of the things around.
So it's just they do a lot of great work there
and it's an interesting committee to be a part of.
So if you ever have any questions, let us know.
And you have the unofficial minutes
were attached to your board brief
board members.
Are there any board members who would like to give a report?
I just wanted to add on from the Finance Committee report.
One thing
I thought of, but I felt like it's really relevant for the whole board to hear is
one of the things regarding revenue that we addressed this evening was around
charter schools.
They were charter school payments, and we recognize that
typically we have somewhere in the 30 some range of students who are attending
cyber charter school currently given COVID
return to school plans, it's 71,
and that will equal an additional half a million dollars in our budget.
That will be sent to cyber charter school parents.
And so we talked in the committee
about the the impact that has on our budget.
And so I would just encourage,
you know, board members to understand that and understand the way the money,
the funding follows and how we obviously are not seeing a decrease
in our expenses as a result of that
additional 30 some students going to a charter school
and, how detrimental it must be for
for other public schools as well, especially if those numbers are higher.
And I thanked Mr.
McFarland earlier for his advocacy on this because it is something that I feel
something is failing us on as a public school.
So I just want to learn to be mindful of it
because as we talk about all of the things that are impacting our budgets,
this is going to be another silent like sneak up on us impact.
And it's just unnecessary the way that it's currently structured.
Thank you. Mr..
If I may, I'd just add one of the things since you brought it up
that we need the public to fully understand that, as Mr.
has said, that money is not the money that is taken from
our budget is not what it costs to educate the students in cyber
that is based on our average cost per student.
So that varies for every district
and they get that given to them for every student that goes from here.
So it's unfair funding and it's not a free public education.
Every time you see a media ad on there, that's your tax dollars
being paid to advertise for those cyber charters.
So and I think one other thing that's just important
to add on is the families that chose that for their students,
you know, our taxpayers.
And so, you know, that money rightfully goes there.
And I don't think that public education is a one size fits all.
So those families should feel no shame or, you know, whatever
for the decisions they made for their child.
It's just important that I that
we all understand from a budget perspective
just how significant the impact will be as a result.
Thank you.
Thank you. Any other board members?
This is Tricia Steiner.
I just would like to say on on
in the context of cyber charter schools,
that Advocacy Day is coming up on October 14th,
and that is a huge issue for advocacy Day, as Mr.
McFarland knows.
And so I would encourage everybody to sign up for that.
Obviously, it's virtual this year, but it's usually in the spring.
And we did have a virtual advocacy day in the spring.
But because that was so,
I'm not sure if successful is
the right word, but it was an engaging day and a lot of people participated.
And because there's so many things happening in public education right now
with COVID 19 and the budget constraints
and cyber charter still being a huge issue for a lot of school districts,
PSP had decided to have Advocacy Day again in the fall.
So it's going to be in the fall this year on October 14th,
and it will also be planned again in the spring and May.
So that's coming up.
So I encourage everybody to go onto my SBA dot org
and log in under your SBA
credentials to register for that, along with the Equity Summit
and the PSP annual conference.
Okay. Thank you very much,
Mr. McFarland.
You have a superintendent report?
I do.
Thank you.
First, I want to congratulate our six Hershey
High School students who were named as National Merit Scholarship, semifinalists
Zoe Bushman and Lou Jasmine
Mackley, Lincoln writer Joseph Seaton, and Allison Weller.
So now these students will compete against
for 7600 National Merit scholarships worth more than $30 million.
So we wish them the best in the next step.
We're very proud of them.
Also, you've noticed that we haven't had our student reps yet,
but we the process is going through at the high school.
Hopefully by our next meeting we will have our student reps here with us.
We have to figure out.
How to see them.
Here, but but we'll be glad to have them join us.
And then also want to give an update on the YMCA childcare option.
They had a registration last week, opportunity for parents.
We did not get a
large response at that time,
so we put out more information again, thinking that maybe it was too quick
a turnaround for parents or they didn't see the information.
So we put it out again and the Y is giving another opportunity.
But with the current numbers, if we do not get more,
they will not be able to offer it at this time.
And finally, just a reminder, job with Joe Virtual
Bring your own coffee to your own house
will be this Friday at 9:00 and registration.
There's a link on the website to register for that. Mr.
McFarlane Have we reached to the township to ask them to include the registration
for the YMCA childcare offering in their distribution?
I know there's so many communications that are going out
from the school district
right now that that very easily could have been overlooked by some families.
So if we could maybe see if they can also advertise registration
in their township wide distribution, I will do that tomorrow.
Thank you.
Okay.
Board presidents report. I don't have anything to report.
And then we have one final arbiter money for residents and taxpayers
to address the board if you are attending virtually.
I see we still have four people.
You can raise your hand now.
Okay.
Is there anything else for the good of the order,
the next public Board of Directors meeting will be held Tuesday, October 13th,
2020, starting at 7:00 in the District Office Board of Directors Room.
May I have a motion adjourn this meeting so moved Maria Me second.
Donna Cronan Okay, all those in favor say hi.
All those opposed say no.
Hey, the meeting is adjourned at 804.