Despite bids coming in under projections, the Boyertown School Board voted unanimously Tuesday to further reduce the cost of its $6.7 million two-year athletic facilities project by removing a new maintenance building from the project before accepting the bids.
The bids for the second phase of the project, which include a softball stadium, lighting and press box, along with new locker and team rooms, came in at $3,576,480, which is more than $200,000 less than was budgeted.
In normal times, this would be good news, but these are far from normal times.
Chief financial Officer Carol Pitts told the board that due to the impact the coronavirus pandemic will have on district finances, that the board should consider reducing the size, and thus the cost, of the project.
"It hurts for me to say this, because we want a safe working environment for all our employees, but in these extraordinary times, we need flexibility," said Pitts.
Removing the maintenance building from the project, which was one of the deducts envisioned in the bidding documents, will reduce the cost by about $822,000, she said.
She said after consulting with legal counsel, it was determined that the unspent money could be used to help pay the district's debt service, thus freeing up other operational funds to be applied to other deficits anticipated in the budget that ends June 30, and the new one the board will have to adopt.
The first phase of the project included the construction of a replacement for the high school's Memorial Stadium, which is already complete.
Board member Jill Dennin said although she has been strongly in favor of the maintenance building being part of the project, but she agreed that the COVID-19-driven condition of the district's finances necessitates "a little breathing room. No one knows what future revenues are going to look like," she said.
Board member Ruth Dierolf said "I want to thank everyone for reconsidering this. I made this point a month ago and no- one agreed with me."
"I was ready to include the maintenance building, but we're in some heavy seas," said board member Brian Hemingway.
Bond Re-financing
The board also acted unanimously to move forward with a bond re-financing that will save a minimum of $900,000 last night.
Following the recommendation made by the board's finance committee at its April 14 meeting, the board voted to move forward with re-financing the district's series of 2014 and 2015 general obligation bonds.
The minimum net savings for the move to be ultimately authorized was listed as $900,000.
Boyertown School officials hope to have a new set of grandstands, replacing these, ready to go for the first football game of the 2019 season in August.
The Boyertown School Board voted Tuesday night to spend more than $1 million for new grandstands at the new stadium being built at the high school.
Although the financing for the $5 million project has not yet been decided upon, the vote occurred to take advantage of an offer to skim $100,000 off the price of the new stands if the order was placed before Dec. 1.
The board decided in June to move ahead with demolishing the old stadium, which developed structural problems due to water infiltration.
The package the board approved Tuesday is with Stadium Solutions and includes the home side grandstands, the home side press box and a new handicap platform for the visitor side.
The price is $1,167,200 and there would be a three-year warranty on the grandstand and it's installation, along with a one-year warranty on the press box.
The vote was not unanimous.
Board member Ruth Dierolf, who said she likes the package and agrees it is the right one for Boyertown, said she nevertheless had to vote against it because she has taken the position she will not vote on anything until she knows the impact on the budget.
Board member Clay Breece was more expansive in his opposition, tying it to what he said is the board's spendthrift approach to budgeting.
"I'm not voting for new stadium. I think we need to be fixing the stadium we've got," said Breece.
"There are people on this board who have never met a spending idea they don't like," he said. "We should be fixing the stadium we've got for $2.5 million, not spending $5 million for a new one."
Fixing the current stadium would be pennywise and pound foolish, said board member Brandon Foose, saying it could develop the same problems in a few years.
"If we repair stadium, and a couple years later, we have to replace it anyway, that would be a huge waste of money," Foose said.
The current plan is for the new stadium to be ready for the first football game in August of 2019.
Budget Discussion
The board also undertook a fairly lengthy budget discussion, although the discussion focused more on process than the details of the budget, which is still months away.
In January, the board can either vote to stay within the state tax cap, called the index, or go through the process of building a preliminary which has to be adopted in February, according to Chief Financial Officer Becky Clouser.
This slide shows that if the school board had raised taxes each
year by the state index, it's millage would be .73 mills higher.
Doing so would allow the district to apply for, as it has in past years, for "exceptions" to the tax cap without having to go to voters. This year, Boyertown's index would limit a tax hike to a maximum of 2.8 percent.
In addition to hiring a new superintendent this year, the district has also had to replace almost the entire business office, that combined with the vote to rescind the per capita tax elimination and "inconsistent expenditure reporting," has slowed progress on holding budget meetings.
Dierolf and board member Christine Neiman complained that work on the budget was supposed to start earlier. "We used to have the different school building leaders come in an make their pitch for what they wanted in the coming year. How are we supposed to vote on a budget if we don't have all the pieces?" asked Dierolf.
Board Vice President and Finance Committee Chairman Steve Elsier said work on the budget has occurred in the finance committee more than in previous years.
Superintendent Dana Bedden, who is undergoing his first budget with the board since being hired in July, said he was disturbed by Dierolf's suggestion.
"I have never, in 14 years as a superintendent, had departments or buildings lobby the board. That sounds like a 'Shark Tank' scenario and pits one department against the other. That's scary to me," Bedden said.
Instead, those pitches should be made to the administration and the administration should bring a recommendation to the board, he said.
Clouser said the deficit in the current budget has already been reduced to $1.3 million, which is less than previous years.
Bedden said he has never presided over a school district that "operated in the red" and he does not intend to start now.
His team has already saved $125,000 on copier leases and workers compensation insurance.
In fact the new copier lease will save $625,000 over the course of the five-year contract, which Elsier said "is real money."
Annual savings of more than $30,000 will also be realized as the result of a change over to a new student information system that the board approved Tuesday night.
The district needs to take a different approach to budgeting to "right the ship" Bedden said. "Whatever we've done in the past isn't working."
There are many factors that contribute to rising costs. "We feed our children milk every day and the price of milk will go up," he said, also agreeing with Elsier that the PSERS retirement costs dictated by the state-wide pension system is a huge factor.
"When I saw the figures for this year I called and checked because I didn't think that could be right," said Bedden. Another factor will be negotiations for a new teacher contract, he said.
"Like I said when you interviewed me, you can't tax your way out of this, but similarly, you can't cut your way out of it," Bedden said. "I hope we're open to doing this a different way, so we can be more efficient."
And with that, here are the Tweets from the meeting:
SONGBIRDS: Boyertown School Board member Brandon Foose, right, stands with high school students Abby Arnold, Taylor Kuszyk and Sally Fetterman after being recognized by the school board for their performance in the Pennsylvania Music Educators Association Region V Chorus Festival.
Let's not mince words.
There are three major news stories to come out of last night's Boyertown School Board meeting, but let's cue up to the one everyone really cares about -- the stadium.
Those of you interested in your tax bill and who will lead the district in coming years, will just have to wait and skip down a bit.
The Stadium
Last night the school board voted unanimously for the option most favored by parents of student athletes -- to conduct the fall sports season in the high school's Memorial Stadium using temporary stands and temporary sheds, rather than rent outside facilities or hold them "at a neutral location."
The cost of that decision to taxpayers is $112,233.
The district will buy the sheds and some mobile bleachers to be given other uses once the stadium is repaired.
Some bleachers will be rented and set up on the track on the home side and Facilities Director William Gasper said the company that installed the track said the district's plan for a tarp, then plywood, then 2 X 6 board to distribute the weight of the temporary bleachers and the people sitting on them, should be enough to protect the track.
Parent Elyse Watts thanked the board for the decision, which will allow seniors in fall sports to play in the stadium they have known growing up as the home for Boyertown athletics.
She also noted that the timeline as it stands now looks like it could come awfully close to affecting the fall 2019 season and urged the board to move forward with all deliberate speed and efficiency.
Toward's that end, the school board's facilities committee will conduct a special meeting on Monday, May 14 at 6:30 p.m. in the high school cafeteria devoted entirely to one subject -- the stadium.
The public is encouraged to attend as the format will allow a break-out session that allows the public to speak directly to board members on a less formal face-to-face basis, said Interim Superintendent David Krem.
A New Superintendent?
Not much to report on this one.
After the leading candidate for the job, Juniata County School District Superintendent Keith Yarger, backed out of the job, the school board has gone "back to the drawing board," said Board President Donna Usavage.
She said since that happened, the board met at least four times in closed-door executive session to discuss the continued superintendent search.
"The board will do everything within our power to get that done," she said.
A Tax Hike Cometh
With the expected 6-3 vote, the school board adopted a preliminary final budget last night that calls for spending more than $119 million and would raise taxes by 5.4 percent.
The millage would increase by 1.35 mills under the proposed budget, leading to a tax rate in both the Montgomery and Berks county portions of the district of 25.37 mills.
For a home assessed at $100,000, that represents an increase of $136, which school board member Jill Dennin called "as pretty good deal" for a home with three children on which the district will spend thousands of dollars each year.
She and board member Brandon Foose both noted that the Boyertown district has see-sawed between low tax hikes and higher ones to then make up the difference.
"You can't have it all, a nice stadium, nice fields, nice music programs and have zero tax hikes," said Dennin. "You can have less staff, larger classrooms, or raise taxes to the inflation rate."
But board members Clay Breece, Ruth Dierolf and Christine Neiman, who represented the three votes against adopting the budget, said not enough had been done to cut costs, and said many residents in the district could not afford the increase.
Saying he thought the district has "squandered money," and that the proposed hike represents the largest single increase since 2002, Breece said if the board continues to raise taxes at that rate, "in five years, it will add $680" for the same resident with a home assessed at $100,000. "It really is a matter of math," he said.
Here are a few more comments he offered:
"I know there are constituents who can't afford this," said Neiman.
Board member Steve Elisier, who chairs the finance committee, said the district saved $208,000 by re-financing some bonds, and that there were also significant savings earned through retirements and lower health insurance costs.
The final budget will be adopted and June, and can be reduced between now and then, but not increased.
Also, while we're talking about money, the board voted unanimously to spend up to $250,000 on five new trucks for the district. The average age of a district truck is 17 years.
And now, without further ado, are the many misspelled Tweets from the meeting.
Memorial Stadium at Boyertown Area Senior High School is currently closed to the public due to potential structural problems, with the exception of the track team, which uses the two inside lanes to practice.
A standing-room only crowd packed the school board facilities committee meeting Tuesday, filled with people who wanted answers about when repairs will begin on Memorial Stadium.
More specifically, they wanted to know whether it will be repaired in time for the fall sports (football) season.
They didn't get all the answers they sought, largely because those answers don't exist yet, but those that do, they received.
On Feb. 26, the board hired Barry Isett & Assoc. to complete a structural analysis of the stadium and present options for the repairs. That is the same firm that in January reported the stadium may have structural problems and should be closed to the public.
Tom Slowik, the firm's senior forensic engineer, will give an update on progress to the school board at its April 10 meeting, according to a timeline handed out by Facilities Committee Chairman David Lewis. The deadline for presenting final options is the week of April 23.
As things stood Tuesday, those findings will be presented first to the facilities committee at the May 1 meeting, and the full board will vote on a course of action on May 8.
After that, a bid must be prepared and after a month the bids will be opened and work can begin.
The parents who attended thanked the board for what information was prevented and urged them to understand the importance the stadium holds to high school athletes in the community.
The possibility of special meetings to get started sooner, as well as option for night work, were broached.
Athletic Director Nick Palladino said he has several options for the fall sports season, the selection of which will depend on how long the repairs will take.
