The proposed preliminary budget for the East Penn School District arrived for a vote Jan. 11, the harbinger of four months of revising and drafting to come. Seven board members voted to approve the $144,904,828 budget, with Directors Chris Donatelli and Carol Allen, both newly elected, dissenting. The tax millage is proposed at 18.0446 mills on the assessed valuation of real estate.

“This is only the first step of many,” Business Manager Debra Surdoval said.

Superintendent Dr. Michael Schilder noted to the board the administration saw a need for the budget process to begin earlier than it has in previous years and with more frequency of discussion throughout the budgeting period.

The proposed preliminary budget simply allows the administration to apply for exceptions for the district from the tax index (the figure the state issues relating to how high taxes may be raised), according to Surdoval. Adoption of proposed budget decisions comes later. Surdoval also confirmed the district has never used all of the exceptions for which it was qualified in the past.

Director Rebecca Heid said she would support the proposed preliminary budget but asked the administration do its best to stay within the state proposed index.

The board review of district policies continued with a second reading of Policy Series 100, which deals with district policies on programs. The board reading covered sections 100 to 116.1, while the second part of the series will be covered in a later meeting.

Aside from a few sections marked for deletion for being considered redundant, most changes in the second reading of these policies were minor. Schilder once again explained the process briefly: after the board’s first reading with suggestions and concerns, the administration combs through every policy again, sometimes with the aid of legal council to make sure all legal obligations are being met.

This series of policies will be officially adopted by the board at a future meeting.

Assistant Superintendent Dr. Denise Torma gave a presentation to the board on a district climate survey, which if adopted for participation, will cast a comprehensive assessment of district needs and strengths at a cost of $16,000.

Torma said the last survey was taken in 2007, and in general the surveys have been far apart in terms of frequency. In addition, the survey is part of the district’s comprehensive plan, a requirement of the Pennsylvania Department of Education for all school districts as part of future planning.

Torma’s presentation proposed the comprehensive school climate inventory survey, run by the National School Climate Center. The NSCC was founded in 1996 and established as a nonprofit organization in 1999, Torma reported. She said the NSCC has run dozens of surveys in schools across the country with measurable success.

The survey measures district strengths and areas of needs across 13 dimensions in the fields of safety, teaching and learning, interpersonal relationships, institutional environment, social media, staff leadership and professional leadership. Torma highlighted the survey’s merits in being highly field tested, noting 68 districts in Ohio and 46 in Iowa using it. The survey takes only 15 minutes and is developed in variations for teachers and staff, parents and students on the elementary and secondary levels.

The board of directors questioned the mechanism of the survey, how it would be distributed and how those surveyed would be prevented from taking the survey more than once.

Director Paul Champagne asked how the survey had been received in other districts and what those districts did with the information yielded by the survey. Schilder said the administration would do a further analysis of other districts to see what their response had been.

Director Alan Earnshaw voiced his concern about the specificity of questions aimed at each of the dimensions described in the presentation, and how successfully the survey would get each participant to answer them in a meaningful way to get to the root of a given problem and offer a meaningful course to resolution.

Torma said the administration will next review the board’s concerns and questions, do additional research on the survey and come back with further information. The presentation was not a voting matter but only for board review and part of the continuous improvement process in the district’s comprehensive plan.

In other business, Schilder announced the East Penn School District Foundation is now an official body and on its way to filing for 501(c)3 status as a non-profit organization. The Foundation has its own board of directors, including members of the district administration, teaching faculty, parents, community members and local business professionals.

Members of the Foundation include Sal Verrastro, president; Stacey Galiardo, vice president; Jill Killo, secretary; John Zayaitz, treasurer; Dr. Ken Bacher; Dr. Julia Kibelbek; Dr. Stan Landis; Rodd Luckenbill; Karen Gennaro; Laura Groh; Dr. Michael Schilder; Heather Slatoff; Tom Wallitsch; Stephen Zakos; Rev. Wally Vinovskis and Dr. Ann Zayaitz.

According to administrators, “the mission statement of the Foundation is ‘to enrich, extend and deepen the educational experiences of East Penn School District students with an emphasis on science, technology, engineering, arts and mathematics. The Foundation will achieve its mission by financially supporting teacher grants, new programs and educational resources that develop critical thinking, creativity, innovation and problem-solving skills in the critical areas of science, technology, engineering, arts and mathematics.’”

Administrators said The Foundation will be in need of many community members to support its success through volunteering their time, expertise and talents.

In addition, Schilder announced Jefferson Elementary School has been awarded Title 1 Distinguished School status by PDE, a very high achievement according to the superintendent. This is the second consecutive year the school has been recognized.

Jefferson qualifies as a high achievement school by performing in the top 5 percent of Title I schools based upon aggregate math and reading PSSA scores that meet all annual measurable objectives (test participation rate, attendance rate, closing achievement gap for all students and historically under-performing students).

Jefferson will be honored at the 2016 Title I Improving Schools Performance Conference Feb. 7.