North Penn Home and School Coordinating Council, Inc. Minutes
May 16th, 2012
The main objective of CC is to provide a forum for parents of the North Penn School District to exchange ideas and to
promote an ongoing relationship between the schools, administration, board and community.
Location: A.M. Kulp Elementary
Member Organizations: A.M. Kulp; Bridle Path; General Nash; Gwynedd Square; Gwyn-Nor; Hatfield; Inglewood; Knapp;
Montgomery; North Wales; Oak Park; Walton Farm; York Avenue; Pennbrook; Penndale; Pennfield; North Penn HS; NP
Assoc. for Gifted Education; NP Athletic Alumni Assoc.; NP Booster Club; NPHS JROTC Squires; NP Music Aides; NP Special
Education Council; Students With Aspiring and Achievable Goals; Wrestling Parents.
Member Organizations represented: N/A
Welcome –President Kathy Stella
Guest Speaker – Josie Charnock, Chair, Alternate Revenue Committee
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Summary: The North Penn School Board created an Alternate Revenue Committee in November to research
alternative sources of revenue and recommend the best options back to the board. The school board is in the
process of establishing an advertising policy that would allow advertising in the schools and on school property.
Please see specific speaker notes attached below as an addendum following the Business Meeting minutes.
Coordinating Council Business Meeting
Meeting items
1. Approval of Minutes
 Minutes of the April 18, 2012 meeting were approved.
 Minutes can be found on www.npenn.org under For Families/Coordinating Council/CC Meeting Minutes.
2. Treasurer’s Report – Becky Elstrom, Treasurer
 Balance - $2961.62
 Paid state $15 charity fee
3. Correspondence – Wendy Beatty-Burg, Corresponding Secretary
 Please notify Wendy with Coordinating Council representative contact information if you did not receive
an email.
4. Old Business
 Bus stop consolidation is coming
o Inglewood will lose 10 stops
o Bridle Path will lose 40 stops – Kathy will follow up with Bridle Path
o Tom Schneider is now the acting head of the Transportation Department
o Comment – Is school district considering the increased chance of litigation if cutbacks and
changes lead to accident?
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5.
New Business
 Sharing of special teachers between schools
o Nash shares teachers with Inglewood and Hatfield
 Two sets of teachers for each program must coordinate art curriculum
 Pottery kiln has not been used at all this year
 Library programs have been cut back
o Do other schools see coordination issues that limit students’ learning experience?
o Comment – It is up to principals to coordinate teachers, and the principals are floundering under
increased workloads.
 Kids Voting
o National program curriculum during presidential elections
o Free materials available for schools
o “Take Your Parents to Vote” campaign
o Nash supported 2 of 3 local precincts
o Comment – Contact party committee members for help
 Kindergarten
o Parents meetings to introduce program were consolidated at a few schools.
o Orientations still held at home school
 School supply lists for elementary students
o List for each grade will be sent out in final report cards
 Coordinating Council Board election
o President – Kathy Stella
o Vice-President – Therese Mellman
o Recording Secretary – Don Mackowiak
o Corresponding Secretary – Wendy Beatty-Burg
o Treasurer – Becky Elstrom
o Co-Treasurer – Not filled
o EVP Elementary – Maureen Werner
o EVP Elementary – Not filled
o EVP Pennfield – Janet Braverman
o EVP Penndale – Sheri Helt
o EVP Pennbrook – Not filled
o EVP High School – Claudia Barnard
o EVP High School – Not filled
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Possible speakers for next year
o Gifted program
o Safe Schools - Ray Wilson
o ROTC program
o Buildings and grounds – John Strobel
o Technology
o Transportation
o North Penn Education Foundation
o School Nutritional Services
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6.
Level Reports
 Walton Farm Art Show
o Do other elementary schools have their own art shows for student works?
7.
Ideas, Concerns, Comments and Announcements
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Penndale – Is anyone leaving Lifetouch?
o Knapp left Lifetouch when family business beat rate
o Kulp and Inglewood use Barksdale
o Pennbrook - H&S has no involvement with pictures
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Team buses are not remaining at away site during games
Mathematics curriculum committee results?
o Remove challenge math program
o New rubric used to determine if student enters Algebra 1
Adjournment: The meeting was adjourned.
Next meeting of Coordinating Council will be held on in September. Please forward to Wendy Beatty-Burg
(beattyburg@aol.com), Corresponding Secretary, any business items or questions your organization would like to have
placed on future agendas.
Respectfully submitted,
Donald Mackowiak
Recording Secretary
Addendum:
Presentation by Josie Charnock, Chairperson, Alternative Revenue Committee
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The North Penn School Board created the Alternative Revenue Committee in November 2011.
Members
o Josie Charnock, Chair
o Donald Franks
o Don Hill
o Howard Reid
o William Patchell
Mission
o Communicate to the community the financial challenges facing the North Penn School District
o Identify new sources of revenue
o Make recommendations of alternative revenue sources to the North Penn School Board
Forecasted NPSD budget
o 2012-2012: $200 million
o 2016-2017: $225 million
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NPSD revenue sources
o Tax subsidies are frozen and do not cover current state and federal mandates
o State originally was responsible for 50% of a school district’s budget
o Taxes currently contribute to 80% of the budget
Budget shortfall
o Averaging $5 million annually
o Forecasted to be $19 million by 2016-2017
Taxes
o 80% of budget revenue currently comes from taxes
o Increases in local taxes will not cover deficit
o Tax increases are limited by Act I (2006)
 1.7% increase allowed this year (exception would allow 2.9% increase)
 Aging population cannot support further increases in real estate taxes
o Income tax revenue is decreasing due to economic slowdown
Two approaches to deal with revenue challenges
o Maintain current standard of excellence by controlling spending and identifying new revenue
o Maintain minimum core with current revenue and spending
Alternative revenue options
o Advertising
o Sponsorships
o Donations
o Grants
o Trademark licensing
o User fees
o Intellectual property
o Advanced concepts
Advertising
o Pennsbury School District relationship with School Media
 Pennsbury researched issue for one year before entering program
 Health and wellness advertising is rotated every 3 months
 All advertising is reviewed by a district committee
 Ads allowed on 20% of available space
 Pennsbury recently received a payment of $400,000
o Education Curriculum Policy committee considered first draft of a NPSD policy on advertising
o Request for Proposals distributed
o Difficult to find a company to work with school districts
 Most will not begin discussions until the district has an established advertising policy
o This is new territory for public education. School districts must balance increased revenue stream with
school safety.
o Market Street Sports works with school districts to provide advertising at outdoor sporting events.
Sponsorships
o Naming rights for facilities, events and programs
Intellectual property
o Bus drivers proposed filming puppet safety program and selling to districts
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Questions and comments
o Would alternative ideas create enough revenue to cover deficit?
 This is a starting point. Harrisburg must address the main problem.
o Change model of North Penn Foundation to raise more money for programs
o What should parent associations do?
 Participate
o Parents find it difficult to learn about and attend school board committee meetings.
 Board must communicate and interact with community to sell proposals.
o North Penn School District always seems to be on the tail end of ideas.
o Students participating in theater are already required to solicit advertising for their programs. Will
there be conflicts?
 Option to consolidate advertising
 Business could pay more at one time to be guaranteed advertising in all district theater programs
 Alternative Revenue Committee must concentrate on creating the revenue. It will be up to the
school board to distribute the funds.
o Recommendation that ARC visit all Home and School Associations at their first meetings in Fall
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