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Longtime administrator oversaw school, stadium renovations
North Penn School District officials are starting to prepare for the departure of a key administrator.
School board members voted earlier this month to accept the retirement notice of Tom Schneider, longtime district director of facilities and operations, for next year.
“I just want to acknowledge the great work that he has done, and will continue to do while he’s with us,” said Assistant Superintendent D’Ana Waters.
Schneider had worked for the district starting in late 2010 as the district’s manager of energy and operational efficiency, and took over as director of facilities in 2014 before departing in late 2016 for a similar position with the Abington School District.
His successor, Scott Kennedy, held the role until 2019, when his departure led to Schneider's return. In that second stint, Schneider helped manage the district's response to the COVID-19 pandemic, giving monthly reports on supplies of personal protective equipment, cleaning supplies and safety efforts, while developing and updating a long-term capital list of equipment and facility needs across the district, and planning and then overseeing major renovations to Crawford Stadium and Knapp Elementary School and more recently steering the public planning and discussions on renovations to North Penn High School.
"We're really excited for him, and his opportunity to move somewhere different, and do some things, enjoy the next phase. But we'll miss him greatly when that time comes," Waters said.
Facilities and operations committee chairwoman Cathy McMurtrie, who has overseen those major building projects and renovations from the board side, said she expects a smooth shift to a new administrator.
"The plan is to have an extended transition period with the new director, particularly because of the high school project we're embarking on, to make sure we do not have any — let's say, cracks — and it'll be a bump-less, seamless transfer," she said.
More personnel moves
One other departure was also listed in the Aug. 6 personnel items, with another familiar name: "Resignation: Megan M. McGee, Director of Special Education, effective July 15, 2024."
In May the school board approved a separation agreement with the now-former administrator, who had been the director of special education since March 2021 and took on an expanded role of director of secondary education and student services in February 2024.
An alleged in-school student attack at Pennbrook Middle School on April 17 left one student seriously injured, and prompted an outcry from dozens of parents and residents calling for changes to the district's special education leadership and bureaucracy. The school board vowed to hire an outside investigator and publicize their findings, and subsequently appointed a new director of special education in July.
The Aug. 6 board agenda also included a personnel item labeled "Separation Agreement and Release between the North Penn School District and Jessica Morgan," who is listed in the same personnel items as a special education paraprofessional at Inglewood Elementary School. That separation agreement was not discussed by the board, but resident Jason Lanier asked for an update on the third-party investigation into the Pennbrook attack, and questioned whether all were related.
"It's been four months now. We still don't know what's going on with this investigation. I notice there's another person that's going to have a separation agreement. Is this a second swipe at scapegoating somebody?" he said. Board members and staff did not reply to the comments.
High school subcontracts approved
Several items related to the high school renovations were also approved by the board during their two August meetings, after being voted ahead by the facilities and operations committee in late July.
One new contract was awarded for a drilling contractor to provide a drilling rig for five days to do inspection borings for the project’s geotechnical engineer, with an estimated cost of $9,700, according to Schneider. Two other items amended prior contracts for infiltration testing and for utility scanning, adding $11,000 in geotechnical analysis for soils to the former contract and adding $6,750 to the latter for examining and scanning the 1960s-era corrugated metal piping below the front parking lot and determine whether it needs to be relined or replaced.
A separate item authorized staff to seek bids for an environmental design consultant, which staff have said will design all asbestos abatement, write specifications for working around lead paint, and make plans for construction contractors to work around any other pollutants. As that motion was read, Superintendent Todd Bauer joked that he could hear McMurtrie clapping, as the board approved it unanimously.
Budget transfer talks soon?
District CFO Steve Skrocki added a preview of an item that could be up for discussion in September: the board's annual transfer from a projected budget surplus into reserves for capital projects, as its year-end audit is finalized.
"Along with that audit, we always firm up what our projections were, for the previous fiscal year. So I would imagine at the September finance committee meeting, we'll start having those discussions, about the surplus that we're projecting, and the possibility of a transfer to the capital reserve fund," Skrocki said.
Each summer, after the district's new fiscal year starts on July 1, staff assist an outside firm in an annual audit of expenses, revenues, and any year-end deficits or surplus in various district funds and accounts. Once that work is complete, staff typically ask that the board transfer at least some of the surplus from the general fund to various capital funds for tackling smaller projects at schools and facilities; in 2022 part of the surplus was left unassigned as the board discussed the high school renovations, as staff said it could help raise the district's bond rating and thereby lower borrowing costs.
In his monthly financial report to the board, Skrocki said the audit for 2023-24 could be more complicated than usual due to a delay in the delivery of several school buses that were purchased during that fiscal year but not delivered until after July 1, and more specifics would be discussed in the finance committee.
As of the end of July, the district had a total of $107.7 million on hand in various investments and reserve funds, "and that is about $8 million less than last year at this time," Skrocki said, with a total of $28.4 million in receipts and $17.3 million in disbursements for that month, Skrocki said.
North Penn's facilities and operations committee next meets at 7 p.m. on Aug. 26, the finance committee next meets at 6 p.m. on Sept. 10, and the full school board next meets at 7 p.m. on Sept. 10; for more information visit www.NPenn.org.
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