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Delaware Valley SD work session previews budget shifts: tech upgrades, phone system and sports-safety purchases
Summary
District staff presented preliminary budget changes including new mass-notification integration with PowerSchool, a move to Zoom phone service, Chromebook replacements, negotiated trash/recycling pricing and added costs for athletic equipment and officials; board to consider approvals at next meeting.
District staff used the work session to preview the 2026-27 budget changes across technology, security, schools and athletics, and to report on procurement work the administration says will lower certain costs.
Technology presenter Mr. Sernno said the district added a product called MyPowerHub to handle mass notifications and integrate parent dashboards into PowerSchool. He said low-use subscriptions were removed (Study Island and Screencastify) and that Microsoft campus licensing increased to restore desktop Office apps for teachers. Sernno projected district Chromebook purchases at about 230'00–250 units to replace aging devices and said "overall, my budget's down." (Mr. Sernno).
Staff also described a planned change to the phone system: moving hosting and management to a Zoom phone architecture so the district can handle phone line additions and support in-house, and removing an external phone-hosting service to realize savings. Backup and cloud-storage costs were cited as modestly higher because of increased storage needs.
On athletics and co-curriculars, Sean and other staff outlined modest increases for officials, added staffing for crowd control, and the start of girls wrestling at the junior-high level with about 25 initial participants. Athletic safety purchases include Speed Flex helmets (about $300—300 each), Axiom helmets (retail about $1,100 but negotiated to about $600 per unit this year), and Guardian caps for practice (about $80 each). Sean said the district will provide Guardian caps at practice and offer the option at games.
Bill and Marvin reviewed bids for trash-removal and recycling: Cassella was the low bidder for main campus service but initial bids for all sites, including compactors at branch campuses, produced significant increases. Marvin negotiated a "front-load" approach for branch campuses that Bill said would lower the district's projected cost to about $79,000 compared with a roughly $82,000 current cost on the main campus; the board indicated it would place the negotiated proposal on the approval agenda next week.
Other budget notes: administration told the board that Intermediate Unit 20's proposed 3.5% budget increase would cost the district roughly $1,100 and that some bids (notably fuel) will be delayed until market conditions stabilize.
The board did not take votes during the work session; the administration said policy approvals, budget transfers and the trash/recycling agreement will be presented for approval at the regular March meeting.
Ending: The district will post materials, continue negotiations where possible and present the final items for board action at the upcoming regular meeting.
