Reading School Board Rejects Travel Pause 5-4, Adds Guards

The Reading School District's Board of School Directors voted 5-4 on October 28 against adding a two-year moratorium on its own travel to the agenda, the same night the $95,000 travel-budget increase it had scheduled for a vote came off that agenda with no recorded discussion. The board then created ten school-safety positions, accepted the resignation of its acting chief financial officer effective November 30, and approved the TransPar transportation-management contract, Dr. April Rostek's five-year contract and more than $26.5 million in bills, every one of them 9-0, according to the minutes the district posted this week.

This is the Reading School District, the public school system, not the City of Reading government. All nine directors were present, Patricia Wright by phone, and the meeting ran from 7:01 to 9:51 p.m. (minutes, pp. 1, 66).

The travel pause fails, and the $95,000 vote never happens

A moratorium is a temporary halt. Item 1.8 records a motion by Emilia Portes, seconded by Melissa Eggert, "to make a change to the changes to the agenda to add a two-year moratorium to School Board travel." The roll call (minutes, p. 2): Robin Costenbader-Jacobson, Eggert, Portes and Yajaira Stone voted yes; President Noahleen Betts, Paige Brookins, Shaykayarira DelRio-Gonzalez, Jonathan Tinoco and Wright voted no. The minutes record "5 No, 4 Yes, Motion failed." Spotlight PA reported on October 30 that five of the nine members opposed adding the proposal; the minutes now supply the full roll call.

The board next approved the changes to the agenda, 9-0, on a motion by Brookins seconded by Stone. The list reads "1.8 - Revised changes 4.1 - Revised motion 6.6 - Item removed from the agenda 13.1 - New motion with attachment Section 13 - 13.13 Changes in Bold" (minutes, p. 2). Item 6.6, as our preview described, would have moved unencumbered funds to raise the board's 2026-27 travel budget to $95,000, from the $12,733.88 budgeted, and written $95,000 into the 2027-28 budget. Where the motion once sat, the minutes say only "This item has been removed from the agenda" (p. 6). They record no reason. Spotlight PA, which first reported that members ran up more than $93,000 in conference costs over two school years, reported that the item was pulled hours before the meeting without public discussion.

Ten people signed up to speak. The minutes list names and topics only, not what was said (p. 3): Joelia Welmaker and Denise Perez on "Traveling budget concerns," Jake Scheidt on a "Recent article," Sarah Torres on "Violence in schools," Pam Gockley on bullying, Carmen Estevez on "Discipline concerns at CMS," Maria Talavera on special education, Radarra McLendon on getting "No response" to a proposed Neighborhood Auntie program, Grace Adhomis, listed as "Speech," and Brian Benkert, listed only as "REA."

Staff travel drew no such fight. The same night the board approved, 9-0 each, five people including Rostek and Ken Chase, whom TransPar's agreement names as its general manager, attending the PASBO conference March 9-12, 2027, at $2,195 plus reimbursable expenses (pp. 5-6); and six staff at a PLC at Work Summit in Phoenix February 22-25, 2027, for up to $24,008.64 in state funds (p. 18).

Ten safety positions, two guards gone

Item 13.11, the position-control motion, passed 9-0 (minutes, pp. 63-64). It creates seven 10-month and one 12-month School Security Guard positions in the SPFPA unit, the Security, Police and Fire Professionals of America, the union label the minutes attach to the guards, plus two 12-month Lead Safe School Officer positions in the unit the minutes label RSSSA. The same motion creates a district-wide floater position, eliminates two Life Skills Support classroom assistants at Northeast Middle School and five one-on-one paraprofessionals, and adds two learning-support classroom assistants at the Reading High School Innovation Academy and five autistic-support one-on-one paraprofessionals at 10th and Green, 13th and Green, 13th and Union, Riverside and Lauer's Park elementary schools. The minutes state no cost and no reason for the new safety jobs.

The same personnel agenda accepted resignations from two school security guards, Candace Reyes at Northeast Middle School, effective October 6, and Juan Villar at the Reading Innovation Academy, effective October 9 (pp. 54-55). The minutes also ratify Reyes's hiring at Northeast at $22.00 an hour effective that same October 6 (p. 57).

The acting CFO leaves at the end of the month

Item 13.3 accepted 18 resignations, 9-0. The fifth on the list is Stephanie Hackash, Acting Chief Financial Officer/Assistant Business Manager, Administration Building, "effective at the end of the day November 30, 2026" (minutes, p. 54). In his committee report on the Berks County Intermediate Unit, the regional agency that serves the county's school districts, Tinoco offered "Congratulations to Mrs. Hackash who will be joining the BCIU team" (p. 65). The minutes name no replacement.

TransPar, Rostek, and the revised September minutes

Item 7.3 approved the agreement with TransPar Group "for transportation management services through June 30, 2030, at the rates set forth in the attached," 9-0 on a motion by Stone seconded by DelRio-Gonzalez (minutes, p. 7). The attached agreement runs July 1, 2027, through June 30, 2030, and sets the Base Year One management rate at $694,544.51 a year, or $57,878.71 a month, which "includes all operating expenses"; from July 1, 2028, the monthly rate rises each year by 3.0 percent or the Consumer Price Index, "whichever is greater." Our October 21 preview walks through what the firm would run.

Item 13.1, the contract for Dr. April Rostek as Assistant Superintendent of Operations "per attached," passed 9-0 on a motion by Costenbader-Jacobson seconded by Tinoco (pp. 53-54). The attached agreement runs September 23, 2026, through September 22, 2031, at a base salary of $185,000. When the board appointed her on September 23, the vote was 5-3 with Betts, Brookins and Tinoco opposed; this time all nine voted yes.

Item 4.1 approved the revised September 23 minutes, 9-0 (p. 3). Our preview listed what the revision dropped from the version first posted, including the "There were no public comments" line. The October 28 minutes say nothing about why.

Also 9-0: the Nymbol IT Solutions agreement through June 30, 2032 (7.2); a PSBA compensation study at up to $8,200 (7.1); the first reading of Policy 204.1 on virtual-instruction wellness checks (7.4); and the Solar4Schools resolution for Glenside Elementary (7.5), the $917,000 request our October 21 preview examined (pp. 6-8).

The money

The board ratified September bills of $21,440,615.47, nearly all General Fund (minutes, p. 4), and approved October construction payments of $5,079,576.85 (p. 5).

Facilities awards, all 9-0 (pp. 45-53): a $252,713 playground and play surface at 13th and Union Elementary from Recreation Resource USA; a $166,428 building-automation maintenance renewal with CM3 Building Solutions; three Landis Bonfitto Mechanical Group items, $86,810 for a year of chiller and cooling-tower maintenance at seven schools, $38,944.96 for water-treatment equipment and $24,500 for temporary steam-boiler hookups at Thomas Ford Elementary; a Kautter & Kelley Architects predesign assessment of Thomas Ford at up to $72,065; $65,950 to R. Smith Paving to repave the rear driveway at 13th and Green Elementary; and $46,625 to Unified Door and Hardware for 318 key cores at the Innovation Academy. Five change orders were credits totaling $22,826.77 by our arithmetic.

Two special-education settlements passed 9-0 (pp. 44-45). One sets up an $18,000 "Compensatory Education Fund" for a student and pays the parent's attorney $13,000. The other funds tuition and related services at the Pathway School for 2026-27 and 2027-28, plus $8,000 in attorney's fees; a separate item lists Pathway's annual tuition at $79,000 (p. 43). In both, the family waives all past claims against the district.

Other approvals: $315,938 of weight-room equipment from Webster Fitness (9.1); a three-year Gage Personnel student-employment agreement at up to $258,000 (8.2); and raising the Northstar Education Advisors consulting contract from $610,000 to $716,000 in state funds, with a new end date of August 31, 2027 (8.32) (pp. 9, 24, 34).

The personnel agenda also fills a set of new or newly vacated supervisory jobs (pp. 55-60): Anastasia Suski moves from Dean of Students to a new Assistant Principal post at Central Middle School at $111,178.31, and Shannen DeLaurentis takes the dean's job at $90,001.49; Barry Suski moves from HVAC mechanic to Assistant Director of Facilities at $97,291.91; and Rosalinda Giannotti moves from accounts-payable clerk to a new Accounts Payable Manager post at $84,602.09. Four more newly created posts, in human resources, benefits, food-service logistics and a Reading High freshman-success job, pay $58,908 to $72,704.92. All are listed as prorated. That motion, 13.8, is printed twice in the minutes with different seconders, each time 9-0 (pp. 59-60).

For how school spending reaches tax bills, see our guide to Berks County property tax explained.

What comes next

The next meeting is Wednesday, November 18, at 6 p.m. in the Administration Building Boardroom, 800 Washington Street, Reading (minutes, p. 66). The district streams its meetings at @RedKnightTV, per its Keystone page. The travel budget the board pulled on October 28 is not on any posted agenda; we will report it if it returns.