Wilson School Board Weighs $318K Phone System, $793K Buses

The Wilson School Board is asked Monday to spend $318,308.78 on a new phone system for every district building, open purchase orders of up to $793,461 for next year's buses and vans, and pay $74,252.74 for card-reader door controls at Southern Middle School. The same agenda carries an item it does not explain: "Communications - Redistricting Update, Dr. Chris Trickett," with no attachment and no description; Trickett is the district's superintendent, per the district's leadership page. The meeting is Monday, Nov. 16 at 7 p.m. in the Administration Building Board Room, 2601 Grandview Blvd., West Lawn, according to the district's BoardDocs page; the district's 2026-27 schedule lists the date, and the School Board page says meetings are broadcast live through Wilson Media Productions.

$318,309 to replace every phone in the district

Item 9.2 on the agenda asks approval "to contract with VOIP Networks to install a new district-wide phone system." The agenda says the project "will replace the district's current Mitel Connect phone system with Mitel's MiVoice Business phone system," that "Mitel Connect is currently reaching end of life," and that "the addition of the Lincoln Park building has accelerated the district's need." It adds: "As a current Mitel customer, the district is receiving loyalty discounts on the new phone system."

The agenda splits the cost across two budget years and five pots of money. For 2026-27 it lists $183,399.78: $142,419.49 from the "GF Equipment Committed Fund," $11,417.24 from the technology budget, $19,626.90 from the Southern construction fund and $9,936.15 from the Lincoln Park construction fund. For 2027-28 it lists $134,909.00: $110,733.71 from the equipment fund, $16,533.64 from Southern and $7,641.65 from Lincoln Park. Then: "Total Cost for purchase, installation, and 1st year support - $318,308.78," and "Years 2-5 Support and Software Assurance - $35,988.06 billed annually ($143,952.24 total) - Technology Operating Budget." The purchase runs through Sourcewell contract 120122-MBS, a national cooperative purchasing contract.

One line on the agenda reads oddly: "2026-2027 Fiscal Year - $183,399.78$142,419.49 - GF Equipment Committed Fund," with the year's total and the first fund line run together, and the 2027-28 line does the same. The four 2026-27 lines add to $183,399.78 and the three 2027-28 lines add to $134,909.00 by our arithmetic, so the figures reconcile; the formatting does not.

The attached quote, No. 102715, "Rev 4," is dated Nov. 13, 2026 and expires Dec. 13. It explains the split: the hardware, software and licenses for each building come to $183,399.78 by our sum of its subtotals, led by $101,523.97 for the high school system and $45,905.00 for the handsets and wall mounts, and a single "Provisioning, Programming, Installation, and Training charge" is $134,909.00. The phone count is 901 MiVoice 6907 desk phones at $20 each and 150 MiVoice 6920W phones, with "80 phones will be spares." The $134,909 line says in capitals that it "DOES NOT INCLUDE IP Phone Installation"; a separate "On-Site IP Phone Installation charge" of $49,047.00 is priced at a quantity of zero, so the district would install the handsets itself unless it buys that later. The quote prices most of its lines as "PROMO - Sourcewell"; the word "loyalty" does not appear in it.

The years 2-5 support is listed on the quote as "(OPTIONAL)" with the note "Price shown is optional & not included in the total price": four years of VoIP Networks "ProCare" maintenance at $22,180.00 a year plus four years of Mitel software assurance at $13,808.06 a year, which is the $35,988.06 a year and $143,952.24 the agenda describes. Counting it, the district's commitment would be $462,261.02 over five years by our arithmetic. The quote's payment terms are 100% of hardware and software "on or before December 29, 2026," 80% of installation on July 1, 2027, and the rest at cutover, "Estimated cut-over date is August 1, 2027." The companion Equipment Sales Agreement lists the cutover date as "TBD" and refers to the quote for payment terms.

$793,461 for buses and vans, ordered eight months early

Item 13.1 asks approval "of opening Purchase Orders for the 2027-2028 School Year to facilitate the procurement of school vehicles to be invoiced and delivered July 1, 2027 or later; utilizing 2027 Capital Reserve Funds, NTE $793,461." NTE means not to exceed. The agenda says ordering now "will enable us to hold down increasing vehicle costs and continue our bus replacement strategy," and that "the total fleet order includes one (1) 72-passenger buses, one (1) 30-passenger bus, and five (5) 9-passenger vans." No quote, bid or vendor is attached, and the agenda does not break the $793,461 down by vehicle.

The district's own Capital Reserve Fund report for October, on the same agenda under item 11.3, carries a "New Buses" line of $1,173,287.00 paid in October 2026; the report does not say which year's order that paid for. After that and $170,325.36 of other October spending, the fund ended the month at $13,536,628.99. The Treasurer's Report shows the same $1,343,612.36 in October capital reserve payments.

Item 13.2 asks to put out a request for bids for propane, listed under the transportation budget, for July 1, 2027 through June 30, 2030, "pending the solicitor's review of the RFB."

$74,253 in door access at Southern Middle School

Item 9.3 asks the board to hire TWG Security "to install door access control at Southern Middle School," at $74,252.74 from the Southern construction funds, under COSTARS contract 040-E22-146, the state's cooperative purchasing program. The agenda says the scope "includes several new doors as well as reinstalling door access on existing doors as they are replaced during the renovation project."

TWG's proposal, dated Nov. 6 and valid for 30 days, itemizes it: 16 Avigilon Alta door controllers, nine card readers and 11 request-to-exit sensors "serving 23 door openings across 12 door and vestibule locations," plus reinstallation of one controller, four readers and two sensors the district already owns. The money is $17,685.33 for equipment, $28,967.92 for installation at Pennsylvania prevailing wage, $599.49 for shipping and $27,000 for three packs of ten five-year cloud licenses. The proposal says $51,078.40 is due at signing and $23,174.34 at completion. One clause binds the district after the five years: the cloud license "will automatically renew at the end of the current term for a successive term equal in length to the current term," at TWG's pricing then in effect, unless the district gives written notice at least 30 days before the term ends. The same company sold the district $6,324.11 of cameras for the high school G wing on Nov. 2, per our Nov. 2 preview and the Nov. 2 minutes' item 9.4.

The redistricting update

Item 1.5, under "Opening of Meeting," is titled "Communications - Redistricting Update, Dr. Chris Trickett." Its type is "Information, Procedural." It has no attachment, no description and no vote. The agenda does not say what is being redistricted or what the update will cover; it gives no title for Trickett, whom the district's leadership page lists as superintendent. In a school district, redistricting usually means redrawing which neighborhoods feed which schools; Wilson is building a new elementary school, Lincoln Park, whose contractors' change orders are on the same agenda and whose building the phone item says has "accelerated" that purchase, and the Nov. 13 enrollment report still lists five elementary schools. Whether Monday's update concerns Lincoln Park's attendance area is not something any posted document says. No redistricting item appears on the Nov. 2 agenda or in the Nov. 2 minutes. Residents who want to hear it should be there for the start of the meeting; item 1.5 comes before the first public-comment slot, item 1.7.

A $13,000-a-year sponsor for the press box and student sections

Item 14.1 approves "a contract with Market Street Sports and Utilities Employees Credit Union for the sponsorship of the Gurski Stadium press box and the student sections at both Gurski Stadium and the High School Gym for $13,000/year for 3 years." The agenda says the district signed Market Street Sports as its "exclusive marketing agent" on Sept. 13, 2023 to sell naming and "sponsored by" rights, that "this is the second 3-year contract with Utilities Employees Credit Union," and that the deal "represents an increase in their sponsorship level."

The agreement runs Dec. 1, 2026 through Nov. 30, 2029, and the credit union's signature on it is dated Nov. 10. The district does not keep the whole $13,000. The attached financial breakdown takes out signage and program-ad costs ($1,750 in year one, $1,000 in each later year) and a 30% commission for Market Street Sports Group ($3,375, then $3,600 a year). Wilson's share is $7,875 in year one and $8,400 in each of years two and three, "3 YEAR TOTAL FOR WILSON $24,675.00," against $10,575 to the marketing firm. The sponsor's exhibit lists what it is buying into: "6,400+ Students in the Wilson School District" and "2,200 Students Attending Wilson High School."

Enrollment: 6,419 students

Item 16.1 states: "Enrollment as of November 13, 2026 is 6419." The attached report breaks that into 2,624 students in the five elementary schools (Shiloh Hills the largest at 577, Green Valley the smallest at 465), 756 each at Southern and West middle schools, 2,142 at the high school, 72 pre-kindergarten students at Berkshire Heights and 69 students placed out of district. The report's footnote says the count "may differ from figures submitted for official state reporting." The Nov. 2 minutes, which the board approves Monday, carry the Finance Committee's report that charter school enrollment is "above where we budgeted," a "$100k difference in the budget," as our updated recap reported.

$3.8 million in General Fund bills, $7.7 million in construction bills

Item 11.1 approves General Fund payments of $3,808,364.13, which the three attached lists split into $1,980,950.01 in electronic payments, $49,738.20 in checks and $1,777,675.92 in wires. The largest are $1,714,574.55 to the Berks County School District Health Trust, $663,680.78 to the U.S. Treasury, $611,232.88 to PSERS, the state school pension system, $206,465.03 to PNC Bank, wired Oct. 2, and $150,607.66 to the Berks Earned Income Tax Bureau. Unlike the Nov. 2 run, which carried $419,007.94 in charter school payments by our sum, none of the 122 lines on these three lists is to a charter school by our read.

The bigger money is in the building funds. The 2025D Construction Fund list totals $7,672,753.27 in payments dated Oct. 29, led by $3,589,483.53 to Lobar Inc., $2,355,790.21 to ECI Construction LLC, $665,523.00 to Midline Mechanical and $421,123.50 to McCarty & Son. The 2021C fund list is $775,757.18, of which $761,605.93 goes to CM3 Building Solutions, the contractor whose retainage the board cut to 5% on Nov. 2. The Capital Reserve list is $101,006.00: $77,106.00 to Sport Court of PA and $23,900.00 to R&F Excavating. The Food Service Fund list is $187,178.17.

Lincoln Park: two more change orders, and a running total

Two change orders for the new Lincoln Park Elementary School are up for approval. Item 10.2 is McCarty & Son's Change Order No. 2, $5,191.77, "for the flush valve rough in which was not in the original spec"; the form, dated Oct. 29, puts the electrical contract at $3,332,894.00 originally and $3,360,097.49 after this order. Item 10.3 is Lobar's Change Order No. 5, $12,749.91, "to complete wiring for access and security controls, for additional changes to the design of the system." Lobar's form, also dated Oct. 29, shows the general contract at $19,612,000.00 originally, $1,113,297.03 in net changes before this one, and $20,738,046.94 after it. That is a 5.7% increase on the general contract by our arithmetic. Both forms are signed by the architect, Crabtree, Rohrbaugh & Associates, and the contractor, with the owner's line blank pending Monday's vote.

Item 10.1 buys a kiln for Cornwall Terrace Elementary from The Kiln Guy for $6,265.43 plus $2,080.00 of electrical work by H.B. Frazer, $8,345.43 in all.

Personnel: a new FCS teacher from Exeter

• Item 4.5 hires Courtney Preston as a family and consumer sciences teacher at the high school at $88,059 (master's degree, step 15), listing her experience as "FCS Teacher, Exeter Township School District," effective "TBD." She fills the spot of Colleen Kingsbury, whose resignation in item 4.2 is effective Jan. 8, 2027, "(60 days from Nov 10)."
• Item 4.1 accepts the retirement of Christina Shaaber, a personal care assistant at the high school, effective Jan. 4, 2027. Item 4.2 also lists a crossing guard, a PreK Counts lead teacher at Berkshire Heights and a substitute media production manager.
• Item 7.1 renews Conrad Siegel to prepare and mail employees' Affordable Care Act 1095 forms for $7,900, which the agenda says is "unchanged from previous years." Items 7.2 and 7.3 update job descriptions and the support staff pay-range sheet.
• Item 9.1 renews Lincoln Intermediate Unit 12 as the district's E-rate consultant for funding year 2027, with fees "not to exceed $8,000.00"; the agenda says the fee has averaged $2,000 to $5,000 a year against reimbursements of "$50,000 to over $100,000 per year."
• Item 8.1 accepts a $1,000 Berks County Community Foundation grant for a "Back on Track" attendance program; item 8.2 renews an agreement with VOICEup Berks for 17 suicide-awareness training sessions at the high school, paid from a PCCD grant.

Policies, field trips and the rest

• Item 15.1 is the first reading, with no vote, of revised Policy 113.1, Discipline of Students with Disabilities. Item 15.2 is the final reading and adoption of Policy 530, Overtime/Compensatory Time Off, which the board gave a second reading on Nov. 2; our Nov. 2 preview described the draft's 40-hour cap on banked comp time.
• Item 2.1 approves the Nov. 2 minutes, which record the Marquez appointment with eight ayes, the 5-3 Renaissance vote and Guadalupe Kasper's abstention on the bills, matching the vote blocks we reported.
• Item 5.1 approves wrestling trips in December and January and a competition cheer trip to Orlando, Feb. 2-8, 2027, "pending that they qualify," at a cost of one substitute for four days.
• Item 6.1 accepts a "multi-purpose practice structure" at the varsity baseball field from the Baseball Booster Club, a T-shirt sponsorship from Vertex for a sensory room at Cornwall Terrace, and $275 from the Woman's Club of Spring Township.
• Item 14.2 opens student activity accounts for five new high school clubs, including a hiking club and flag football.
• Item 3.6 lists the board's outside appointments, and item 1.8 is an executive session announcement.

How to attend or comment

Public comment on agenda items is item 1.7, near the start; comment on anything else is item 17.1, near the end. The district's School Board page says meetings are broadcast live through Wilson Media Productions, with a link to the district's YouTube channel. The board's reorganization meeting is Monday, Dec. 7, per the 2026-27 schedule. Two other Berks boards vote the same night: Governor Mifflin on its Act 1 tax cap and Antietam on its cap and an electricity contract. The signed phone contract and the vehicle purchase orders, once they exist, are public records; our guide explains how to ask for them.