Wilson Board Weighs $144K Principal Hire, $119K Network

The Wilson School Board is asked Monday to hire a new high school principal at $144,341 a year, replace the switches at the core of the district's computer network, and release part of the money it has been holding back from the contractor on a $13.4 million heating, cooling and music-wing project. The meeting is Monday, Nov. 2 at 7 p.m. in the Administration Building Board Room, 2601 Grandview Blvd., West Lawn, according to the district's BoardDocs page, which says the board meets there on the first and third Mondays unless otherwise noted. The district's homepage calendar lists the meeting for 7 p.m. The Nov. 2 agenda posted Saturday.

A new high school principal

Item 7.1, a roll-call vote, is a "Request to approve Mr. Ramon Marquez as Principal at the High School, Act 93 Range I A (Certificated), $144,341, effective November 23, 2026." Act 93 is the state law under which school boards set pay and benefit plans for their administrators. The agenda says nothing else about Marquez: no background, no current job.

It also says nothing about the current principal. Wilson High School's own principal page still lists Daniel Weber as High School Principal, with a biography and a district phone extension. His name does not appear anywhere on Monday's agenda. The retirement item (4.1) lists only Victoria Taylor, a high school English teacher leaving at the end of this school year after 31.5 years; the resignations item (4.2) lists a food service worker, a van driver, a summer technology technician and a swim instructor; the change-of-status list, a one-page sheet posted under the agenda's call-to-order item rather than under personnel, has five support-staff moves. Whether Weber is leaving, moving to another post, or something else is an open question the agenda does not answer. We have no information beyond the two documents.

Governor Mifflin's board votes the same night on a $123,000 elementary principal under its own Act 93 plan.

$119,052 for the network core, with 60% expected back

Item 9.1 asks approval "to purchase network switches to replace the district's network core." The equipment list is four Aruba 8360 switches, one Aruba 5420 switch, "associated line cards and cabling" and a 16-hour support block for configuration and installation. The agenda says "Total cost pre-erate is $119,051.96. All equipment is eligible for 60% reimbursement through Erate. Reimbursement will be submitted once purchase is invoiced." E-rate is the federal program that reimburses schools and libraries for part of the cost of internet service and network equipment. If the full 60% comes through, the district's share would be about $47,621 by our arithmetic; the agenda calls the equipment eligible, not approved. The purchase is through PEPPM-PA contract #548362, a cooperative purchasing contract for technology that Pennsylvania school districts can buy through, and the money comes from the Capital Reserve fund. The agenda notes the attached quote and spreadsheets "include additional equipment for other district locations and unanticipated needs to be approved by the board for purchase at a later date," and that only "the rows marked in yellow" are up for a vote now.

Three smaller technology items outfit the renovated G wing at the high school, all charged to the Construction Bond:

• Item 9.2: seven Aruba wireless access points, model R7J28A, at $3,803.45 before E-rate, also "eligible for 60% reimbursement," under the same PEPPM contract.
• Item 9.3: seven Newline interactive displays and accessories at $21,925.60 under COSTARS contract 034-E22-160, the state's cooperative purchasing program. The quote, dated Oct. 22, prices seven 86-inch displays at $2,355 each, seven Google Chromeboxes at $665 each, seven Chrome OS management licenses, wall mounts at no charge, seven wireless keyboards and one $360 mobile stand, which the agenda describes as "a rolling stand for the black box theater."
• Item 9.4: a TWG Security contract for three 360-degree fisheye cameras at $6,324.11, "with 5 years of Alta Aware cloud licensing and a 10 year hardware warranty."

The HVAC and music-wing job: 93% done, $1.3 million due

Item 10.6 asks the board to cut retainage on "the High School G Wing Construction Project" from 10% to 5% for CM3 Inc. Retainage is the slice of each payment an owner holds back until a construction job is finished, as insurance that the contractor completes the work and fixes defects. CM3's Oct. 29 letter, signed by senior project manager Bob Tobin, makes the request "per section 5.7 of the Performance Contract Agreement." The agenda does not describe that agreement, and it is not on Monday's list.

The attached payment application tells residents more about the project than the agenda does. It is CM3 Building Solutions' Application No. 8, on the standard AIA G702 form, for the period ending Oct. 31, 2026. It names the project "Wilson HVAC and Music wing," with a contract date of March 27, 2026, and an original contract sum of $13,404,786.00. Net change orders to date are $0.00. Work completed and stored is $12,489,704.35, which the form rounds to 93% complete. The application already calculates retainage at 5%, or $624,485.21, which is the rate the board is being asked to approve. Current payment due is $1,321,868.41, and the balance to finish, including retainage, is $1,539,566.86. The continuation sheet shows the money is spread well beyond the G wing: it has sections for Spring Ridge, Shiloh Hills and Whitfield elementary schools, "District Wide" work, "High School G, B, F-Wing Mech," "HS G-Wing General Contracting" and a high school general contract. Among the G-wing lines, mechanical, plumbing and fire-alarm materials are listed at 100% complete, while high school IT labor is at 20%.

Other operations items Monday, all roll-call votes:

• Item 10.1: lab stools from C&S Supply Company for the Southern Middle School construction project, $15,360.
• Item 10.2: a high school boiler-room exhaust system and safety ladder by CM3 "as part of the PAC Construction," $26,862. The agenda does not spell out PAC.
• Item 10.3: a retainage reduction to 5% for Myco Mechanical on the Southern Middle School project. The board approved the same cut for McCarty & Sons on that project on Oct. 19, per the minutes attached to item 2.1.
• Item 10.4: ratifying asphalt work at Gurski Stadium by Sloan Paving, $5,985, meaning the work was done or ordered before the vote.
• Item 10.5: a roof hatch "at the lower house" by Ream Roofing, $6,100.

For how a district-wide energy-and-mechanical contract can work, see Kutztown's $5.23 million HVAC deal, approved in September under the state's Guaranteed Energy Savings Act. Wilson's agenda does not say whether CM3's "Performance Contract Agreement" follows that law. Residents who want the contract itself can ask for it under the Right-to-Know Law; our guide explains how.

$3.9 million in bills, including $419,008 to charter schools

Item 11.1 approves General Fund bills of $3,935,442.46. The three attached lists break that down as $2,916,934.09 in electronic (ACH) payments, $266,290.90 in checks and $752,217.47 in wires. The largest single payment is $1,710,651.43 to the Berks County School District Health Trust, dated Oct. 22. The four wires are $635,277.97 to the U.S. Treasury, $82,913.21 to the Pennsylvania Department of Revenue, $33,657.15 to Voya Financial and $369.14 to PA SCDU, the state's child-support collection unit.

Ten payments on the lists go to charter and cyber charter schools, which districts must pay for each resident student who enrolls: Commonwealth Charter Academy $183,271.94, Reach Cyber Charter School $57,360.59, PA Cyber Charter School $52,892.08, Agora Cyber Charter School $46,170.43, PA Leadership Charter School $40,984.43, Insight PA Cyber Charter School $9,931.42, PA Virtual Charter School $8,672.68, Achievement House Cyber Charter School $7,552.41, PA Distance Learning Charter School $7,275.48 and Pennwood Cyber Charter School $4,896.48. By our sum that is $419,007.94 in this one bill run. Other large lines are $127,563.39 to Sunburst Workforce Advisors and $100,748.74 to the Berks Career & Technology Center.

Item 11.2 asks the board to let the chief financial officer "sign an electricity supplier contract for the District beyond June 2026 upon secured pricing as provided by Provident Energy, as part of a joint purchasing group of Berks County School Districts." The agenda says "Final pricing will be secured Nov. 3rd and contracts must be signed by Nov. 4th/5th," which is why the board is being asked to approve a contract whose price it has not seen. No dollar amount, rate or contract length appears on the agenda.

$50,437 for reading and math screeners

Item 12.1 approves an agreement with Renaissance for "continuum of learning universal screener tools" from Dec. 1, 2026 through June 30, 2027 at $50,437.50, paid from the Ready to Learn Block Grant, a state grant for academic programs. A universal screener is a short test given to every student a few times a year to flag who needs extra help. The attached quote, dated Sept. 22, lists eight accounts, seven school buildings plus the district, and prices "Star Comprehensive Suite with SAEBRS" at $10.10 per student: 851 students each at Cornwall Terrace, Green Valley and Shiloh Hills, 752 at Spring Ridge, 745 at Whitfield, and 100 each at Southern and West middle schools, or 4,250 student licenses by our count. Each school also pays a $437.50 platform fee, and the district pays $1,750 for data integration and $2,700 for six one-hour remote training sessions. Renaissance plans to invoice on Dec. 1.

POW/MIA flags at every school

Item 13.2, a roll-call vote, is the "Third Reading and Adoption" of two revised policies. Policy 807, Opening Exercises/Flag Displays, would add the sentence: "A Prisoner of War/Missing in Action (POW/MIA) flag shall be displayed on or near each school building during school hours, in clement weather and at other times determined by the Board." In the Oct. 5 first-reading draft, that sentence and a new paragraph directing an annual moment of silence on the anniversary of Sept. 11, 2001, are printed in bold while the rest of the policy is not; the final-reading copy attached Monday prints the whole policy in plain type. The flags are already on their way: item 6.1 on Monday's consent list accepts "a donation of 17 POW/MIA flags for display on district flagpoles" from Vietnam Veterans of America, Berks Chapter 131. Governor Mifflin's board gives a first reading to the identical sentence Monday night, with a district summary tying it to a pending state Senate bill and to the same veterans' chapter.

The second policy up for adoption is Policy 810, Transportation. As presented, it assigns each student one bus stop, at the primary home address in the student information system, bars different morning and afternoon stops, and allows multiple bus assignments only when both parents live in the district and file custody papers with the transportation office. It also writes the state's five-minute idling limit for heavy diesel vehicles into district policy. Monday's copy does not mark what changed; the Oct. 5 first-reading draft put only one clause in bold, the one tying each student's stop to the primary address in the student information system.

Item 13.1 is a second reading, with no vote, of Policy 530, Overtime/Compensatory Time Off, for support staff. The draft caps banked comp time at 40 hours, requires it to be used within the fiscal year it is earned, and pays out any leftover at the rate in effect when it was earned. The Oct. 19 minutes record the human resources committee saying the policy was "revised to comply with new law."

Personnel, field trips and the rest

• Item 4.5 hires Abigail Lilley, a Kutztown University graduate who student-taught at Wilson, as an autistic-support special education teacher at Green Valley Elementary at $60,325, effective Dec. 14.
• Item 4.6 adds three substitute teachers at $175 a day. Item 4.7 approves elementary musical staff at the $11.27-an-hour intramural rate and Reading Olympics coaches at a $310 stipend.
• Item 4.4's attachments list a crossing guard at $17.33 an hour, a van driver at $14.97, a West Middle School building technology assistant at $15.64 and a second-shift custodian at Spring Ridge at $17.17, plus special education mentor stipends of $750 to $950.
• Item 8.1 renews a contract with AnthroMed Education for school psychologists, "up to 40 hours per week, with monthly invoicing," pending solicitor review. No rate is listed.
• Item 8.2 renews an agreement with the Antietam School District. The item's title says Antietam will provide special education services to students attending Wilson; its description says the reverse, calling it "a revenue agreement for the Wilson SD to provide special education services for Antietam School District." No amount is listed.
• Item 5.1 approves field trips: 100 Southern and 100 West middle school chorus students each to see "The Outsiders: A New Musical" in New York at $200 a student; 240 Southern seventh graders on April 15 and 230 West seventh graders on May 21 to the Holocaust Museum in Washington at about $30 each; 25 ski club members to Vermont at about $875; and five music students to Erie at about $450.
• Item 2.1 approves the Oct. 19 minutes, which show every motion carried, with eight of nine members present and Guadalupe Kasper abstaining on the bills.

How to attend or comment

The agenda has two public-comment slots: item 1.6, "Public Participation - Agenda Items," near the start of the meeting, and item 14.1, "Public Participation - Non-Agenda Items," near the end. The district's School Board page says meetings are broadcast live through Wilson Media Productions. The board's next regular meeting is Monday, Nov. 16 at 7 p.m., per the district calendar.