001Welcome to the Wattsburg Area School District. We are student centered and future focused for a world-class education. I will now call to order the Wattsburg Area School District board of directors work session for Monday, August 11th. Would you please stand for the pledge of allegiance? >> I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for which it stands, one nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. May I have a roll call, please? >> Mr. Blazer, >> present. >> Mr. Bumagan, >> present. >> Mrs. Burlingham, >> here. >> Mrs. Heatherington >> here. >> Mrs. Lee. >> Mr. Morve, >> here. >> Dr. Pushchack >> here. >> Mr. Williams >> here. >> Mr. Young, >> present. >> School reports. Dr. Berlin, will we have a school report
002for the regular meeting? >> Yeah, the the principles will be here and they will introduce uh several new staff members and and I want to emphasize the word several. uh a lot of what we put in place uh with adjusting compensation and things um we've seen just an an immediate response and the quality of candidates uh and also um the retention uh we that we haven't seen over the past few summers. Um so the good work from the board there. Um so that will be the school reports next week. >> Excellent. Thank you Dr. Berlin. Uh it's now time for guest and citizen comments. Do we have anyone signed up to speak this evening? We do not. >> Thank you. >> For superintendent report, Dr. Baloon, we have one for next week. >> Uh yes.
003>> All right. I I'm going to I'll share with the board next week uh uh the replacement for our platform solution rather to to share our emergency operations plans with first responders. Uh we're using Microsoft 365 an app in there. Um and I'll give you the board just a just a broad overview. I don't want to get into the details of the plan. Um, but it looks like it's going to be very transparent for first responders to to see our plan, access that when they need to. And then just for tonight, if you've been following the budget woes of Pennsylvania, we're six weeks out uh of having a complete passed budget and it doesn't appear that there's uh reconciliation is is anywhere near. Um they're into a they're off into a rabbit hole right now
004arguing about transit funding. Um I guess that is a a a rather large item as you as you can imagine in in Philadelphia area. Uh and a pressure point there is is transportation of school children. So there's there's that's that's the current um front and center argument. But in the the overall picture is Pennsylvania's budget is is has a pretty severe structural deficit. So that has yet to be contended with. Um so that's just a little bit about the budget. And then uh if you didn't hear, I I want to congratulate uh Dr. Williams on successfully defending uh his dissertation. So great job Dr. Williams. [Applause] And then finally, uh, Meet the Bobcats is all set to go for Friday, a August 22nd, and that'll start officially at 5. Food trucks will be here around
0053. Um, and the boosters have really helped contribute and trying to beef that event up. Uh it looks like it should be a nice evening before the game and all of the fall athletics. Uh they're going to get recognized. You get to meet the Bobcats. Uh and they're also including uh the younger students from the the youth cheer and little gritters football. I'm trying to get those uh uh get those students interested and give them a little bit of exposure. That's all I have for this evening. >> Excellent. Thank you, Dr. Berlin. It's now time for the business administrator's report. Will you be pinching this evening, Mr. Angler? >> I will not. I'll save that for uh Vicky Bendig next week. >> So, uh the usual uh fund balances from the business administrator uh are
006given. At the top, you can see where the general fund is. Um, and the July, of course, we didn't have a July meeting, but we we did have some necessary bills uh to pay there, and those will show up later. Um, capital projects, a total of $17.22. Um, that actually is where we want that. uh it it it helps keep track of project status and we know that what we've allocated uh has been has been spent appropriately and the pro projects are complete. Uh the cafeteria balances as it kind of mirror what the June report uh shows and there's no activity in July and then the student activities balance you can see June and July there as well. So, this kind of goes back to the budget um battle and Harrisburg that I mentioned a
007minute ago. We're in good shape right now to make payroll without the basic ed subsidy. And it we actually should be okay for the first few months of school um because this is the time of the year when when uh the property taxes are collected. It's that second half of the year where uh we rely on the basic ed funding uh to to to make payroll in particular. Um so we'll keep a close eye on that. We have had to go down the road of a tax anticipatory note before. Um we've actually made the arrangements. We we got very close during um one of uh Governor Wolf's uh first budgets. There was an extended standoff there and we didn't actually have to borrow the money, but we could have if we needed to, but they
008settled that at the 11th hour. Uh and then bills uh are listed there. Um we don't have the totals yet as usual. Uh but uh in between now and and uh next week, just if you have a question of a particular bill, don't hesitate to contact me or Vicki and we'll address that for you. >> All right. Thank you. And is Vicki anticipated to be back for next week then? >> She will join us. She'll be back. She's on vacation this week. >> Excellent. Thank you very much. All right. Now under legal advisement for this evening, I have one to be added for next week. Uh this is for the approval of the 2025 and 2026 district emergency operations or all hazards plan. Um are there any questions from anyone on this one? >> Mr.
009President, I have a question. >> Yes, sir. I'm not sure if this is the proper location for it, but I wondered is there any sort of um uh plan uh for any sort of cyber security attacks? Is that in this or is that somewhere else? And then the other side of that coin is do we carry any sort of cyber insurance that would protect us in the case of a cyber attack? Uh so this plan does is not where SEC technology security is addressed. There's a we have a we have a separate technology operating guidelines uh manual that was board approved um and Matt has maintained and updated that. Uh it's it is a constant battle. He's he's he's very vigilant. Um attends workshops frequently to keep us ahead of uh the bar, but I
010it just is a neverending escalating uh battle to keep your data secure. With regards to insurance, um we do have uh a certain amount of insurance through CM Regent, who's our our general insurance carrier. Um and I know that Mrs. Bendig has looked at that before um and felt that our our current coverage uh it is adequate uh especially given our offsite backups. Um but I I know we look at that every year because that that's just part of the renewing of that insurance um coverage and uh so that's something that's evaluated annually. No, >> I appreciate that. just as reading through that, you know, it obviously talks about very much physical facilities and very much physical. Um, it just spurred that thought, you know, when we're talking about any sort of other outside danger.
011That's what reminded me and I just I don't I'm sorry I didn't remember that we had that >> other cyber security >> action plan I guess. >> Yeah, it's a sign it's a significant challenge. Um and it every day >> if eerie insurance can get it so can we. >> So I just was thinking of along those lines. >> Oh yeah, absolutely. >> So thank you for the update and I appreciate the uh diligence of the staff and the administration to do that. Thank you. >> Any other questions on that one? Hearing none, that'll move over to the agenda for next week. Uh we now turn to Dr. Andy Pushchack for finance. >> Thank you, Mr. President. After a large list in June, I'm glad to see one item under finance, and that's our annual
012reauthorization um for the district to utilize all procurement programs, including materials and services under PA Department of General Services for the upcoming school year. So, uh I'd like to add that to next week's agenda for the board's consideration. >> All right. Are there any questions on that one? Hearing none, that will move over to the agenda for next week. Thank you very much, Dr. >> That's all I have. Thank you, Mr. President. >> Thank you, sir. Uh, we'll now turn to buildings and grounds, Mr. Jeremy Blazer. >> I have nothing at this time. >> All right. Thank you, Mr. Blazer. And now for personnel. We will also turn to Mr. Blazer filling in for Mrs. Lee this evening. >> Unlike Dr. Pushchek, there's a long list for Mrs. Lee next week. We'll start with A,
013which is our list of resignations listed below. Uh, B is the appointments listed below. Um, most have names filled in. I assume we're hoping to have the last blanks filled in for next week. Uh C is leave requests as listed below. Uh D is tuition reimbursements as listed in the attachment. Uh E is conference requests as listed below. Uh F is the school nursing services with Bayetta home healthcare as listed in the attachment. And G is our ESS substitute list additions. H is our service substitute list. And I'll be glad to see Mrs. Lee next week. >> Thank you, Mr. Blazer. Are there any questions on how many of these are there? >> Yeah, each these seven items on the long-term substitute side here. were in process or beginning of process on most or all
014of these? >> We we're in process on those and um but one of those was created by an internal bid. So, okay, that's >> you know one one person when one person bids like that then we end up with another. Um >> so those are in process. We're hoping to have names uh for Monday before the first day of school for sure. So we we may ask the the board if they would consider retroactively approving um a recommended candidate in September. >> Excellent. All right. Thank you for the clarification. Are there any others? Hearing none, those will move over to the agenda for next week. Thank you, Mr. Blazer. >> Thank you, Mr. President. >> Uh we'll now turn to Mrs. Britney Berlingham for policy. >> Thank you, Mr. President. I will only have one
015item underneath policy as of now for next week, which is to approve the second reading and review of the policies as outlined and attached below. >> All right. Are there any questions on those policies as listed? >> Hearing none, they will move over to the agenda for next week. Thank you, Mrs. Berlingham. >> We will now turn to Mr. Steven Warbe for curriculum. >> Mr. President, uh next week we will have uh five items on the current agenda under curriculum. The first one is uh item A, the schoolwide title one school plan uh as per the attachment. The motion will be to uh approve that. Second item would be item B which would be to approve the third party contractor and interd district agreements for title one services u per the attachments for the IU5
016as well as with Fort Lab School District. Uh the third item is uh the Ukaroo training agreement uh to approve that agreement uh between Grafton School and Watsburg Area School District per the attachment. Um item D, community county day school educational services agreement between the school district uh Watsburg area school district and the community county day school per that attachment as well. And then the last one is the Gertude Barber Center one-on-one aid service agreement um per that attachment between the Watsburg school district and the Barber Center. Those will be the five items that will be on the agenda of Mr. President next week. >> Thank you. Are there any questions on any of these five items? >> Mr. Mr. President, I just had one question regarding the uh under the B the third party
017corporate contractor. I was trying to understand the connection between Fort Labuff School District, Title One Services, Erie First Christian, and Watsburg Area School District. I'm trying to understand that circle, how that all goes down. >> Yes. So, uh, when we have students that qualify for title one services that go to private schools, um, they contract with the IU or Erie City or, uh, Fort Le school district to provide those services. And so based upon our aotment from the title one funds, we get a per pupil amount. >> Okay. Um, and so then if if we've got say two students who qualify for title services that are attending a school whose services are provided by the Fort Lebuff School District, we sign an agreement between us and Fort Lebuff saying that we agree to pay that
018per pupil aotment to Fort Lebuff for the services that they provide. >> But they're a Wattsburg school district student, >> right? They they reside in our district, right? They reside in our district, attend a private school, you know, >> hence the eerie first Christian. It it can it >> okay for yeah that's where the okay I'm trying to understand yeah I was just trying to understand how that flowchart worked >> correct and so like for example the IU provides services for several of the Catholic dascese schools sure >> um and so if they attend those schools then that aotment for goes to the IU >> thank you Mr. clarification. >> Any others? Hearing? None. Those five items will move over to the agenda for next week. Thank you, Mr. Morve. >> Thank you, Mr. President.
019>> Uh we will now recognize Mr. Jesse Williams for technology. >> Uh Mr. President, we only have one thing on the agenda for next week, and that is to approve the equipment lease schedule between Leaf Capital and Wattsburg for a three-year lease of 630 laptops as attached. >> Are there any questions on that item? Is that something we do? That's something we do every year, right? Like it's just it's somebody else's turn this year. >> It's not quite perfect thirds, but yeah, they're divided up into three three groups. So, every year we're replacing not quite >> Is it like one of the schools like elementary school, middle school, high school? >> It's more grade level right now. There's there's some there and that had to do it it started out to be more school-based, but
020then uh some of the COVID uh monies that we we received we used um to buy uh computers at certain levels that it was eligible for. So that's right now that's what has the lease cycle um not being perfectly divided. Um although I mean financially it it's it's um fairly even. >> Any other questions on that one? Hearing none. That will move over for our agenda for next week. Thank you, Mr. Williams. Uh the chair will now recognize Mr. Greg Braum for transportation. >> Thank you, Mr. President. Next week I'll have three items for the board's consideration. Transportation, A, the transportation requests as attached. Uh B, the bus routes that are not quite attached yet. So those are forthcoming, I I assume. And bus drivers uh to approve the Durham bus drivers as attached. >>
021Are there any questions on either of these three? >> Uh I would just want to ask about bus drivers. It listed a nice long list, but does that mean we have met our bus driver need? I know that's been a issue uh last year. Do we have excess bus drivers? Uh didn't we increase or we were attempting to increase? Did that help? >> Yeah. So, uh the board raised um in the spring the hourly rate. uh and it didn't help us in the immediately there because of the the training runway but um Durham did do a couple job fairs end of May beginning of June and uh trained I believe 14 drivers they put through. Uh so that should give us a total of about drivers and we need 25 to run uh our regular
022routes. So that does leave us with standby drivers. Um now some of those standby drivers not might not be available 5 days a week. Uh but but we have a lot more capacity at at the moment. Assuming everyone um stays on board with us starting this school year. We we should be able to run our our regular routes, get the times down for the students and have some capacity, some redundancy for when we have call offs. Um, but it's been it's been a challenge. And I I will say Durham's been um very helpful in in uh in with the bonuses and and and using their um uh recruitment department. U you know, they've brought in a lot of a lot of names and I know that the bus interviewed a lot of people. Uh it's
023quite a commitment and they brought extra trainers in here so we could actually get those folks certified because it takes takes takes almost eight weeks. Uh so you have a a pretty tight window to hit the first day of school. Uh so at the moment feeling a lot better about transportation than at the end of last year. And I mean, for me, the the ride time, you know, the kids suffer because when we have to combine bruns, they're on on the bus uh for 50 minutes and or more. And um the lower we can get that, of course, the better for everyone. Um they have more time uh to do what they like to do after school, which I'm sure is very important to them. >> Homework. Yes, absolutely. Homework. >> Always homework. It's the
024first thing they want to do when they walk in the door. Are there any other questions on those three items? Hearing none, they will move over to the agenda for next week. Thank you, Mr. Bumagen. The chair will now recognize Miss Leah Heatherington for athletic and extracurricular. >> Thank you, Mr. President. I will have one, two, three, three um items on the agenda for next week. Uh, first one, A, athletic resignations as listed on the agenda. B, athletic appointments as listed on the agenda, and C, extracurricular appointments with a nice, healthy list on the agenda. That is all I will have. >> Thank you, Miss Heatherington. Are there any question on these three items? >> Is there an eighth grade basketball coach? Pardon a little louder. >> Is there an eighth grade basketball coach? >>
025Not according to >> I I don't know the answer to that. >> He's resigning. >> Was he the head of the eighth grade or was he an assistant? >> I think he has to hire for himself. Right though, right? >> Right. >> Yeah. >> Because their season started already. >> A fall sport. I I will check on that. Um we we we may have a coach, but we're waiting for the posting to clear so that it can be awarded. I'll check on that. >> Thank you. Any others? >> Hearing none, those will move over to the agenda for next week. Uh under miscellaneous this evening, we have a couple of items. Uh first is uh to address surplus items. Uh to declare the attached items a surplus. You'll see uh wait room surplus list and
026a football equipment surplus list and also a resolution regarding special education records retention and destruction. Uh this is going to be a motion to approve the resolution regarding the retention and destruction of special education gifted education and chapter 15 and section 504 records as attached. Are there any questions on these two items? Hearing none, those will move over to the agenda for next week. Uh Mr. Morv, will we have an Erie County Technical School joint operating committee report for next week? >> President, we will actually have an August report for the board. Uh our board member or our board meeting is actually this Thursday. So, next meeting we will have a current joint operating committee report. It'll be hot off the press. >> Yes, that is true. >> Excellent. Thank you, Mr. Mor. >> Thank
027you, Mr. President. >> Uh Dr. Pushjack, will we have a Northwest Tri County Intermediate Unit report for next week? >> Yes, we will, Mr. President. >> Thank you, Dr. Pushjack. Uh it's now time for board correspondence and dialogue. Does anyone have anything for the good of the order this evening? >> Mr. President. So, one of the things that So, excuse me, because I I know that we're supposed to stay at 20,000 ft. So, I'm just going to dip down to 18,000 ft real quick and then pull back up. >> Try to keep it at 1800. >> I will try to keep it high. But, um, I think one of the things that we recently did is I think that with the passing of the contract, I think that was a really good first start. Um,
028I think that what we really needed is to kind of get the teacher salaries up. I mean, we all kind of recognized around the board here that uh they were pretty low, but I think uh you know, Brumagen says it the best when he says it's not always about the money, right? So, that's one side of thing. The second thing is is that we just got done approving um Dr. Berlin's um final evaluation and we kind of talked a little bit about goals and and one of the goals that we kind of spoke out about was like social media. So, I was wondering whether or not we could we could be helpful as a board by kind of marrying the two. And one of the thoughts that um that I have is that we I
029think as board members all enjoy when we get students here and we celebrate things that they have done and their accomplishments. And I was wondering whether or not we could potentially look at doing the same for teachers as in just a simple recognition of teachers. Um maybe as simple as a Google Drive where another teacher could nominate someone, say a couple nice words about them, and then ask them to the board meeting. That way we can come down here, we can uh do a little social media, real click, you know, real instant uh kind of video and then post that for us. So then you're kind of marrying two different entities that we've kind of done in the last year. And that's one, get that contract, but now start to build that that teacher pride
030in why they're here. And then the other one being a a more of a social media goal, right? So could we possibly look at administration wise at that to see whether or not we could get some teachers to come in here and and yet use their own words, right? So, if I'm nominating, you know, Jeremy here that I could write five, six different things about him, uh, ask them to come and say, "Hey, we we just want to let we see you and we appreciate you and we just want to let you know that we we as a board are here for you." So again, just dipping down a little bit into that 18,000 and maybe we could um I would give it all then to administration to figure out how that runs and what
031you want to look at. But I think that it I would enjoy a little bit more of uh I I clearly enjoy the students being here. I think that's probably the highlight of when we have uh board meetings and but yet if we can look at teachers too to start to recognize them a little bit, I think it would go a long way. And that's all I got. Excellent. Thank you, Mr. Williams. Any others? >> I briefly um I know, you know, that our community recently went through a loss of a kiddo in our district and I did attend the visual um the vigil. I never say that word correctly, but I just feel like um I wanted to briefly say obviously our community came together for the family and we really appreciate that. And
032I'm just encouraging our staff to prepare for what's to come with our kiddos as they enter the school year. I mean, I know as a mom that was hard to have that discussion with my kids and you know, this is our community and that was, you know, everyone is obviously very very much feeling for Hayden and his family right now. So, I just want to just kind of bring that out and just kind of prepare for what's to come because I feel like mental health-wise, like this is probably going to be a little bit of a challenging year. I know we have had loss before, but it's been some time. And again, it's just it was just kind of one of those moments that no one ever wants to have to experience. So, I just
033kind of wanted to briefly bring that up. Um, and I appreciate the community and everyone who came together to just support that family in the best way they know how, and it was very beautiful. So, that's really all I had to say. >> Absolutely. And thank you for for bringing up and recognizing the absolutely tremendous loss that I still can't even fathom. That's a very elite group that no one wants to be in to lose a child and and grew up with the parents and and spent some time with them uh through the process. And um I know that I spoke with Dr. Berlin immediately following and you know the district immediately assembled a team of individuals ready to to handle any situation that that comes to our students as a result. Uh, and I
034know that they're doing a good job keeping a breast any of those issues. And of course, as the school year starts, um, we're going to be tackling those as they come. And, and I appreciate the administration acting swiftly, uh, to get that team assembled and and be ready to serve our student body. >> Are there any others? Hearing none, I will entertain a motion to adjurnn. So, move push check. >> Second, Blazer. All >> in favor, please say I. I. Meeting is adjourned.