001Good evening, ladies and gentlemen. Welcome to the Watsburg Area School District where we are student centered and future focused for a world-class education. I now call to order the regular board meeting for Monday, April 21st, 2025. 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. Brumagen, present. Mrs. Burlingham, here. Mrs. Heatherington, here. Mrs. Lee, here. Mr. Morve, here. Dr. Pushchek, here. Mr. Williams, here. Mr. Young, present. I'll now entertain a motion to approve the agenda as presented. Nicole, so moved. More second. Any questions on the agenda hearing? None. All in favor, please say
002I. I. Oppose. Nay. Motion carries. Uh, I will now entertain a motion to approve the minutes. Sorry, the minutes from the finance committee and sorry, I want to make sure for the finance committee meeting and also from the work session uh for April 14th. So move push check second Buringham. Any questions on those hearing? None. All in favor please say I. I. Post name. Motion carries. Uh I will also entertain a motion to approve the minutes from the regular board meeting from March 17th. Nicole so moved. Was there a second? Any questions on those? All in favor please say I. I. Post name. Motion carries. All right. Time for school reports. Thank you, Mr. President. Uh, I want to welcome Mr. Gman from the elementary school to share a few things uh about the elementary
003center here this spring. Good evening, everyone. Um, I'll be short and mindful of everyone's time this evening, but I did want to make sure um that I highlight just a few of the things that our staff are doing for our students that go, you know, beyond instruction and really making sure that our students leave with uh experiences as well. So, first you see um a group photo of third and kindergarten um big buddies program they call it. Um, and so every month our third graders, they are partnered up with a kindergarten student. And what I really enjoyed learning um more about the program is that the third grade students are actually planning and implementing the activities that they end up doing with the students, obviously with with guidance, but um as you can see um
004I visited this past week and got some u photos of them in action. They meet once a month. Like I said, they do planned activities like with ReadAcross America week. Um they'll get out for a nature walk here this spring when the weather's nice. Um and then also the third graders are reading to our kindergarteners. And then my favorite part is the kindergarteners are getting to read um a book at their level to the third grade students as well. You could hear a pin drop when you walk in that room too with third grade and kindergarten all together. Um, and then the second one here, I think this is a really creative idea. I'm not sure if I can credit Tik Tok or a teacher, you know, on their own, but nonetheless, they are doing
005this. Um, with third grade being the first year of PSSA testing, um, I would say a couple weeks ago, they tell the kids, you know, hey, we know you're ready for PSSAs. You know, we do a lot of testing in third grade. You know, they tell them like whatever day it is, Thursday, you're going to come in. We're going to do tests all day long to get you ready. and they surprise the kids with camp test a lot and they go the pictures do not do it justice. They go all out. Um teachers are staying all night the night before in early the morning before and they really give these third graders um a great experience. Uh relieve a lot of that test anxiety. What they do throughout the day is they do things like
006you see in the background a driver's test um which I don't think they're really driving, don't be worried. Uh, but they do things like taste tests and memory tests and uh I I had an extra list, but they really just make the day fun. Um, they emphasize that they can do hard things, that they're ready to take a test, and it really just gives um our students um a fun memory before they're taking the PSSAs for the first time. So, just wanted to highlight the things that our staff are doing to go above and beyond for our students. um they are really looking at every opportunity to create um you know memories and experiences for our students. So thank you. Have a good evening. Thank you. All right. It's now time for guest and citizen
007comments. Do we have anyone signed up for this evening? No, we do not. All right. The chair will now recognize Dr. Ken Berlin for the superintendent report. Thanks, Mr. President. Uh I just wanted to highlight a few things this evening. First of all, Wednesday, April 19th, uh the board negotiating committee and uh the WEA, the teachers association negotiating committee reached a tenative agreement that both parties will be reviewing here over the next couple of weeks. Um if all goes well, uh we'll be looking to um ratify and vote to um approve that hopefully uh at our May meeting. Um but I I just want to commend the board committee for their leadership in the process. Everything went well. Um we met five times and I there really wasn't a wasted um session. we uh were
008productive at every session and you know both parties were were very intent on collaborating working together to find a solution. Um so grateful for the the teacher association um relationship that we have here. Uh and we can we can talk more um in May about uh what was accomplished, but we we we did accomplish the goals that we set out to accomplish and I think WA also um is satisfied uh from from their perspective. The most important thing though is that uh we'll be able to get our teacher salaries into a competitive range here um if we approve this uh contract in May. Um which I I think is is just going to help us to recruit and retain bright teachers. Um we have great teachers and we want to make sure we keep great
009teachers when we get great teachers. uh because the teachers and the support staff, you know, they teach and take care of our kids here all day and they're our most important asset. Um so I I think the board has has rightly recognized that and I just wanted to commend the board for that. Um, and then the last thing I wanted to mention, uh, if you didn't see the news, I think it was Friday, uh, our National Honor Society students put on from Senica put on a prom, uh, for the Eerie Homes for Children and Adults. Uh, and, uh, it was a really nice spot on WICU News. It's it's the link is still up. Um, but they organized the thing. I think it was Olivia Hall uh was one of the the main leaders of
010that particular effort. Um so our students out there doing doing great things and I I wanted to recognize that because uh that that's the reason we're all here. Um that's all I have for this evening, Mr. President. Absolutely. Thank you, Dr. Berlin. Wonderful to hear that and and also want to echo a great job by the committee uh through the negotiation process. I'm excited to continue to move forward uh and and keep us in a position where we can continue to to offer great things like camp test a lot and have uh our educators uh continue to be engaged with our students on a continuous basis and uh keep turnover to a minimum and make sure the services we're providing are appropriate for our students. So uh thank you for that. Uh the chair will
011recognize Mrs. Vicky Bendig for the business administrator's report. Thank you Mr. President for tonight. Uh I have the treasures reports as reported uh last week general fund at the end of March 11,399,73165. And just a quick look at the year-to-ate budget versus actual report. We are 75% of the fiscal year completed. There's three months left. We're at 60.49% of the year-to- date budgeted at expenditures and 72.68% 68% of the year to date total budgeted revenues realized. Um there is some categories that I have created a budgetary transfer um for your consideration to help with the speech pathology aiology invoices that we're having um a contracted service for that was not expected at the beginning of the year and um some instructional staff development. uh our professional development and tuition reimbursement is um greater than it
012was budgeted for. So um those are the changes that you will see um later on in the report. And the capital projects at the end of March in that account was $17.22. The cafeteria fund has $628,81424. I also have um the February cafeteria board report um as not reported in March. So at the end of February 2025, we had a net profit of $11,51942 which brought our year-to-ate loss to $17876028. Um I will mention that we spent about $185,000 in equipment replacement this year. So, um the loss is not unexpected. And then the cafeteria board report for the end of March, uh our net profit for the month was 90 $99,51.91, which brings our year-to- date loss to $169,78.37. Um, and then the student activities balance in those accounts as of the end of March
013was $83,853.7 collectively. And then moving on to the bill lists, uh, checks already written that was prior to the work session, general fund $111,53.17. checks written between the work session and the board meeting general fund was $8,321.98. Cafeteria was 55,76719. Uh that includes our monthly payment that we paid early um to reap the discount. And then the bill list for this evening for general fund $490,489.50. Uh there were no capital projects or cafeteria report or checks for this week. Uh that is all I have Mr. President. Thank you. Does anyone have any questions for Mrs. Bendic? Hearing none. I'll entertain a motion to approve the business reports, payments, and invoices as presented. Nicole so moved. Push check. Second. All in favor, please say I. I. Oppose. Nay. Motion carries. Uh there's one addendum item under
014legal advisement for this evening. I will entertain a motion to retain the services of NBM law as special counsel. Mr. President. Yes, Mr. Bagen. Uh I'll verbally announce my conflict of in interest in the matter as my wife and I are the named plaintiffs and now have my abstension memorandum in my file. Thank you, Mr. Bagen. So move push check. Nicole second. Any questions on this item? Hearing none. All in favor, please say I. I oppose. Okay, motion carries. Thank you. The chair will now recognize Dr. Andy Pushchack for finance. Thank you, Mr. President. We have five items under finance. I'd like to take the first two um together and then we'll do the last three individually as they are um budget votes. So the first motion uh would be the budgetary transfers listed as
0157A and the fund transfers listed as 7B together as one motion. So moved. Nicole second. Any questions on those transfers? Hearing none. All in favor, please say I. I. Oppose. Nay. Motion carries. Thank you, Mr. President. I'd like to make a motion to approve the general fund budget for the 2025 2026 school year for the Watsburg Area School District in the amount of $32,111,17 as listed. So moved. Are there any questions on the proposed final general fund budget for 2025 2026? I'll second that motion. Um, thank you. Hearing none, may I please have a roll call. Mr. Blazer, yes. Mr. Bumigan, yes. Mrs. Burlingham, yes. Mrs. Lee, yes. Mrs. Heatherington, yes. Mr. Morvet, yes. Dr. Pushchek, yes. Mr. Williams, yes. Mr. Young, yes. Motion carries. Thank you. Thank you, Mr. President, the next item is
016the Northwest Tri County Intermediate Unit budget for the 2526 budget. Uh, I move to approve the general operating budget for the IU72,24,283,000 and to further approve the Wattsburg Area School District contribution in the amount of 41,7656 and the Special Education Consortium budget in the amount of $26,294. So moved. Nicole second. Are there any questions on the Northwest Tri County Intermediate Unit 20252026 budget? Hearing none. May I have a roll call, please? Mr. Blazer, yes. Mr. Burmagan, yes. Mrs. Burlingham, yes. Mrs. Heatherington, yes. Mrs. Lee, yes. Mr. Morve, yes. Dr. Pushchek, yes. Mr. Williams, yes. Mr. Young, yes. Motion carries. Thank you. Thank you, Mr. President. The final item under finance is 7E, which is the Erie County Technical School budget for the 2025 2026 school year. That is to approve the general fund operating budget
017for ECTS in the amount of 8,842,376 with Erie County School District contributions of 5,40,217 and the Wattsburg area school district contribution of $349,98. So moved. Mor got to second that. Are there any questions on the operating budget for the Erie County Technical School for 2025 2026? Hearing none. May I have a roll call, please? Mr. Blazer, yes. Mr. Bumagen, yes. Mrs. Berlingham, yes. Mrs. Heatherington, yes. Mrs. Lee, yes. Mr. Morve, yes. Dr. Pushchek, yes. Mr. Williams, yes. Mr. Young, yes. Motion carries. That's all I have under finance, Mr. President. Thank you. Thank you. The chair now recognizes Mr. Jeremy Blazer for buildings and grounds. Thank you, Mr. President. I have three items under building and grounds. Without objection, like to move them all in one motion. Uh the first is motion for flooring replacement. It's
018to approve the flooring replacement at the elementary school in the amount of $31,200 as attached uh in the attachment uh as detailed in the attachment uh from the committed funds. Uh and the second is Northwest Tri County Intermediate Unit classroom lease. So as to approve our lease between Northwest Tri County Intermediate Unit number five and Watsburg area school district for the 2025 2026 school year as detailed in the attachment. And the third is a facility use request as detailed in the um in the uh below. So moved. Second. Push check. Are there any questions on the three items Mr. Blazer presented? Hearing none. All in favor, please say I. I. Opposed. Name. Motion's car. Thank you very much, Mr. Blazer. Thank you, Mr. President. The chair now recognizes Miss Nicole Lee for personnel. Thank you,
019Mr. President. I have, I believe, six items for tonight. And without objection, I'd like to move all in one. They include A appointments as listed on the agenda as well as an addendum. B resignations as listed, C substitute list additions as listed, D service substitute list additions as listed, E, leave requests, and F, the Dr. Gertude um Gertrude Barber Center one:1 aid service agreement as listed. So moved. Second. Burlingham. Are there any questions on these items, Mr. President? Um, there is the special education teacher is blank. Is that going to be moved to another meeting? Okay. Yeah, we should have that uh for next month. That's our Okay. plan. Excellent. Any other questions? Hearing none. All in favor, please say I. I. Oppose. Name. This motion's carrying. Thank you very much, Mr. Chair now recognizes
020Mrs. Britney Berlingham for policy. Thank you, Mr. President. I have one item underneath policy which is the second reading of policies to approve the second reading and review of the policies as outline um attached. So please see below. So moved. Nicole second. Are there any questions on these policies? Hearing none. All in favor, please say I. I oppose. Nay. Motion carries. Thank you, Mrs. Berlingham. Yep. Chair now recognizes Mr. Steve Morbe for curriculum. Mr. President, there are two items on the agenda for this evening under curriculum. The first item is item 11A, which would be the summer school to approve the imagine learning summer school courses as attached. Uh, a second item that we'd like to move as a slate would be the language instruction education program services contract between um, uh, Watts or Northwest
021Tri County Intermediate Unit and Watsburg Area School District for the 2025 2026 school year. Both of those so moved. Nicole second. Are there any questions on the course or the agreement is presented? Mr. President, I just have one quick question. Yes. uh on uh the summer school the imagine learning summer school courses when I clicked on that attachment earlier it had a fee but then it it said time zero uh and I I believe I saw right it was showing zero owed so is that we don't know yet how many of the courses we just are we're approving the rate and then eventually we'll know or do we have a ballpark of how many will actually be purchasing. Yeah. So that just depends on how many students need credit recovery. So we're only offering those
022those courses for students at the high school now. Um, and so they'll be printing out those lists and and figuring out who's eligible and then who uh is willing to come and wants to do it. Thank you. Are there any other questions? Hearing none, all in favor, please say I. I oppose nay. Motion carries. Uh, thank you, Mr. Mor. Thank you, Mr. President. Chair will now recognize Mr. Jesse Williams for technology. Mr. President, I only have one thing under technology, and that is the Edling Comply software agreement as attached. So moved. Second push check. Are there any questions on this service agreement? Hearing none. All in favor, please say I. I. Opposed. Name. Motion carries. Thank you, Mr. Williams. The chair will now recognize Mr. Greg Breuman for transportation. Mr. President, I have three items
023for tonight. Transportation A, transportation requests as attached. Appears to be a lot of endofear trips and some others. Uh item B, independent contractor agreement as listed. and item C, Durham bus drivers, um to approve um the new bus driver uh as listed. Uh without objection, I'd like to move all three together. So moved. Blazer second. Are there any questions on the transportation request, the contractor agreement, or the bus driver appointment? Hearing none. All in favor, please say I. I oppose nay. Motion carries. Thank you, Mr. Brumagen. Chair will now recognize Mr. Leah Heatherington for athletic and extracurricular. Thank you, Mr. President. I have five items on the agenda for tonight. And if no one is opposed, I would like to move them all together. They are a extracurricular appointments as listed on the agenda. Uh
024b extracurricular resignations as listed on the agenda. C is athletic appointments as listed. D is athletic resignations as listed. E is volunteer list additions and an addendum with several more names. So moved. Blazer. Second. Are there any questions on any of these items? Mr. President, uh, I need to abstain from, uh, item E as one of the volunteer lists is my wife. So, I will be abstaining from that section of the vote. Thank you, Mr. Mor. I guess I need to do the same thing. Jessica's my wife, so Williams. Thank you, Mr. Williams. Any other questions? Hearing none. All in favor, please say I. I. Oppose. Nay. Those motions carry. It's a good sign that everybody's involved in everything. Everybody's involved. Thank you, Miss Heatherington. Uh, we do have one item under miscellaneous this evening.
025Uh, I will entertain a motion to approve the appointment of Dr. Pushjack as the Wattsburg Area School District board representative to serve on the Northwest Tri County Intermediate Unit Board of Directors for a three-year term beginning July 1st of this year and ending June 30th of 2028. Nicole, so moved. Second, Williams. Are there any objections? Dr. Bushchack, we enjoy your service and we thank you for your willingness to continue to serve. My pleasure. Any questions on that appointment? Hearing none. All in favor, please say I. I. Opposing. Motion carries. Thank you. Chair will now recognize Mr. Steven Morbay for the Erie County Technical School joint operating committee report. Mr. President, this is the uh March joint operating committee uh report that I'm bringing to the board this evening. Uh the first item that I always
026like to bring up is the student spotlight that are recognized students uh in the uh technical school. This was again it's always a month behind. So this was these are the students that were recognized in February. We had one in uh her name was Danica Russ. She was in drafting and design. And then we also had Caitlyn Tolski. She was in health assistant. So those are the two that were recognized in the February um recognition pro uh sequence. Uh also just some up updated items that are happening there at the tech school. Uh the NOCD testing is actually started uh actually started last week and some more testing is going on this week. So if you see technical students uh certainly uh be with them as they are doing their uh end of year testing
027in these last two weeks. Uh upcoming events uh they're they're having a career fair actually later uh this month on the 28th and then there's an art showcase that's coming up on the 8th of May. Um we also confirmed our articulation agreement with the pen west Edinburgh for college credit for early childhood education program that's happening at the tech school. So that was um a connection that we made uh as well. Um the there was some additional renovation that still needs to happen as part of these expansion of programs that included the health lab and that was the uh roughly about $195,000 worth of contracts were um awarded and approved uh at the last meeting for those renovations and those will be started right away with the architect um uh recommending those contractors um at
028that time. 95 um Watsburg area school uh we have 77 students out of our 95 uh aotment uh that is available to us. The uh the next year there's been as you recall the uh um signups had occurred earlier in the spring. There's they've had received four 540 applications of which 350 were now registered and in our school district 25 students have now currently registered as well. and they're continuing to go through the registration process as the school uh comes towards a close. Um but interestingly enough, the first choice lotteryies, so all the students pick when they sign up, they pick their first choice, those uh choices have all been full filled. So everyone's first choice has been um you know now potentially if they didn't get their first choice and due to the lottery
029system, they then go to their second choice and that lottery is also completed by the end of this month as well. So, uh, certainly a lot of interest in the technical school. Uh, and as you can see, uh, really about 150 open slots left, and I think that's probably going to work itself out as we as we, uh, go through into next year. So, that's my report, Mr. President. I'll have another one for the April uh, meeting, which again is this Thursday. That'll be in our May board meeting. So, thank you, Mr. President. And excellent to hear the articulation agreement with the childhood program. Um, anytime we have an opportunity to provide continuing ed for students and give them credits to to move on and keep building that career is just excellent to hear. So,
030we appreciate that. Yeah. And those those things continue to be um expanded um with various colleges and various other technical uh secondary education programs. So, it's uh certainly a benefit uh to achieve that credit now during high school years. So I would add that our enrollment 77 is is up quite a bit from what it is now. I think agreed around a little under 60. Yeah, it's right. I remember it was around 58 62. It was always kind of hovering around those points. So that's good to see. Great to see. I think it's the potentially there I can get into additional breakdown. I just didn't bring that data with me, but I could go through the if it's interesting to the board, the actual breakdown of our student body and what classes they're enrolled in.
031If that would be interesting, I can bring that next time as well. I always think it's interesting. Yeah, we really appreciate it. This it's a great opportunity and more students are recognizing, more families, parents are recognizing uh the value of the technical education and and what that means for students moving forward and it doesn't prevent them from continuing on past that either. Absolutely. And that was definitely a kind of a thought of the past. So there's there's other pathways again out of the you know there's there's many technical school students that have gone on to college, others have gone in the military and quite a few then go directly into the workforce. So there are many pathways out of the technical school. Any other questions for Mr. Morve? Mr. President, uh Mr. Morve, did you
032did you say this the large what do they call heavy equipment operation is that starting at the beginning of next year? So, did students have a chance to or do I have the timing off? That'll be in the fall of 2026. And and the reason that was was because the amount of expansion we we needed to take a little bit of a breather as we went through the process, not only for budget uh absorption into the various districts, but as well as, you know, getting the proper equipment in place, the teacher in place, etc. Those are the but that is that has been an approved program. It's just in 26 is when that'll start. Is there any other new one that I was thinking of that starts in 25 fall 25? There there was the
033secondary or the second cosmetology. There was a second health assistant. There was the um security program. There was the second um construction trades. Those are the ones that I recall that were um Attorney Kennedy, she's there as well. She might be able to help me. Come on. Um, oh, there was the aviation and um equipment, but that I don't think that was not an approved program. That was one of those that was part of the survey that was done with students and all those things. So, um it's on a radar to be to be um done, but um those are the programs currently ready in the fall of 25. Thank you. Excellent. Thank you, Mr. Mr. President. All right. The chair will now recognize Dr. Andrew Pushchack for the Northwest Tri County Intermediate Unit report.
034Thank you, Mr. President. I'd like to thank the board for their confidence to reappoint me as the board's rep to the IU. Um, I enjoy serving in that capacity um and providing the leadership for that board. Um, I would also just like to mention a brief report from our IU March uh board meeting. Um, attorney Kendy joined us and dutifully uh covered for attorney Walker in his absence. Uh she did an amazing job. Uh I just wanted to mention that. Thank you, Attorney Kennedy. Um our vote this evening on the IU budget completes all of the IU school districts voting in the affirmative for the IU budget. So I thank this board uh for that uh positive vote on the IU budget. The largest um item at the IU is and has been the early
035intervention transfer of entity from Erie's public schools to the IU. Um sometimes in a transfer of entity you are able to keep many of the employees. Um however due to the recent increase in uh the contract in public schools all of those teachers are staying in the city. So the IU is embarking on um a hiring frenzy of 35 to 40 positions to staff the early intervention program for Eerie's public schools. And that process is well underway and our next meeting is on Wednesday. And that's all I have. Thank you, Mr. President. That is a big hiring chunk. My goodness. Good luck with that. Are there any uh questions for Dr. Pushchack? All right. Thank you, Dr. Pushchack for your presentation. Uh we now turn to board correspondents and dialogue. Is there anything for the
036good of the order this evening? All right. Hearing none, I will entertain a motion to adjurnn. So move push check. Nicole second. All in favor, please say I. I. Okay. Motion carries. We are adjourned.