5-18-26 LVSD Board Meeting

001Good evening. We will now start the committee of the whole meeting at 6:03 p.m. This evening, we have five presentations followed by board updates. Uh we'll be starting with the supplemental math program. First, I should be able to do that. There we go. Hello again. I'm back. I didn't think I'd be back this soon. Uh Dr. Fryman had been in one of our meetings um for our curriculum and I had been sharing Delta Math, which was a free program that actually one of the students that transferred from another school had mentioned to Miss Wyers. And so we just kind of started to do some investigating uh into it. And then I asked if I could pilot the paid version, which quite honestly the free version is pretty nice as well. So what I have for

002you, I'm just very quickly going to click through what some of the things it can do. So what you're seeing right now is the the homepage. So, right now it's showing us everything from lower elementary up through there's computer science on here, but up through calculus. So, I'm going to uncheck and just show you the two that I would use. All right. So, I've got algebra 2 and I have um algebra 1. So, for example, I needed to make a test and a test review for polomials. So, if I type in polomial. You can see all of the options that I have for polomials and it it separates it by um level. This is algebra. The green is algebra 2. So let's just say I want to do polomial long division. I can look at

003the problems and see, you know, what type of problems are in here. I can look at the solutions, make sure it's what I want. Um, you know, and you can click through and then it's just as easy as I can go to create this assignment and I'll put that division one if I can find it again. There we go. So, I put the division problem. It gives me five problems in division. Um, I can look at division two. Now, I've set that at five. And what that means is the students need to get five correct or if I print it, it'll print five different problems of that type. So, it just depends whether you do it, you know, electronically or not. Um, with the paid version, I can hit assign video and I can add

004a video that they have to watch before they do the problem. Now, I wouldn't do this necessarily unless they were working ahead of me because they can watch the videos within it, too. So if they're in the middle of a problem and they want to look at an example, they can open it to watch a video. Um, so you can create assignments test and then you can link test corrections to it. Now that's only if you're going to give it electronically. If you don't give it electronically, then that test corrections, you know, it it has to be electronic to link to it. So let's say a student, it's a 20 question um test, they missed numbers two, four, and six. Those test corrections would be for that student just numbers two, four, and six. Problems

005like that that they would review before they could um maybe retake or they could get partial credit for that. However a teacher wants to set that up. Now, nice thing about it is you pay per teacher. So, they the license I think was prrated. It was $100 um for what was left in the school year. And I could add as many students as I want. So you don't pay per student, you pay per teacher for this program. I believe it's 170 for the school year per teacher. Now, one thing that we talked about is the fact that if this goes away, you can see how long you can see when they did it, what time they finished it, and how long it took them to solve it. Now, I brought this one up because Dr.

006Fryman and I had talked about the use of AI, which is happening. And um I don't know about you, but I don't think I could do this problem in 31 seconds. And I just happened to look because this student that did this problem did like 10 problems like this and was done with time to spare. So, I just wanted to look through and see, you know, how she was doing and so on. Well, when I saw the 31 seconds, I thought, I don't I don't think that that happened. So, I called her up. I asked her to solve this same problem for me um or factor the same problem and solve. And she she sat down and started doing it and about two and a half minutes in, I said, "Okay, so you did this

007problem in 31 seconds when you were doing your assignment." And of course, the tears came and she admitted to using the AI and I just made her a new assignment. I just said, you know, I it's a temporary gain of points, right? Because you get them for the assignment, but then you don't understand it when you do the quiz. And she knew that. She didn't feel good. I knew that as well. And and I just had a feeling and I wanted to make sure she understood before she took an assessment. So what I've highlighted here is the original that she was doing was solving polomial equations part two. I just copied it, assigned it only to her, and she redid it. So, it was that fast for me to assign her a new copy, and

008she's been working hard ever since. So, it was a good life lesson because these these students do need to learn to use AI responsibly. And I do have students that will bring it up when they miss a problem and they're looking at it, you know, to see where they made their mistake. That's okay with me. But if you're using it to do your work, you know, it's an issue. And of course, they can do it just as easily with paper pencil. They can take a picture, upload it, and boom. Just not as easy in a classroom because of the use of the phone. Um, I timed myself today. I had to make a review for part two of a test and four versions of the test. And I did it in 10 minutes. I made

009the review and A B C D versions in 10 minutes. And I can also I didn't realize this is something I learned myself today. Once it makes the version, if I check all of the questions it gave, I can hit refresh and get if I don't like the question on say number three on version A, I don't like that question, I can hit refresh and it'll give me a whole new problem. So then I can print them and it's very nice format printing by the way. And that's one thing with you can print. You can do quizzes now. You can print. Um but it's the formatting is not nice. These you can change the spacing and you know it's just so easy. All right. And I'm going to full disclosure speaking of AI. I had

010it help me for the pros and cons because for me to tell you pros and cons that would be my opinion, right? And I know for a fact that Mr. Story likes or had liked, right? when you used it in the classroom. And I know we have another teacher that likes. I don't dislike, but I'm just talking to you about Delta Math. So, for comparison, I asked AI and it pulled data from all over the place to give you these lists of pros and cons. And I looked at them and I agree. But I like that it wasn't just my opinion. So for the nice thing about it is we have we can get for science, for ELA, for math. I mean, I'm sure it's social studies. I don't even know what all they have,

011but it's more than just math. And it's very good for diagnostic and intervention tools. So with us getting interventionists next year, I think could be a really good tool for that. Delta math, on the other hand, that's just math. Okay. But what's nice is I can really customize what problems I give them. For example, if I pick that one problem type that I showed you, sometimes there's a drop-own list and there's like 10 different types of that problem. If I don't want them to do, you know, the last one on the list, I uncheck that and it won't give them that problem. Or when I give a test, if I want them to have, you know, the first three types, I make one of them for each. So, it's going to be different questions on

012each of the versions, but it's going to be the same format of problem, which I just figured out. Again, covers a more subjects. Um, adaptive learning adjusts difficulty. I believe that's referring to the diagnostic because when you're using it for practice, it does level up as you go. um but it's it's not adaptive in the way um you know up or down grade levels as needed when working on skills. Um again intervention remediation that's what we're looking for next year. Um it does align to standards and it is helpful for independent practice. So when I first started using the Delta math I gave the students if I could the choice of or delta math and it was about 5050 split. As much as they complain about, some of them chose that when given the option.

013And I'm sure we've talked about this, the cons. So, scores can drop quickly when you have a wrong answer. Anybody that has students that use knows this. You know, when we set a goal of say 90, a smart score of 90, the kids will get to like 87, miss one, and it it drops down significantly. Yeah. So, they get frustrated and they do start to focus more on the points like getting that 90 than what they're actually learning. I know nothing about the cost. Um, that's going to have to come from him. I don't know about. Um, and some students find it repetitive and stressful, but they find a lot of things repetitive repetitive and stressful. Some like it, some don't. You're never going to make everybody happy. Um, and it's less flexible for custom

014assignments. I I learned that it's easiest to just tell the kids what level and what I excel skill to do. Um, whereas in Delta Math, I can assign certain things all in one place. But they don't have a problem with that. They really don't. They're they're quite used to it. And then you have delta math. Again, targeted math practice. If I want to do polomial division, there probably were about eight or nine options. And within each of those, there were several options of types of problems. I can customize. It's good for algebra, algebra 2, geometry, and the free version. The only thing the free version doesn't have is the test corrections and the videos, which is one of the things the student from the other district mentioned that she liked the videos when she used

015it. I want to say it Hemill, but don't quote me on that. I'm not sure. But she liked the videos when she was working and she, you know, needed a little refresher. Again, the cost for 202526 was $170 per teacher. And that's for as many students as you want to put in your program. And it's very easy. You literally hit create, name a class, boom, it's there. Give the kids a code and they're in. Um, it has immediate feedback. Uh, worked out problems. And you can change that. You can just make it mark it right or wrong. There's all kinds of options. And it's good for homework and review. I did find with the group I have right now working again on polomials. There were five skills that I wanted them to do. They were

016getting frustrated. So I split it into two skills, two skills and one skill. And someone said to me today, I finally am getting this. So I'm like okay that that was worth the time to separate it and spend the time you know two two and one. So you can customize it that way. I was putting them all in one spot and that didn't go well. Again, mostly math. Il is better for younger kids. It's got the game component, like if they earn so many points, they can play games. You know that it's better for younger students. Um, it works better after direct instruction. Although, I will tell you, I have a group that has loved to work ahead since they were able to work ahead. And what I do is I have them, it's like

017a flip. They watch the video, they try it, they complete the delta math, then they do the worksheet. So they they are using the videos to grasp the concepts and then we apply it also to the worksheet. Like anything can be repetitive and it doesn't have as many adaptive features. Like if it's not in algebra 1, you know, you it's going to be tough for you to find something in a lower level that's an algebra one concept. But I think I saw today that there's a hundred different questions for every skill. So crosscurricular practice, intervention, remediation, independent en enrichment. In fact, Mr. Story, is that young man using it for independent enrichment in sixth grade? >> Yes. So we're using it in that capacity as well. Um daily math assignments, fluency, and then teacher controlled

018practice. I do let them do print and electronic so that they have that knowing if they're right or wrong. I don't know about you, but I remember being in math class, having a lesson taught, think you know it, go home, do in my day 40 problems probably we got and you did 35 of them wrong. So it's nice to have that where it checks what you did before you do 35 problems. Not that we assign 35. Okay, that's it. Does anybody have any questions for me? >> I have a question for Eric. When we buy that package for all those or can we pick and choose? >> I believe >> that's what I thought. So, we could, you know, and Okay. >> Take out science. >> That's what I thought. Okay. >> No, they use

019it for ELA, I think. >> Okay. science >> and science. I think someone science. >> Did someone use it for I just mentioned they have it. I don't know that we use it. >> EAL >> ELA and math. And like I said, you know, you're going to have people that like Delta Math. I think EXL is going to be a great tool for our intervention. I really do. But I think we need to use it for that component, you know, as a part of our remediation and intervention. Anything else? I don't think I'll be back next month. >> Thanks. >> Thank you. >> Next is the Tiny Rams program. >> Good evening. I'm Heidi Macintosh with the Tiny Rams program. I want to thank all of you for the opportunity to come and speak this

020evening on the program. Um, as they get the power slide, power deck, slide deck, whatever it's called these days, ready to roll, I just want to bring to your attention, you've all received a copy of the PowerPoint presentation, as well as a colorful flyer that just gives a quick snapshot of what we do at Tiny Rams and then some more detailed engagement information of what the program has looked like in the last several years and what it looks like right now. Our main priority with Tiny Rams is school readiness. Working with two to five year olds to get them ready so that when they come in for kindergarten, there's less stress and less strain on the resources of the school district. When the program began, and you'll see in one of the later slides, a

021lot of our population in our district was underserved with early childhood education. There are not many options on the northern end of the district. There are more now than there were before. But what was happening was there were a lot of families who did not have transportation, who did not meet income qualifications or just simply could not access opportunities that were available. So that's how Tiny Rams began. If you'll look at the second page of the presentation, how Tiny Rams prepares children. The main thing that we do to prepare children are one-on-one individual visits with the families, caregivers, parents, as well as the children. We do those in homes. We do them in a neutral location that is agreed upon by the family. And we are often able to do them at our office at

022Laurel Valley Elementary as well as a space at Melon when it's available. Thank you. He's got the presentation up. Thank you very much. Okay, thank you. Okay, so this this is where we are now. Okay, we are able through those visits to determine what skill gaps might be happening within with those children. We're able to connect them to early intervention things like the West Morland Intermediate Unit. There are resources that a lot of families are not aware of. There's a company called Beverly's Birthdays that does things like provide diapers and formula and things for families in need and we're able to make those connections. We're also able to make known to the families what the preschool options are because there are many families that we work with that do not have older children in the

023school district. So this it's all new to them and and you don't know what you don't know. So we try to move forward with that. Other ways that we prepare the children for school readiness is we provide opportunities for peer interactions, introductions to the elementary buildings, to the administrators, to the staff. We work with the kindergarten transition team through events throughout the school year to expose families and children again to those future learning environments. A lot of times academics are very important, but so are social and emotional readiness when it comes to this young age group as they get ready to move into the school age. We do community story times once a month and we do those in three locations throughout the district so that each community has the opportunity to attend those. And

024we have what are called specials playdates at the elementary school where the specials teachers and that would be computers, gym, art, music, steam, and library where they come in and they have a mini lesson so that the children get exposed and the families get exposed to what a lesson in one of those subjects would look like when they if they would come to K4 or if they would come for kindergarten. If you look at the next slide here, this talks about this. This is where we get into the data and into our numbers. So, since 2019 when the program started, we have had a 173 children that have been individually served through either one-on-one visits, story hours, playdates, or group activities. Of those children, 59 participated more than one year. We anticipate 14 or more

025that we currently serve to return next year because the age bracket that they are. We have several families that have younger siblings that will turn two before the fall and their hope is to enroll them in Tiny Rams this coming school year. In addition to all the things that we do that are specific to Tiny Rams, as you are, I'm sure aware, the district does kindergarten transition events through the year that we participate in. And through those events, we're able, as you can see, to have impact and interaction with at least 140 more families between the two elementary buildings through those throughout the year. So over the course of seven years, you're looking at close to a thousand children that Tiny Rams has had some interaction or impact with. Currently this school year, we have

02625 active participants. 50% of those participate in weekly one-to-one visits as of this moment. Now, the slide says we've done 230, but as of now, we've done 253 home visits just this year. We've done 21 story hour events. And how that's broken down is it's seven events so far. So, once a month through the school year, each one of those days, we go to three different locations and do the same story hour event. We've had five specials playdates in the school. The only one we missed this year was gym because it was in February and the weather just would not cooperate with us. And again, the transition events that we participate with the school district, we do those as well. our results because we were asked for data and I'm sure that's what you all

027are very interested in. We pulled former participants of Tiny Ramps that are currently in the elementary schools grades K through four and we did a sample of those and the end ofear reading and endofear math benchmarks. As you can see for the Tiny Ram participants in one-on-one home visits, there were 13 meeting or above benchmark in reading and 10 meeting or above benchmark in math. There is a typo on that. That should be three below benchmark in the math there. And the attendance rate, the average attendance of these former tiny rams is 94%. And as I'm sure you can imagine, if they're there, they're going to do better than if if they're not. our current assessment data with the tiny rims that are currently still in our program. We completed a Bracken assessment in the

028fall and then again about two weeks ago. The reason the Bracken assessment was chosen was we worked with the school principles as well as the instructional coach for the district to determine what would be the best tool to get the data that would be important enough for the school district itself to see what the district wants to see what aligns with district standards so that we're we're doing things that are necessary and helpful for school readiness specifically for Ligonier Valley School District. And what we found with those scores was that there was a massive increase on in the three and four year olds. Most of the scores doubled in the seven-month period of time. We also completed a 2-year-old screener on our 2-year-olds because the Bracken assessment tool is not appropriate for two-year-olds. And in

029the two-year-olds, we we saw an increase as well. So 100% of the tiny rams participants that were assessed in the fall and then again in the spring showed improvement. The next several slides are feedback that we've received from families, from teachers in the district, from community um partnerships that we have. I'm not going to read through all of them for you. Mrs. Boyd, you have a packet attached to yours that has all of the feedback that we've received. These the rest of you have some some of the slides in your cop in your copies. Overarching theme has simply been that the students are more prepared. They're more ready. And again, I want to stress it is not just academic skills. It's social and emotional is a huge piece of school readiness. And unfortunately, that's not

030something that we can necessarily quantify with data, which is why we're providing the feedback that we have. And I'll just leave the leave that up for a second. If you want to take a quick look at the highlighted or within your packet, I apologize. I know the print is very small. And you'll see again that we had um K4 teachers, we've had the instructional coach, we've had Mrs. Aldemus, who's a veteran kindergarten teacher, provide feedback for what they have witnessed as the children have come into elementary school. What makes Tiny Rams unique is that we're often the first eyes on these children in their homes. we are able to come in and build a relationship with families. And oftentimes that has led to being able to build some trust for the school district, especially with

031new families who aren't familiar with administrators, maybe aren't familiar with the school buildings or aren't familiar with the teachers. And again, not quantifiable through data, but strong positive relationships we believe are being built. Um Jordan is my partner. Her and myself both live in the district. I've raised my children in the district. She is actively raising children in the district. So, we're able to provide really good feedback that yes, this is a place that your kids will be well taken care of. We believe in what happens here or we wouldn't still be here. The next slide goes over some of the topics that we cover with families when we do parent and caregiver mentoring. This is by no means an exhaustive list. And what we've learned again over the years is that we have we

032tend to take for granted what families know or understand about child development, about age appropriate milestones, behaviors, interactions. So we try to focus on those things as well as incorporating things like letters, numbers, colors, shapes, all the academic things that you would see in preschool. and again introducing them into the school environment. This slide I discussed a little bit at the beginning about why we started and how we started. Our goals moving forward, we would love to increase outreach. We'd love to get more families involved. We want to continue to connect the families that need them with outside resources like early interventions and we want to offer additional age appropriate activities for those transitioning to kindergarten. What the kindergarten transition team within the district currently does is amazing. We'd love to be able to offer

033more that we can do maybe on a smaller scale as we move through the school year. Again, continued goals moving forward. It's our hope to be able to assist with enrollment and retention and to attract more families to the district. We have a unique opportunity when we're in the homes to address concerns that the families might have or misconceptions in a lot of cases that the families have about the district. So, we're trying to help build that bridge so that they can feel confident and comfortable sending their children to kindergarten here at Ligonier Valley. We'd love to do some what to expect videos from kindergartener point of view. What they're doing when they enter into the school building on the first day, what that looks like from the eyes of a 5-year-old, what going through

034the lunch line looks like. These things are done during transition events, but not from not in a video format that could go back and be assessed over and over again or accessed over and over again. And again, we'd like to maintain our strong relationship with the kindergarten transition team. As as many of you are aware, at the request of the regional founder group in 2425, last year's board agreed to contribute financially and incremental increases. So this year, 75% was paid by the founder group and 25% was paid by the school district. and pending approval, the school district would cover an additional 25% of the program cost for 2627. Estimated costs that are listed. This list of budget information was given to me by the learning lamp. I'm given a budget at the beginning of each

035year to work with. They've detailed two potential options for your consideration for next school year. one of which is to continue as planned with the additional 25% increase and the second option would be with a reduction in hours and no wage increase for Jordan and myself. Now I do not have every single line item for the budget that Learning Lamp has that but what I can tell you is that what is included in that budget is Jordan and my wages. the there's a learning lamp supervisor that they cover about 180 hours of her wages in order to be our gobetween from for the learning lamp. She oversees our program there. There is a marketing and postage budget. There is a travel budget because as you can imagine we are on the road a lot going

036out into the homes doing like I said 253 visits this year alone. there's a supply budget for manipulatives, for resources, for books to get into the hands of the children. Um, and I believe, but I'm not positive, but I'm fairly certain Learning Lamp takes around 10% for a management and general portion of the budget. So, that is all I have for you and I thank you for your time and your consideration. Does anyone have any questions? >> I have a question from from sorry from the inception of the program back in 20189 when we started with 54 it see and I know during that one year was co yes is the reason it went down >> um other than that it seems like each year it's going down a little bit is there any rationale

037for that or what have you noticed >> well it fluctuates back and forth and a lot of times when you see the lower years it's because we have children that have moved on so Some years we have a lot of twos and threes, some years we have a lot of fours and fives. So, it fluctuates back and forth. >> Okay. >> Yeah, >> I know our uh overall um census in the district has declined and I I didn't know if that might be a mitigating factor. >> That's certainly possible. >> Yeah. Okay. Thank you, honey. >> You're welcome. >> Question program set up. >> Yes. Currently Dair has a program called the Tiny Trojans and LRO had one called the Little Learners and when when the three programs were the two Dair and Lrobe happened

038after Tiny Rams did and then when the group funer group came together, the regional funder group, they discussed having the different programs and what they what the intention was was that each district would run and do their programs as they saw fit for the needs of their specific district. So, how dairy runs theirs or how Lake Trobe did theirs, I'm not sure. I just know how we how we do ours. >> Okay. Thank you. >> Yes. >> I have a question. Of the 25 um students that you had this year, can you break that up from the north end to the south end? >> Um I could email you that. I don't know it off the top of my head. >> Okay. I'd appreciate that. >> Sure. >> Thank you. >> Okay. Thank you. Next

039is the certified QBS training. Good evening. Uh there's no real presentation. I just wanted to explain the board vote tonight to our community so they could understand what a QBS trainer is. We have had two trainers in the district. one of the trainers stepped down. They are in-house teachers who have volunteered to take on that role. And what safety uh care or QBS is and really it's a uh competencybased crisis prevention training designed to provide our staff with skills for prevention and minimizing and managing challenging behaviors. Um and the district provides deescalation and nonviolent training um in a routine basis and it's over our act 80 days. Teachers, principals, counselors and security guards all get trained pair selected pair of professionals. Uh right now like I said we only have one on-site district trainer. So

040the district is committed to maintaining two districts inside the district because there is a cap if we only have one. she can only train so many people. So, it's really hard with just one trainer. Um, this allows that flexibility and also to maintain certification. So, I do want to thank the teacher that did step up to volunteer to do this um to go and get the training. So, really, it's just to the community what it is and why we need that second person. And I appreciate the board's consideration on this tonight. Thank you. >> Thank you. Next is the athletic department updates. All right. Good evening. So, uh, I've been asked by the student experience committee to come up and talk about two things that are not, uh, going to be voted on tonight, but

041I'm going to bring to the June board, uh, meeting for vote, uh, for things that, uh, one I want, and then, well, not want, but need for our athletic department. And then the other is a guideline for, uh, upcoming home athletic event policies for next year. Um we went through I went through and I was asked to create uh a guideline for our home athletic uh event policy or not policy I want to use guideline not policy um just for stuff that we have done to put it on paper. Uh so basically uh all I'm asking is just to have a guideline for uh children's in grades K through eight. they must be accompanied by a parent, guardian or responsible adult uh for entry um and throughout the duration of the event. Um we have

042found in the past there are sometimes where there are students obviously not in the elementary school level but maybe the middle school level that are just getting dropped off by their parents and then picked up. Um I know firsthand for me I had a few a few instances where I had to wait after the game for the parent to come pick up their their child. Um the and then obviously uh we don't uh we don't allow really re-entry once they're uh they are a paid uh ticketer. So uh if they do leave the facility uh we want that posted to where uh if they leave they are not allowed to re-enter without buying a new ticket. Uh we've had instances uh with uh certain students that would uh leave Wellerfield to go to the Friendship

043Park, come back. So, it was kind of difficult for our staff down there to monitor that situation. So, uh we're just looking for that to be on paper so we can uh get some signage up down there. Um so, that's basically it. And then obviously the supervision and conduct uh I just wanted to be known uh on paper. Um, you know, if there is any loitering, unsupervised activity, um, you know, any any type of unsportsmanlike behavior, they are obviously able to be removed by either myself, uh, uh, staff down there and or, uh, you know, police that are there at games uh, to help with that and policing all that. So, that would be one thing that I would send out to the board uh, once we go over it again one more time in

044student experience committee um, for you guys to vote on in June. Um and then the other thing I do wanted to bring to everybody's attention that I have been researching since um my website has been purchased by another company. So it's been very difficult this year for me to um maintain a proper website. Um currently we had up until September uh we had what was called our school today scheduling system with VNN sports. So VNN sports was basically like our sports information hub. Uh the website that we utilize that I utilized that I actually pushed for when I returned from Ringled. Uh I used it down there and it was a very good sports information type website where uh the day after I could put up um athletic stories uh from the games before uh

045you know put up certain type of articles about sports signups, sports physicals, things like that. Currently I don't have that. in September, early fall. Um, our school today and VNN Sports were bought out by two separate companies. So, my scheduling system, our school was bought out by Arbiter. Um, and then VNN Sports was bought bought out by PlayOn Sports. So, those two um entities don't mingle right now. Uh, so currently if I put something in the school today, it takes days um for it to actually upload to play on sports. Uh, sometimes earlier, sometimes later. So the athletic schedule for the community isn't up to date because they do not sync well enough. Uh so I am looking for a um website that does allin-one. Uh which I think I found. Uh I went over

046um in not in detail yet. Uh but I do have um some things that I'm going to send to the board after again I meet with the student uh experience committee. It's called Event Link. Um it's actually going to be in the long run a little cheaper than what we're doing now. Um, but it has everything that we will need as an athletic department that I've had before. Um, and then some. Um, it's going to give us the ability to, uh, have those stories back, have the updated scheduling, uh, uh, immediately. It's going to also, um, give us some certain things to where we could personalize our site. Um, because I currently use a a application called Gipper. If you've seen the game day, meet me day, all those things that we put on uh,

047Facebook and things like that. Uh it actually is already in event link. So that may could potentially be another cost savings where I could utilize their package for that. Um it has uh faculty or a facility management. So potentially once I get trained on this I'm able to utilize all buildings into one. Uh I know currently we have five different or four different facility uh calendars. So this could help. Um and uh another thing I was I asked Event Link they are able to do this. We can upload my PIAA sippy forms on there. Uh so once our arbiter registration contract runs out, I'm able to utilize this in lie of that uh to upload uh physical paperwork instead of having it uh paper distributed. So um if there's any questions, I just wanted to

048give you a quick rundown of what I'm trying to accomplish here in the next month to bring up to June. Can >> I ask a question? Um what made you go K through eight with the um guidelines? >> Um just uh with the research I've done uh through other schools like I looked at York, Greensburg, Salem, Janette, Hefield, Connellsville, East Alagany. That that seems about standard across the board because we're looking at 9 through 12 as young adults. So we'll treat them as such um until you know they they lose that right. >> Excuse me. Can you give me any insight as to what hap does a student have to leave the building and return with a responsible adult? So if a lot of kids I've seen stay after school for sporting events in the

049middle school. >> Yeah. No, that would be something. >> Are they are they required to leave and then wait for someone to bring them back? >> In this instance, yes. um we would try to have them go home and come back unless they could at least let us know that somebody is coming at the 6:00 start for them. Um I know that's a small percentage. Uh but we would have to look at that um moving forward. >> Maybe the coach could take some ownership of those kids if they're there for a sport or an >> Well, let me clarify. Are you asking for athletes or spectators? Well, they're they're they're athletes in a separate sport is what you're saying. Um I'm saying maybe the coach could take some responsibility of those of students at least

050till their parents got there or what have you. >> Yeah, very true. Cuz e even so even if it's a regular day, no games and practices, the coaches aren't allowed to leave until they're proper adult comes and gets them. So that could be the same same practice as well. >> Would they need some kind of a release to do that >> to stay after practice until the game? Well, I'm just I you know, it seems like there's a there's a guideline that you want to use and I'm just asking the what if questions that we're probably going to field for that. So, I understand the concept. I'm not disagreeing. I'm just trying to >> consider all the questions that are going to come from that. >> No, that's fine. We could look at those too

051when they come as well. Like, this is not the end all be all, but again, it's guidelines that I'm trying to put out just to make the experience a little bit safer. >> Yeah. No, I understand what you're doing. That's okay. Could I add in there at the middle school level, no students stay after school to be spectators at a sporting event because there is no supervision. So some students do walk downtown and they come back, but we at no point have students in the building and sporting events. 226 at the basketball. >> That's this was this was more for sorry varsity athletic home events. Yes, sorry, did not explain that. So, I apologize. But yeah, this is more for varsity athletic events that are later in the evening. >> Oh, okay. >> Any other

052questions about the guidelines and or event link? Cool. Thank you. Next, we have uh the 2627 preliminary budget presentation. I don't know how I did it. >> Well, everybody, welcome this evening. We have the uh preliminary 2026 27 preliminary budget for the school district. Oh, wow. What a year. Again, this is just preliminary. We have to uh as the guidelines here as we prepare for the budget under the act uh one 2000 2006 rules the uh timelines are based upon the primary election we to do it 90 days prior to that. So we would had to either have a preliminary preliminary budget done by February 18th 2026 or adopt a resolution saying we're we were not going to go over the index. Uh we chose back in November to do adopt the resolution. So, November

05317th, 2025, we said if we were going to raise taxes, we weren't going to raise it over the 3 and a half% index. So, that leads us to today. Today, we'll be uh going through and passing the proposed budget, which we have to have on advertised for 30 days. So, that's why our June meetings changed a little bit to June 22nd. That will be the fourth Monday of that month for the passage of the final budget. And as I'm going through here, please ask any questions you have because there's a lot of data and a lot of numbers. Okay, here we go. 2627 proposed budget. It's f on the f uh further right hand side. Uh and this does proposed budget does show an increase of three mills in taxes. So you'll see on the

054top line there from 2526 budget to the 2627 proposed our local you'll see a local increase of almost $600,000 and I'll go over the reason why it increased. Uh the state went from about 14 million to 14.4. I'll go over that and our federal revenues. You can see back to 23 24 to where we are right now. The co money has been done for a couple years uh two years and then the next year will be the third year. So overall, we're budgeting uh proposing for about a $36.1 million revenue that we have going and I'll go in detail more of this. The expenditures on the right hand side uh totally propo uh proposing about $37.4 million with expenditures. So where does that leave us? About $1.284 million short compared to last year it's it's

055about the same. So you can see it how it's increased uh systematically. uh 23 24 was one of the last years we did have a small surplus. 242 we did budget around a $600,000 deficit. We did get the uh special ed contingency money that year that helped out and uh so that was really close to where budget was for 2425 20 or 23 2425 2526 were we're budgeted 1.2 million. I'll give you an update where I think we stand on that. It's a little bit better. We got some good news. is we did get the contingency money again for special ed of 150,000 and 2627 like I said with the increase we're looking about a $1.3 million deficit. So we'll go on to the fund balance. Uh as projected above we're looking at the 1.28457

056million uh deficit. Uh in this we have we are going to be using some of the committed fund balance uh $226,256 for mental health. We have two more years left on the contract with uh the uh contracted provider for 20627 2728 and we do have money committed in the fund balance for those last two years. It's not the full amount because we're using the PCCD grant to offset that. So that will take back some of the operating def deficit but we're using fund balance. So it's you know taken from one and putting into the other. There is contingency of $260,000 build in for this budget. uh we had to use a lot of it in 25 26 as you go through. I I I think that's a a reasonable amount of uh money to have

057there because you don't know who can move in and out of the district. Cyber cost, outside placements, that's that's a a very well unknown number. And then the -ate funds, this is the category 2. We budget for the whole purchases. This will we did get approved. So that 172 will be added back to offset that deficit. So that being said, the best most optimistic look here using some V fund balance not touching the contingency and getting all the state money which I'll go through in the next slide. It's still with a deficit of $625,000 with that 3 mil increase. And let's project that through what our fund balance will look like. The 2425 audit fund balance which uh was uh they presented the audit back in February. Our fund balance ended at $9.6 million. We

058know that for 2526 we use committed funds for the fitness center and the eru project. That's 742,000 which was committed uh approved by the board but was taken out of committed funds. The estimated loss I'm projecting for 2526 is about $984,000. So a little bit better than the $1.2 million. Some additional state revenue that we got but we also had some additional expenditures. And the big thing was getting that special ed contingency money. That was really helpful. What we're looking at for 2627 then um we're uh we're using committed funds 400,000 for the paving project uh on the campus and then $226,256 noted above for the mental health services. So that will take away from our committed funds. And the projected loss I have there is about 625,000 if everything goes good. So pretty much

059as we stand here, best case scenario, we we'll be down to about $6 million, $6.6 million in fund balance. And that's using $3 million now over the last two years of fund balance. That's a third of our fund balance almost that we use. So I know it's difficult with a tax increase, but I think you could see where we're going if we don't do something. And again, this is preliminary. We're still looking at all the expenditures. Uh there could be some changes for that when we do the final budget in June. But this is a a picture I wanted to paint that the fund balance that we did think was kind of high, but it goes really fast and it compounds every year if we don't make some changes from a revenue standpoint or expenditure

060standpoint. Uh the next slide, this is this sums it up right here. 58% of our revenue is based is for the local people. That that's a lot of money to put on a school district. I know at other school districts, some neighboring ones, they're getting 55% state money. So, this is this is this is not a good slide for the district. 58% local, a little bit over 40% from the state, and then we're back to the federal 2%. That's it. Now, what's that? >> Yeah, that's it. Now, why I say this, and this is very concerning, is because this was going to be the third year of tax adequacy with the new with the new money they put in for the the fair funding lawsuit. The first year we didn't get it because that stupid

061the the not a good rule about the about not taxing I'm going to be correct here. It it was a terrible rule that they um they said if you don't tax your people enough, you're not getting adequacy even though we had an adequacy deficit. year two 25 26 we found out in November oh we're getting a little piece of it $140,000 well it's better than nothing this year in the budget I they have it another $140,000 so that would go to 280 again that's very optimistic and it still only puts our share at 40%. So, if your revenues aren't growing locally, which is the majority of your of your uh revenue, we have a problem. And our expenditures are growing and they're growing within reason. So, but let me go through the rest of the

062revenue and we'll hit the expenditures. So, we are we it looks it looks like a major increase in revenues, which it is a million almost 1.1 million to offset the expenditures and a lot of that is coming from the 3M tax increase. That'll bring around $557,000 to the district. uh earned income budgeting is about 30,000 more than last year. Now, here's the bad part, and I and I I've been saying this, interest income's going down because we're using the fund balance, and the rates are dropping a little bit, but the more we use the fund balance, our interest income's going to go down as well, too. And um we see a little increase in the prek counts money, uh some increases, about $17,000. So, overall, the majority of this increase is from the local. Uh

063looking at the state basic ed, we're looking at $41,296. Now that's broken down two ways. 12,936 is more than we anticipated last year. So we're definitely going to get that, but the 28,360 that's what's proposed right now has been passed. Although that's very little if you look at the scheme of things. Same with uh special ed subsidy increased almost 37,000. Some of it was from last year, 31 thou $3,171. The bigger chunk is here in special ed. It would we would get 300 or $33,485 more. But I want to caution you that 28,000 and the $33,000 that's not guaranteed. That's what's out there. So that's $61,000 in revenue. Hopefully we'll get don't know. Uh transportation increased. Again, our costs gone up, but the CPI has gone up. So that's why we're getting more from the

064state on that. And here's the big one that really helped us last year, the ready tolearn block grant, which is the adequacy money. We did get 141,000, which we had no idea we were going to getting because that law that was in there, they took that local impact out. So, we did get $141,354 and they budgeted it again for this year. That's a lot for us, but it's a lot that's going to h hit the state budget. And the way the state budget's going, all the all the rainy day fund will be gone if they pass the budget the way it is. So summary there, we got about $29,000. I have it in there. I usually don't budget that way, but I just want to show even if we do get the maximum amount. >>

065We're falling short. And it's not it's not anybody's problems here. Now, when I get to the T when I get to the millillage tax form, you'll see the success that's been going on. You'll see the grant success. There's a lot of things to be good and there's a lot of things we've done over the last 5 years and even 10 years. Um but we're we're we're falling short. We're def definitely falling short. And um we're going to get some money increase in uh Social Security and retirement reimbures because our wages went up. Uh federal sources, Title One, two, that should be title one, two, and four. Wow. They went up about and medical access went up about $10,000. Not much. And we're decreasing uh our federal reimbursement on the bond. That bond's coming to the

066end. That we're going to lose about $18,9991 worth of reimbursement. That's going down as the interest costs go down on that. That's how we get reimbured there. Again, more grass. There you go. 70 over almost 75% of our local revenues come from real estate tax. So, we're boxed into one area, guys. That's that's it. Um, state revenues, again, only 40% of our budget. The majority of it comes from basic ed and the right ready to learn block grant which has the adequacy money. Any questions on the revenues expenditures proposed? As I said it's about $ 374 million. Uh and you'll see this this are pretty standard in in practices with this districts. It's broken down by the major functions. 1000's the instructional that's uh $20.5 million support services is about $13 million a little bit

067over $13 million student activities and I probably want to spend a little bit more time on this is where all the sports go through all the um extracurricular activities the band class sponsors all that. So we don't have a separate fund for athletics it's all in the general fund. So when they and we also have the gate money that goes in through revenues as well too, but everything for athletics goes through this goes through the general fund and all the expenses are in the 3,000 category. So if you ever want to look up where where what's athletics and extracurriculars costing us, it's about $800,000. Um the debt service and bond payment, like I said, it's down a little bit with the interest going down uh on the on the federal part of it. So we're

068down to about a little bit over $3 million in in debt service and and bond payments there. more more as we break this down more. I like to go by the the object that's a the object that's a little bit better. What what does that comprise all those areas? Well, 36 uh in wages and 24% benefits. We're looking at 60% of our budget is personnel cost. Um the wages have gone up. I mean, the wages and salaries gone up and I'll go over that. Same with the benefits. They went up some. Uh professional services uh went up a little bit. Property and services went uh went down a little bit. Um other purchase services went up some supplies and equipment and debt service but total 37.4 million. >> Yeah. >> What's that? >> I'm going

069to go through that next slide. Yeah. Okay. So, uh you can see our our revenues did increase with that, but our expenditures o also increase as well. And the salaries and wages, those are the 100 objects I talked about, increased about $372,000 or 2.84%. This is no adding no new staff. This is the current staff that we have right now will be here uh in the budget for last year will be this year. That's 119 teachers, 14 administrators, three confidential employees, 11 secretaries, 10 pair professionals, 16 maintenance/custodians, and three security guards. So it's a total of 176 staff. That's where we were last year. That's where we are this year. Uh the benefits the two thou the 200s with an increase about 354,000 or 4.06%. Uh healthc care premiums went up 7%. And and as

070you can see our premiums have increased over the last couple years, but they are on the downway side. We made some improvements with what drugs are offered. And we also the consortium did carve out the prescription. We went with another provider for prescription which saved money for the consortium. So that's trending in the right level. And I know some other neighboring consortiums, their health insurance, they're seeing 20% increases. I think one last year in Indiana, Indiana County was like 28%. So we're we're we made changes the last couple years to help keep those um the benefits in line compared to national averages. Also, our wages went up. I know our pas rate went back down again from 34% down to 33.59, but with our wages going up, there was some increase in the social security

071and the retirement. But we also saw that increase in our uh income too. We get 50% back from the state on the retirement and the social security. Um so the next categories are the 300 and 400s. That's professional property services and repairs and maintenance that in there that's the smaller amount but that went up about 120,000. That's where the OTP services were. They were getting cut the last couple years. They're back up with the number of needs that we have for our kids. E Academy has gone up the number of students participating in that. Uh PCA costs have increased. Um that makes up about 120 20,000 of that. Now the big line item is the 500s. That's the huge one. If we go back to the slide, that's $7.6 million. Well, what makes that up?

072Uh the big ones on there are outside placements are transportation and uh cyber cost and uh the uh vocational EWCTC cost. The good news there is we really only two categories. We have seen some decrease in our outside placements for services um with our with our special ed kids. Uh however our our cyber c our cyber numbers have gone up. So that's really eating in the savings of that. The two big areas of increase are uh with the transportation cost 1 169,000. That's the CPI increase from last year to this year. It's causing on that. And the EWCTC went up about 91,000 from last year's budget to this year's budget. So I'm it's good to see that we're not seeing a major increase because in the couple years prior to that, you can see that

073they're actually it it went from 7.9 to 8. I'm budgeting 7.6. We're back up to 7.9. It's still we're not seeing the major increases that have have come along here. And that's with, you know, some of the if we can bring some of these kids back from cyber and all that, that will that number will go down as well, too. Um, supplies and equipment up about 107,000. That's because we we have a big rate category, too. We budgeted, but we're adding 172 of that back. That's that's the the federal side of it, the 80%. and the dues and debt service went it went down as a result of the debt service going down and all that. So again that's a lot to take in. Um but we added something new this year this new graph

074which I'm going to give Janine credit for. You can see if if we if we want to go back five years uh June 30th 22 co money we're still looking good revenues are out uh outpacing our expenditures. Uh same again for June 30th of 23. Again getting a little bit closer using the rest of the the ASERS money. Still revenues outpacing our expenditures. June 30th of 24 again you saw a little bit. There was like $22,000. It was still good. But you know we were starting to war, you know, it was starting to look it was going the other way. We had some great state funding those years too. Uh June 30th at 25. Now we see it uh we were budgeting around a 600,000 loss came in around a $382,000 loss but we we're

075seeing it now it grew a lot in 2526 and if we didn't raise any mills in 2627 we have been about 8 8 1.8 million short and you can see that gap widening and if the the millage increase if we do if the final is 3 mill you can see we're decreasing that down to that 1.2 2 million plus if we have some other other things that go right. But you know that whole slide with the with the fund balance use this this 6.6 million. I mean that's we're it it goes fast. I mean you you could have a a nice fund balance but you got to control what you can control with the expenditures and we're trying to do the best we can and the revenues are limited where they're coming from. Let's get

076on to a little bit better news. There's the fund balance. Uh I projected the 2526 what was up there. Then what was going to happen for 20 uh 627 to get down to the 6.6 million. But some of the good news here was the GR like I added we had this was the first time we had it last year. The grants I updated now for the last five years. I mean we're almost at $5 million worth of grants and these are competitive grants. These aren't things that you just get. Uh so that's like a 25 point 28 point uh 28 and a/4 mil taxes that were saved. I mean uh you you can see some of the bigger ones there, the top ones with the the baseball field, the DCED grant, the special ed contingency

077now we've got it over those years. Uh mental health grant that we got the one year private money for the baseball complex. Uh dual enrollment, we got that one year of 75,000. So the list goes on and on there. This is a lot that was good and um I don't have it on the slide here, but I know a board member asked me what what happened the last five years in this district between sports facilities and um buildings. We put $7.2 million into these buildings and sports athletics over the last 5 years and again without a tax increase. So, I think we've been managing the money properly, using the fund balance properly, um, and still getting a lot and getting grants to offset these these um, capital improvements that we've done in the district. There's

078been a lot of good things that have been done. And I I I just think it's it's good and the grants helped us a lot on that. Unknowns. Uh, when when's the state budget going to be passed? I'm hearing it's election year. It's coming in July, but I don't know. I saw I read something today. They're far apart. The Senate wants their bill to go through and the House has theirs. So, I don't know. Uh the special ed contingency money, will we get that again? I mean, that's a can't budget for it. It's competitive. We don't know if we'll get it. Uh title one, title two, and IDA allocations are unknown at this point. We'll get that later. And then the cyber charter reform, we're getting a little bit reform this year. They're going to

079let us deduct 80% of our facilities instead of 60, but that's no major impact. I'd still would love to have the fixed fee for that to get that there. Um here here's I know somebody was asking me this is the the big slide here the millage rate. Okay, where we were in 2009 2010 uh 69 mil you can see as we go through there no increase 1011 112 there was a 4 mil increase 1213 2 mil increase freeze for 15 1.5 ms 1516 no mill increase 1617 1.8 1718 1.7 1819 1.9 and then 201920 was 1.8 8 and the last increase was right before co I'll never forget it was my first meeting I just got hired that night had nothing to do with the budget but there was so much unknown there I I

080think the 2.5 two mil 2 mill increase a little bit over 2 mill increase set us up for some success there and then getting the co money we were to manage it well over these next five years so um if you look we would be about 80 88.9 mills and that's it's 19.9 mills over the 18 years history that I have up here. And I know tax increase isn't popular, but uh I think the things that we've done and the way we managed it and and gave a lot of relief over the five last five years is good. And I wasn't going to put I didn't put this in writing, but we are 17 out of 17 the lowest millage in in West Morland County right now. So we that that's something to be proud

081about. I think we managed the finances good and we're it's not a bad thing. Yeah. And I think even with this three mil increase, I looked at the the one that was se second lowest right now. Their increase is higher than ours. So I think we'd still be 17. But again, I don't want to joke about it. It's serious. It's a serious thing. Um, so what would this cost taxpayers? So I updated this from last year, the market value assess assessment, a 1 mil increase um by different you take the market value to get it down to the assessed value. So I'm going to use the pointer here. If you want to look at the assessed value here, this is what the millage rate would be calculated on. So if your assessed property value is

082$13,321, it's about $13 per mill. Now the next one, the the $17,762, I want to point this out. That's $17 $17.76 per mill per year of if you look at node three, the medium assessed homestead value is uh is is is that right about that number right there. I think it's 17,840. Of that, if you on three mills, it's $53. properties that are under under approved for homestead farmstead of the 4370 that are approved are below are at or below the 17762. So, the Homestead Farmstead's really important because those are the ones that have the individual houses. You get that reduction on your taxes from the gaming money. So this shows that a lot of our how it affect most of our taxpayers. It's looking like it would affect almost half of the over half

083of the ones that have the homestead farmstead. That's what the real impact would be dollar-wise. About $53 a year on a three mill mil mill increase. And that's important. The taxpayers need to know that. Still unknown beyond that. Where where's future I know where the federal money is going. It's not going good. the state money. You know, we had the finance committee back in uh in in at the end of April and you saw the money's just not being where it was for those couple years and the funding with since CO for federal has been gone away and still we're hoping more for more cyber reform after the 2627 budget. That's it. Questions? Again, preliminary, we have the 30-day coinoff period. We advertise in the paper that the budget's available for inspection at my office

084and uh and we'll present the final one in June then. >> Okay. So, you're looking more like an optimist and we need a realist with what you're projecting. You're projecting the best case scenario and I think it should be we should also consider what is the worst case scenario. Yes, that's a very good question. Let me go back. Let me go back to this one. And that's a very good question because this is very optimistic. So, what could it be? Uh the the bad part is we can use the 260,000 money for contingency for people that move in increase cyber outside placements that can go away. Um so that takes that 625 up to 885,000 even with a 3 mil increase. we don't get the $29,000 from the state that we're hoping. Maybe it's only

08550,000. So there's another $169,000. So you potentially $429,000 that we might not get. So that takes it over a million dollars that could be deficit wise and make sure our cyber numbers don't grow. I mean, there's expenditures out there, you know, no control on. I know we had a lot of people move into the district that didn't even come to this school. They were at cyber schools at other places and they went right to their cyber schools. No control over that at all. So that that could be the worst that could probably be the worst case scenario. You're probably looking at about $1.1 million deficit, but still using fund balance to offset the committed funds for the mental health services as well. So that that number could be more around $6 million at the uh

086even with a 3 mill increase, that could still be a $6 million. We're down to a fund balance, which would be using about $3.6 million over fund balances in two years. Mhm. >> So if we're using the fund balance, the interest that we're getting off that, where are we making that money on? >> That's going to. So that 50,000 you saw this year, that'll go down more next year than as well, too. >> Yeah. So it compounds and you know that was some of the things when I started hearing the interest rates were under 1%. They were you're lucky if you're getting tenth of a percent when when it was going on. The one year was budgeted. We $80,000. We got we got good rates. They started going up. That's why we're able to add

087to the fund balance and budgeting conservately it added up too. But you know as we saw these rates and locked them in we were getting over 4% on some of these rates. That's what took us up to the 550,000 which was our peak last year. So within a couple year period you saw a $470,000 growth in interest because the rates went up and we were able to keep or m increase the fund balance or maintain it. But as that goes down and the rates go down the interest income's going to go down as well. So that would be beyond the 20 that would be for 2728. You can see that $500,000 interest number more look like around $400,000 if the interest rates continue going down and the use of fund balance. Yeah, that'd be could

088be another $100,000 worth of lost revenue locally. Yeah, >> Mr. Kos, you started to speak about it, but can you talk about why the fund balance is more than just a savings account? It's a it's an earmark for the uh fiscal uh reliability of the district. >> Yeah, if you remember when we went over the audit, um this is what the bond ratings look at. If you're if you have a strong fund balance, you're going to pay the they'll they'll borrow they'll lend you the money. You'll get the best interest rates. As that fund balance goes down, if we do have to borrow money, the interest rate, it's more of a risk. It's going to be uh higher interest rate you'll pay there. And I know that the one statement we pointed out um was

089the governmentalwide statement and we have all the assets and liabilities of the district. And I said one thing that was really good there, we were almost our our net asset position was only negative mill $1 million and that was with $33 million of peasers debt on there. That's strong. But as we start using the fund balance, that number negative number keeps growing. And at the fund level, the fund balance grows and it's going to, you know, when we're gonna eventually have to borrow more money when when the bonds are out and facilities need updated in in the 2033 34 year. If our fund balance is in there, if we don't if we don't have a strong position, it's going to be increasing uh in borrowing costs. >> Eric, is there a minimum that the state

090requires before something? >> Well, there's no minimum. What they say is if you can have 8% unassigned in your fund balance up to that before raising taxes, but um you can also commit funds, which we've done over the years, commit funds, and it's it's smart to do that. We were doing some research because somebody asked me the question at that committee meeting. What's the best thing to have? I said 8% unassigned of your budget and 8% capital. Do a little bit more research. They they said you should probably 12%. So 8 8% unassigned and 4% at least for your committed or your capital projects fund. So 12%'s a pretty good I' I'd start worrying a little bit after that. But when the state the state doesn't matter. the state matters when you can't pay your

091bills. That's when they come in and you don't want to get into that situation because and and doing some research around here there might be a couple schools going that way and that's not good. Definitely not good. >> So with this um proposed and proposed 3 mil increase, it's still a deficit that we have to use our fund balance. At what point will our fund balance run out? There's a lot of unknowns in that because we don't know what the state and federal funding is going to be. We we have all of our contracts coming out in 2728. So, we know what some of the costs will be. Um, but the biggest variable, like I said, is our state money. We don't know where it's going to go. If we're at the pace right now

092we're going and we, you know, the worst case hits and we're down to 600 thou 6 million in fund balance and nothing major changes and the state funding is not there and all that it you can go probably 28 29 year we could be in some serious serious problems and uh we don't we don't want to get to that point. So I think with a 3M increase this helps us use some of our fund balance but we have to strategically look at all the expenditures which we're still through going through 26 27 and 2728 we have to look at them again. Uh I know we might we have anRI out there for you know it expires at the end of the 27 28 year keep looking at that but then we also have to look

093where everything's coming in about if there is a future mill increase. I don't know because we don't know a lot of the stuff, but we might be able to have to increase taxes then, but we use our fund balance to offset that to come to a nice point. >> Yeah. >> And and to have that 8 to 12% or like 12% fund balance, that's with your operating budget at zero. That's what you still want to have on there. You don't want to be borrowing each year to lower that that 8 to 12% in there. >> When you say 12%, what do what do you say? >> 12% of the budget. 8 to 8 to 12% of the budget. >> Okay. So, you're saying 12% of $30 million $37 million. Yeah. which is like $4.4 million.

094>> No, hold on. Let me get my >> I was going to say unless I put it in my calculator wrong. >> Let me get my brain's fried right now. Our budget is So, let's go to expenditures because that's what the expenses are. So, >> well, so if you're at a $37 million budget and you want to keep 12% of that, >> yeah, 37 >> that's $4.44 44 million. That's 12%. >> Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. But that's if you have a balanced budget. Our bud our operation budget is Yeah. Exactly. Yeah. >> Right. So if So if we would work things out that we still have to take money out of the oper, you know, THE THE FACT WE'RE STILL GOING TO BE at that 12. We're still going to be well over that 12% for

095this year. >> Yeah. Well, if we if worst case we go to that 6 million and we're 4.8, we're still 1.2, but >> you have to look now the next couple years, you want to you're probably have to use some of that fund balance because the act one index won't let you raise taxes to where you need to be. See, we're stuck now with the act one index. You can't go over that. And now that we get adequacy money, we can't even apply for the exceptions. >> That's out. >> so do they recalculate that every year? >> The index? Yes. >> Okay. >> It was it was 4% last year. This year's index is three and a half%. >> Okay. So there's a lot of variables there. So that's why schools if you don't >>

096I guess I want to bring it now because I don't want to be here three year two to three years from now saying we can't raise taxes anyways. Yeah. This is really it's it's it's compounding and it needs to be pointed out there. >> We still can use that 1.2 million if it's the worst case scenario to bal help balance it to increase taxes where we can to offset meet in a happy medium and still have that 12%. Yeah. >> Right. >> Yeah. >> Good question. >> All good questions. Thanks. >> Yeah, I think >> being Oh, sorry. >> Can you hear me? >> John has a question. >> Yeah, John. >> Eric, can you hear me? >> Yes, I can hear you. >> Okay, Eric, I I truly feel that as a board member,

097and I feel what I've seen in our board meetings, I don't think that we're fully informed on what we can and cannot do. Uh, I think we could go another budget or two and not put us in to any detriment as far as our funding. And number three, what I'm disappointed with is with all the outstanding delinquent tax money that we have, how much have we collected this year on delinquent taxes? >> We budget around $700,000 a year. I mean, our collection rate is pretty strong with the 90 almost 95%. uh in other districts I was at was never that high. So, the delinquency, >> how much did we collect this year or last year? >> Well, we don't I don't have that number that's not closed out yet. Uh I'm anticipating we'll get around

098the $700,000 amount that we have budgeted. Yes. >> That you're anticipating for delinquent taxes or that you're recovering? No, that's the delinquent tax collections that we will I'm anticipating for the 25 26 year >> because I think there's a lot of housekeeping issues that we need to address based on what's happened over the last 10 years. >> Well, with if you're talking about the >> we've got we've got declining enrollment. We're going to have more retirements coming up in the next two years. And that's why I think we've got time to analyze this much deeper. >> Okay. >> Sarah. >> Oh, no. It it's just just some thoughts. you know, just being on this finance committee, being on the board, um what has been really eyeopening is the amount of um outside placements, transportation, cyber

099school funding. It's it it's if if those things weren't in our budget, you know, we have to provide um for all of the students in the district, no matter what their capabilities are, you know, when it comes to outside placements in certain situations, special education, like it's it's a significant part of our budget. Um >> and having 234 square miles in the district is a huge thing for our transportation. It is. It's huge. And thankfully, you know, you got that fuel right before the the war started. So, um, >> let me see. >> Anything else? >> Thank you. >> Um, governance committee update. >> Oh, yeah. Yeah. Um so the update we have actually was just a very last minute update. I had a meeting today with vice president of SBAE which e which is

100the school boards for the um school boards for academic >> academic excellence. Yes. There we go. Um we I had been trying to get a hold of this company for the last couple of months. Their website was done but Christy and I were able to have a Zoom meeting with vice president today. Um, it seems like this is going to be a a company that we're going to be able to use and to fulfill our our policy issues, our governance issues, our um training that we have to have by um according to the state, uh, the gentleman that we talked to was housed out of Colorado, but he is going to send us he has contacts, he has lawyers that specialize in Pennsylvania law and know all the updates that are coming out of PD.

101de um he has uh certified governance um people that can do training for us and the really cool thing about this is it's like absolutely free um I did have and I am going to be meeting with um Dr. Capusta. I sent a video to her. Um they every uh Friday uh the first Friday of every month they have a a Friday brunch bunch that they do a video on something. And this this month's just happened to be on special education. So I sent it to her to ask her to review it just to evaluate um the competency of this company so that we knew you know so we get some kind of an idea um where she feels you know the video was worth. And then I had sent a newsletter um to um

102Mr. Zorchack about um the science of reading. Their their newsletter last week just happened to be about the statemandated science of reading which was really cool seeing how we just went through that the last couple years. So I'll be talking to both of them to get their input about you know way what they feel about the validity and the um the level of you know training and information that we can get from this company. So, I'll just keep you updated as as we get the information. They will be um able to come and do a Zoom meeting like we had from PSBA. Uh the gentleman we talked today just had to get it set up with his director. So, look forward to that in the future. Um so, everybody can ask questions. Um you know,

103similar to what we did for PSBA. >> Oh, I have one one update. >> Um I I have an update on our second goal pro board oversight and approval procedures. part of this process will explore diligent communities and or PSBA. So part of that's what Cindy said, but also um we had a working session meeting uh in the policy area where we're going to explore um reformatting the policies and making them all consistent. So that's an update there that will hopefully make um uh document storage a lot nicer. >> Thank you. Human Resources Committee. >> Sorry. Um we did hire um two new maintenance people. One was to replace Brandon who was promoted from his regular maintenance position and now he's the maintenance supervisor. Um so we had to fill his spot. The other um

104position that we hired was to help with maintenance with all of the facilities where we were really lacking in those areas. Um so we felt it best to bring another person on. Um there was a custodian position that the person didn't accept the position and another person was going to be considered for a substitute position and they declined as well due to other employment. So, long story short, we moved some people around, but we do still have one custodian position available, but it has not been filled as of yet. So, Eric, correct me if I'm wrong. It's really not a increase in positions at this point. It's kind of like a wash. >> Yeah. So, it's not any new increase in in budget money. Um, let's see. Just want to make sure I'm not missing

105anything. Just some basic um items we're going to look at regarding leaves of absences and things like that. We're going to look at the supplemental contracts. And there's really nothing crazy new going on with all that other than the hires for maintenance. Student success and facilities. >> In regards to uh facilities, what we've been working on is our five-year plan. And I'm very happy to say that we're finally starting to see the light at the end of the tunnel. And hopefully it's not the oncoming train, but in all the projects that we've been looking at and the information that we've been getting, we're going to give priority to those uh upgrades in the school buildings that relate to student safety, particularly those that are dealing with um for example at at u um Laurel Valley

106looking at >> we can't talk about that. Okay, I'm sorry. previews of coming attractions I guess later on but uh we're going to be looking at making the buildings more secure and then uh looking at what other issues as they come up assigning a rating system to them so that over a 5-year period that we can actually go and then make more managed decisions on it. Uh we're hoping to have that actually we're not hoping we will we will have it for the June meeting. >> Thank you. Student Experience Committee. >> Uh the excuse me, the second goal for this year um is on the agenda tonight. Um the motion to uh approve in the uh coaches handbook the policy defining the selection process for coaches, assistant coaches, and volunteer coaches. So, we can consider

107that one completed at this point. >> Thank you. Um, back to the student success and facilities. Your building and grounds asset list was completed. Correct. Okay. >> All right. That takes us to the ad hoc committee for the school lunch program. Director Brown. >> All righty. So, I wrote up a report. I didn't want to miss anything from my notes, so I wrote up a report because it was it was a good meeting. It was. So, I'll just read my report and go down from here. So the Mills ad hoc committee convened on Friday, May 8th to evaluate the progress with the cafeteria breakfast and lunch programs. In attendance were parents, nurses, administration, and the Mets representation. The all over response was very positive with the exception of a few concerns that were brought up

108by the parents such as cereal options at breakfast, activities during lunch, heating foods and plastic, and kids still coming home hungry. The report shows that the students are happier, the nurses are happier, and the parents are happier. accomplishments over the past school year were to offer three hot breakfasts each week and Jen that's from Mets reported that breakfast participation increased during the year. All staff are helping with educating the littles to make best food choices with the nurses heading up the instruction. The nurses reported that they are no longer seeing the hunger spikes that was a huge concern at the beginning of this year. Average BMI was reported at 31% which is down from the last report which I believe I got at the end of last year which was 41%. And lunch consisted of

10912 amazing options this past year which the pictures are really good and they look wonderful. As we look ahead to our next year, the committee brainstormed about starting a centers at each school where the students can actively be engaged in growing their foods. Similar to the middle school, uh Mr. So, Horchek will be looking into a fresh fruits and vegetables grant that once existed for funding. Uh, Jen Formets, her goal for next year is to offer a hot breakfast every day, which I was super thrilled about. She will continue to progress with healthy food choices. I would also like to announce that next year everyone will continue to get free breakfast and lunches and but remember your children can still buy more food so that they don't go home hungry. So much was accomplished this

110year. Mr. Moles will be handling any complaints about the mills program through the parent advisory committee. Therefore, I'm closing down this ad hoc committee. I would like to thank Jen and the people from Mets, the nurses, the staff, the parents for working collaboratively during the past year to make this a huge success. Thank you to our kitchen staff who have been working extremely hard to present such eye pleasing choices and we love their cafeteria decorations. >> Thank you. Um, that's the end and we will adjourn at 7:33. I hereby call to order the regular board meeting of the Ligoner Valley School District on May 18th, 2026 at 7:33 p.m. Starting with the pledge of allegiance. I pledge algiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for which it stands.

111One nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. >> Mr. Secretary, can we have a roll call, please? >> Yes. Mrs. Boyd, >> present. >> Mrs. Brown, >> here. >> Mr. Fitchwell, >> here. >> I'll note via phone. Uh, Dr. Fryman >> here, >> Mrs. Hutchinson >> here, >> Mr. Nup >> here, >> Mrs. Cromwell >> here, >> Mrs. Robotti >> here, >> Mr. Stephy >> here, >> nine present. >> Executive session report. >> Uh, yes, there was three, well, four executive sessions held. Uh, the first one was May 5th, 2026 from 8:50 a.m. to 9 a.m. regarding a personnel matter. The second one was from May 11 on May 11th, 2026 from 2:31 p.m. to 3:58 p.m. regarding personnel, contract, and and legal matters. An additional one was held on May 11th,

1122026 from 4:38 p.m. to 4:47 p.m. with a contractual matter. And there was one this evening on um 5:18 2026 from 5:16 p.m. to 5:58 p.m. regarding personnel and contracts. >> Are there any motions that need amended or added to the agenda? >> Madame President, I would like to amend E2926, please, to include the cost of each fellow of $700 per fellow per month. get that, Mr. Secretary. >> I will note that. >> Moving to old business. I'm asking that second. Give me a second and a vote. >> Yes. >> A second. >> Rodi. Having a motion and a second. All those in favor indicate by saying I. >> I. >> Any opposed. Hearing none. Motion approves. >> Okay. Then we have to have a a public comment if anybody has on the change for

113the motion. >> Great. Is there any public comment on the change? >> No. >> Sorry. Procedure. >> It's okay. It's okay. Can I can I explain why I pulled that? I talked to Christie and we the public can't see the enclosure contract on that. The price is listed in the contract itself, but for transparency, we thought it was important that we put that amount in the motion so that um everybody knew what that was. >> Okay. Now moving to old business. I am asking that approval be given to the minutes of the April 20th, 2026 committee of the whole meeting and to the minutes of the April 20th, 2026 regular meeting. >> So moved. >> Second. No. >> Having a motion and a second to approve the minutes. Please indicate by saying I. >> I.

114>> Any opposed? >> Motion carries. Please note that motion F3526 from the previous agenda was pulled from last month's regular meeting um held on April 20th and is this month's uh motion F4226. Are there any other items that require follow-up from previous agendas? Hearing none, we will now now move to new business. There are no hearing of the citizens this evening. Uh Mr. Secretary, any reports? I'm none this evening. >> Superintendent. >> Yes. Thank you, Madam President. Uh, good evening everyone. As we approach the close of another successful school year, I'd like to take a f a few moments this evening to recognize several accomplishments across the Ligonier Valley School District. First, I'd like to commend our high school administrative team and their staff for outstanding work during this year's Keystones ad uh exam administration.

115In a first for me professionally, our district underwent an an official monitoring visit regarding our testing procedures and protocols. While we always prepare thoroughly, this visit confirmed what we already know that our staff's professionalism uh and attention to detail. I would like to spec specifically recognize Mr. Zahorch, Mrs. Curtzil, Mrs. Fouse, Mrs. Mr. Finger, and Mrs. Pim, and all the faculty and staff who assisted as test monitors. Thanks to their preparation, organization, and commitment to doing things the right way, the district received a completely clean audit. That is something to be very proud of, and I thank them for representing Livir Valley so well. I'd also like to celebrate an impressive showing by our students in the West Morland America West Morland America 250PA student contest. Uh students from across the district earned numerous awards

116in both poster and essay categories, competing against students throughout the West Morland County. at RK Melon Elementary. Congratulations to Heidi Gerlac, and Katherine Grace for their award-winning fourth grade posters. At the middle school, congratulations to Laya Botcher, Hattie Nogle, Caleb Sutton, Giana Lonis, Miley Goswick, Wyatt Kaufman, Sophia Johnson, and Isela Nup for earning honors in both essay and poster competitions. at the high school level. Congratulations to Ryan Mahoney, Jessica Mack, Katrina Bennett, Ryan Sabbo, Sierra Acriman, and Danielle Tenny for award-winning essays. These accomplishments uh reflect not only the talents of our students, but also the support and guidance provided them by their teachers and families. We are proud of all of them and uh appreciative of their opportunities to provide through the America 250PA initiative, our community partners. Also want to personally share how much

117I enjoyed attending the spring concerts of both the middle school and high school last week. Our student musicians and directors delivered outstanding performances that showcase both talent and tremendous dedication. I'm look forward to attending the elementary concert tomorrow evening and continuing to celebrate the arts across the district. Finally, congratulations to Coach Bush and the Ligonier Valley varsity baseball team on qualifying for the Whipio playoffs. Reaching postseason competition is a significant accomplishment and we are proud of their hard work, perseverance, and teamwork demonstrated throughout the season. Thank you to our students, staff, families, and community for your continued support of the Ligonier Valley School District. That concludes my report. >> Thank you. Solicitor report. >> Nothing for public session. >> Okay. Um, is there an LVA report this evening? >> Here, >> Director Brown, do you

118have an EWCTC report? Um I do and I'm I'm at Christiey's request on expanding my report to include a little bit of business items. So during the April 22nd meeting besides the normal monthly motions which are like the financials all that thing that we do we number one passed five policy revisions and presented three for first read. Number two we approved the aspiring educators program of study to begin uh at the beginning of the 2627 school year which we are so very excited about um doing that. We are in the throws of getting all theus worked out um with dairy getting things worked out and set up and we are getting ready to advertise for the teacher for that um program. Very excited about that. Um number three, we hired Jason Palmer as our full-time

119SSO. He was a part-time um SSO for us and he was looking for full-time employment. Uh we thought we were going to lose him and this guy is he's aces. He's really great. So, we made him a um a full-time offer with a package. so he accepted it. Um, so we were glad to retain him. Number four, we approved three summer technology maintenance interns. Number five, sadly, we approved the retirement of Elaine Hofferman, who is um Todd Wymer's executive secretary after being there like forever. Uh, but she's anxious to move on. She they built a new house, so she's anxious to get into that. And number six, we hired a new substitute teacher TA for the 2020 2025, excuse me, 2026 2027 school year. Uh notes from the director. Uh four students from the CTC

120were recognized by the Greater LRO Laurel Valley Chamber of Commerce for excellence in education, two from LRO, two from Dair. They ranked in the top 5% of their graduating class and were honored at a banquet. The health occupations technology students blood drive garnered 31 units of blood. Adding this total to the fall drive, the scholarship program gained $250. There are only five units shy of a $500 scholarship. So, the drive has been extended until June 30th. You can sign up virtually or go to and go to the nearest collection center. Uh the number to call is 877258-4825. And I gave um Rachel a flyer to put in the high school in case you didn't get all that information. Uh let's try and get them over the top because that that'll make them a $500 scholarship.

121And last but not least, um tomorrow night, the senior uh recognition ceremony will be ho held at the Greater Lro Senior High School Auditorium. Senior videos begin at 6:45 with the ceremony beginning at 7 p.m. >> Thank you. >> Can I ask a question? Um, Director Brown, when did you approve the motion to um approve PSBA for EWCTC? Last month. >> So, why would you approve it at EWCTC, but not here? >> Didn't we go over this at the committee hall meeting last week? >> We did, but the public was not there. So, I'd like it on record. >> It was videoed. >> Okay. Well, could you explain it again? Well, before you asked me why I approved that, you would also need to ask Mr. Stephy and Mrs. Hutcherson why they approved it whenever

122at least Mr. Stephy voted. >> I'm not asking why they approved it because you're the president. So, I'm asking if you >> Okay. So, I'm going to give you my two reasons why. Number one, I work with two other school district over there. Both of them belong to PSBA. So in order to not cause distress and when we collaborately have to work together I voted to stay there. Um another reason with that is one of the reasons that I don't like belonging to PSBA is because of the amount of close association they have with the superintendence committee. But because a CTC is different than the superintendent committee u Mr. Wymer is not locked in to the close ties with PSBA like the regular districts are. Um, another reason is CTC law is very very different

123than regular school law. I have been doing policy here for three years now. I can read the law. I understand that law. CTC law is a little bit different. I've only been doing it for a couple months. I am not quite used to that yet. Um the other thing is they do not use CTC does not use the prepackaged PNNs that come down from PSBA which is where PSBA takes the law and they tweak it to give it a different format than the law actually says. Um we don't use I have never seen one of those in a policy meeting over at um the CTC. We do everything from scratch. We work on it together. Uh we have one representative from each school district on that policy committee and then um of course Mr. Wymer's

124there and he actually does we sit we talk about things he does all the rewriting of the policies and the revisions and if we need one from scratch um he normally we talk about it then he writes the policy and that's my reasoning. Sarah, um, quick question. Since you're new on the board, how were we, um, how were we sitting with policy updates whenever you came on the board? I don't remember. Um, I think we've had I this would be more for Cindy to answer. I I don't know it was it three or five that we've had. prior to coming on to the board. >> Okay. Thank you. >> In response to um uh Cindy's comment, I have not voted against PSBA here and I voted for PSBA at EWCTC. >> Okay. Uh next I

125have my intermediate update um report on April 28th. The West Morland Intermediate Unitly held the monthly board meeting. Uh there was an executive session from 6:15 to 7:15 to discuss personnel and legal issues. We then proceeded through the agenda. Some of the items notable were uh the resignation of one board member from Bel Vernon Area School District and new member was appointed. There were two resignations for retirement. Approval of one new custodian. Approval of the extended schoolyear programs from June 8th through June 18th, 2026. Approval for um Tammy good to approve purchases over 25K in the absence of the executive director. Uh we voted to approve to repay the RAND note to First National Bank in the amount of $2 million. And the motion to appoint an interim executive director was tabled and Dr. Jason

126Strahan was appointed as the interim to the interim. Meeting was concluded at 8:06 p.m. And then again on May 14th at 6 p.m. there was another executive session meeting held to discuss personnel issues. This evening's public relations report is from Ligonier High School Vice Principal Rachel F. Good evening. Um, I was trying to adjust my notes for everything that has already been said, all the wonderful things that are happening at the high school. But I'll start with our sports. Um, we have congratulations to Addie Wakosski and Jacob Pedalino who were named Ligonier Valley's West Morland County Scholar Athlete Honores. Also a congratulation to Maggie Peters and Miles Smith who won athlete of the week presented by the Latro B bulletin. In addition to that, Marina McAffrey um was signing with Westminister College to further her

127athletic career in swimming while majoring in chemistry. Congratulations to current freshman Eric Deetsz for receiving the official invitation to Cole's National Invitational Scholarship Kicking Camp. Eric has been officially selected to compete on the single biggest stage in America for kickers, punters, and long snappers. Eric will compete in Gatlinburg, Tennessee, July 18th and 19th. On April 20th, Elise Wiskosski broke the 100 meter school record that stood since 2015. Since then, she broke it again with a time of 12.41 seconds. Elise broke another girls track and field record, this time in the 200 meters. She ran a 26.63 surpassing the pre previous record of 26.64 set in 2014. Um the boys track and field team qualified for Whipfield team championships this year by finishing in their second in their section. This was the second time since 2020

128the boys track and field team qualified for the postseason. Congratulations to all the Ligonier Valley track and field athletes who qualified for the Whipio track and field individual finals. But a special congratulations to Alec Bryzendine on becoming the Whipio um doublea pole vault runner up by clearing 13 feet at the Whipio Championship and to Elise Wikovski on finishing fourth in the Whipio Double Double A 100 meter dash with a time of 12.52 seconds. Both have qualified for the PIAAA state track and field championships that will be held on May 22nd and 23rd at Shippensburg University. In academics, we are proud to recognize four Ligonier Valley juniors, Nathan Beachch, Patrick Kenna, Evan Lamont, and Jack Lynch, who were nom nominated by their AP government and politics teacher, Mr. Blasco, and selected as recipients of the Tribune

129Review Outstanding Young Citizen Award. This prestigious honor highlights students across Western Pennsylvania who demonstrate leadership, community service, character, and academic achievement. We extend our congratulations and wish them continued success as they prepare for their upcoming AP exam. That was all said. Three seniors participated in the aviation academy through the community college of Beaver County. All plan to pursue post-secary education in aviation fields. Two students completed the full two-year program, each earning more than 25 college credits, while one student earned 15 credits during their first year in the program. During the 2526 school year, 97 students enrolled in 459 college and high school courses, collectively earning more than 1,400 college credits. Additionally, 14 seniors are on track to graduate with an associate of arts degree in liberal arts through West Morland County Community College. Two of

130these students participated in the college commencement ceremony on May 8th. The senior award ceremony was held on May 11th where 20 outstanding seniors were recognized for their achievements. Collectively, this impressive group earned more than $100,000 in scholarships and awards. And finally, Ligonier Valley High School will hold its 2026 graduation ceremony on May 29th at Wellerfield. We congratulate the class of 2026 on reaching this important milestone and wish them continued success in their future endeavors. Thank you. >> Thank you. Moving into the regular agenda items for this evening's meeting, the governance committee, directors Brown and Rovidi. >> Okay. You want me to go? Okay. Um, so this is the second read of policies as presented. Is that on? It's on the next one. Okay. Um, one other thing I wanted to say is that um, the

131for F4026 um, this is the proposed 3M increase. We are working as a board together to uh and with Mr. Kosix and the administration to identify ways where we can cut costs. Um so this is a preliminary proposed mill increase of three three mills. Um are there any motions that need pulled for discussion? >> Did 4026 is not the final budget vote. >> It is not. No. Uh F4026 is not the final. It is the preliminary. So we still have time. Um did did you want to pull this one? Okay. Okay. Oh, okay. Thought so. Okay. Hearing none, I make a motion to approve F3626 to F4326. >> Second, Hutchinson. Having a motion and a second. All those in favor of F-3626 through F-4326 indicate by saying I. >> I. >> Opposed. >> Hearing none.

132The motion carries. >> Under policy legal, I make a motion to approve PO-L-10-26. >> Second. No. >> Having a motion and a second, all those in favor of P10-26, indicate by saying I. >> I. Any opposed? Motion carries. Student success and facilities committee directors Fryman and Nump. >> We do have someformational information here. Uh Rebecca Faden will be coming from St. Vincent College as a pre student teacher. We'll observe Nicole March at uh the middle school. Ean Woria from St. Vincent will also be a student teacher. Will be placed with Cassidy Patrick at the middle school during the fall of 26. and the district has received a grant from an anonymous donor in the amount of uh was it $35,27120 for prek curriculum. Um are there any motions that need to be pulled for discussion?

133Right. Hearing none, I make a motion to approve motion B0526. >> Second, Robodati. Having a motion and a second. All those in favor of BO526 indicate by saying I. >> Are any opposed? Motion carries. >> On to educational programs. Are there any motions that need be pulled for discussion? Hearing none, I make a motion to approve E2426 through E3726. >> Second, Hutcherson. Having a motion and second. All those in favor of F2426 through E37, sorry, E24 26 through E26 3726, indicate by saying I. >> I. >> Any opposed? Hearing none. The motion carries. Human Resources Committee directors Fitchwell and Crumbl. >> Eric, I have a question before I start. >> Okay. Do you want me to read motions P40, P41,45 and 1314 under supplemental? You want me to read them individually? >> They don't need

134to be read consent. It's a consent. The numbers were already there. Yes. >> Okay. All right. Are there any motions that need pulled for discussion? Hearing none, I make a motion to approve P3526 through P4526. Second and up. >> Having a motion and a second. All those in favor of P3526 through P4526 indicate by saying I. >> I. >> Are there any opposed? >> Hearing none. The motion carries. >> Does any do any motions need for discussion regarding supplemental contracts? Hearing none. I make a motion to approve S1326 and S1 1426. >> Second. No. Having a motion and a second, all those in favor of S1326 and S1426 indicate by saying I. >> Any opposed? >> Hearing none, the motion carries. Student experience committee directors Hutchinson and Stephie. >> Are there any motions that need

135for discussion? >> Uh, yes. I had uh some comments on the handbooks for coaches and student athletes. >> What number? A1726 and A1826. Okay. Any others? >> Okay. Hearing none, I make a motion for A1626. >> Second. Prom. >> Having a motion and a second. All those in favor of A1626, please indicate by saying I. >> I. >> Any opposed? >> Hearing none, the motion carries. I make a motion for A1926. >> Second. Chrome. >> Having a motion in a second. All those in favor of A1926 indicate by saying I. >> I. >> Any opposed? >> Motion carries. >> I make a motion for A1726. >> You mean you mean A196? >> Comments. >> Okay. Any comments on that? Yes. Um, so similar with Paul. Oh, do we need to second something? >> We should.

136There's a motion to second then. >> Okay. >> Do we want to vote on A1926 first? >> They did on both of those. >> I apologize. I only had it for 18. I apologize. Okay. >> And the same Irma and Jen made the motion. Second on both of them. >> Yes, I got that. Sorry about that. >> And I was making a motion on A1726 and a waiting comment. >> Seconded that. >> Okay. Now we can have discussion. >> Okay. Okay. Great. I think of this as like a policy committee. Um, and this is where we have that conversation of any edits. Um, was a holistic review of the handbook reviewed or just those certain sections? >> I'm sorry. Would you repeat that please? >> For the for the coach's handbook and for the parents

137handbook, was a holistic review of the handbook reviewed or just certain sections? Was was the entire handbook reviewed or just making additions to the surve? >> No, no, no. Oh, I'm sorry. I misunderstood what you said. >> Okay. Every year in the in the spring, all the handbooks are reviewed for accuracy or andor changes. And both of these were uh handled in that same manner. >> Okay, great. Um I just have a couple comments. It looks like there's a person listed on page 11 who may not no longer be an employee here. Um, I don't want to say their name. Um, but, uh, it's in the coach, sorry, in the coach's handbook. Um, I'll message you about that. Do co do coaches have to sign off on this handbook annually? >> They are. There's a

138um if you look through the um enclosure that you have with the agenda, they get rated every year at the very end of uh P 1726 there is a rating evaluation form that was completed by the PR uh AD and the principal and then the coach does sign off on that. >> Well, this is for evaluation. So for like their understanding and their commitment to abide by the policy, do they sign off on it? And if not, I would suggest we have something like that. >> You mean the entire policy or the entire handbook? >> Yeah. To hold them accountable that they have read and understood and have signed off. >> I hear I see shaking heads. Is that correct or no? >> No, I'm I'm understanding where you're going. >> Yeah. >> I'm sorry.

139>> So, that leads me to did did the solicitor review it? And so it it would be advisable that if um I I was assuming that anything that gets handed out to staffs or students, there's some type of signoff process u to do that. If we don't, we should do that across the board um for any type of documents >> like the technology policy. >> Yeah. Yeah. Any of them. So if um if if that wasn't uh going to happen, I think we should make sure that it does moving forward. >> Yeah. Wesley, I believe you start the processing on the uh A1726 and then you meet with the principal at the high school. So what we do is the only time I have anybody sign off on the student handbook. >> Yeah, I would

140recommend that we start having the coaches sign off yearly. This way if there are updates they have to they would make themselves aware of them. >> Okay. Are you are you suggesting that they do that prior before it comes to this board? >> No. No. So after the board approves a policy event a manual of this type um in this case for the coaches before every season start Wesley would give them copy of that manual have them review it. tell them as soon as it's done being reviewed that they should, you know, there'll be a signoff page with it. They return that. >> If they don't do it in a week, then Wesley's got to >> start. Well, that's never been done before nor suggested before. So, I don't see any reason why that couldn't

141happen. >> Yeah. Yeah. That's pretty normal um to do that. So, again, I >> I know I know they're aware of it. They are, you know, when they approaches meetings, it's discussed with them. They know where it's available, but they have never actually signed off on it. >> Yeah. Well, that that really helps because if we move uh at some point that that something happens that something in that policy wasn't followed, they can't take the position where I was not aware of it. Well, you were aware of it because >> because you signed off on it. >> Signed off. >> Okay. Are you suggesting the same thing for the student athlete and parent handbook that all parents sign off on it? >> And Wesley said that was already happening. >> Yeah. >> So that's why

142I assumed that it was happening on everything else. >> Okay. Okay. And the one thing um is the is the coaches I didn't think I saw it um but the coach's um communication policy with um students like with is that in that handbook? I don't think I saw it or is it a se separate um policy? >> Might have to ask. >> We have Yeah. So we have they can choose their own applic. >> So I'd recommend putting that in the handbook as well about guidelines for student communication if it's not already something that they have. Um, and then the last comment I have is the owner of the handbook. You know, I do have a policy. I know we have Mr. Ma here. I'm not a lawyer, but I do have a pol policy

143compliance mindset. Um, the one thing else I would ask is who supervises the coach's handbook to ensure that the coaches are following the rules. I think there needs to be a sentence in there that says the athletic, if this is appropriate, if this is appropriate, this is, you know, the athletic director supervises all athletic staff and program compliance. The building principal or district administration retains final administrative authority. So, just I I just think there needed to be some kind of sentence that said who is overseeing the coaches. Um, I I don't think there's any problem putting that language in there. Um, I I think that that's what everybody um in the industry is aware that the athletic director does the day-to-day issues with the coaches >> um and and then is really over that's over

144uh watched by the principal some on some issues like WPIL >> issues that they fall with on on to the principal but I don't think putting that language in there hurts at all. Are you requesting that these be with um withheld tonight and addressed next meeting? Is that what you're s what you're suggesting? >> Yes. >> I I think that I think that might be the best thing to make sure that that everybody gets to see her suggestions. Make sure we have a sign off sheet attached. Those couple things. Uh uh was that you give me a call tomorrow be in the office. I may have some of that information right there for you. >> Okay. And I had a I had a really random question. Are two sports a thing? That was in the

145student handbook. Is that is that something that's applicable today? >> Two two sports. >> Yeah. >> Two sports in a season. >> Yeah. >> Really? >> Oh my gosh. >> And well, >> okay. It's still going strong. All right. Sarah, could I add another question? Um, I don't want it to come across as micromanaging because that's not my intent. However, when the parent submits their form that they're approving everything, would it be out of the question to have the parent write on that form what app they would prefer to use for communication with Wesley, or is that above and beyond what >> I think I think the coaches choose what app they want to use. >> Oh, the coaches choose. Okay. I apologize. >> No, no, I thought it was the parents choice. So, I

146apologize. Okay. >> So, foremost, >> we have we have a motion in a second. I would at this point um uh we're just tableabling these issues. >> Do we have to table or not act on them? >> We don't have to act on. >> I I would say just we can put that on for old business next month. So, >> so if you can withdraw your second MJ and and Hermy your motion, then we can uh just bring those on until next month. >> Okay. I withdraw table until next week. >> Okay, great. And that was for A1726, but we'll I'll move those to old business for A1726 and 1826 and we'll put the new motions on for next month. >> Thank you. >> Okay. On uh transportation and attendance, are there any motions that

147needful for discussion? Hearing none, I make a motion to approve TA 1226 and TA1 1326. >> Second. None. >> Having a motion, a second. All those in favor of TA 1226 and TA 1326, indicate by saying I. >> I. >> Opposed? Hearing none, the motion carries. Uh, we have no uh no one signed up for second hearing of the citizens. Is there anyone here who would like to speak? Hearing none. School directors, is there anyone who has a comment? >> I just I had a fantastic time at the um RK Melon and um LVE PTO carnival. I would like to say that I did dunk Mr. Moles. Um and then I did see Mr. Mayor Veto soaking wet. So I think it was a great turnout um uh for the P for the elementary PTO's

148and uh great participation there. Anyone else? Okay. Uh, future dates. June 15th, Ligonier Valley School District Administration Building will at 4 p.m. will be the committee of the whole agenda setting meeting. June 22nd, Ligonier Valley High School 5:15 executive session 6 p.m. Committee of the whole presentations and updates immediate follow immediately followed by the regular board meeting. Do we have a motion to adjurnn? Some >> move. Second. 8:09 p.m. Meeting adjourned. >> All those in favor? >> Oh, >> sorry.