001During the May 19th, 2025 6:30 meeting of the regular the regular board meeting of the Ligonier Valley School District to order at 6:43 with the pledge of allegiance. I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for which it stands, one nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. Mr. Secretary, roll call, please. Miss Bennett, here. Mrs. Brown, here. Mrs. Gamble, here. Mr. Gilbert, here. Mrs. Mrs. Hutchinson here. Mr. Knuck here. Mrs. Croml here. Mr. Stephy here. Mr. Bella. Joseph Joseph Vela born February 3rd, 1971. Joe was elected to the Ligonier Valley School Board in November of 2023. Joe was the chairman of the educational programs committee, a Western Intermediate Unit representative, a past representative of the Eastern West Morland Career and Technology Cent's Joint Operating
002Committee, and past transportation and attendance chair. Joe passed away on April 29th. Would everyone please remember Joe with a brief moment of silence? Thank you, Mr. Secretary. Can we have our executive sessions reports? Uh, yes. There was a executive session held May 12th at 8:59 a.m. to 9:07 a.m. regarding legal matters. Another executive session was held May 12th, 2025 from 9:23 a.m. to 10:03 a.m. regarding school safety, contractual, and professional employee. There was another executive session held tonight in 5:14 to 604 regarding personnel and safe, school safety. Thank you. Are there any motions that are required for addition or amending for tonight's meeting? Having none, there shall be no public comment for those motions. Under old business, I'm asking that the minutes from the April 21st, 2025 committee of the whole meeting, the minutes of
003the 21st, 2020 April 21st, 2025 regular board meeting and the May 12th special board meeting be approved. Second. Having a motion and a second. Are there any questions regarding the minutes? All those in favor of approving the minutes indicate by saying I. I. Are there any opposed? Motion carries. Is there any followup needed for any previous agenda items? Hearing none, we'll move into new business. We have the hearing of the citizens for agenda items only. Michael Ko, you have a uh comment regarding F46. Good evening. This this will only take a minute unfortunately and I say unfortunately because it takes me two minutes of public speaking before I'm not nervous. So bear with me here. Um thank you for the presentation of the budget. Um what I thought was very interesting in that was the
004uh history of the surplus we'll call it or what you called it the fund budget or the fund uh what you call the surplus fund balance sorry um so looking at that you know it's there were some years where it went down a little up a little but overall from 2009 to now we went from a little over a million to over 9 million when we have that I can't see any justification for any kind of a tax increase at all. Uh it just doesn't make any sense when that is keeps increasing like that. Um I you know I've said stuff like this before, but I'll say it again that there are some people in this district that have the money to pay the increase and they just don't care. And that's you know God
005bless them for being able to afford that. But there's a lot of people that live on fixed incomes in this district and a lot of elderly people and they live and people that live check by check. They don't have a surplus to pull out of. So, you know, I just would ask the board to keep that in mind, especially when you're sitting on over $9 million of a surplus. That would be it then. Thank you. Thank you very much for your comments, Mr. Secretary. Do we have any correspondence or other reports? None for this evening. Thank you. Superintendence report. Dr. I'll yield my time because we have a budget to go through. I'll yield my time. I have nothing. Thank you. Solicitors report. Nothing for public session. Education Association. Thank you. West Morland Vote. Sorry,
006that's me. Um, yeah. So, the the big thing of course was um not only did the car show get cancelled once, it got cancelled again. So, we are now on a backlog till sometime in September. Um, as far as I know, that date hasn't been scheduled. It probably won't be until we get closer um to school time. Um, so one of the other big things though this month, Ligonier is two for two now. So, our student of the month came from Ligonier for April. So, I'm just going to uh read her write up in case you didn't see it. The student of the month was Kimberly FA uh Ligon High School senior from EWCTC's masonry program. Kimberly decided to enroll in Eastern West Morland CTC's masonry program to strengthen herself mentally and physically and to
007broaden her knowledge of construction to advance her future career as an architect. Kimberly intends to attend the Pennsylvania College of Technology, which is down by Williamsport, to pursue a bachelor's degree in architecture. Her goal is to focus on the restoration of historical buildings and bring them back to life. Eventually, she would like to become a partner in an architectural firm in addition to excelling in the masonry program. She recently had the opportunity to job shadow with an architect from the National Park Service. These ex these experiences solidified her career decision. Kimberly is a member of the National Honor Society, Ligonier Valley's track and field team where the javelin is her favorite event and is also core commander in Ligonier Valley's ROC program. Kimberly is a member of the National Technological Honor Society, Homebuilders Club, and
008is the secretary for EWCTC's chapter of Skills USA. Her hobbies include reading, quilting, sewing, drawing, and painting. All creative avenues that will lend to her future career. And I've never met Kimberly before. Um, a a girl going into masonry, I would expect to be like built like me, but no, this girl's a little thin little thing, you know. And I just thought about her picking up those what what are those blocks weigh? I don't know. They're pretty heavy, but I just she's she's got some muscle on her. Um the other thing tomorrow night, um if you have time is senior recognition night over at Lake Trobe High School. Uh the senior video starts at 6:45. So you want to get there by 6:30, 6:35 to get your seat. Um and then the um ceremony begins
009at 7 pm. That's what I have. Yeah, it's a shame that car show got cancelled twice because of rain, but we'll get it in in September. Uh there will be no report tonight for the West Morland intermediate unit. Uh public relations. Uh do we have our student council representative with us this evening? Yes, sir. Thank you. Good evening. I'm Wade Lamont. I'm a senior. Good evening. We're going to start with what's going on in the school. This prom was held at Davo Station in Latroe following the Graham March. 162 students and guests enjoyed a fun-filled night. Uh we've had a lot of high school accomplishments recently. Commen commencement as at West Morland Community College was held Friday, May 9th. Five LVH seniors participated in this ceremony and had a total of 14 LVHS seniors received
010an associate arts degree or liberal arts this year. Those 14 being Samuel Codwell, Hunter Carr, Iva Drosski, Noah Dunn, Wade Lamont, Allison Mure, Max Oberly, Isabella Pienza, Dante Paige, Isabella Rosinski, Morgan Smith, Lacy Saskco, Allison Steffy, and Emma Zeglin. Currently, 67 students grades 9 through 12 are currently enrolled in the associate and high school program. Uh some stats from college and the high school this year. 34% of students being 113 grades 10 through 12 took a college and high school course or an early college course. Students completed a total of 442 college and high school courses and 38 early college courses. There are 1477 total college credits earned. 57% of the class of 2025, 64 students, earned college credits for at least one class while attending high school. Last week, the senior award ceremony was
011held here on May 13th at 6 p.m. 24 students were recognized with scholarships and athletic awards. Scholarships totaling over $85,000 were distributed to seniors. Recently, our sports teams have been having a lot of success. We would like to give a huge congratulations to the Ligonier Valley baseball team on winning the WPAL class 3A section 3 championship and qualifying for the Whipio playoffs. Ligonier Valley softball had another great season and qualified for the Whipio playoffs. We also had several WPAL track individual qualifiers. Gabby Palmer in the 1600 meter run and the 3200 meter run. Katya Gunter in the 400 meter dash and the 800 meter run. Allison Stephy in the high jump. The 4x8 relay team of girls being Ava Mazada, Kylie Ross, Gabby Palmer, and Adlay Meyers. John Jablinowski in the 100 meter dash and
012the high jump. Mark Jabinowski in the long jump and the triple jump. Alec Bryzendine in the pvault. And John Fogle in the javelin. Ligonier Valley seniors Sydney FA and Hunter Wright attended the West Morland County Scholar Athlete Banquet. Congratulations to both of them for being nominated for such a prestigious honor. On May 3rd, Owen Smith was named Latro Bulletin athlete of the week. Also on May 3rd, Duncan Fos was named US Morland athlete of the week by the trip first perfect game against East Alagini. On May 1st, Katia Gunter broke the school record in the 800 meter run with a time of 2 minutes and 20 seconds. Mark Javlinowski broke two jumping records for track and field. He broke a 46-y old record in a long jump with a leap of 21 ft 11 in
013and followed it up by breaking a 50-year-old triple jump record with a distance of 44 feet and 1 in. That is all I have for you tonight. Thank you. Amazing. I want to ask him a question, too. Go ahead. before you leave. Yes, sir. First of all, wonderful accomplishments by everybody and that you read to us. Your one piece of advice for the ninth graders that are about to come in next year. Uh, get off your phones. Okay. Wait, I have one question for you. I I was here the other night for the senior awards. How many scholarships did you get? Six or seven? Six or seven. Yeah. Yeah. That's great. Congratulations. Fantastic. Thank you. Thank you very much. Miss Bennett, do you have anything to add to that? Because that was a lot of
014information coming out of the high school. I know. I do from the Liger Valley Middle School. Kindergarteners from RKM and first graders from LBE recently came to the middle school greenhouse to transplant marolds with the sixth graders. At the end, the elementary students were given the assignment to read a bedtime story every night to their flowers for one week before planting them outside. LVMS gardening club donated marolds and other flowers that were grown in the greenhouse to high school to be planted around the flagpole. LVMS recently held their annual plant and flower sale for staff and community. Thank you. Thank you very much. Moving on to our regular agenda items. Director Crumbl, do you have information about building and grounds, please? Excuse me. I have no updated information other than the motion to approve. Um,
015is there any other discussion for the motion? I make a motion to approve B625. Approval will be given for the replacement of carpet and tile by Butler Floor and Carpet Company, Inc. Co-stars in the amounts as follows to be paid through capital funds and projects. RK Melon $79.95 Laurel Valley Elementary room 105 $6,50 LVE main entrance vestibial 3,895 Ligonier Middle School room 204 and6 204 and 10,95 and Ligonier Valley High School room 102 and 210 for 11,9.95. Second. Do you have MJ on that? Is the second. Okay. Having a first and a second on the motion as read. All those in favor indicate by saying I. I. Are there any opposed? The motion carries. Mr. Stuffy. Moving on to the finance committee. Are there uh any motions that need pulled for discussion? Well, I know
016that the last motion F4625 is separate. So, I will make a motion to approve F-3925 through F4525. Second. Having a motion and a second for F-39 through 45. All those in favor indicate by saying I. I. Are there any opposed? Those motions carry. Okay. Motion for F4625. The dollar amounts in mill indication of any change to millillage need to be read. Eric, can you uh fill in all the Well, m Mr. Stefy, go ahead. What was that? Go ahead. Go ahead. uh that approval be given to the adoption of proposed final general budget for the 2025 2026 school year providing for total expenditures in the amount of 36 million whatever the exact number was. The expenditures are uh 30 36 million 363102. Okay. And total revenues in the amount of that will um do we
017need to do a we we need to know if uh your proposal has any tax increasing right I was getting to that and so we go all the way down and some of those numbers won't be finalized until we get the stuff from the state but the tax rate levy on real estate right now is 85.9 is that correct there that's correct okay and I the the next number which would be the amount of increase. Well, the the revenues of the 85.9 mills would be the 35 million. Okay. 030271. Well, I'll make a motion. The final action shall not take place on the proposed budget until after 10 days public notice made available for public inspection to all persons upon request that at least 20 days prior to the date for the final budget adoption.
018I propose I know I know this is a hot subject for a lot of people but I Eric Mr. Coaches has worked very hard for the last four years to keep the tax at zero and I think we can get one more. This is my personal opinion. I propose zero increase for this year and uh obviously we'll have to make a motion and get a second and see what happens. I motion I make a motion that we put zero in for tax increase. I second that we put zero in. Can I fill one more number in before we uh do the vote? It would be the use of fund balance. That would be 1 million 332 831 as it stands. That would be a completed motion. Then that's the reduction of the fund balance using
019that zero tax increase. A motion and a second has been made for a zero mil increase with the numbers that have been read to us with the expenditures of $36,363,12 which could potentially mean a reduction in the fund balance of $1,332 three and $831. Are those numbers correct? That's correct. There's a motion and a second on the table. All those in favor of approving a zero mill. Okay, that's fine. Oh, yes. Uh, roll call vote for that, Mr. Secretary, please. Okay. Miss Bennett, zero. Yes. Mrs. Brown, yes. Mrs. Gamble, no. Mr. Gilbert, yes. Mrs. Hutchinson, no. Mr. Nup, no. Mrs. Cromwell. No. Mr. Stephy. Yes. Motion does not pass. At this point, does anybody else have another motion they would like to put up for consideration? I would like to make a motion that we
020approve a.34% mill increase. 34 mills, I'm sorry. 3.34 mills. Okay. And could you explain how much that would cost compared to the chart, excuse me, that you had up there? It would be a third of what I presented before. So in each time you would just divide that by three. So you said the median home was 200,000 and that was how much? Medium assessed value was $6, right? The medium assessed value was $17,740 which would be uh $17.74 tax increase on one mill. So about a third a third of that would be about a little bit over five $5.50 five or six. Okay. And then the other thing I wanted to ask is, am I correct that a 34 mil increase would equate to approximately $60,000 for the district? Um, be a little Yeah, hold
021on one second here. I had the number in my mind. I just forgot. Let me just do the real close to 61 here. Yeah, about 61,000. 61. Okay, I make that motion. I second. Would somebody repeat the motion, please? Well, we'd have to fill the numbers in. We'd have to fill those numbers in on this one. So, the first number, the expenditures would stay the same at 36,363102. The revenues would be 35 million 091811. The fun ballast juice would be 1,271291 and the millillage would be 6.24 with a.34 increase. A motion and a second has been made for a one3 mil increase. If anyone needs the numbers reread by Mr. Koshious, he can do that for you. Does anybody you request those numbers reread? Okay. Roll call, please, on the motion presented by Jen Crumbl
022and seconded by Mr. Nup. Uh, Miss Bennett, no. Mrs. Brown, no. Mrs. Gamble, yes. Mr. Gilbert, no. Mrs. Hutchinson, yes. Mr. Nut, yes. Mrs. Dromble, yes. Mr. Stephy, no. Motion does not carry. Are there any other motions for F-36? If uh the board does not take an action to approve a tentative budget this evening, one needs to be approved uh a as you see in here, there's some notice provisions, but one would need to be approved before the end of the month to give uh the board the opportunity to approve a final budget by the end of June, which is required by the public school code. So, If nothing gets handled tonight, um we would have to have a special meeting to take another action before the end. And what happens if we can't pass
023a budget? Be in violation of the public school code. I'd like to make a motion to continue the budget discussion for the special meeting that we have planned on May 28th. I second. I'm sorry. What was your motion? To continue the discussion and a possible approval of F46 for the May 28th special meeting. I don't think you need a motion. If we can't do that, we're planning a special meeting. I think we just the board will be aware that that'll be placed that'll be part of the action that being placed that will be then part of the ad for the special meeting. Just for the board's aware of why or the public's aware um as you're aware we have a vacant board seat the uh applications have up till tomorrow. So, next week we will
024be having a special meeting to um take action on uh appointing someone to that seat. Um what should I schedule it for? With that being uh already known, this would be an action item that we could add to that agenda. It probably it may cause us though to move our regular meeting in June as well. It would have to change because we'll need 30 days. So, we would have to do it uh June 28th would be the earliest we could have that. Yes. June 28th. Not the special meeting that we'll have to change our June meeting uh to another date. That's correct. We would take that action at the special meeting to change it. So that doesn't require a motion. It's just we're going to move it. Well, the chair comes motion. request a motion.
025I could I made made motion to request to make a motion. But if we if we have no other items, if no one's else is going to make a motion to try to resolve this this evening, then we're going to have to place it on the coming. If I could just make a comment, please. We had a discussion about this prior to the meeting. It was just a discussion. Um, and we weighed several options and yes, we do have a fund balance. Our fund balance, I believe, is one of the lower fund balances in the county. Is that correct, Dr. D? I can't assure you it's one of the lowest in the county. I can just say that um if you remember the slide that Eric gave on the fund balance and you look at
026the millig before that there were several mere years starting at 216 217 219 220 there were there were millage increases that attributed to the fund balance because if you remember many years ago the fund balance was at 800,000 and the reason increased because the board back in those days several years ago raised the millillage. Okay. So, a couple comments I want to make. Correct me if I'm wrong on the school, but so we have a school in our area that did not do a tax increase for eight years. They're now going bankrupt because they use their fund balance to pay their bills. We don't think it's a wise decision to use our fund balance to pay our bills. The we need we recognize we need to upgrade our school, do better with our students. That
027includes the curriculum we just purchased. We're purchasing a new curriculum next year for math. Um, we're adding two security guards. We have to hire a director of education. Um, I I could continue down a list of things that are extremely important and that is why we were asking for the 34 mills. Um, if I didn't say this already, I think it's very unwise to take the money we have and use it for our everyday things. That's why we apply for grants and other things that come along for the school district. We've had a very successful um rate of awarded um grants whenever you look at this lodge that Eric presented to you. And what I don't want people to take away from here is we all it's right on everybody's mind. So I'm just going
028to say it because I'm not running. But you all know this is political. Every one of you in this room know this is a political move and that's fine. The alternative is we can come back next month after the election and we can talk about the budget again and then let's see if things get increased because the way it's going right now is we're already operating in a deficit which means that number of 1 million 332831 is a deficit. So then you have to take that off our fund balance, right? Then you got to take all that other stuff that we have to pay for and that comes out of our operating budget. So if you you can't rob Peter to pay Paul. If you remember when we when we merged with Laurel Valley, our
029school district practically went bankrupt. This the state was going to come in take over our school district because we didn't have the money to operate. Yes, this fund balance has grown. You also saw years of a 4% tax increase. Um I have them written down 4% a 2% 1.8%. You know, Mr. Tantlinger was the president back then and he did his very best, too. But they had to raise taxes 4%. That's a big jump. We don't want to do that. I'd much rather say let's do a little bit at a time and not hit everyone so hard at one time. Everybody knows everybody's costs are up. I'm just explaining why we chose to um state the 3.34%. And it's also worth noting, and you can look it up on Google or wherever you want, that
030Ligonier Valley School District is the very lowest tax base or tax rate in West Morland County. So, this is what you're looking at when we talk about budgeting. We are already doing a fantastic job. We've been very frugal. We've spent wisely. We don't, you know, we don't just buy stuff just to buy stuff. So, this is where we are. Again, I would just say remember next month we have to come up with a number and we might very well come back with a number because we're playing politics. That's all I have to say. Mr. President, can I respond to that? Just just understand what what we're talking about. Worst case scenario, the shortfall that Mr. Coat is talking about was about 1.3 million. That's all I want to say. No, that's not the worst case
031scenario. That's the deficit. The worst case scenario is if something happens on top of that that costs money that we're not expecting to spend along with we don't know if our superintendants retire returning if he's we don't know that's a big unknown we have to look at. So there's that hanging in the background as well. So you have to look at all of those. We don't have a state budget. We don't know what we're getting or not getting. It's a lot to look at. And I'm sorry, I just think it's irresponsible to three years down the road say, "Sorry, we're going to hit you with four mills." I don't think that's the right thing to do. Just my opinion. Well, I'm a little offended by Director Crumble's comments because when we had our financial meeting,
032I was the one who actually brought up the idea of a one-/3 mil increase. Yes, you did. But you voted no today. And the reason why did you do that? And the reason was after talking with some folks in the community, they said the only reason you're raising the taxes is to pay for that baseball field. And you know that's not true. So why would you not address that? So even though I tried to address that with everyone, the perception is still there. So as Mr. Koshious went through the numbers and that $9 million balance is still sitting there as as available funds. I do think the state's going to pass us a pretty nice budget. I don't think we're going to have to dip in as much as we are looking at based on
033some of the past projections that have been addressed by Mr. Koshas. So, I think we're doing well, and that's why I decided to go ahead and and go with zero. One-third of a mill, as we've already mentioned, will only bring in approximately $60,000 over the entire budget. So if if the state really really messes us up and we have to look at something for next year, then maybe that's when we explore either a half or two/3 or something like that. Um I I don't think I don't think having a third is worth it. Well, I guess that's a risk we take like we took with PSBA, right? So, now we sit here and have I don't think so because now we don't have somebody that can help us with that. We have to rely on
034Gary, which costs money that we didn't have to spend before. Plus, that doesn't include training. Um, Mr. Dr. D talked about, let me finish, please. I think we're getting off topic. If we're talking about the budget, we'll talk about the budget. The PSBA conversation means something else. It's fine. We can address that later. Thank you. Motion F46 will then be continued until the May 28th special board meeting. I'll be asking Director Brown to take care of the educational programs. Are there any motions that need pulled for discussion? hearing. None. I motion to approve E1925 through E 2025. Second. Having a motion and a second for the two agenda items. All those in favor indicate by saying I. I. Any opposed? Motions carry. On the personnel committee, Director Bennett, please. Are there any motions that need
035pulled for discussion? Then I'd like to make a motion to approve P2825 through P3525. Second. Having a motion and a second for the for the motions listed by Director Bennett. All those in favor indicate by saying I. I. Any opposed? Those motions carry. I would like to make a motion that approval be given to the hiring of Maria Bowman as principal at Ligonier Valley Middle School at a starting salary of 100,800 effective July 1st, 2025. Second. All those in favor of having Maria Balman be the principal at LVMS indicate by saying I. Any opposed? Congratulations. I'd like to make a motion that approval be given to the hiring of the following substitutes for the 2425 and 2526 school years contingent upon the personnel office receiving all necessary employment and clearance documents with no violations prior
036to employment with the district. John Kurdzel, custodian Austin Har, custodian. Second. A motion and a second for the two custodians listed. All those in favor indicate by saying I. Any opposed? Motion carries. Director Hutchinson, the athletic committee, please. Are there any motions that need for discussion? Hearing none, I'd like to make to approve a 1325 through a 1625. Second. Having a motion and a second for those four agenda items. Those in favor indicate by saying I. I. Any opposed. Motions carry. Moving on to supplemental contracts with director Gamble. Are there any motions that need pulled for discussion? Hearing none, I make a motion for S0925 through S1125. Second. Having a motion and a second for those three items. All those in favor indicate by saying I. I. Any opposed. Those motions carry. And I make
037a motion for S225 with the names Mark Hollik, head boys golf coach. Clint Mullen, equipment manager, position to be shared. Roger Bital, equipment manager, position to be shared. Caitlyn Plute, varsity cheerleading advisor. Kelly Stephie, head girls soccer coach. Gregory Lonus, assistant junior high football coach. Chelsea Brandt, assistant varsity volleyball coach, and Austin Stephy, marching band director. All these names are rehires except for Chelsea Brandt, who is a new hire. May I have a roll call vote, please? Second. Roll call vote, please. Mr. Secretary, for our S12, Miss Bennett? Yes. Mrs. Brown? Yes. Mrs. Gamble? Yes. Mr. Gilbert? Yes. Mrs. Hutchinson? Yes. Mr. Nup? Yes. M. Mrs. Crom. I'm sorry. Mrs. Croml. Yes. Mr. Ste abstain. Okay. Motion carries. Transportation and attendance. Director Nut, please. Does anyone have any discussion for this motion? Hearing none, I
038make a motion to approve TA925. Second. Having a motion and a second for the instructional calendar. All those in favor indicate by saying I uh and Dr. Dean, just very briefly, will you explain to them that the instructional calendar resulted in no changes? Just Yes, we uh we did uh check with the department of education. We had enough instructional hours so we could keep the uh graduation on the same day. We did not need to make up any student days, but we do have two act 80 professional development days for our staff. And uh they can either do some online training or come in on those last two days to complete it. So, So all good with the calendar. Thank you. Policy legal director Brown. I just want to give some information out before we
039um go through these motions. These three uh motions forUS are with our local uh the St. Clair police valley police and Pennsylvania State Police. And these are all um just our procedures uh rules and regulations to comply with the Safe Schools Act. So are there any motions? Any pool for discussion? Hearing none, I motion to approve [Music] POL-18-25 through POL-20-25. Second. Having a motion and a second for the three agenda items. Those in favor indicate by saying I. I. Any opposed? Motions carry. Our hearing of citizens for non-aggenda items. Lindo Sullivan. Bear with me because I just want to say something about the budget. Obviously, I didn't plan this. It was either October or maybe September of 2023. The board voted and approved to spend almost $33,000 on a student survey. $33,000. Since that money
040was spent over, it was a five-year survey. We've been given no updates. Now, just to recap, who voted for what? MJ, Gary was not on the board. Mary and Irma voted to spend that $33,000. Jen was not at the meeting. Cindy, Dawn, and Je uh Josie, I'm sorry. I'm sorry, voted against it. $33,000 for a student survey that no administrator has in the last year and a half brought forward about any changes in programming to use that data. That was wasted $33,000. First of all, student surveys are useless. There's a whole bulk of students that mock them and do not answer correctly. They put in jokes. There's a whole population of students that do not wisely trust that they are confidential. So you don't get good data. Further, who is assessing surveys can easily manipulate
041what the answers mean. Student surveys are a waste of money. So now you're talking about raising taxes a certain male to bring in 60 grand. Well, if you hadn't spent $33,000 on a useless survey where we have not been presented with anything that you have done with that data. No one has presented Mr. Caner who wanted it and the board rubber stamped it. the then majority ruling board rubber stamped that spending of $33,000. So I suggest that the people that constantly rubber stamp what Mr. Caner wants really start assessing how you're spending our money. Okay. Now what I was going to talk about Dr. be I have a charge for you and I am asking every school board member to support you. I am asking you to support every district employee especially your administrative team
042and your teachers to bring back healthy stress to instruction. Now, for those of you because there might be some people that don't know the difference between healthy and unhealthy stress in instruction. When you set lofty, meaningful, challenging learning goals for every child regardless where they come academically or intellectually, healthy stress must exist. is healthy stress because the teacher and the team of people working with every child provides a means for the child to meet the goals and they establish an environment an instructional environment that is chaotic free and um nurturing. They the student has the ability to meet the goals. But learning challenging things is stressful, but that is healthy stress. Anybody who's successful in their job encounters healthy stress and they're given the means to be successful. And most important they're given when a
043child has a setback the teacher ha gives them the means to come back from that step setback that's providing the means to build develop grit which is what our children need. when the previous superintendent started the uh customized learning insanity when every child should learn when they wanted to learn in the order they wanted to learn and teachers weren't allowed to give deadlines that brought on unhealthy stress because humans need deadlines. Most certainly children need deadlines. So children weren't given the means, they didn't weren't given the structure to learn at a challenging level and students weren't being successful as seen by our test scores. So you know what happened? Teachers were beaten up pretty good. They were beaten up really good, especially the core teachers, math, science, reading. Lower your standards, teachers. Pass out the
044A's and B's. Keep the parents happy. But the children were not learning. And that's where we have our district ranking. So my charge to you sir is to support your staff to bring back healthy stress which allows students to be given really challenging goals to learn to be successful citizens. Thank you Linda. Okay. And I was going to talk I wanted to applaud the school board on policy 9003. Although I I think it needs some tweaking such as I think we should be allowed to ask questions and I know unofficially people have been asking questions and that's great but I think it needs that needs to be taken out of the policy. But I want to remind everyone when I started coming to board meetings to help turn around the district because I'm invested into
045stu in students. I'm a child advocate. I have always been a child advocate and um remember I got edited out of um the uh recording. Um Linda, I'm done. Yes, I'm sorry. Thank you. So, but thank you because that has changed. Actually, could I ask her to stay for a minute to have a comment? If I'm speaking and not her, am I allowed to? I'm looking at I don't want you speaking at me if I can't respond. If if you would like to grant her extended time, I'll allow it. I I have a couple questions you're welcome to ask me back. Okay. I'm I'm not Extended time's been permitted. I'm not okay shutting you down. I don't believe in that kind of So, what I want to say is, let's put it like this. Did
046you ever buy a car that you didn't like? No, I'm a minivan person. Okay, fine. I have. I purchased a car that came out, ended up being terrible. I thought it was going to be the greatest thing ever. The reason I'm using that as a very poor example, of course, is when we purchase something, we're not purchasing it just to chuck money aside. Every single one of us, even when we're at odds, every single time we sit down in this chair or send an email or a phone call or attend a meeting, which there are many meetings as you aware are aware, we're doing our very best. It's very easy to play Monday morning quarterback, especially when we're talking about our kids, money, tax dollars, curriculum, staff, all of it. It's very, very easy to
047sit back and say that. Did I like the the things you just discussed? Absolutely not. But when you purchase something, just like we purchased um the last math curriculum we had, none of the teachers like it. But do you think when we purchased it, we thought that they weren't going to like it? We bought it because we thought it was going to be a good thing. Did the P did the survey end up not being a good a good thing to purchase? Yeah, it seems like there was a lot of bad things that can went wrong with that, but we didn't all know what was going to happen with that. I wasn't aware we weren't going to get information. I'm sure nobody here was aware we were going to get information. I recall Don and
048Cindy brought up some really good points about why we don't want to do that and they allowed the opt out. So, you know, just because we agree or disagree or vote for something and then, you know, spend money that didn't turn out to be the way we wanted it to be, doesn't mean we're doing it because we just want to waste money. There's a lot of things that we've taken chances on that turned out to be great. There's things that we that we try to do that were not so great. I was around when Dr. Oldm took over and those were some really tumultuous times. So you can't go back and criticize every single thing. We're not there now. That we're trying to do better. Every one of us trying to do better. This is
049a excuse me, it's a very hard job. And it's a free job. I mean, like, let's just be honest. We're we're dedicating so much time to making the best choices for this school district. And it's really hard when you listen to people criticize everything single thing you say. Well, that's part of being up here and that's why we all elected to do this because we want to help. But it is very difficult to sit there and listen to people criticize every single thing you've done in the past. We can't change it. We can only move forward. And that's what we're all trying to do. Dr. D is trying to give us the best suggestions. He's doing a great job. It is like a breath of fresh air sometimes. And I'm grateful for that. you know,
050circumstances that got us here are unfortunate, but we're on a better path. So, just all I'm trying to say is continually criticizing the past judgments of the board, rubber stamping. That's not fair. That's not fair. But that's how we got here. And it is how we got here. And and I understand that, but it's not fair to keep throwing that up because we're not there now. And you can't blame every single thing that happened on a set of board members that's no longer here. I everybody everybody criticizes one particular board member, but that one particular board member was only the president for one term, one term. But he's the one that everybody talks about and that's not fair either because he ran the strings behind the curtain. And let me finish. If you didn't, the
051agreement was I would get extended. Go ahead. First of all, you made the statement when you said about bringing uh increasing the mill. You said that we don't frivolously send spend money. But right off the top of my head, I gave you one example. I could go back there and sit for another 10 minutes and I bet I can come up with a hundred. And this board is divided. And let's remember who's making all the changes. Okay? So you don't think the other four of us have any any decision in any of this? I think you're fighting them tooth and nail just because again you you even said it in varying meetings allow the professionals to make the decisions. But that's not democracy. That is not the the the or governmental organization of a school
052board which is a government entity. The citizens vote for the members. The members carry out the wishes of the people that voted them in. Prior to the current ruling majority of this board, the superintendent did the agenda with maybe one or two board members having input. That is not democracy. It is for the school board to approve hiring curriculum. Now with input of the senior administration who gets input from the building principles who get input from the teachers and the teachers get input from the students and board members get input from citizens including parents but you even in past meetings said you know let Mr. caner. He's the professional. We're not educators. We shouldn't be doing all this. I was talking about letting him in a room to talk about a curriculum. They wouldn't even
053let him in the room. Okay. So, who's who's being political now? I'm I'm being honest. Am I Was he allowed in the room? He was not allowed in the room, nor was Mr. Moran. Not allowed in the room. So, I was referring to letting them at least listen to what we were discussing. I wasn't saying for him to decide. I said, "Let him listen because they are the professional." Donnie was a teacher. I don't even know how many years ago. Sydney was a teacher how many years ago. We're not up to date on the current teaching standards. The only one sitting here that would probably would be Dr. D because he's most recent, excuse me, most recent with school codes and all of that. I'm talking about letting him in the room when he's asking
054for critique or how can he do better. Let's tell him not just you know and that goes to another one of the issues which I sent out emails by Pennsylvania code. It is not enough just to put the superintendence rating satisfactory or unsatisfactory on the website by Pennsylvania code. You must have the goals or the objectives which the superintendent received his rating by. They still, although I emailed the board over a year ago, still to this day, if we all got on our phones and checked the district website, there are no goals on how Mr. Caner received his satisfactory rating last year, which no one can figure out how he got that satisfactory rating. And again, those should have been on the website and they continue not to be on the website, which makes me
055suspicious if those that blindly support Mr. Her stopped those objectives or goals, whatever you want to call them, which or or did you just randomly give him a satisfactory rating last year? Like, can you answer that? I don't have the answer to that. I know this year, Miss Bennett is taking care of that. Dr. D is assisting with that. May I ask you took care of it last year? I did. Okay. So what could you tell us right now what the objectives and the goals were that resulted in Mr. Caner receiving from the school board form that I have been using the past eight years can you get them on the district website by tomorrow please? No I don't think I could. I'd have to work with Dr. We're not going to go back and
056we're in the process of okay doing another evaluation and I was just using that as an example of how you know everyone on the board wants to claim everybody's working for the best interest of students but I've only seen improvements in the district and students since the current majority school board members have taken control of this board. There was no improvement until the ruling majority took over before that. And I know you hate the term, but I'm not going to stop using it because it was endless rubber stamping, including spending $33,000 on nonsense. Linda, thank you. Thank Thank you. I'd like to start over at the uh corner of the table with MJ to see if he has any school board director comments for this evening. Nothing at this time. Mrs. Gamble? None. Mrs. Brown?
057None. Dr. D? Nope. Mr. matter. I am going to need to have an executive session to discuss some potential litigation with the board after the meeting that we didn't get to prior to the start of the meeting this evening. Okay. Mrs. Hutchinson. Nothing. Mr. Stephy, is this where we comment about Joe? If you would like to. Yes. Yeah. I just want to say uh Joe and I became good friends and I I I miss him a lot, but I also understand that we're I want you to understand that we're also both veterans, but I also played golf with him out at Champion Lakes. As a matter of fact, I'm scheduled to play him Wednesday. So, if you see him, let him tell him to come play. Okay. So, Josie, I just want to say um
058I've been friends with Joe and his wife since around 2009 whenever they had Bella's Cafe in Ligonier. I'm not sure if any of you remember that. They had the best smoothies. Um Joe really cared a lot for our school district and we will definitely miss him. Yeah, it's hard to believe that uh only a few hours before Joe and I were setting up plans to go play golf that week. We're going to miss you, buddy. May 28th, there will be a meeting. It's 10 o'clock, right? 10 a.m. Uh public meeting 10:00 to go over the folks that have submitted applications for the seat of Joe Vela. And then obviously any other items that need to be discussed on the agenda will be added and that will be put onto the website. If I may, Mr.
059Mr. President, and one of those agenda items will be the uh discussion and uh hopefully passage of a tenative budget for the school district for the coming school year. Other dates after that, and this will be tenative because if we need a 30-day notice, we are currently scheduled to have a meeting on June 23rd and as Mr. Koshas mentioned, that may need to be moved. So pe please keep an eye on the website, newspaper, etc. Uh the times will still remain the same. 5:15 for the executive session, 6 pm for the committee of the whole if there's any presentations and 6:30 for the regular meeting. Does anybody else have anything for the good of the order of the meeting? I will then entertain any motions for adjournment. Second. I have a motion and a second
060for adjournment. All those in favor indicate by saying I. I. Are there any opposed? Motion is it or motion is approved.