001uh Michael Strelic from the Ligonier Township Supervisors regarding the pedestrian bridge that is being proposed um over on the other side of the parking lot. Oh, we've got Stephanie's here, too. That's fine. Any other questions? Um so, we just wanted to thank you so much for having us on the agenda tonight. We appreciate it. Um, and we wanted to talk about this opportunity for a pedestrian bridge along Kerry School Road. Um, mainly one of the main goals here is to create a safer connection between the high schools property and into the burrow where we have so many resources at the Wellerfield, Friendship Park, our libraries, other options for the kids and things as well. Um, so just an overview of the project just so people understand the scope of this. This is essentially a bridge
002over Mil Creek along the Kerry school road. Um there would be sidewalks running along Kerry School and W West Vincent Street. So, if we think about the back of the high school when people leave connecting and having it be walkable from the back of the school's property um along Kerry School over the bridge sidewalks connecting to West Vincent and then up to Walnut Street where there's the existing sidewalk system that picks up there near Holy Trinity. Um I think one of the things here I want to highlight is this has been an interm municipal collaboration. Um, we've worked with some of the folks on the school board and the administration. Um, we've been working with folks in the burrow as well. Um, we've spoken to some residents as well as burrow council. Um, and I
003appreciate the school's support um for this project as well as the burrow. Um, and we were awarded uh $586,000 um in a grant from the DCEED toward this project. Full disclosure, that's a little bit less than half of the initial budget. Um, but I'm very excited. We received this grant. That's pretty significant. Um, the term of the grant, the this work needs to be completed and submitted um by June of 2028. So, we have a little bit of time. Um, and so sort of for us, you know, a lot of the next steps here are going to be to continue to identify additional funds. Um, and that could be through other grants, potentially working with some of our local foundations, making some contributions ourselves in different ways. Um, but I think it's a great opportunity.
004We're about halfway there. Um, and so we wanted to kind of bring this um and get get a little get this out in the open a little bit and start making some progress. And next, so just a couple things about why does this matter? Um, I'll just be honest. The number one catalyst was around safety. Um the if you go out of the back of the school um there's no sidewalks. Um kids are walking on the street. There are some signs for a school zone. The school zone ends right before you hit the bridge. And once you're on the bridge, there's nowhere to go. There's room for two vehicles. There's really not a whole lot of space there. Um that's also can be very dark during some of the times that students are walking to
005school in the mornings. And quite frankly, we do use the school for other events as well, too. So, just so much traffic there, whether it's the Saturday Country Markets, Fort Ligonier Day, other events at the school. Um, a great way to really connect the resources, like I said, from this high school into the burrow. And of course, we're all talking about as much health, fitness, outdoor activity. It's a really great w great way also to encourage some of the students and residents just to make this community more walkable. Um, and we also have some of the trail already. We have the trail down behind Weller Field. Some of that trail system does connect through the burrow. This would also be a nice expansion um to connect into that system already. Just a quick map if
006you guys want to take a look behind you. I'm sorry I'm trying to limit how much we're printing this guy out. If you start from one just to orient you, that's out the back of the high school. The second arrow just to orient you. That's where that bridge would be. And you'll see the third arrow is taking that down to the intersection there at Walnut at Walnut Street where that would cross over and then connect into the existing sidewalk. Just a few pictures here to give you a little perspective of anybody. And that's kind of coming out the back of the school and then into town. Um so there's a few homes that would be impacted um along the street there with some of that sidewalk. And then just to give you an idea of
007the style of the bridge, if anybody's not familiar, this is the bridge that's on the walking trail at Weller Field behind Weller Field. Um, and we would be looking at a right now a similar style bridge. Of course, we'll be working with engineers with our engineer. Um, and trying to understand the most cost effective, you know, we're going to consider maintenance aspects, etc. But this isn't just an interesting picture to show you sort of some of the challenges or to reduce some of the potential permitting costs to keep as much of the construction out of the water as possible. And you'll see where we sort of this bridge really sits on the foundations to either side. Um so we just wanted to share that with you guys. I wanted the opportunity um we have some
008time but I I think this is a great opportunity. So, I would like to continue to work with um with the school district and the burrow um to try to continue moving this project forward and identify those additional resources to continue this work. Any questions for us? Okay, thank you so much. I appreciate your time. And if anybody does have further questions, uh please feel free to reach out to Mrs. Verer or Mr. Boufort uh down at the township office to get any more details and uh if you have an organization that might be willing to help of course reach out to them as well. We have Nicole Cording up next who's going to talk about motion E1525 which deals with our HMH curriculum. Can everybody hear me if I stand next to the computer
009and talk? So, I'm here tonight to talk about our HM into reading program. I'm going to talk about the new version three, which is what we would like to adopt, and just some of the upgrades and things that they've added to our new version, and how it relates to letters, which is the special development training that our teachers have been going through this year, and the science of reading, and also some of the data that we have showing it effectiveness. I just wanted to go over some terms real quick before I got started. The first one is the science of reading. This is the brain research that is out there telling us how students actually do learn how to read and also the key components necessary to have proficient readers. The next one is structured
010literacy. This is the framework that teachers would actually use that explicit systematic to teach these key components to our students. And which stands for language essentials for teachers of reading and spelling. And this is You're also Our first I Does anyone have any questions for Miss Cord? Thank you very much. We have an update on the wellness committee with Mr. Face. On March on March 26th, we had over 20 participants uh for the wellness committee. There were coaches, PE teachers, administrators, parents, board members, teachers, nurses, and a couple students who participated. We reviewed the trienal policy assessment tool ahead of time. There were minimal changes uh updated links. And then Mrs. Brown also stated that um we did not have to review the bullying or cy cyber bullying policy anymore. That would be done in
011a policy committee meetings moving forward. And then that took us into the additional comments through the general public and everybody who participated. So some of those an overview of some of those comments that came up were labels on foods are all in compliance. Mrs. Bais, the RK Melon nurse and Mrs. Datus the middle school nurse both stated that they'd like to see more protein, more of a farmtotable option, healthier breakfast because our districts at approximately 40% obesity with our children. Uh parents stated that cereal bars and muffins were not really good options for breakfast as long also they'd like to see less dyes and sugars and more options with dfree options with less sugar. Um along with those suggestions would be using breakfast with uh two proteins or protein and a grain versus a sugary
012uh pop-tart or donut. And then Mrs. Davis asked if we could look into using local farmers and Mr. Koshious agreed that we could start looking into that option. And Mrs. Sweeney is our Mets manager. She said, you know, each building and each level has their own challenges, but uh all the principles and her all agree that we're willing to work through challenges to find workarounds to find what we can give the kids that would be the best options. Um so, you know, the FDA is starting to look at using artificial sweeteners versus refined sugars. that came up in our and the opinion of our nurses was less sugar and most natural foods would give our kids the best options. Um so in general I mean really a lot of the talk was about the breakfast
013and having a healthier choices especially in the elementaryaries. Um, after the after the wellness committee meeting, Miss Sweeney, the Mets manager, reached out to the nurses, had a meeting, and started implementing a protein into the breakfast at least once a week, whether that's eggs, uh, sandwich, yogurt, something of that nature. She is also reaching out to her district managers to see what it would take to start more of a farmtotable in the district. And then she reported that all manufacturers like Kelloggs and General Mills next year are moving to um lower sugar and no dyes for the 2526 school year. Anybody have any questions? Um when I come out of that meeting, this is the second year I've been on the wellness committee meeting. Um, last year there was a little bit of concern about
014our our meal program. This year was a lot a lot. Um, and when our nurses really stepped up and said that we're running at over 40% obesity in our elementary schools, that really hit home with me. So I talked to Justin, I talked to Donnie. Um, and so I am going to be forming this summer an ad hoc wellness committee or excuse me, a mill committee where it's probably going to last a little over a year. But we are going to dive in to our our food program. We're going to find out uh I'm going to be working with Eric. We're going to find out what state requirements are, what federal requirements are, if there's a chance that we can get out of METS, what that's going to cost us. Uh it's a huge concern
015uh because especially in the elementary school, and they do have different dynamics. Uh they don't have the best situations to set up for breakfast, but they can do sack lunches and I think we can do a lot better uh job than what we're providing for our kids. So, if anybody would be interested in serving on that PL committee, please email me at my school email. I will probably start organizing. I'm gonna think about July for that. So, if you're interested, please let me know. And our nurses, I'd really like to have our nurses in this committee. Um, any of them from any school. So, just let me know. Thank you. Thank you. That concludes our committee of the whole meeting. It is currently 6:29.