001like to call meeting order. Any public comment if you agenda items? None heard. Thank you all for coming out tonight to tonight's uh school board agenda review meeting. We appreciate you all. Heard it was a really good open house going on before this meeting. So again, thank you everyone for coming tonight. Uh we'll go into it for information. Uh Mr. Lamb who's virtual. >> Good evening everybody. How are you? Good. How are you? >> Good. I am Mike Lamb with Weston Company and am helping uh assist the district in the business office um until uh Mr. Reed starts in uh his position. And so I am sharing my screen. Hopefully you all can see uh the business manager report, business office report for the month of July. Um, so I wanted to just go through
002this and some of the attachments that are provided. Uh, so in your monthly financial reports, you should have received a bills to be paid list. Um, Sandy had pulled that for tonight's meeting. Um, I know that you all have a chance to review that. Certainly, if in in the interim between now or today and next week, if there are any questions on any of those bills, uh, please reach out to us and let us know and we'll get the answers for the details on those invoices. Um, also in your packet, you have a balance sheet report. Um that report reflects the district's assets, liabilities, and fund balance for the month of July uh for the new fiscal year. So the main focus on that typically is with the general fund. That's your main operating fund
003and just looking at your your cash and your liquid assets. the district has sufficient uh cash available to meet short-term operating needs, which will be important as we look at some of the other reports moving forward. The July bank balance report was in your packet um for the month of July. You can see that your general fund and investment account, the sweep account, uh those two are linked together. You can see we started at just under 13 million. And for the monthly activity, we ended at 12.2 million. Cafeteria had a balance of 808,000. Uh the student activity accounts obviously had just interest earned uh due to being the summer months. And then you can see the payroll account activity at the bottom of that report. Uh you'll also see the athletic donation account, capital projects,
004uh stadium account, and your PALF accounts. Looking at uh the third report that we provided was the uh revenue account summary. And so that revenue account summary looks like this. and it'll give you a breakdown of your various revenue accounts. Looking at it from a high level uh for 2526 uh you can see real estate tax revenue the budget column uh on the left your actuals for the month of July was 1,93,000 and you can see the variance there obviously a large variance because it's just the first month of the year but you can also see then July of 2420 uh that would be yeah 20 yeah 242 25 um was 2 million. 2.1 million was collected in the month of July. So I added just a couple of bullet points down below. The local
005revenue um was down slightly from the prior year. That could just be the timing of when the real estate tax bills were mailed out to residents. Those collections will start to come in here heavier in August and September and the fall months. Um, looking at your state revenue, you can see that decrease drastically obviously because we do not have a state budget at the moment. So, right now, the district is heavily rellyant on the current cash flow and local revenue sources uh until that budget can be passed. The other decrease that we see is within your federal revenue, which is about $3,000 and some other revenue. So really that largest decrease is because of the state budget impass at the moment. Looking at your expense accounts, uh we did provide an expense uh report. Looking
006high level, you can see again budget to actual uh looking at your instruction support non-instructional. Uh total expenses for the month of July were 754,000 compared to 729,000 in the prior year. So your expenses overall are about 3.4% uh increase over the prior year. The the district's largest expense categories of course are salaries and benefits. uh your tuition that you pay to um outplacements and charters as long as well as transportation. So again looking at uh the expenses from that side uh you can see salaries paid out was 166,000 the benefits was 312 largely due to the timing of when taxes and insuranceances are paid um along with retirement for uh the quarter. So again, that 754,000 is up about 3% over the prior year. This just gives you a pie breakdown of that 754,000.
007Again, the green is your salaries. This large silver bar would be your benefits that makes up the bulk of of the monthly expenses uh for July. Just a couple of other notes. Um, you know, again, Sandy and Martha continue to take on uh more responsibility within the business office as we continue to transition from JMA. That transition does seem to be winding down. Uh, and we have the new business manager coming on board. Uh, so Ed Denner and myself will continue to be available to the district to provide support uh to the new business manager, to Sonia, to Dr. Rael uh to Sonia and Martha. Um one of the things that we are working on developing and it is in progress is the financial dashboard. So our goal is to try to provide another highlevel
008financial report that's more visual in nature. Um so we'll continue to work with the district and work with the new business manager um to refine the information in that and provide that to you all. Uh, one of the items that we're looking to work through is um a budget restructuring um really just to align uh the the different buildings uh budgets uh into a format that makes sense for everybody. So, it's really an administrative effort to sort of revisit the 2526 budget um and look at how we can sort of improve on maybe how that's reflected within Prosoft um so that everybody can manage uh their building budget, you know, within the confines of what the board passed uh at the June meeting. And then the other uh sort of big task on the horizon
009is to begin preparing for the district's annual audit for the 2425 fiscal year. That's all I have to share with you tonight. I don't know if there are any questions. >> None heard. Thank you, sir. Um I want to say this probably one of the better presentations we've had in a long time about this information. So thank you very much. We appreciate this. >> Thank you. >> Next, we move on to reports and presentations. Up first, Mrs. Sonia Coleman, superintendent report for August 2025. >> I keep wanting to say good morning, but good evening um to everyone. I want to let everyone know that the report will begin to look different starting September with 10 categories I will highlight every single month. One reason for doing that is I think it's important that as we
010change the narrative of the work we're doing here at STO Rocks, we have to be transparent about what that work looks like. So I want to say the 10 categories are student achievement and instruction. So there'll be highlights there. There'll be school climate and culture, operations and fiscal um planning, human resources and staffing, strategic planning progress. We know that we start working on our strategic plan um in October. So that will become a part of the report beginning in I'm setting a goal to have it approved before we leave out on winter break. Um there'll be community stakeholder engagement portion policy legal updates and compliance challenges and needs and then celebrations. So that will be the format of the new report. I will also have it posted online for people to read in their leisure.
011Um, so I wanted to let everyone know that is going to be coming. So, but for today I really want to highlight the things that we've done the month of August with starting with our back to school um community event. It was 190 degrees out and there were so many families and so many kids and so many partners sitting out in the heat celebrating and kicking off back to school. We had a lot of staff show up. So kudos to the staff that showed up that worked during the day and still found time to take part in that event. Our teachers returned on Monday and I did not see one sad face in the place. Um it was a lot of work that we've done this week to kick off our our our theme this
012year is our way forward. And so at every session our staff was engaged. They asked good questions. There's shifts and pivots that are coming at folks in in a way that is going to move us forward. and the engagement. I'm kind of getting chills and stuttering a little bit because I only have a short period of time to say how pleased and impressed I was with everyone's engagement, especially here it is. I'm a new superintendent and we took time to say let's reach reach back and I called it is Sanc Kofa reach back and look at our past to know and learn from it and then burn it and only bring forth the good things that took place and really respecting the fact that there has been a lot of change and a lot of
013different leadership. I showed them a diagram of what happens to have progress. It starts with leadership and I have to take the ownership of the good, bad or indifferent that that is taking place in the district because now I own that and that I block and tackle for everyone in this district. And I did tell them unless it's immoral, criminal, you know, those things you've got to get an attorney for. But if we all work together, we're going to have great days and we're going to have some not so great days. But we have to understand that our purpose here and I grounded us in our mission and our core um beliefs every single session because if we move away from that then it becomes we're moving away from our purpose and our purpose is
014to educate students I I let them into some work with if you've seen the movie A time to kill and at the end he has everyone close their eyes right and imagine the perfect classroom imagine the perfect lesson imagine what the halls look like with the cafeterias look like, what the restrooms look like. Everyone has a role. And then I asked everyone, would you put your child there? And if it's no, then it's not good enough for our students, right? And so I say this publicly because this this message is for everyone because we all have a stake in this from parents to students to faculty to staff to our board of directors. We all have to commit to that. We also have to change our messaging. If one person leaves here saying something bad
015about sto rocks, it's like a cancer. It spreads and we have to change the narrative. That's why my report is going to look different. Be transparent. Own the good good things that happen for you guys because when good things happen, I'm celebrating you. When the not so good things happen, I I'm going to take responsibility for that. Um, so that said, we had a great launch to the week. Open house has been an overwhelming success. We all were a little bit nervous about it, but the number of parents and families that showed up um for open house, thank you for that. to our community partners who have donated book bags, who have donated time, who have donated money. We sincerely thank you for that. Coming up on Monday, we will be having a back to
016school rally here at the junior senior high school. So, um, if you're early morning person, please feel free to join. The more the marrier. We want to celebrate our students, our staff who are getting ready to be in the mix of the work starting August 25th. And lastly, um I do want to add that I am going to be doing a community partners meet and greet. We have a lot of community partners and I don't know if everyone knows each other. I think it's important if we're all working towards the same mission, if we're all working towards the same goals, sometimes we we have to work smart. Not that I'm opposed to hard work, but we have to work smart towards hitting that same goal. So, that is going to take place and I've been
017telling um partners and I would let them know a date is September 16th um at 4:15. I will send out emails. If you notice on the email I've missed someone, blame it on my mind, not my heart, because that's how many um partners we have showing up for the students of Stow Rocks. That is my report for August 21st. Thank you. >> Up next, we're going to have Carrie Potter Murray from Holy Family Institute program presentation. Okay. All right. Good evening members of the board and and members of the community and thank you for your time and congratulations Miss Coleman on what sounds like the beginning of an excellent tenure here at Stock School District. My name is Dr. Carrie Potter Murray. I'm the vice president of inclusive education services at Holy Family Institute. With
018me today here in the back um are Haley Giuliano, the chief program officer at Holy Family Institute, Dr. Sharon Zeritzky, a new board director and longtime education leader, Whitney Boston and Dale Siva, who are the restorative practices coordinator and principal respectively at Holy Family Specialized Learning, which is what I'm honored to talk to you about today. Holy Family Institute, as you might know, is a Pittsburgh institution that has served hundreds of thousands of children and families in need for 125 years. There are currently 11 programs at Holy Family that directly support about 40,000 members of our community annually. One of those programs is a private academic school that serves as a placement for highne students with behavioral challenges. Regarding those students, I often wonder and ask you to consider what do we want for them?
019Not just tomorrow, not just until the next quarter, but 5, 10, 20 years from now. Do we want them to be compliant or do we want them to be whole? Because compliance has an expiration date if we're being honest with ourselves. Wholeness lasts. Let me tell you what often happens in a traditional out of school placement. A student, young, angry, hurting, gets referred out. They land in a classroom that's supposed to be specialized, but really it's isolation. It's worksheets, short days, adults whose best strategy is keep the lid on. But that student leaves with a transcript, maybe older, definitely, but with the same pain, the same anger, and the same sense that the system gave up on them. That's not a solution. That's a revolving door. But programs like Holy Family Specialized Learning, Specialized Learning
020have flipped that script. We use restorative practices, which says discipline is not about punishment. It's about accountability. It's about repair. It's about teaching. It's about teaching that young person who has been written off as difficult that they are more than their worst day. It creates a classroom culture where students and teachers are human beings first. Remember I said that students and teachers are human beings first. Where conflict is not suppressed but it's addressed. It's worked through and it becomes fuel for growth. I need to be clear. This approach is not softness. It's not permissiveness. Restorative practice, in fact, is the hardest work there is because it demands we see our students not just as problems to be managed, but as people who deserve healing. It asks us as the adults, as the grown-ups, to hold
021a mirror up to the systems we've built and say, "We can do better than this. We have to do better than this." For Sto Rock students, the stakes couldn't be higher. We know their realities. We know the generational challenges. If we don't create restorative-minded school programs, what we're really doing is sentencing those children to repeat the same cycles we say we want to break. And the truth, the truth that we all know but rarely say out loud is that when we fail these kids, it costs all of us. In dollars, sure, but more painfully, in lost potential, in young lives derailed, in futures foreclosed on before they even had a chance to begin. But imagine the opposite. Imagine a program. Imagine schools where a student who lashes out isn't just suspended, but sat down in
022a circle where they have to hear and be heard. Where the lesson plan isn't just algebra, but dignity. Where staff are trained not just in behavior management, but in conflict re resolution, traumainformed care, and the art of believing in a kid until the kid can believe in themselves. When private placement schools operate like ours, here's what the outcomes look like. Students see a 40% reduction in repeat suspensions within the first year. Attendance rises because kids want to show up to a place where they are valued, not discarded. Graduation rates climb because students feel connected to a community that holds them accountable and lifts them up. And maybe most important, fewer students end up in the juvenile justice system because restorative practices replaces the pipeline to prison with a pathway to possibility. That's what restorative practices
023offers. That's what specialized learning is. And this is the kind of placement that Stow students deserve if we mean what we say about equity, about excellence, about every child's future. So tonight, what I hope to inspire in you is belief and hope. I'm also asking for courage. I'm asking you to back a placement that isn't a band-aid, but a blueprint. Not another program where students are hidden away, but a problem, but a program, pardon me, where they are seen, heard, and given a real chance at longlasting outcomes. Because at the end of the day, as educators, we are judged not by the ease of the decisions we make, but by the students who walk out of our school stronger, wiser, and ready to lead lives they could not have imagined when they first walked in.
024Thank you. >> Anyone have any questions? We got some questions up here if you don't mind check. It's an excellent question and it's actually a question that should be asked to any kind of outside placement uh because that is an investment for a school district um to make. Correct. just listening to your financial report of your out of district placement costs. What we offer, what we're piloting this year is a tiered program approach. So everything from our enrollment decisions to our programming um offers to families and students is aligned with a tiered model starting with a tier one model which teaches daily lessons in social emotional learning and restorative practices which is what I mentioned in my presentation an idea that we all make mistakes because we're all human but we can't be judged by
025those mistakes. We need to learn how to accept that accountability and be vulnerable and then move forward. That's tier one. Tier two builds upon that and adds group counseling and targeted skill support. And then tier three moves on into more highly individualized support such as supportive counseling on on an individual basis and very targeted skill and goal planning with a reward system built in. It depends on what their level of need is, which it's really important that any kind of support model, whether it's in a school district through a special education program or an outofd district placement, um, uses an individualized approach. So during every intake appointment that we we host at our school, it includes a tour. It includes an interview with the family, with the school district, and with the student to really
026assess what level of need the student has. Based on our intake assessment, the student receives a score, which again is based on their level of need and the level of risk. And then based on what their score is, that would determine which tier they're placed in. And the whole design of that is to make sure that we're really addressing what the students need is so that we can meet them with their where they are and promote their growth. >> So it's pretty common in out of district placements to hold on to students. Uh in our program, one of the main program goals in our model is to work with school districts, work with students, and work with their families to create plans to transition back into the school district. Last year, we were able to
027su successfully trans transition 18 children back into their school districts, which is an a monumental increase from years previously where sometimes that percentage was zero. I lost my train of thought. >> How long the average length of stay for a student is 140 days. Now that that seems like a school a school year is 180 days, right? That's the average. We like I said, we have students that come to us with varying needs, varying community and family supports. Based on those indicators and based on those factors, that has a direct line into how quickly a student can transition back into the school district. >> They did. >> Again, another excellent question. Uh so our restorative practices training is led by uh this lovely woman back here. Um her name is Whitney Boston. She is a
028licensed professional counselor um and has worked with youth in the community for years and years and years at this exact skill set. Uh what our training for staff looks like um is probably very similar to um Stow Rock's teachers. They come back a week before students start and it is a every single day, every single moment of the day is packed um with our sessions, our training sessions in restorative practices and traumainformed care. A lot of school systems and a lot of outofd placements rely on that one week of training and that one um one day a month, maybe one day a quarter for inservices. We've prioritized staff support and staff training in our program. What that looks like is that when students are dismissed, there's a 45minute period at the end of every single
029school day that is specifically targeted for staff to support their self-care, their emotional needs, and their understanding of how to support our students. Because remember, we're working with very high need students that come to us with very spirited behaviors. The staff need to be supported just as much as our kids need to be supported. Every day of the school year there's the afterchool training and support sessions. We have a red flag meeting model that if there is a concern that any staff me staff member has we elevate that concern and we meet and we talk about that as a team so that students don't fall through the cracks. >> Our staff to student ratio is one staff member to every six students. Um, in our tier one and tier two classrooms, the classroom roster is
030capped at 12. Uh, that's an appropriate number for a special education teacher to students with IEPs. In our tier three classroom, it's capped at six. Uh, six students to one special education teacher sounds like a very, very low ratio. And it's designed to be that way intentionally because these are the students that have the highest emotional need. and they need a staff member that has the capacity to focus on them rather than a classroom that's double that size. Does that make sense? Okay, excellent questions. Thank you. >> Any others? >> Thank you very much. We appreciate this. Thank you. >> Thank you. Have a great night and have a great school year. Thank you. Up next, we're going to get into our recommended new hires. When we call your name up, when we call your
031name, please feel free to come on up to the uh podium on the microphone. We're going to ask you who you are, where you're from, what brought you to Stir Rocks. Um, and tell us a little bit about yourself, please. Right. This is a good time for us to get to know who you are. Uh excitement and the whole nine, right? So don't be shy. We're not going to bite you. I promise. So up first, um Mr. Scott Reed, business manager. Welcome. Welcome. >> I like that tie, by the way. Like that tie. >> Um as you said, I'm Scott Reid. Uh I grew up in the area. born and raised Carnegi so close to the um neighboring stuff. Uh I went to Bishop Cannaman High School so we played Stow Rocks and football. So
032my first interaction with Sto Rocks was basically that back in high school. Um also currently um more recently uh I was on active duty as a army an army reserve recruiter. Uh Stir Rocks was one of my schools. So I had come here and um to do the table visits and stuff and meet with the students and community and everything like that. So that was kind of like my introduction. It was something that felt good. Um coming here um I'm first of all thank thank you all administration the board for confidence and trust for this opportunity. I'm super excited. Uh one of the biggest thing throughout the whole process the interview is how the school district's growing. Everybody here was very happy and very enthusiastic of moving forward and as she said the this year
033being our way forward something like that very interested me. So I'm excited to bring my experience and my background to this. Uh personally I'm married. I have a 13-year-old daughter that's in eighth grade. So most of my time spent with her and all her activities and traveling with my >> Any questions? >> Thank you. We appreciate that. Thank you. Go Air Force. Funny thing is do it all over again. >> You would do Air Force. I know that. That's what I'm talking about. Up next, we're gonna have Shane Adams, girls basketball coach. I get you a new shirt already. I see it. Uh, how's everyone doing? My name is Shane Adams. Uh, I'm from North Manchester area to be exact. uh graduated from Northgate in 2015. Uh I attended a branch of the University of
034Pittsburgh at Titusville uh for a year. I transferred and did a year at CCAC. Uh I played collegiate at both places. Um my first year back after my second year at school, uh I volunteered at Northgate. My first year was a volunteer year. My second year, I got the middle school head coach position for the boys. My third year, I became the first seat assistant for the varsity team. Um, our first three years, I would say we were pretty bad. Um, with a little bit of hard work though, the next few years, that fourth year, we end up being 500. And, uh, I think that was the CO year. So, uh, we had a tough year with the COVID year. Still made the playoffs at a first round bounce out. Um and then after that,
035uh it was Whipio Championship appearance against Alquipa. Uh two years in the state playoffs all the way down to the semifinals. And uh last year was my first year actually sitting out. Uh I've been a full-time official as well for six years. That's refereeing uh collegiate uh high school and little kids junior high. I also do AAOU and men's programs as well. Um, I live in a community. I've lived here for about seven years. I've lived all over Sheran and McKe Rocks from the top to the bottom everywhere. Honestly, uh, I'm familiar with the area. I'm also a cook at some of the local bars here as well. Um what brought me here is just the spirit, you know, uh new beginning, new uh challenges and um >> yeah, this a new experience, new beginnings.
036>> Appreciate that. Thank you. >> Yeah, no problem. >> Up next, we're going to have Michelle Cox, 46 special ed teacher and virtual Viking coordinator. Sorry, it takes me a while. >> That's all right. >> Um, I actually grew up up the street in Kilbuk Township. I actually went to Avanorth. Um, I h am in school for my second masters and I'm applying to the PhD program in January. So, I'm excited about that. I'm excited to be here at Still Rocks. I worked in the community many moons ago um in a daycare and I loved it and I had a positive effect on the kids and um when I saw this position come up I thought it would be a great way for me to continue to have a positive effect on the kids. So,
037um, those kids that I taught before are now grown adults and I still keep in touch with some of them. So, um, and, uh, I have a dog. Her name is Nugget. She's my child. Um, and I now live in Alequipa. So, that's it. >> Thank you very much. We appreciate you. Welcome. Up next, we're going to have Rachel Keeler, K through three special education teacher. >> Good evening. How are you? >> Hi. How are you? >> I'm good, thanks. Um, my name is Rachel Keeler. Um, and a little bit about how I ended up here is I've been a teacher for eight years, but I recently spent the last couple of years in a charter school environment. Um, and personally it did not align to my values as an educator. I loved the children,
038which is why I was there as long as I was, but I'm very passionate about public education and serving the students um, in a community and existing within that community. Um, which is why I was looking to make the transition back to the public school environment. Um, when I interviewed at Rocks, I got to meet so many great administrators and so many teachers. And one thing that really inspired me is how many teachers have been working here for 15, 20, 30 plus years. I think that speaks a lot to the community and the school um and the teachers dedication to their students and serving them. And that was um really what pulled me in and told me that it would be a right fit for me. So, I'm really excited to continue teaching special education
039and I'm happy to be here. So, thank you for the opportunity. >> Thank you. Welcome. >> Thank you. Appreciate it. Up next, we're going to have Joshua Rankin, sixth grade teacher. >> How we doing everybody? How are you? >> Good, man. Great to be here. >> Josh Reagan. I'm from kind of right around this area. Grew up in Moon Township and I played football and baseball there and I then went on to California University of Pennsylvania where I got my degree. Played baseball there collegiately. Throughout those times, I had a lot of great mentors, whether they were teachers or coaches, that were able to put me in a position to do something like this today. So, as Miss Coleman talked about in our orientation and our way forward, also our purpose, my purpose, I think,
040is to give back to the community and also be that pillar for kids to be impactful, a young adult that they could look up to, just like teachers mentored me when I was younger. And I feel like I can make the biggest impact here. And I'm really excited to be here. >> Thank you. Appreciate it. You're welcome. Up next, we're gonna have Shauna Richi, school counselor, grades four through six, upper elementary. >> Did I say it wrong? >> No, that's fine. Richie is fine also. >> Okay. All right. How do you say it? How you really say it? >> I just say Richie because it's easier. If we were in Italy, I guess it would be Rich Reachi. >> All right. I'm talking about >> um but I'm Shauna. I've been a school counselor for
041over 20 years. Um, my career has been with the AIU and alternative ed. Um, so I've got the opportunity over the years to work with students from pretty much just about every district in Alageney County and some in West Morland and surrounding. Um, so I've had multiple Stow rock students in the past and kind of what they've all said to me before was pretty much everybody knows everybody. It's a tight-knit community. there's a lot of pride or if you see someone's grandmother sees you doing something, she's going to tell your folks and things like that. So, that was kind of my preconceived notion about the district. And I mean, I've already seen that. Um, for example, at open house last night, I saw families interacting with each other, interacting with the staff, talking about years
042of experiences they've had in the schools. Um, I heard one grandmother last night saying, "Oh, my neighbor, he's a young father. He doesn't know what the process is for enrollment, so I got to help him. I got to get him on board with what he needs so he can enroll his child." Um, so I just saw that sense of community just in these past couple weeks. Um, so I'm excited to just add to that level of community and that sense of pride and just build that in the students as they move forward in life. So, I'm also married um with a 10th grader. She's um a cheerleader, so that keeps me busy going to cheer events and sporting events all the time. So, >> thank you. Welcome. >> Thank you. >> Up next, we're going
043to have Alyssa Shreer, K through three special education teacher. >> I say it wrong, >> actually. Yeah. Sorry. >> How do you say it? >> It's Shrier. >> All right. Like I always say it's drier but you drop the duh and add the sh >> I like I like >> there's my special end coming out. >> I like that. >> So exactly those blends. Um so my name is Alyssa Shrier. Um I actually grew up in Moon Township. Um after I graduated Moon I went to the University of Pittsburgh for my undergraduate in speech pathology. Um upon that graduation, I was working within the um special education world and I just truly fell in love with working with individuals, more specifically the students with learning disabilities. Um so at that point, that's whenever I started
044my career in special education, went back for my masters. Um I recently have my career started in Virginia Beach. Um I kind of worked as a teacher assistant working my my way up the ranks. Um, I have a two-year-old daughter at home with me. Um, so knowing that I have my daughter with me, I know I need that support and all my family is my my family as well as my husband's family is here in the Pittsburgh community. Um, so I just want to be able to be closer to family um as well as um just showing her the community in which I have grown grown up in um and the surrounding areas. Um, as for my reason for choosing Stow Rocks, um, when I first had come back, when I had my interviews, I
045was just really impressed with the value of a supportive atmosphere from the administration and the staff. Um and I look forward to empowering my students that I work with um to reach their highest potential of um to ensure that they are reaching those potentials academically, social, emotionally um and developmentally. >> Thank you. >> So yes, that's >> I like that. >> Thank you. >> Welcome. >> Thank you. >> Up next we have Bobby Joe Thompson, General Cafe Elementary. She'll >> be Thank you. Up next, Isabella Warden, K through three special education teacher. [Music] >> Hello. >> Um, I am Isabella Warden. Um, I'm going to be a first year teacher at the primary center. Um, teaching life skills kindergarten through third grade. Um, I just actually graduated in May from the Indiana University of Pennsylvania.
046Um, so I thank you. So, I am super excited for this to be my first opportunity. I am a little nervous, so I wrote something down. I hope you don't mind. Um, I said I am drawn to Star Rock School District because I want to be a part of a team that's committed to making a difference. Um, through this life skills position, I'll be able to fully um embrace my passion for educating, supporting, and empowering students uh with disabilities, not only through their academics, but through independence as well. Um, through my interview process, I was able to meet a bunch of different staff and faculty members that were super kind, welcoming, and really made me feel supported, which is why I'm so excited to be a part of the STO Rocks community. >> Thank you.
047Thank you. >> And up next, we're going to have Alexis Welsh, uh, K through six. Thank you. Physical ed teacher. >> Hi. How are you guys today? >> How are you? Good. Um, I am Alexis Welsh. Um, my family grew up over in the Stone Rocks area. Uh, my dad, my grandfather, and my grandmother, they all lived over here for a multitude of years. My grandmother still lives down here. So, I was drawn to Stow Rocks when I saw the health and physical education position open. Um, a little bit about myself, I have played sports all my life. I played basketball through college. I did track through college and I've just loved being active all my life. Um, I have been a activity specialist at the YMCA and I also have been working with pre
048kindergarteners for the last year and a half. Um, what also drew me to Stow Rocks is the commitment and the well-being. uh that they have for the students and creating that um meaningful relationships and supporting personalized learning uh for each and every student. I also admire how Stow Rocks is invested in the whole child, celebrating diversity and offering the programs that support every student's growth, whether through PBIS, restorative practices, mentorship, and the extracurricular activities that you guys are constantly putting on. and I'm excited about this opportunity to contribute to STO Rock's mission and build stronger relationships with both the students and the community. Thank you. Welcome. Thank you all. [Applause] Thank you all very much for wanting to be a part of our family. Here's the Rocks. Look forward to hearing some great things about
049you all going forward. Now we'll move on into our new our non- consent agenda. Item number one is to wave and approve the reading of the July 24th, 2025 minutes of the ST school district board of directors. Any questions? Financial management. Turn back over to Mr. Lamb. >> Knocked off. Okay. >> Okay. Yes, ma'am. Thank you. Item number two at the recommendation for superintendent and chief recovery officer approve the transfer from general fund remaining a balance of donation of 28.99 that remain unspent from virtual Viking I'm sorry from Viking pride activities at the junior high school to student activities account any questions under operations projects awarded for Ashley Dickinson project resources for a new year Elena Paul, classroom project sensory resources, Julia Blank, classroom project boo and care supplies, and Julie Wood, classroom project school
050year tissue. At number two, accept a donation from Verizon for 36 backpacks to primary elementary school. Mr. Paul, >> any comments, concerns about this? Yeah, I I had a colleague from a former from my last district who had been overseeing the donation of backpacks to my prior district. They had a large number and she reached out to me because they've had some extras and so I she said they were primary age backpacks. I reached out to Dr. Muma uh to see if she'd be interested in using those and she said absolutely and so we picked them up and uh that's where they came from. >> Thank you, sir. Appreciate that. Thank you. >> All went at open house. That's what I'm talking about. >> Yes. >> Good. >> Next. Accept donations from 40 pencil boxes
051with supplies, tissues, misselius, and supplies from the president and vice president of Consolidated Displays Incorporated, Joanne Lere and Derek Lere. Dr. Ma, >> thank you. Good evening. We were contacted a few weeks ago by Joanne and her son Derek. They um live and work within our community and we were so impressed with one the donations and two secondly the partnership. They are going to come back to the primary center in September or October to meet with us and they want to know if there are any other projects or opportunities for us to really engage in that um opportunity for learning PBIS or any type of extension. So we're very excited and we really appreciate their generosity and their kindness. um they knew our community, they care about our community, and um they want to give
052back. So, thank you very much to Consolidated Displace. >> Thank you. Appreciate that. Up next, Mr. Ask Mr. Zach Simpson to come on up, please, and take items number four through eight. >> How's everybody doing? I left my agenda over there, which was number four. Good. Number four is approved a quote for the renewed backflow testing from Jesse Casiato plumbing. >> That's just a an annual testing. It has to be done by all districts in Pennsylvania. Has to be done by a certified plumber. We give him him the paperwork. He comes in, tests all three schools. That's the standard. >> Number five, approved quotes from what fencing incorporated. >> Yeah, this this is for we're going to fix the the parking lot fence. make sure not it's secure so kids can't get underneath and fix
053the the two parts along the backside that have >> had damage over the years. W Fencing is the company that installed the the most recent fence in the the late 80s. So, we're going back and having it done right. It's just that's the part that's not broken yet. Do you know if there's a way um I guess maybe smarter? So having that uh the tarp on the fence and everything and it's usually that same spot on the side of the but the booth that gets knocked by the wind. >> I believe that has bent in the past instead of fixing it right they just pushed it back up. Got it. Also that the tarp that's currently on there is very heavy. Um there are different types. Um we've looked at a few quotes. Um, I'll
054bring that in the future. I want to get fence fixed first and then we'll get the proper fencing on there. >> Thank you. >> Tarp on there. >> And number six, approve the Huckstand service agreement for HVAC and high school equipment to include two full checks a year on all equipment and monthly followup follow-ups and service on equipment. >> Yeah, this um, as everybody knows, we have an aging building here at the high school. This is only a plan for for the high school. We're under um warranty with both the schools up on the hill. Um this we have to get professionals in here to service what we have. Um if we don't issued only compound um I've used them in the past. They're very reliable. They're very prudent. You make a a phone call
055that they're here immediately. Um it would would help us extend the lifespan. All of our equipment is out of its expected life. Most HVAC systems they say 15 to 20 years. All our systems are well beyond that. So we're trying to get as much life out of them as we can. >> Appreciate that. Number seven, retract I'm sorry. Number seven, retroly approved two quotes from Betti Reliable Landscape Services for projects at primary, upper, and junior senior high school. Yeah, that was the mulching and landscaping that's done each year at all the schools. They did outside of the auditorium here, then all the mulch beds up on the hill. That was done before the the new hires started before a new hire introduction. So that's already completed and done. That's too easy. >> And then number
056eight, approved attendance quote for repair from fascia and downspouts at Upper. Yeah, I I guess last year when they replaced the roofing, the scope of work, the fascia was not on there and the gutters were not on there either. They've since the school's been built, uh, a few of the the gutters from the acid rain have dissolved basically. So, they got to repair those, reattach them to the building. Then the fascia on the the the peaks has blown off. I don't know why that wasn't tied into the roofing project. It should have been, but we can't go back and [ __ ] to ask you. That's not something that >> it should have been. I mean, that was something that it was missed in the scope of work for those projects, but that'll fix the problems we
057have right now. >> Thank you. what we did um for the for for the the the fencing. I reached out to at least six vendors to confirm they come in. Only one showed up. We need to get it fixed. Um that's why we have the three quotes. I mean, I reach out to everybody we can. Um everybody has a hard time getting people to work. I've been trying to get quotes for for painting doors for a month and a half and nobody wants to come in and quote stuff. So, we do try. I mean, if you have more vendors, I'm more more than happy to talk to anybody. So, >> Thank you. Appreciate it, sir. Appreciate you. >> Up next, number nine, approve the STEM coding labou for the 202526 school year for students in
058grades 2 through 8th. The cost is covered by the PA smart grant. Mr. So, we're in our fourth year of partnership with the STEM coding lab and they provide computer science coursework um during science time once a week in grades 2 through 8. Um they also last year got a grant and put a maker space in the upper elementary. So that's finally complete and students are using that um once a week when they are there but teachers can also take the students in there. >> Thank you. >> Up next. Accept the donation of 40 laptop covers for Chromebooks from Gallagher Insurance. Comments concern. >> They reached out to us um and asked what our needs were and our high school principal said we sure could use laptops. So, anyone that asks me, I say, "We
059need laptop covers." We have the laptops. So, they graciously donated 40 laptops. I sent them the Chromebooks that we have, and they're shipping the correct covers. So, she's going to I um Mrs. Davis is going to identify which which students um will get the 40 covers. >> Thank you. Number 11 accepted donation from various items from the AIOU clothing of the McKe rocks alternator education for disruptive youth program. Donated items include choir gowns, student desks, file cabinets, and furniture. >> I have nothing additional to add. We appreciate it. But we we did say and Zach and I talked, we love folks to donate their items, but it's okay sometimes if we don't need it not to take them um because we're running out of storage space for these items. So, >> and then number 12,
060authorize district admin to accept future donations from the AIU having limited value when deemed to be in the best interest of the district. Makes sense. Next, we move on to E, special assignments. Approve the school board, I'm sorry, approve the school district bus stops for next up this upcoming school year. Any questions? Always a pretty hot topic. Approve student handbook for next school year. Any questions? Next. Next. Under educational leadership. Approve and ratify the prof professional development matrix as presented. Any questions about anything on here? Approve the renewal for NWA MAP growth K through2 online annual license for the upcoming school year. Mr. Paul, >> that's just a renewal. That's just a renewal of the same program we've been using. It's a one-year renewal. We're using it K through 12. We intend to use it
061as a universal screener, which means all of the students will will take the assessment. It's an adaptive assessment. It's an online program. Uh which adaptive means it adjusts to the students answers and uh takes them on their uh the appropriate learning path for them. If they need questions that are a little more challenging, it'll develop that automatically or vice versa. uh using that as a way to facilitate the grouping of students for uh whatever sort of additional support they might need. Maybe they don't need as much additional support. So we keep them in what we call tier one. Maybe they need some extra support, put them in what we call tier two. If they need a lot of additional support, we put them in what's called tier three, multi-ter system support model, MTSS sometimes it's
062referred to as. And uh this program gets us going on the data we need to generate as groups. >> Thank you, sir. >> It is. Yes. >> Thank you, sir. Appreciate you. Up next, I'm going to ask Mrs. Lincen Bigler to come on up, please. Or is she online? I'm sorry. She virtual. >> Hi, I'm here. >> Hello. Hello. >> How are you? >> Good. How are you? >> I'm well, thank you. >> Good. I'm gonna uh talk about the uh approved Sunb Belt Professional Charmaine Malcolm to provide services. Yes. >> From August 25th to June 2nd, 2026. You want to talk about that a little bit? >> Sure. Charmaine is coming to us from Sunb Belt. She has past experience in several school districts working K through 12. Um served most of her time
063in a middle school setting working with students with intellectual disabilities. She shared some personal information with us that she cares for her mother. Her mother was um in a medical situation from the time she was 8 years old where she would have to help her mother with her tube feedings and mobility access and now she is caring for her incontinent needs. So, she shared how that has become a passion of hers throughout her life and that she is eager and ready to help students that have some of those same um physical limitations. So, she is going to be working in one of our life skills classrooms at the primary center and supporting um the two ladies that you met this evening that we were able to bring on board there. So, I think it's going
064to be a really great benefit to our district and to that program specifically. Do you have any questions about Charmaine? >> Uh, yes. There's a question coming about this. >> Yeah, I did. So, is this a specialized special position, but we're not hiring somebody but doing a >> Yeah. Like I've not I'm sorry. I was having a little bit of trouble hearing that question. Was it um a question about the agency Sunb Belt? I >> Hi. I'm asking is this a specialized paraprofessional position which is why we're contracting out as opposed to hiring par like we have people. That's a fantastic question and my um my goal this year is to have less third party agencies and more Stow Rocks um personnel. However, we have a contract with Sunb Belout for one position. It was
065signed by my predecessor in March of 2025. So, we are um either locked into that for a school year or until March 2026 or we need to give 60 days notice before we can dismiss that, which means we would still need to pay that position regardless of filling it for those 60 days. Um, at which point we would then need to fill that position and have that turnover for some of our most vulnerable students. Thank you. >> You're welcome. >> And then next, uh, approve the agreement with the Watson Institute to enroll three students for the next school year. Linton Big. >> Yes. Um, as you as I'm sure you're aware, I can't discuss the specifics of the students in question for FURPA, but we do have students that have been already placed there again
066prior to my coming aboard and they're doing well there. So, it's um not best practice to change their placement from when they'd been successful until now. We had one student that was in process of being placed whenever I arrived. So, I did see through that process to honor the team's um documentation, data collection, and FBA completion to determine that those students needs would be best met in those settings. >> Thank you. >> And then approve the updated renewal quote from every way for unique learning systems for the life skills classroom to include four renewals and one additional subscription. >> Yes, sir. So the four licenses were already um previously board approved and this year with our growing number of students coming into our district which is a fabulous thing. We had a high early intervention
067um numbers. So our kindergarten life skills students um were six students. We now as of today we just had another enroll. We have five um grades one through three which gives a total of 11 life skills students um which is a very very high number for that age of kid with that high need disability level. So, we decided to have two life skills classrooms at the primary center this school year, which would be an additional life skills license for a teacher to be able to pro provide that instruction in the classroom on a functional level, but still aligning with our grade level curriculum. >> Thank you. And then retroactively approved the crossroad speech and hearing work order for speech IEP consultation and administrative services for July 29, 2025, August 25th, 2025. Yes. So, for this
068one, we had our early intervention students who needed their IEPs completed from special education teachers, which we were able to utilize one of our um primary center special education in district teachers to write those IEPs on an hourly rate. However, our in district speech therapist that formerly um assisted with those resigned at our last board meeting, so she was obviously unable then to fill those. We're still working to hire that indistrict um speech therapist. So since we already had a contract with Crossroads with a therapist who works at the high school, we were able to um bring their services in at an hourly rate to write the early intervention speech portions of those IEPs to have those kindergarten students ready for day one of school. >> Thank you. And then just the last thing for
069you, retroactively approved PACE invoice for ESY and BCA services for one student for ESY summer. Never mind, you're good to go. >> Yes. So again, this is a student that was already being served at Pace School. So for a continuum of services, that student qualified for ESY and continued their placement in the setting that was best meeting their needs. >> Thank you. And before we let you go, um, wanted to ask you really fast, you know, for your first, you know, um, uh, your short time here, some things that you kind of been seeing so far and, you know, what you're looking at and what your plans are kind of, I guess, moving forward, you know, like what's your direction moving forward? So, we had a very productive meeting today um during professional development as
070a full special education department, the school psychologist, the special education teachers districtwide, um our crossroads speech therapist. We met together for a couple hours today and really dove into our updated special education handbook that outlines all of the compliance regulations that we're going to be focusing on correcting within a lot of our paperwork this year. um over the summer have been combing through um each and every IEP and NORUP in every single student that we have districtwide and made a spreadsheet with notes for each of the case managers of areas that we can improve in compliance to best meet our students needs. And my hope is that when we really go through these with a fine tooth comb and identify those supports in areas of strength and weakness that we can improve our in-house programming
071to start reducing our outofd district referrals. >> Thank you. Appreciate that a lot. Thank you very much. Um, next uh number eight regularly approved the Alexia learning system for quote for core five reading and power subcriptions. Any comments, concerns? >> Yes, sir. >> Okay. Yeah. The Lexia Core 5 is designed for K through five. Power up is for grades 6 through 12. Uh, this is an intervention resource that's adaptive. All we like all of these programs because they're adaptive. they adjust to the students needs and create learning paths appropriately for them uh based on what they need. This one is more of what we call a progress monitoring tool. So after we use the NWA for the uh universal screener for all the students identify their needs. This one hones in specifically on reading intervention
072and is specific to that as a progress monitoring tool. And this one included uh professional development as well because it's a new program. Uh we need to get the teachers what they need to be successful with it. >> Thank you. And then uh Rich Ellie approved the McGraw Hill quote for Alex math supplemental program K grades K through 12. >> Yes, this one is similar to Lexia. All the same concepts but this one is specific to math as opposed to where Lexia is specific to reading. uh again for progress monitoring and again including professional development in that cost because it is a new program for us. >> Thank you. And then strictly approved a great minds quote for Eureka math for K through sixth grade for the next school year. >> Yeah, this is a
073program that we've already been using. So nothing new here. It's just the approval of uh the student workbooks and also teacher digital resources access to the online. >> Thank you sir. while you're up there really fast. Just approved the piloting of open s resources for K through2 science at no cost to the district. >> Yeah, we've been exploring some different options there. We had some things on the table that just weren't cost-effective. We decided to pivot from there uh to this open sed former science teacher, I'm a big fan of it. Uh I don't have access to a lot of that stuff because I'm not there anymore. So, I'm going to uh begin that process here and get the things that we need to move forward investigating them with our staff. Uh we'll explore the
074digital and the hard copy resources, see what fits where, make decisions. Uh it is uh NGSS align, which is the the new science standards nationally. Pennsylvania has a Pennsylvania specific version of that called the steel standards and the NGSS is basically what the steels are pretty much lined up with. So, we feel like this is going to be a real nice standards aligned piece and it's also free and uh so that's fantastic too. It's very highly rated and it's super cost effective. So, we're excited to look into that. >> Thank you, sir. Appreciate you. Thank you. >> And we'll go back to number 11. Approve the extension of the agreement with the AIU for Special Education Consulting Services by Lucy Mcdana approved on May 22nd, 2025 to extend until December 31st, 2025. So, one of
075the reasons why we need to do this is when um when Britney came in, we talked about where the focus should be. So, within two weeks, she wrote a a handbook um as a starting point to ensure that we stay on track, compliant with every single IEP. And as she said, they're going through every single one, making sure all of our eyes are dotted and te's are crossed and cleaning up um our systems and processes. And she truly needs assistance with that. It's not a oneperson job. And so we need to extend Lucy's help to ensure that we get this right. Um and never have to look back after that. >> Thank you. Um, I want to jump to legal really fast. Um, ma'am, you have anything publicly? >> Um, sure. There's I have two
076items on here. One is to authorize our office to prepare an invitation to bid and other acts necessary to carry out the sale of the foster school. Um, and that minimum acceptable build bid shall be $250,000. and we're excited because we think that'll bring some, you know, some revenue to the district. And then second, um I'm requesting a motion to authorize the filing of annual tax assessment appeals. Again, we file these where where where properties have been um undervalued and and so we file these appeals in the hopes that we're going to get some money back for the district where that has in fact occurred. >> Thank you, ma'am. I appreciate it. Are there any committee reports to be heard? I read the notes from the meeting today. Thank you all and Miss Cooper. >>
077Yes. Um the policy and procedure committee met on Tuesday and we discussed being uh proactive and opposed to being retroactive on getting some of these policies updated. We also discussed working with the admins who are in the building uh and discussing with them to see you know putting priorities first uh with those policies and having them included. >> Thank you ma'am. I appreciate that. Um >> welcome. >> We're going to go ahead and we're going to go ahead and uh end this meeting and go into executive session. We will not be coming back. So thank you all very much for coming tonight. Next meeting will be next Thursday here in this cafeteria unless otherwise noted at 7 o'clock. Again, thank you all very much. We appreciate you all. Y'all have a good night.