001Good evening. Today is April 6th, 2026. We are here in room D205 as well as online. Can I have roll call, please? Mrs. Berdyck. >> Here. Dr. Campanaro. Here. Mr. Clougherty. >> Here. Mrs. Crable. >> Here. Ms. Flasher. Here. Mrs. Gelman. Here. Ms. Givens. >> Here. Mr. Hoffman. Here. Reverend Dr. Strauss. Here. All members are present. Thank you. Um before the meeting, the board did meet and have our budget forum discussion today. So, you will see on um our report here for E with in finance, we will be talking about our proposed final budget, but we are going to start with our treasurer's report and expenditures, Ms. Connelly. The treasurer's report reflects cash transactions for the month of March 2026. Uh the first part of the treasurer's report is a list of all of our
002bank accounts, their beginning and ending balances for March of 2026. Second page is a list of our investments, their beginning and ending balances through March. And the last page are other sub accounts that we have that we keep track of in the business office um that are not related to the general fund. The second part of the treasurer's report is the projected expenditures and revenues as of March 31, 2026. We do have a change this month and um we I want to report that our real estate revenues for 25-26, the final payment was made or deposit was made by the municipality and it was $625,000 more than what the projection was for 20 in February. So, with that um deposit, our projected surplus is now $1,043,751. Thank you so much. It's always exciting to hear
003the word surplus. So, any questions or comments? Can you explain why the projected real estate tax was higher than No, what that this the the recent deposit was higher than the projected? Can you explain what why the projected was lower than actual? >> I projected the final deposit to be $225,000. It came in at at 850. So, that's a difference of $625,000. Um I was looking at um other year-to-date actuals, and we were just being very conservative. I thought maybe it would be a little bit more than 225, but I was being pretty conservative. I did not realize it would be 625,000. When I talked to the township about it, they said we had a lot of payments in that last week. Once the real estate um deposits or once the real estate taxes are
004closed in February, those um taxpayers that who have not paid, those are moved to our delinquent tax collector, which is WBK, and um they've been with us for over a year. They've been really um I would say uh has made a positive change. I think working with um the solicitor's office through WBK, it's a little bit more aggressive, and it has really um helped our revenues. Okay, thanks for that explanation. Anything else? Okay, monthly list of bills. The monthly list of bills reflects checks authorized to be drawn from March 12th, 2026 to March 31, 2026. All checks have been reviewed by the administration. The superintendent recommends approval of this list. Any questions or comments? Okay, list of tax refunds for March 2026. The list of tax refunds totals 33,700 776 dollars and 40 cents for
005five refunds for March of 2026. The list has been reviewed by the solicitor's office, which recommends approval. The list is recommended for approval by the superintendent. Any questions or comments? I I just I did have a question. Um Looks like the number on the agenda and the number on the list are slightly different. Um it says 35,000. Yes, ma'am. Okay. Um the refunds uh total amount is not 33,776. It's 35,776.4. Um and then I just wanted to uh point out I know that the list is publicly available, but it looks like the bulk of that is from a two-year refund to one commercial property in the district, correct? Um yes, Mrs. Fleischer, that is a refund for uh a property on Cook Lane, uh formerly the right aid. Thank you. Any other questions or comments?
006Okay, budgetary transfers. Budgetary transfers for April 2026 totals 945 dollars for athletics, dues, and fees. The superintendent recommends approval of this transfer. Any questions or comments? Okay. The 2026-2027 proposed final budget. The board will discuss the 2026-2027 preliminary final budget, well, which will be presented for approval on April 13th. All right, and I know we had discussed this earlier. Any other questions or comments anyone's thinking about? Just to encourage the community to tune in to the um recording of our budget forum where all of this was detailed. Thank you, Ms. Fleischer. We can also uh publicly say and proudly say that we will not be using the fund balance this year as well. So, thank you to our leadership team for all of the work that they have put in um for the budget, and
007I do think that you will be pleased watching that budget forum, and it is also on BoardDocs. So, if you don't have a chance to watch it, you will be able to see the PowerPoint. Uh also, we should say that we're not using fund balance and we're not raising taxes to the act above the act or at the Act 1 index. That's correct. >> Spoil that one for people, but Um this budget includes a proposed tax increase of 3.5%. This is below the adjusted Act 1 index of 4.1, which is the maximum that we could have increased taxes this year. At 3 and 1/2% or 1.083 mills, the real estate tax revenue increase is 2.9 million um approximately. This takes our millage um it's projected to take our millage from 30.950 this year to 32.033
008next year. Um and as we shared, this does not use the fund balance, and in addition to that, it doesn't utilize furloughs either. The full presentation is available in the budget forum agenda for your review. And in addition to that, the recording will be available tomorrow for the public to view as well. Thank you, Dr. Freeze. Anything else? I guess just a note that we will vote on this at our meeting next week. And then it's this is just this is the penultimate version. I don't think we expect many changes, but then the final budget is not adopted until May. May 18th. Yep. Yes, the timeline will be budget forum was tonight. On April 13th, we will vote on the preliminary final budget. And then the final budget adoption will be May 18th. Um the
009changes that you may see between now and then really are um the certified real estate values will be issued in May, so that will be updated. As well as PDE will issue the homestead uh farm set for each district. And um that is something as well that will be reflected in the final budget for approval in May or for vote in May. Right. Anything else? Miss Flasher, you're always in my brain. Um Dick's Sporting Goods location release. The board is asked to ratify a location release with Dick's Sporting Goods to film at the high school stadium. The release includes verbage to cover names, slogans, logos, uniforms, and archival footage that may be provided by the district athletic department. The superintendent superintendent recommends a ratification of this release. Very excited, but any questions or comments? I
010have a question. So, and just looking through the the legal wording and everything, um it says that they reuse the materials throughout the world in unlimited number of times. So, is like the logo usage limited to this project or can be used No, this would it would just be just for this built for this NFL Draft doc. And so basically we were approached by um Dick's Sporting Goods and Voyage Visuals. They are producing a short documentary slash commercial to feature two local um athletes that will be involved in the NFL Draft. Our local athlete is Eli Heidenreich. Um and you know, for us it was very important for us to work with Dick's. Um you know, Eli has been on the national stage and has always represented us in such a positive light. Uh he's
011played for Navy for the last four years. Um since coming here I think I've seen him do 10 interviews where he talked about the impact that um going to the school district made on him as an athlete and as a person. And so um the authorization that we're asking for is um for him to further promote himself, which we think is amazing. And hopefully we have better like great news to share in the May meeting. Um but then in addition to that that um you know, it's it's a it's an honor to have somebody from our school district reach their highest potential in a sport. And he serves our country, which is pretty amazing also. I will be following. I've been following him this entire time. So, I'm very excited. If anybody knows me in
012sports, so cannot wait for the draft. Mhm. All right. Moving on. Personnel report. The personnel report details personnel appointments, changes in assignments, leaves of absences, resignations, sabbaticals, and retirements to be considered by the board. Any questions or comments? Okay. Next up, we have facilities. Uh this month we'll be talking about our proposed lease fee schedule for 2026-2027, uh extended day program summer lease, ex- as well as proposed stadium occupancy, and some transfer agreements, as well as Aqua Club. So, I'm going to pass that over to you. The board is asked to approve a 3.5% increase in lease fees for the 2026-2027 school year. The superintendent recommends approval of lease fees. Any questions or comments? Mount Lebanon Extended Day Program summer leases. The board is asked to approve a lease agreement with Mount Lebanon Extended Day
013Program for summer 2026. The term of the agreement is from June 15th to July 31st, 2026, with fees totaling $15,149.83 for the use of the following spaces at Mount Lebanon High School: nine classrooms, a section of the cafeteria, language cafe, tennis courts when available, and lockers. This is a 3.5% increase from the 2025 summer lease. The superintendent recommends approval of this agreement. Any questions or comments? Okay. The 2026-2027 Extended Day Program leases. The board is asked to approve a lease agreement with Mount Lebanon Extended Day Program for the 2026-2027 school year with fees totaling $37,701.38 for use of spaces in all district elementary school buildings for before-and-after school care and at Hoover, How, and Lincoln elementary schools for kindergarten care. This is a 3.5% increase over the 2025-2026 rates. The superintendent recommends approval of this
014agreement. Any questions or comments? So that's a 3.5 increase in the price that they'll pay for that lease. Is there any increase in the space that they will be allotted for their programming? No, ma'am. I know that's always a really popular and necessary program and they fills to capacity so quickly, but they've used that they they're using the space that we have for them. And what they've asked for. So we've not received a request to increase from them in terms of facility usage. That's correct. Thank you. Thank you. Proposed facilities rental fee schedule. The board is asked to approve a 3.5 increase in Monday through Saturday facilities rental fees for the 2026-2027 school year. The superintendent recommends approval of lease fees. Any questions or comments? I believe the parking lot is new on this. Is
015that correct? Yes. So Mr. Kaiser will tell you that the rate of request to use parking lots has increased substantially over the last 12 months and we believe that it's important to assign a value to it rather than just guess it every time someone asks us for a parking. So we have granted I was just wondering what we anticipate people would use it for if they're renting it and Mr. Kaiser >> can give you a little background on that. It was extremely rare for most of the time I've been here except for the police and fire department and then we had some stuff that were giving out candles for Relay for Life. So it was local groups. But recently within the past 12 months we've had some outside groups approach us about renting and wanting
016to do different things on school property. So when I say outside groups, outside of Mount Lebanon. So at this point it became necessary to put a fee on there. And so at what times is this to be granted? Like times whenever I mean in the evening there's lots of stuff going on. Yeah, so it would have to fit with our schedule, right? So we wouldn't rent this out if we had big events going on, if there were stuff at the stadium or games. This would be weekends where there wasn't a lot going on which is rare, right? I I know how the upper practice field is, but there are sometimes on Sundays and different things where you know, we might be able to fit it in and if we can get some revenue from this,
017I think we all know situation where we're looking to increase revenue. I think Mrs. Connelly mentioned last meeting that our rental rate revenue has gone up significantly this year. And if we get a chance to get additional revenue, we look to do it if it fit our schedule. Thank you. And I just want to also um just clarify since this is new on the table uh this year, it looks like that will only be available for rental by class A renters or those that have a 90 plus percentage of residents. >> let me clarify cuz I what I did say was incorrect. So either group people in our community but outside of like our students using them or the police or the fire department. Thank you. Thanks. What's an example of something that they would
018be using the parking lot for rent for for renting? So we had a a request, I don't know if it's going to work out due to timing, but a local group uh is looking to see if they can use this in the fall for a uh sort of community group gathering that benefits uh children with needs and charities. I don't know that it's going to go through, but that request was made of us. There might be some issues with the dates, so at this point it's beneficial that we at least have something down as board approved that we can look at. So when we look at these fees, you know, obviously lighting is one thing, but the lights are running anyway. I'm looking at this from the standpoint if we would have a an event
019up there would require cleanup and our staff custodians on staff and extra trash and personnel. So that's what the cost would be for. Okay. Any other questions or comments? Okay. Proposed Sunday facilities rental fee. The board is asked to approve a 3.5% increase in Sunday facilities rental fee for the 2026-2027 school year. The superintendent recommends approval of these fees. Any questions or comments? Okay. Proposed stadium occupancy license. The board is asked to approve a recommended 3.5% increase in stadium lease fees for the 2026-2027 school year. The superintendent recommends approval of these fees. Any questions or comments? Mount Lebanon Aqua Club agreement. The board is being asked to approve the agreement with the Mount Lebanon Aqua Club with a cost increase of 3.5% for the term beginning August 31st, 2026 and ending August 31st, 2027 in
020the form presented. Superintendent recommends approval of this agreement. Any questions or comments? Transportation agreement. The board is asked to ratify an agreement with Malakar LLC to provide athletics transportation as needed from March 16th, 2026 through June 30th, 2026. The superintendent recommends approval of this agreement. Any questions or comments? Um that So this is a supplementary as needed >> Correct. >> contract for athletics. We are preparing for two things. One is that first student um has stated that they may have a strike. And so we don't want to be um caught um you know with the situation where we can't provide transportation. And the second one is um some personnel medical things that have come up that require us to have some additional coverage as well. But if we were to hire personnel in that capacity,
021this would um not be needed. So it would be it's an as needed contract. We would not use it if we were to hire. It's two Yeah, it's two parts. One is a supplement in the event that we these people go on strike. And the other one is we don't because of the um things that are going on with the employees, we need to have a backup so that we don't have to cancel sports as it relates to the needs for transportation. Without saying anything that will violate No, that's fine. I just know that it's an open position. So Yeah. And this is in this I would say that it's the retirement is one thing. It's the other things that are coming up that are more impactful for us. But we um hope to have
022somebody in that role sooner than later. And we've also reached out to some retirees to help us in the in the interim. Any other questions or comments? Um my only other question just because with transportation, is this a company that we've um used and been happy with in the past or is this a new No, this is a new company. We've had to reach out to uh additional companies because finding people at this point is getting very difficult. But you know, they're all qualified and insured >> Yes, I can Yeah, I can on that as well. I did put the agreement together. I have worked with this company before. They always agree to all of my terms and they are active in all most of your neighboring districts. So, they're reputable provider. I assumed. Any
023other questions or comments? Parent transportation agreement. The board is asked to approve an agreement with a parent to transport their student to the current outside placement provider. Superintendent recommends approval of this agreement. Any questions or comments? >> Yeah, I've got one question and if you open that up and look section two says the district shall pay the parent the sum of the IRS mileage reimbursement per mile for 21 miles per one-way trip or 84 miles per day. So, is it the lesser of that or is it just always going to be the 84? I'm just trying to understand. It's 84. Okay. It's the 21 * 4. Okay. So, it's back and forth each way. Got it. Thank you. Any other questions or comments? Hey Mr. Kaiser, one more. Direct Energy Business. Approval is requested for
024a three-year contract extension with Direct Energy Business LLC for power supply coordination services or PSE services and electricity supply from January 1st, 2027 to December 31st, 2029. The contract will establish pricing for fixed adders, capacity, and transmission assistant with the current agreement. Wholesale electricity purchases will subsequently be made and combined with the fixed adder to determine the final price. The contact contract extension was approved by the AIU Western Pennsylvania Electric Consortium Committee. The superintendent recommends approval of this contract extension. Any questions or comments? Okay. Next we're going to move into curriculum instruction where we will discuss textbook adoption, agreements with the Bradley Center, as well as a high school orchestra trip, and a DECA trip. So we're going to start with textbook adoption. Good evening. In accordance with section 803 of the Pennsylvania School Law,
025the following basic textbooks are listed for adoption or and are being recommended from the respective departments and then the administration. The textbooks are available for public review beginning today um tomorrow and as tomorrow as well as tomorrow um on April 7th, 2026. You can contact myself uh or Dr. Shollo uh to arrange review of either the secondary elementary uh textbooks. Specific um textbooks for our high school include high school social studies. Uh it's the human geography uh text for it for the AP class. Uh publisher is National Geographic uh with the copyright date of 2027. Uh for our um business uh information technology program, it's the basic finance uh text uh by Seng Seng Gage uh with a copyright of 2024. And at the elementary level, uh Impact is as a resource is being uh
026recommended for uh grades K-2 uh from McGraw Hill with a copyright date of 2026. And Social Studies Alive is being recommended for grades 3-5 uh with the publisher being TCI with the uh copyright date of 2022. Thank you. Any questions or comments? Um I guess I had I do have a question um and I don't know if this comes in at a later date, but I know in the past when we've looked at um texts in addition to, you know, knowing they've gone through the curriculum review process, we've kind of talked about whether there's a financial impact um and if that's already included in the in the proposed budget um I can speak for the two texts that are sitting in front of me that we do have the funding available to purchase them for
027the for the respective departments should the board approve them. And for the elementary programs, they're both being quoted right now for six-year terms, so those agreements will come to the board next month. We're still whittling that number down a little bit, but both are in the budget to be purchased. I know that this was part of the plan. I just They're in there. They made the cut. Impact list still whittling. It's an 800-year deal and History will be over. Since the title Impact is so descriptive, I'm assuming that's social studies also. Impact is social studies. >> Social studies, okay. They're that's their program is called Impact. So, how often um would a social studies text have an updated copyright date? Because it is 22 um Is that a good Is that a good and recent
028number or it seems like social studies does um have the capacity to stay current and need to change, so would we want something more recent than 22? So, the what how we manage current events that we have for years is through the Scholastic News publication and that comes weekly to our teachers and that's how they manage the current events. The 2022 update to TCI, it's what we currently have, but it comes with a supplemental booklet that they do update annually. Mhm. But the copyright of their of their program is 2022. So that comes with the updates. That will come with the up in the workbook. Yes, the workbook will come annually. Any Now, for those that Sorry. For those who may not be aware, would you be willing to give us a CliffsNotes or SparkNotes
029version of how the process happens to select the new curriculum? Sure. So I'll I'll speak to elementary then hand it over to Dr. Davis. Um so our our review cycle is a 6-year cycle. In the first year, the group the department forms a curriculum review team and their primary first-year responsibility is to look at what we currently have as terms of our written curriculum, how it aligns to the state standards, and what does our data tell us in terms of what we need. And then they take that time also to preview what publishers have out there in terms of program, and they um we have meetings with them, we get presentations, and then typically we take a year or so to pilot. So this year with social studies uh we tried to move it up
030a little bit because we had a little surprise that our TCI that our social studies agreement ended earlier than I anticipated. So we we did a pilot this second semester thus far. And then there's a group of about 12 teachers who piloted both two resources, TCI and McGraw Hill, and they work off a rubric system that we create to align to the state standards and what we want in terms of social studies program to select the best choice. So it is not unusual, but unique that we are looking at two different resources for the elementary program, something for K2 and something for 3-5. Part of that is the Into Reading series that we adopted last year does a crossover of how they align to the state standards of social studies. So, we intend to use
031that. One component of Impact and Scholastic News to create our curriculum for K-2, and then 3-5 will continue with what they've done with just the updates. So, it is a teacher committee, primarily, that makes those selections. And then there'll be a formal presentation May 11th for social studies K-12, ELA 6-12, and math K-5, um that will give you an overview for each of them, kind of the process they went through, why they selected what they selected, and next steps. Dr. Freeze, if I may, I can share. Uh so, the two texts that I'm bringing forward, uh one is from a course that was proposed as a new course, so it was brought to the board in November uh as part of our curriculum council process, where we bring uh graduation requirement changes or any course
032of study changes. Uh so, the board approved uh this honor financial uh uh uh class that we have. So, this book is specific to a new course proposal. And then we uh other options we usually look at is if there's changes in AP curriculum uh or AP changes that come that come our way uh through like teacher concerns, like if we're not performing to the degree that we need to do perform. Uh the committees that work on these courses, similar to Dr. Scholo, is teacher committees uh that review materials and then bring forth recommendations. Uh and so, this one came from the social departments specifically for AP Human Geography class. Any other questions or comments? All right. Agreement with the Bradley Center School Based Mental Health Program. Board is asked to approve an agreement with
033the Bradley Center School Based Mental Health Program for the 2026-2027 school year. SBMH brings together schools, county mental health programs, and community resources to develop a continuum of services that enable children to have their educational and mental health needs met within their school setting. SB MH is not a replacement for school counselors, but rather a resource for counselors to ensure students receive the behavioral health support they need. The Bradley Center offers a tiered approach to behavioral health supports including assessments, assistance with transitions from a more restrictive school placement or hospitalization, individual therapy, family therapy, group therapy, psychiatric services, psychiatric evaluations, and medication management. These services are accessed through a family's medical insurance. There is no cost to the district for these services. If needed, additional services are available at a cost as stated in the
034addendum. The superintendent recommends approval of this service. Any questions or comments? Okay. Educational services agreement with the Bradley Center? The board is asked to approve a contract with the Bradley School for the provision of special education services for Mount Lebanon exceptional students during the 2026-2027 school year. The cost will not exceed $43,200 per student with anticipated two students. The superintendent recommends approval of this agreement. Any questions or comments? Next up, high school orchestra trip. Thank you. I I just want to make one qualifying comment about textbooks, too. So, we're presenting these today, but these have to sit for 28 days as well for public review. So, you won't see them next week. You'll see them again in May. So, so I just want to make comment that they're available for for public review for the
035next month or so or next 28 days. Uh so, back to the trips, item D. Uh high school orchestra, the board is asked to approve a request for the high school orchestra to travel to New York, New York from March 4th to March 6th, to participate in the National Orchestra Festival and perform at the Lincoln Center. Students will miss one day of school and are responsible for the cost of the trip. The student the superintendent is recommending approval of this student trip. Any questions or comments? Is this supposed to be 317 2027? I think they just revised the original date requests. Oh, that's Correct. That's the day he revised it, yes. Got it. Any other questions? Okay. DECA trip to Atlanta. The board is asked to approve a request for two students to travel to
036Atlanta, Georgia from April 25th to April 28th, to participate in the International Career Development Conference National Competition. Students will miss two days of school, will be accompanied by their parents, and are responsible for the cost of the trip. The superintendent recommends approval of this student trip. Any questions or comments? Okay. Next, we'll move into public comment. The public comment period is open to residents and taxpayers regarding matters of concern, official action, or deliberation which are or may be before the board. All commenters should begin by stating their name. Comments are limited to 3 minutes, and we will notify commenters when their time has expired. Questions requiring follow-up will be referred to the administration for later response. Comments by public participants are their own and should not be assumed to be the statements of the district.
037The Mount Lebanon School District is committed to providing a safe, inclusive, and welcoming school environment that recognizes and celebrates the diverse identities within our community, so everyone feels a sense of belonging. Do we have anyone here that would wish to comment? Okay. Next we will have our upcoming board meeting will be on April 13th, 2026. Same room, same place, 7:30 p.m. Um that is also when we will be voting on our budget. So as a reminder, uh the budget forum will be up to view tomorrow, but you can review the PowerPoint on BoardDocs. Do I have a motion to adjourn? So moved. Second. >> Second.